thats superb very impressed Im a joiner to trade so understand all the work involved shame nowadays you have to worry if it will get stolen
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Excellent work Fruitcake… 
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That is absolutely brilliant Fruitcake you are so skilled .
-could you make me one that works I need it to deal with my neighbour.
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I have a liking for all things “nautical” and I really like that “24-pounder” … 
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That was on the old site.
That’s brilliant but how do you have all that stone with no weeds? What is your secret?
wow, brilliant
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Terrific work Fruity, absolutely wonderful, I’m in awe of your skills 
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It was indeed, and I did say so in my opening post.
Having posted about a new project (In a spin), a couple of people asked me to post my other projects on this site because they hadn’t seen them before, so I obliged.
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Dig deep.
The slightly raised level has a concrete bed that is weed resistant to start with.
I went down a spade depth on the lower level, put in a heavy duty porous membrane, then poured in five tonnes of gravel.
Any weeds that do have the temerity to appear are quickly despatched with vinegar, or pulled out.
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I did ask you to post your other projects! I’m so glad I did! Please continue to post your past projects! You’re really talented Fruitcake 
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Ahhhh. A concrete bed. That’s a good start.
We don’t have that. I do however use vinegar and water with a few drip dishwashing liquid.
Do you use straight vinegar?
Also, how did you turn to make that project so round? I didn’t see a lathe. I bought my own lathe 6 years ago and do enjoy turning. The only thing I disliked about turning was sharpening my chisels and you really need to enjoy both to stay at it.
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I echo what others have said , a great piece for the garden, It was also interesting how you built it up .
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I hope this makes sense.
No I don’t have a lathe. I had the idea to make a cannon sometime ago and thought of all sorts of different methods. In the end I decided to make a series of circular blanks of differing sizes.
I cut them out with a bandsaw, then drilled a hole in the middle to cut the bore with a jigsaw, then used a circular surform to get the size just right to make a tight fit on the drainpipe.
I found some drawings online, one of which had a scale in feet and inches. I used dividers to determine the actual size of the real thing, then divided by three and converted to millimetres to make measuring easier.
I measured between the reinforcing rings to determine the length of each section and again divided by three. I could then work out how many discs I would need using a British Standard fireproof scaffold plank as my datum thickness.
By dividing the length of the section by the number of discs, I could work out the mean diameter of each disc at varying points along the barrel section. You can see the increasing sizes in the photos.
Plane and belt sander were then used to create the tapers.
If you were to take callipers to the barrel you would find it is not true round. If you look at the vertical shot, you can actually see that the barrel isn’t quite straight either.
Fully assembled though, the overall effect is good enough to trick the eye into believing it is round and true.
I used thinner boards for the reinforcing rings.
I also made a barley twist leg out of oak for our breakfast bar, but I can’t find the photos I took at the time. Again, I made it without a lathe.
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I make picked eggs and pickled onions using jars of pickling vinegar. Once used twice, I then save it for the garden weeds and use it neat.
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Yes actually it does. I saw the bandsaw in the photos and now looking at the photos more clearly by blowing them up some I see that they are actually sections cut which definitely can be done with the bandsaw. Drilling holes for the drainpipe to fit into and then sanding it all down with a belt sander is brilliant.
Also brilliant. Use it neat. 
That’s cute. What a clever idea. You’re probably one of these DIY’ers who makes as many things as possible for mere enjoyment.
Very impressive. 
Thank you 
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I tried reusing the pickling vinegar three times. The first two times work perfectly, but the third time it turns a sort of milky/opaque colour and the finished product doesn’t taste as good, so now I save it after the send use to pour onto weeds. Because of the volumes used, about two litres, I can afford to use it on the garden straight without the need to dilute it.
I bought a fixer-upper and had to learn all sorts of techniques to carry out repairs or make things from scratch. I do like to make things just for the fun of it, and being retired I now have the time to do it.
Waste not, want not. For sure.
We had our house built for us and since the building wrap was put on backwards and my husband added a deck without flashing we have leaks throughout our back wall which rotted it. Between the two of us we had to almost replace the entire thing including windows, doors, sills, framing, joists, part floor and subfloor. It was a huge job. We definitely had to learn as we worked. Luckily we had tools to hold up the second floor while we worked on it so I can relate in some ways.
Isn’t retirement awesome. I’ve been retired for a while now but my husband just retired and like yourself, is making all kinds of things. As a retirement gift to himself he bought his second bandsaw which is definitely an upgrade to the first one I bought him over 30 years ago. I really get a kick out of watching him enjoy himself in his workshop. It’s like his second home. 
Sorry for rambling . 
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Smashing job Fruity. 
God bless your intuition and capable hands. 
How talented and skilful you are.
When I first saw your finished cannon in a photo of your garden, I assumed it was a restored old metal cannon which had been mounted on a new wooden platform.
It was lovely to read through this thread and see all the stages you worked through to create your finished cannon - thank you for sharing this.
It was enjoyable and fascinating to see how you made it.
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