This is my boomstick... Part 1

One thing that goes hand in hand with pirates is a ship's cannon. My pirates are stuck in a graveyard now, but that does not mean they need to be defenseless. Now, as much as I would love to say I have a 32 Pounder parked in my backyard, I'd be lying. So I am doing the next best thing and building one. And since I want to be able to store it in my garage or attic, casting one out of bronze is right out. Not to mention how much that would cost... Yikes...

The other thing I want the cannon to do is serve as the base for a timed fog machine, with LED lights and a waterproof bluetooth speaker connected to an old phone with the sound of a cannon firing synced with the fog...

I have spent several months sketching out ideas and researching on the internet and most of what I am doing is based on ideas from these two websites:

Halloween Pirate Cannon (and Fog Machine Disguiser)

Build a Shooting Pirate Cannon for Your Pirate Halloween 

The second site is probably closer to what I am actually doing, but it really is a conglomeration of ideas from both, with a few from this site as well: How to make a REALISTIC cannon! Now, I will be the first one to admit, I kinds messed up by not taking any pics until I was really far along this process, but once you see what I did take as well what it will look like when I am done, I think you'll get the picture...

Here is what you will need:

Gun tube materials:

• 1 8" x 4 foot concrete form tube
• 8 inch wide foam sphere half (solid or a shell) that is made of SmoothFom
• A pack of 6 8 inch wide foam disks (preferably SmoothFom)
• Foam glue
• 1 inch wide foam weather stripping
• 1 9 inch foam ring with an inner diameter of 6 inches (preferably SmoothFom again)
• one half inch thin brass washer
• Auto body dent putty
• Black gaffer's tape (2 inch works well)
• 1.5 inch diameter PVC pipe cut to 16 inches in length
• 3 inch ball (foam or hard plastic)
• 2 cans of flex seal
• 1 can of metallic black spray paint (hammered is good)
• 1 can of antique brass or anodyne bronze spray paint
• Spray Matte finish
• Water based polyurethane
• A fog machine that can be set to go off on a timer (LEDs optional)
• If you want to go really crazy in strengthening the foam at the business end of the cannon, get a 6 inch food cutter, and a trim ring for recessed lighting 
• I also took advantage of my wife's Cricut and cut a pirate skull and swords in a piece of flexible card board backing to serve as an engraving on the gun
• Acrylic paint close tot he color of lead and bronze oxidation (pale greenish blue and white)

Gun Carriage:

• Pine 2 x 4s (If you can swing it, use recovered wood (ReStore is a great option) that has been exposed to weather. the gun is in a pirate grave yard, not on an active sailing ship...)
• 2 cut @ 18 inches
• 2 cut @ 24 inches
• 4 cut @ 36 inches
• 5 cut @ 10 inches
• 1 1/4 inch wood rod cut into 2 18 inch lengths
• 4 9 inch wood rounds (wheels) from Hobby Lobby
• 8 2 inch pegs (3/8 inch)
• 9 foot 3/4 inch wide white rope from Dollar Tree
• 4 12 inch mending plats (Home Depot) 
• Antique Bronze Ring Drawer Pulls (I bought 8 from Amazon)

Tools:

• Drill
• 1.5 inch hole saw
• Super glue
• Foam Glue (see above)
• drill bits
• screwdriver bits (see drill - I'm lazy... Don't you judge me... LOL)
• rubber mallet

This is a lot of stuff. But the payoff  will be readily apparent when it is done. A lot of it I had laying around, and what I didn't, I scoured Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby and Home depot for the best deals I could find. the paint was probably the most expensive thing outside of the fog machine. 

That will wrap this post up. In Part 2, I'll describe what I did to build the cannon barrel and provide for access to the fog machine. Pics where I have them. I promise I will take more. Part 3 will cover the gun carriage, Part 4 will be final assembly, finishing details and fog machine installation and testing...