Micro Cannon

In this Instructable I will show you how I make a Mini Cannon, its a Cannon modelled from olden day's and can be seen on Ramparts throughout the UK and all over the world, I've wanted to have a go at making one of these cannons for a while, I'm in the UK and Cannons along with any firearm is Illegal so this Cannon will not be firing anything, its purely a desk top ornament.

I will be turning the barrel of the cannon on my Chinese Mini Lathe out of a piece of brass bar and the carriage is made from 4mm Walnut sheet.

When I'm using the metal lathe I will be wearing safety glasses, and hearing protection as I will be when using any of the workshop machinery.

The first thing I did was look up a few Cannon images to get a basic idea of what I wanted and there are many different designs to go at, I opted for a fairly basic design as I'm not too proficient on the lathe so easier the better.

I made a basic sketch for reference purposes, but with no dimensions in mind as usual it was time to get on with it.

Brass bar stock.

Pilot drill

Cut off lathe tool

Lathe carbide turning tool.

sandpaper

Buffing wheel and compound

4mm Walnut sheet

Jewellers saw

Small files

Band saw

CA Glue

I don't have that many lathe tools, a basic parting tool and a turning tool so its making the best of what I have and some filing and sanding along the way.

I start off with a vision of one of the images I looked at online for reference and had already drawn a basic sketch of the Cannon.

Using the lathe I started turning down the brass stock, this started off as around 20mm so needed to be taken down a few mm before starting to create the basic shape of a Cannon, once down to a size I thought would be ok I started to form the shape of the cannon, this didn't go to plan initially and ended going smaller than I originally intended, with perseverance the cannon shape started to appear and with further tweaks I was happy with the outcome, I then drilled a hole through the barrel using a centre drill first then a 4mm drill, I used some mini files to further enhance the barrel shape and then sanded to a finish with which I could polish.

I needed some way of attaching the barrel to the carriage, and looking at the images, this had to be underneath the barrel really as not to interfere with the barrel, I didn't really want to start soldering so I opted drilling through the side of the barrel, and setting a brass bar into the hole with CA glue, this Cannon will never fire so it didn't matter too much in this case.

Before setting the pin I gave the barrel a polish on the buffing wheel, first using brown compound for soft metals then blue for a final polish.

So with the barrel made, It was time to move onto the carriage.

I had a small sheet of 4mm Walnut and thought this would be ideal for the carriage as most look to be made out of a darker wood.

I used a piece of plywood to make a mock side of the carriage and to get the dimensions in proportion, I just sketched it by hand, creating the steps at the back of the carriage then an overall outline.

Using the band saw I cut the shape out, and to my surprise it was just about the right size, I transferred the shape to the walnut sheet and sketched around it, then over to the bandsaw I created 2 of the carriage sides.

With a bit of sanding I was happy with the outcome and now time to make a couple of bracing pieces for the carriage, one for the front and a piece for the back, these needed to be 10mm wide the front one being deeper than the rear, I cut these to size on the band saw and using CA glue and activator set these in position.

With the basic shape of the carriage made I thought about how to secure the cannon to the carriage, I maked out roughly where I wanted the Cannon to lie and then using a round file created 2 grooves allowing the cannon to sit nicely in place, I made a further 2 pieces for the top which fit on top of the bar going through the cannon, I filed these with the round file to suit and then Glued these in place, I cut a piece of the walnut to hold the back of the cannon up and glued this into position as well.

Time to make some wheels for the carriage.

I had a piece of 8mm dowel and thought this could be useful for making some wheels, I turned it down slightly using the lathe then drilled a hole through the dowel which would take a cocktail stick, this would make my Axel's. To cut the slices off I used a jewellery saw, with 4 wheels made it was an easy job just to push the wheels onto 2 cocktail sticks and adjust them before cutting the ends off with the jewellery saw and glue them into position.

The only job left to do was to give the woodwork a coating of dye, the wheels were made of lighter wood so giving the whole carriage and wheels a coat made it look a lot better.

There we have it, a Mini Cannon ornament for not too much effort.

I enjoyed making the little cannon and can understand why people get involved in making dioramas etc.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable and thanks for looking.