Ideas for cannon ball extraction?

[airbiscuit]

If you can get good purchase with your drill bit or a cannon worm, connect it to a slide hammer, and out it will come. (don't forget to use some lubrication)

 

[newbury]

I never thought about a bit like that. I might already have one too.
I like the idea, especially with the bit being smaller, I can maybe be more precise with it's location

(Am working today and tomorrow, 100 miles from home so will take a couple days to be sure)

If you don't already have an SDS (or Plus, or Max or Spline) drill they are very handy. And you can easily get "bit" extensions and adapters. (Milwaukee makes an 82.5" extension for the Max.)
My son got me hooked when he got a Bosch 1-1/4" SDS-Plus Rotary Hammer which he lent me and then I later bought a Bauer (HF brand) 10 Amp SDS Plus-Type Variable Speed Rotary Hammer. I've used the Bauer quite a bit and it goes through concrete block easily.
They would easily drill through your cannon balls with the right bits.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Richard,

Since you asked the question, but it was buried in the text, I will answer this.

If the powder in the chamber is actually REAL blackpowder (and not a modern substitute powder like Pyrodex), it doesn't matter how "wet" you get it (with water). As soon as it dries, or mostly dries (depending on how much heat you add), it is fully ready to go "boom" again.

If you wet/soak it with petroleum based oils, it is "supposed to" make it inert. I say the "supposed to", because if you just wet it, but not drown it, and you hit it with enough heat (think welding torch) it will very likely still go "boom".

But water will not kill REAL blackpowder. Just dry it out and rock on.

 

[hosspuller]

The slide hammer idea may be combined with an expanding concrete anchor (the kind with a wedge on a steel stud) Drill the proper sized hole, insert the anchor fastened to the slide hammer. Wack away till the second ball comes out.

 

[Paddy]

I suggested using all thread as a simple gear puller near the beginning of this thread
these two balls would have been removed a long time ago. But we would have missed out on all the Darwin award methods

 

[Richard]

Worked on cannon a bit....and got the second ball out. On getting it out, looked down bore to see condition of what I expected to be the third ball.....and there is NO third ball, so the bore is now empty. Dirty, but empty.

I used the same wood boring bit, had same shavings, and again, the bit got stuck INSIDE the ball. I could push it through the ball (to the end of the bore) BUT, I didn't have the strength to pull it back through the opening that it drilled as the opening had deformed a bit.

Got to thinking about a slide hammer....and I don't have one. So, I put my extension THROUGH a hole in a board I had and used board as a lever. It pulled the drill right off.

So, I took apart, clipped my vice grips onto the end and now used board as lever on the bore, and it moved. Put another board behind it to push it further away, ball moved more. Then it stopped. So thinking slide hammer, I held board against vice grips (as pictured) and used 5-pound hammer on other side to slowly drive ball out.

I am convinced that there is NO WAY this would have come out using (home tools) such as water pressure, holding cannon vertical and dropping it onto something. I'm convinced there's no way this ball, either one of them was ever going to come out WITHOUT them being destroyed or highly damaged. Once I made that decision to just get them out, I finally got traction towards my goal.

Here's my home made slide hammer.

After enough pounding, here's the offender. I still don't know what that hole is for on the ball.

and here's the little bugger in all its glory. Now I've got TWO of them chewed up like this and nine other that are pristine.

On way home from work today, stopped by gun/ammo store. Bought two pounds of gunpowder. They didn't have any fuse. I HAVE some, but don't yet know if it will work. I might not yet be out of the woods with the required ingredients.

Once I got the ball out, I rinsed the bore, put some oil in and took my hone back to it. It was thundering so I stopped and put things away.

That's where it currently stands.

 

[CADplans]

On way home from work today, stopped by gun/ammo store. Bought two pounds of gunpowder.

I hope you mis-typed,,
ANY type of gunpowder will blow pieces of that cannon into three surrounding counties.
(Gunpowder is simply nitroglycerin and a carrier.)
Nitroglycerin can give you a strange headache,, that is why you should not smell gunpowder too much.
Black powder is the only propellent that can be used,,,

 

[Richard]

Might be my ignorance. Me (not being a gun person) "gunpowder is gunpowder"

Guy at store said it wasn't "black powder" but it was for cannons. It is not smokeless (if that matters) and he's got several people that use this for their cannons.

He said you don't want a fast burn (pardon my using) "gunpowder" in a cannon, but you want a slow burning (pardon me again) "gunpowder" in the cannon as the fast burn will blow it up.

He said what I had was the slow burn stuff.

It might be my ignorance of which word is correct in which place. I've tried probably a dozen places and thus far, haven't found anyone that has 'black powder' in stock. Most don't even carry it. Some have it in "every now & then".....but I suppose with the 4th around the corner, it's popular right now.

Tomorrow, I'll try to post the name (or maybe a picture) of it since I'm not clear what it is. I DO recall that it is "FFS" (or is it "FSS") I don't recall....but I seem to recall reading that the Cannon should use "FS" (or SF) Now that I type that, I do think it's FS instead of the other way around.

I specifically asked about that and that's when he said a number of people use this in their cannons and explained the slow burn.

 

[Buckeye Guy]

Might be my ignorance. Me (not being a gun person) "gunpowder is gunpowder"

Guy at store said it wasn't "black powder" but it was for cannons. It is not smokeless (if that matters) and he's got several people that use this for their cannons.

He said you don't want a fast burn (pardon my using) "gunpowder" in a cannon, but you want a slow burning (pardon me again) "gunpowder" in the cannon as the fast burn will blow it up.

He said what I had was the slow burn stuff.

It might be my ignorance of which word is correct in which place. I've tried probably a dozen places and thus far, haven't found anyone that has 'black powder' in stock. Most don't even carry it. Some have it in "every now & then".....but I suppose with the 4th around the corner, it's popular right now.

Tomorrow, I'll try to post the name (or maybe a picture) of it since I'm not clear what it is. I DO recall that it is "FFS" (or is it "FSS") I don't recall....but I seem to recall reading that the Cannon should use "FS" (or SF) Now that I type that, I do think it's FS instead of the other way around.

I specifically asked about that and that's when he said a number of people use this in their cannons and explained the slow burn.

The F's is the size of measure of the powder (grain). For example, Fg is the coursest grain, which burns slower. It goes up to FFFFg, which is very fine and burns very fast. Rule of thumb, .50 or less, use FFFg or FFFFg, .50 or more, use FFg or Fg. I use FFg in my .54 cal

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Don't know what kind of powder to put in there, just wanted to congratulate your perseverance to get those balls out of there!

I hope you're able to fire it off! And.... post a video when doing so!