SpudFiles

I was going to wait until I had finished this build properly to release it to the world, but what with the recent talk of death of spudding I decided to come out of hiding and post it anyway.

After for the first time getting access to multiple very very expensive machine and cnc tools, for my first project I decided, to use none of them.
The decision was partially spurred by a post by Gippeto about the 'colonial gunsmith' and an appreciation for the amount of skill and talent those people had, without the use of machine tools.

The design itself is a fairly simple rotating hammer bolt action cannon, special because unlike a lot of ideas I see labelled as 'bolt action' the entire mechanism is in fact completely cycled by the actuation of the bolt, recocking, reloading the lot. Also the bolt is designed with a 45 degree max angle and smooth action, so it really feels like a real bolt action rifle to reload.

Damage is fairly impressive given I was running at 45 psi, with an indent of about 1mm deep on 1.5mm galvanised steel door (shown below).
The mechanism is fed direct from a compressor, and it has a 10 round gravity fed tube magazine.

The bit I am most pleased about the design is it's construction, the mechanism is entirely hand crafted, with a modified blow gun for the hammer valve.
The stock for the gun was my first ever attempt at 'proper' woodworking, no power tools were used, and was made using only methods I saw in the video I linked earlier.
It's by no means a work of art, but for a first attempt I think it's quite nice, one thing I was disappointed about though was the finish, I screwed the varnishing up bad, hence the lumpy and inconsistent texture.

Here are some (rather blurry) pictures of the finished product, once I've finished it I'll photograph it properly but these are just a place-holder for now.

Cheers guys and enjoy!

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Kudos and BLOODY WELL DONE! 8)

Shiny too!

Would recommend trying tung or linseed oil on the stock in lieu of varnish/polyurethane...nicer end product IMO...easier to use as well because you build up the finish over many coats that are rubbed in. Thin with mineral spirits...mix with oil based stain if you like...very versatile.

Very inspiring!!!

The woodgrain looks wonderful, the mechanics are cool...
Great project alltogether!

Wow! Nicely done. This certainly deserves a fridge compressor and small reservoir but for now it works well enough.

Although I think I'm missing something: is this galvanized steel door one you're replacing or something? Or maybe an old one just cropped unfortunately? Seems pretty destructive to me! And I thought DYI was the only one with garage door issues.

Good job nonetheless.

Very nicely done. It shows that you have thought and cared about the details in the build.

For some reason I always find myself resorting to hand tools (despite having access to fully spec'd model shops at work). It's a lot slower to make a mistake, which is a good thing if you are after a bespoke finish.

the wood .....is very very nice, also how it is put together........
waht sort of wood is it ?

Thanks for all the kind comments guys, it is really appreciated.
And to answer some questions (from the top):

Would recommend trying tung or linseed oil

Thanks Gippeto, yeah I've been told by a few people linseed would be a good option, when I next get time to alter it I'll sand the stock down and re-finish it with some nice linseed oil.

is this galvanized steel door one you're replacing or something? Or maybe an old one just cropped unfortunately? Seems pretty destructive to me!

Yeah the garage door was pretty battered, although sadly not intentionally, I was only firing 0.2g bb's so I underestimated the potential power a little, it's safe to say I spent the next day and a half bashing out dents and re-painting...

the wood .....is very very nice, also how it is put together........
what sort of wood is it ?

The wood is pine, the reason being it's very fast to work with, and is very cheap, I have never tried woodworking of this sort before so I wanted something cheap and cheerful that I could attack without worrying about how much money I'm burning through.
The assembly? not sure what you mean by that, but (not shown) is the remote line connector to hook it up to a tank, the mechanism is friction fit mostly, but then retained into the stock by threading on the connector, (it's shown in the taken-apart picture prior to assembly I put up)

Sorry for the late reply by the way, I went down with something a week or so back and am only just coming out the other side. But thanks again for the comments they are much appreciated, Cheers guys.

Gorgeous thing! The bolt action sounds really smooth
I think I like the stock the best though, really well done

That looks GREAT congratulations!

Is it in 6mm? I saw that you mentioned 0.2g bb's so I assume you used air soft bb's?
Is there any chance you could satisfy my curiosity with some close up pics of each of the parts?

I think I saw you comment on your previous gun that you did most of it with some hand files and patience how long did it take you to put this one together?

Again that looks fantastic well done!

Tep

Is it in 6mm?

Topic title:

True Bolt Action 6mm Cannon

I'm guessing it's ...6mm
This cannon deserves more pictures and vids!!!

And it should be in the eyecandy topic!

Ha ha clearly I can't read

I was probably too distracted by the pics to read the title (nogunhomo)...

Great work! The sound it makes when operating the bolt is just perfect!

Regarding the wood finish, don't use just lineseed oil, it's commonly called that, but what you want is a mix - equal parts lineseed oil, turpentine (oil thinner is cheaper and equally good solution) and oil varnish. In my expirience you can add a little bit more thinner, just to be able to do thicker coats, and shorten the drying time. 1 coat a day, with some light sanding (600 or so) between the coats, then wax with the beeswax-oil thinner mix, with ratio of 3-1.
You can also start applying the "oil" with finer grit sandpaper, like 600. It will fill the wood pores with the fine wood particles and oil and seal them.
You basically slowly melt the wax in the water bath, REMOVE FROM THE STOVE and then add the thiner, stir and let cool. For harder finish you can add some parafine to the mix. You should get a paste with a texture of mayonnaise roughly, which you can apply with a cotton rag ball, and polish to shine.
If your paste seems too thick or thin, just reheat and add what you think is needed.