I would think that mixing steel sleeves with wood could cause some serious problems. In making something like that you have something that likely will be around long after your demise. What happens then? Somebody sells it in a garage sale for $2 and the lucky buyer blows himself up.
Zulu
No what George is saying you build the liner in such a manner that it is a cannon with the proper wall thickness and construction. That is slipped in and secured and a vent liner added. The wood around the liner is just "decoration'.
I don't know what your current diameter is. Lets say for discussion purpose it is 4 inches. For a straight tube you could 4 inch OD, and 1.33 inch bore. You could also do a chambered howitzer breech plug. 4 inch OD with a 3.25 inch bore and 1.33 chamber. I would be more inclined to stick with the straight bore, to keep down battering of the wood
I would think you have to drill the trunnion pockets all the way through the wood so you could put steel trunnions in. But i would still make wooden false trunnion to slip over and hid the steel. The other compromise you would have to make would be steel cap squares and cap square hardware.
But I do think you could make a safe firing wooden cannon. You could do one in "bare wood". The "iron fittings" painted black. The barrel and carriage natural wood. Pine with all its bold grain in round work would be cool. Oak would be interesting and stonger, but boring figure and its propensity to keep moving long after curing.
My advice, get with one of our sponsors and have them build you a cannon barrel liner. Then get busy building!!!
