very realistic pirate cannons by tommielee40
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If you plan on having a pirate ship theme setup for your haunted house or front yard like my family and I do then this is the perfect pirate cannon setup for you, it's versatile, you can change it to your own liking which is very nice. You'll shock the faces of your visitors as they pass by and see theses things blowback,lightup, and make loud bangs as they actuate. it's probably the closest you can get to the real thing
In total the materials you will need  are:
-at least 5 screen door closers from home depot, you'll find out why in the steps
-about 20' of 4" PVC depeding on how long your cannons are and the distance between each
-if you are to have five cannons you need 2  90 degree 4" PVC joints, and three 4" PVC T joints add more of these with more cannons
-2   4' x 8' sheets of 3/4" plywood
-5 light fixtures as well as 5 red bulbs or whatever color you desire
-electrical wiring to connect all the fixtures together
-a plug in to splice onto the end of the wiring
-duct tape
-1   12' piece of pine
-large plastic drum
-lots of scrap metal for small brackets and the pivoting arms
-screw gun and screws from 1"   to 2 1/2" screws
-jigsaw
-drill with 4" hole saw and a bit large enough to drill holes through metal for screws
-air compressor and air lines
-air fixtures that you can get as you see them in the steps
-1/8" air line, lots
-air regulator






The first thing to do to begin creating the cannons is to gather up 4" PVC pipe, you'll need about 20' of PVC depending on how far you want your cannons spread out, plus three 4" PVC T joints and two 4" 90 degree joints. You can cut and glue the pipes together as shown in the first picture with the 90 degree joints on each end holding the end cannon extensions and the three T joints holding eahc of the three middle cannon extensions. Distances between each of these joints(cannons) can be based on your desire, as well as the length each of the cannons extends out past the main body of the project. Once the main body is built and all the cannons extend then screw a long piece of pine to the bottom of the PVC for support as you can see in the picture
 
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Step 1: Adding the lights

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The materials you will need  for this part of the project is 5 Light fixtures, 5 red bulbs, electrical wiring, a drill, a 4" hole saw, and duct tape. start off by drilling a hole into the back of each of the cannons in that back of the joints with the hole saw. then wire all five light fixtures together all on one circuit and splice a grounded 'plug in' to one end of the setup. then duck tape each fixture to the body of the setup with the light facing in. If you choose the same fixtures pictured then you may need to space the junction box of the fixture away from the PVC, we used a 2"x4" to push it away and keep it even.
tommielee40 (author) says: Nov 7, 2010. 2:36 PM
im hoping this counts towards the tech category of the halloween contest? IDK how to tell though, the carvewright CNC looks pretty awesome, well done in picking a grand prize for that category
tommielee40 (author) says: Nov 7, 2010. 2:23 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbMNFt6My4M

heres one of the links i was talking about in the conclusion, its right after we finished hooking up the air cylinders, read the desciption on the video though, you'll see why it's not moving smoothly yet, more links to come
tommielee40 (author) says: Nov 7, 2010. 2:34 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUn2gmWqqw
this is the setup that will hit whatever drum or barrel you use to make the cannon blast noise, there should be some more links tonight of the cannons blasting actually mounted on the pirate ship we built as you can see in the last picture on this instructable or on the slideshow I posted
burwuro says: Nov 7, 2010. 1:06 PM
one word: WOW this is probably the biggest and best Halloween decoration job EVER. I can't wait to try to out best you next year ;)
tommielee40 (author) says: Nov 7, 2010. 1:48 PM
e-mail me with what you do=) I love to see awesome things just for halloween, the best holiday in the year, I would enjoy to see an out best haha
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