Thread: How to make cannon muzzle flare?

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Hi guys, I am planning to make my own pirate cannon and I have got a lot of great ideas from this site. I think I am going to use a tapered sonotube for the barrel but I need advice about how to fabricate the flare (also called a swell) at the muzzle end. I've read all of daffy64's tutorials about using foam disks and shaping them but I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas that don't require me to have any artistic capabilties? There must be some object somewhere that has the right shape (or nearly the right shape) that I could simply attach to the end of the tube. Anybody have any suggestions?

I'm using these flower pots on my sono tubes.

I built some a while back that had a nice flare. I will have to try and dig up some pics. I think I took two diameters of PVC pipe. Maybe 3" and 6" or 4" and 6". I put some wood shims to center the smaller diameter pipe inside the larger one. Then I found some kind of PVC flare end that was made to fit the pipe. I filled the gap between the two nested pipes with great stuff foam. I think I also had to spray some end the flared in, then shave it flush after it hardened. I am looking for a pic to show you. Overall, it looked good, and not much effort.

I found a few pics. They don't flare as much as I thought. They look okay I reckon. I think besides the flare on the end, I had a narrow band a little down the barrel.

Originally Posted by Evil Bob

I'm using these flower pots on my sono tubes.

Bob, that flower pot would work for me. Do you know where you got it?

Originally Posted by carmy

Bob, that flower pot would work for me. Do you know where you got it?

I bought them at a Midwest home improvement store called Menards. Ive seen them at Lowes and Home depo too. They had several sizes, the one in the picture has a base of about 5 inches.

Originally Posted by Evil Bob

I bought them at a Midwest home improvement store called Menards. Ive seen them at Lowes and Home depo too. They had several sizes, the one in the picture has a base of about 5 inches.

Thanks Bob. I'll check ot Lowes and Home Depot this weekend.