I was ask to look into a problem with a small antique cast iron signal cannon, someone had run a ball bearing down the bore and it stuck about two thirds in. Its a 7/8 bore and the ball is 9 inches from the muzzle.. I have determined that there is no powder and have filled it with Krolls oil on both ends and warmed it up with a heat gun. The problem is that the ball has rusted in, air pressure won't move it. I am hoping to pick your collective brain and figure out how to move the dang thing. I do need to be careful as it has some value.

Any way to clean it of all oils and epoxy something to it then pull it out?
People on here seem to rave about certain epoxies...
Just a thought.

Would a long centerpunch and drill bit work?

Epoxy sounds like a good idea but which one??? The ball looks to be a ball bearing so carbide drill and tap of which I ain't got one.

Unlikely epoxy will work if it is really stuck tight. Drill it out; yes you will need to use a carbide bit. More than one. Trying to drive it further down, polishing the rust out of the bore, and shooting it out would be my first choice, but if it is a thin cast iron tube, it might break.
Or cut off the cascabel (or knob) drill out the breech end, and punch it out. Make a new breech cascabel and thread it in. Easy to do on your lathe.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Unlikely epoxy will work if it is really stuck tight. Drill it out; yes you will need to use a carbide bit. More than one. Trying to drive it further down, polishing the rust out of the bore, and shooting it out would be my first choice, but if it is a thin cast iron tube, it might break.
Or cut off the cascabel (or knob) drill out the breech end, and punch it out. Make a new breech cascabel and thread it in. Easy to do on your lathe.

So how ya gonna charge it? Thru the touch hole?

I'm assuming the cannon is smoothbore, my father pushed a seized piston out of an outboard motor bore once by braizing a grease nipple into a spark plug body and screwing the plug into the head then pumping grease in to the cylinder. Worked a treat with no damage to the bore, piston or rings. Don't know if this would work in this case but worth a try. A needle coupler on a grease gun through the fuse hole may allow enough pressure or may have to thread the fuse hole to take a grease nipple, easy enough to restore. Ain't going to be much of a collectors item with a ball bearing stuck in the bore.

I had a signaling cannon as a kid. It was only about 14" long. If yours is of a similar size, try putting it it the deep freeze. The steel will shrink under the cold conditions and it may be enough for you to free the ball.

A friend asked me to get a jammed, rusted in patch and cleaning jag out of a Hawkins.

After it sat around is house for two years.

What a PITA took me part time over 3 years soaking and trying different means.

I was able to drill a hole trough it and soak it with oil enough to loosen the rust so I could drive it a bit further.

Once I did that I was able to get a lag screw in and pull it out part by part.

A steel ball bearing very hard pun intended.

Good luck

zerk fitting and grease gun .. tap the torchhole

or, if, as you said, it's a 7/8" bore, take a 3/4 section of all thread, 2 nuts, and a washer .. you are using the washer as a stop, so put the all thread in the muzzle, run washer, nut, nut, down about 1/2" from the muzzle, use a deadfall hammer to tap the all thread (whack it) until it moves that 1/2 inch -- pour about an inch of CLR in the bore, let it sit an hour (vertically) take a 12ga bore brush, and scrub the heck out of the bore (put rod on drill, etc) ,, pour off the CLR, that should leave the bore a little slick, but you can rinse it and oil it here.... then air fitting or grease gun .... or CO2 unloader from a muzzle loader

if you use CLR, be sure to "kill" it with baking soda/water, as it's acidic....

I would use hose clamps and a piece of flat stock to make a clamp for a grease gun needle to seal it against the touch hole then push it out with grease.

The rust can be removed with phosphoric acid rust remover from the hardware store. It is weak enough to not hurt the iron, but will do a job on any rust. Fill the bore, soak 30 minutes and see how it did. Rinse and repeat as needed. It will remove blueing so keep that in mind. Most of these cannons that I have seen were painted, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Jeremy

Yes, that is a better idea; tap the touch hole for a grease gun. And use the rust removers in it; the guys above were thinking more clearly than I.

Have you tried inertia like those bullet pullers? I would think that heating the outside of the barrel with a torch would help. Young bill

Ram the ball all the way to the breach and drill a new touch hole.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnD:
Ram the ball all the way to the breach and drill a new touch hole.

Good thinking.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:

quote:

Originally posted by JohnD:
Ram the ball all the way to the breach and drill a new touch hole.

Good thinking.

So again, what's your plan for charging it?

Drill the back for a steel rod rigid enough to push the ball with a hydraulic jack. Cupping the tip of the rod makes it easier to push it out.
Thread and plug, it can be useful a second time.

Tell the customer you're stacked up on work and he should try another gunsmith

Craig, he means to leave the ball at the breech forever, drilling a new touch hole in front of it.
This job is too easy to turn down.

The owner now has it back and will decide if he really wants to spend the money. Evaluating all the ideas I think in this case a grease zerk and gun will be the only way it looks like that will salvage the cannon and keep it in the original looking condition. I like the idea of drilling the bottom then blend in the plug.

Thanks to all those that responded.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Craig, he means to leave the ball at the breech forever, drilling a new touch hole in front of it.
This job is too easy to turn down.

Got it, and yes, piece off cake, problem solved.

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
I'm assuming the cannon is smoothbore, my father pushed a seized piston out of an outboard motor bore once by braizing a grease nipple into a spark plug body and screwing the plug into the head then pumping grease in to the cylinder. Worked a treat with no damage to the bore, piston or rings. Don't know if this would work in this case but worth a try. A needle coupler on a grease gun through the fuse hole may allow enough pressure or may have to thread the fuse hole to take a grease nipple, easy enough to restore. Ain't going to be much of a collectors item with a ball bearing stuck in the bore.

Winner winner winner,

This is how it's done people

i AM SURPRISED THAT NOONE HAS MENTIONED TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO WELD A ROD TO THE BALL BEARING, PERHAPS USING SPOT WELD TECHNIQUE.

EDM a hole then tap and pull out?

Another option would be to drop a PVC pipe into the barrel all the way to the ball....to protect the barrels inside diameter.

Then using a stick welder attach the rod (electrode) to the ball

Then pull the ball out with a set of slide hammer vise grips ussing the stuck stick welder rod

Not sure welding techniques are the way to go. You have to ground to the canon itself. Your likely to spot weld the ball to the canon barrel.

Jeremy

quote:

Originally posted by farbedo:
Not sure welding techniques are the way to go. You have to ground to the canon itself. Your likely to spot weld the ball to the canon barrel.

Jeremy

Been welding 32+ years....... I'm betting I know a few tricks

This from the UK. Here one of the methods to de-activate a gun here is to drive a steel ball bearing down the barrel.

For, in simple terms, to drill a ball bearing so driven in and to make any attempt to the tap it to fix a thread rod through it to pull it out is near impossible.

The only solution would be to use the grease method as others have noted. Or, like advised, ay that you can't do the job.

I can EDM a hole in it and pull it out but I doubt it's worth the $$$ to the owner.