cannon ball cleaned up nice New Pictures

[birdman]

Sorry ,no pics yet but it turned out nice. :thumb up: I did electrolysis on it for a total of three days. The first day ,I could not tell any difference in the way the "cacoon" was chipping off. It was hard as a rock. I zapped it again for 24 hours on 12 volts and then for 24 on 6 volts. I noticed when I would check on it that there would be tiny bubbles coming from the cannon ball so I figured it would have to be working. I got home from work to and started to clean up the ball. After a few lite blows to the side(angled ) a large chunk of the cacoon came off. I could not believe it. I got it looking pretty good and used a cork screw and a screw driver and a hammer to carefully remove the plug.It worked great. Thanks to the Cannonball Guy and Vlad for the great advice and all the others to. I was a bit spooked but I should be able to ship this thing home no problem now! I will try to get pics up soon.Thanks to all and HH.

 

[thinkin2]

Glad to hear of your progress with the ball. Hope all goes well and look forward to the photos. Best to you.
Jerry

 

[Anonymous]

n/t

 

[Anonymous]

n/t

 

[ThatCannonballGuy]

Thanks for telling me and Vlad what the result of the advice was. : )

Any woman who does baking will tell you about the notorious inaccuracy of stove-oven thermostats. Which is why those women insist on buying a Baking Thermometer, to hang inside the oven. Ya can't rely on the stove's thermostat for doing a cake, much less for something which even MIGHT contain blackpowder. ;-)

So, just out of curiosity: Does a stove's (built-in) thermostat over in Europe have Centigrade temperature-settings, or Fahrenheit? I'm asking because I think 175-degrees Celcius is above the 319 Fahrenheit ignition-point of blackpowder.

One other thing I'm curious about: Now that the thick rust-cocoon is off your cannonball, what is its diameter?
I'm wondering whether it turned out to be a 24-pounder shell (diameter about 5.72") or a 32-pounder shell (diameter about 6.3").

Regards,
TheCannonballGuy [Pete George]

 

[birdman]

I weighed the ball. 25 pounds. I sprayed the inside out for about 10 minutes with high pressure but there is still a little left to get out. I am gonna let it dry and see how much comes out that way. HH

 

[Anonymous]

n/t

 

[birdman]

The stove here is centigrade. I am gonna have to pass on the baking of the cannonball ,I can't even bake a cake.LOL I was wondering if there was something I could soak it in and have somewhat the same effect?

 

[ThatCannonballGuy]

The only reason for putting a shell into an oven is to rapidly evaporate all the moisture out of the iron's microscopic "skin-pores" before putting any kind of clear-coating on it. (Trapping moisture under the coating is bad.) Baking isn't a necessary thing, it's just a FAST drying method. It can also be dangerous, as at least one guy whom I know learned "the hard way." (Boom!) He blew up his girlfriend's oven ...and no, that story is NOT a fairy-tale.

I never bake artillery projectiles. (Why take that unnecessary risk?)

After doing Electrolysis or Z&LB on a shell I
(1) carefully chip off any remaining tiny bits of rust on the shell's surface
(2) scrub it thoroughly in hot running water
(3) PAT it dry very thoroughly with a towel
(4) let it continue to dry out for a couple of days in a warm room.
(5) Then I spray on a couple of light-to-moderate coats of clear satin-finish (not glossy) Polyuerethane, about one hour apart.

Regards,
TheCannonballGuy

 

[birdman]

Thanks much T C G ,that is the info I needed.