All of these files and writings on homemade mortars require you to spray WD-40 or something into a PVC tube and light it w/ a spark to shoot a potato or a homemade mortar. This is too ghetto for my likes. Is there no better way? How do those mortars that the army use work- where they just drop the mortar down, and it shoots back out?

You can do it with air pressure if you can find a suitable valve. Information is available at www.xinventions.com , of all places.

If you used a powder charge (with a metal pipe, of course) and some manner of contact igniter I suppose you could make a military style mortar. I don't know exactly how they work, but my guess is a percussion cap on the bottom of the charge that hits a pin in the bottom of the launch tube.

~Zero the Inestimable

or you could use some sort of impact sensitive explosive

my sister's b/f is a marine and he uses mortar. so i'll ask him if he knows how they work. he's smart and does special stuff and probably knows.

I wouldn't use any sort of impact explosive. The last thing you need is for one of those things to go off in your pocket- Or a whole mess of them to go off in your backpack.

~Zero the Inestimable

quote:

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Originally posted by Zero the Inestimable:
I wouldn't use any sort of impact explosive. The last thing you need is for one of those things to go off in your pocket- Or a whole mess of them to go off in your backpack.

~Zero the Inestimable

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thats true they only other way i can thing is as said above is air pressure or some sort of powder loaded into a steel tube

<<<< If you used a powder charge (with a metal pipe, of course) and some manner of contact igniter I suppose you could make a military style mortar. I don't know exactly how they work, but my guess is a percussion cap on the bottom of the charge that hits a pin in the bottom of the launch tube. >>>>

At its simplest (description-wise) a military mortar round is comprised of three parts ; 1) Fuse Assembly 2) Main Charge and 3) tail assembly.

There're quite a few ways to make a decent fuse assembly, but propelling the round from the mortar tube seems to be the thing that gives folks the most problems.

For a real mortar round, would you believe it's as simple as a blank 12 ga. (remove everything but the powder charge and insert a soft wad).

Picture this...

A pipe bomb that slides easily (minimum side-play) through a 3" seamless steel pipe.....

Attached to one end (brazed BEFORE any explosive compositions enter the equation) is the tail assembly.... A 3/4' water pipe nipple several inches long. The nipple has had many holes drilled up and down the length of it (equally spaced). Ideally, two or three (even four) fins have also been, soldered or brazed to the nipple....

Pretty neat how the 12 ga. fits snugly inside (if not tape it until it's a tight fit). Best way to do the end, however, is to use a nipple with the threads left on the end. Then you can insert the blank shell and then cap it with a cap that has had a sizable hole drilled through the middle of it exposing the primer.

If your round has been made with a good centered alignment, and the mortar tubes' firing pin is also properly centered, then when the round is dropped down the tube it strikes the fixed firing pin. The gases expand behind the round and propel it from the tube where it goes on to do what it's supposed to do.

More powder... goes farther
Less powder... lands closer
Traditional military rounds use increments of powder attached to the round to control how far the round flies.

No matter how much powder you use in the round you need a base plate for the tube, unless you plan to leave it rather than unbury it when you're done. The base plate absorbs and spreads out the force of the recoil.

Simple.

What complicates it is acquiring materials for round and tube and getting them to mesh together with a minimum of machining....

And a good mechanism for aiming/fire control...

'Course you could always go with a spigot mortar too.


Zero is right about the pneumatic cannons, too. Total riot, those...

were did you get this info ??

10 yrs USMC (with occasions to train with mortar teams), and the experience of building a couple...

The ones we built were based originally on a basic design written about by Ragnar Benson. Myself and others spent some time upgrading the design and improving the accuracy (so now it's more complicated than it really needs to be).

Why? Does something sound... "unsound"... to you?

That's more or less what I was thinking. I was going to use Power Loads (the things you use in Remington nailguns), but my research suggests that falling down a tube onto a pin isn't nearly enough force to set them off.

I'll have to experiment with some shotgun shells- I've never played with the primers on them before.

The simplest design for a mortar is my old cratermaker launcher: A length of strong steel pipe is embedded in the ground, and a tablespoon or two of lift powder is poured in. When you drop a cratermaker in the tube, lit fuse first, the end of the fuse ignites the powder and off it goes. Simple, likely very dangerous (especially if you overload it with powder), but effective nonetheless.

~Zero the Inestimable

i was at the engura 81 birthday and they had a morter on show. i think it was about 3inch. the shell had the fireing pin at the rear of the shell (well they ussaly do, this one was removed so little shits couldnt drop it down. supposedly it was only armed once it was 20feet in the air. i think the shell slides down and the fireing pin hits the bottom of the morter setting of a small exploseive. I like them army birthdays. got there early before they had chained up the guns and was playing with a f88 styer a minimi then watched a play war. solders cant act very well when using bayonets. im off topic so il shut up now

A graphic of the Tail Assembly to illustrate what I was describing...


Tail Assembly

[This message has been edited by d1ng0 (edited 03-13-2002).]

[This message has been edited by d1ng0 (edited 03-14-2002).]

you got your link wrong it is http://www.geocities.com/d1ng0_1/images/illus1.gif not http://www.geocities.com/d1ng0_1/images/illus1 your missing the .gif part and made the link useless

I went ahead and changed it (thanks) but both versions of the link work for me...

[This message has been edited by d1ng0 (edited 03-14-2002).]

all i got was


"This page is not available."

"We're sorry, but this page is currently unavailable for viewing.
If this site belongs to you, please read this help page for more information and assistance."

I dunno... Maybe it's a browser thing.

could be im running internet explorer 5.5 what are you runnin

6.0 w/ updates

Geocities filters out their picture links. Copy the URL onto the clipboard and paste it into an empty broswer window - It'll work then.

~Zero the Inestimable