Thread: Cannons

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Chef over at the Pirates group was asking about how to make cannons. My cannons are pretty low tech compared to many, but they do fire to sound and smoke. No pnuematics and they are not synced to a routine--they just randomly fire to a soundtrack I made of cannon sounds. Here's a quick run-down of parts. I'll try to take pictures and turn this into an actual tutorial soon but in the meantime this might help:

Cannon:
*vent pipe MFG Part # : DP244 (like this http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...66&R=100145866
Or a heavy cardboard carpet tube
*a pipe vent flare or adapter (for the muzzle of the cannon)
* insulation foam sheet (usually sold in 8 x 11 sheets), 1/4 or 1/2 inch thick)--to give the muzzle a finished look--cut three or so donut-shaped rings of progressively smaller size, these will go at the wide end fo the flare (or can substitute as the muzzle)
*spray on wall texture http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CBkQ8wIwAA# (spray on the cannon after it's been assembled and before painting to get a weathered look--be careful with it on the foam, though--it will probably dissolve)
* duct tape
*black paint
*plywood sheet --the cannon is screwed into a piece of plywood. Size/shape of plywood depends on how/where you plan to mount your cannon. Cut a hole in the plywood centered on where the cannon is attached (see next step).

Smoke:
*smoke machine
*dryer hose
*pvc fittings as necessary
for the smoke effect I used a regular fog machine, and let it cycle on and off on its own. Fog is piped from the machine to the cannon via dryer hose. Smoke enters cannon via hole in the plywood piece.


Light:
*one of these or some other sound to light organ http://compare.ebay.com/like/2604719...=sbar&_lwgsi=y
*any sort of light source that you can plug into the sound to light organ
*recorded cannon sounds (free on the interweb). I burned mine onto a CD, and set the CD for continous play
*CD player or other sound device, with remote speakers or speakers that can otherwise be moved away from the CD player.
*extension cords

1) Build the cannon, spray on texture, let dry, paint, let dry
2) Glue the light inside the cannon near the muzzle
3)The light plugs into the light to sound organ.
4) Attached the dryer hose to the back of cannon via hole in plywood. Use PVC fittings to hook everything together. Dryer hose runs to the fog machine.
5) Plug CD player into light to sound organ. If there is no input, you'll have to keep the organ, CD player, and one speaker isolated from other sounds. In that case place speaker next the organ. The other speaker should be near your cannon where your TOTs can hear it.

Here's a shot of the cannon, but not the setup. Hope this helps!

Gumba,

Awesome tutorial! This pirate thanks you for taking the time to go into such detail. The pirate flag has gone up in the garage, build begins. . .

One final question, what is the final set-up? Would you mind explaining what plugs into what? I assume the fog machine is on it's own timmer, but does the fog machine trigger the light organ?

Chef

I just flip the fog machine on, and it cycles off and on as it heats up. The fog fires off whevever it wants to. A nice effect is that some residual fog stays in the cannon the whole time, so you get the 'firing' effect any time the light comes on.

The sound to light organ/machine is simply triggered by sound--in this case the sound of cannons being fired. You can plug any light into the sound to light machine, make any kind of noise (clap your hands for example) and the light flashes. I have one speaker inside my house pointed at the sound to light machine and the other speaker outside, where the TOTs can hear it. The sound triggers the sound to light machine which in turn makes the light go on.

So, to recap--the fog machine is a stand alone. Fog pumps into the cannon from the rear.

The light inside the cannon is plugged into the sound to light machine.

The sound to light machine sits next to one of the speakers (inside the house in my case to limit the sounds picked up by the machine--it reacts to any noise)--or if the machine you buy has the proper input you can plug your CD player directly into the sound to light machine (mine does not, hence the inside/outside speaker configuration).

The other speaker goes outside. Again, nothing is timed or really syncronized. the fog machine goes off whenever, the cannon sounds trigger the sound to light machine which makes the lights go off. It works, though. check it out....

pirate ship 2010

Great tut!

Gumba,

Thanks for the putting that all together, video too! Great yard! Can't wait to start building...

chef

I like the simplicity and effectiveness of your cannons! I went to great pains to build a stand-alone cannon 4-5 years ago and it has served me well, but my attempts to connect fog machine/lights to it have had marginal results. I am now thinking of building several cannons like yours and have them firing from upstairs windows (where no one on the ground can get a close-up look at them). I think they would help sell the idea of cannons being about the haunt. My stand-alone usually sits somewhere near the treasure chest with a pirate body slumped over it. Thanks for the tutorial!

gumba! That is awesome! Thank you so much. I happen to have a Thunder and Lightning machine from Hauntmaster Products that makes lights go on when thunder rolls, so I think I'll use that for my cannons this year, since I don't need lightning. Thanks again!

For a color light organ with the input, do they have outputs too? or would one use like a 1/8 jack splitter to route both to the input of the color organ AND an amplifier/speaker system?