What clever little things have you "invented or discovered" that you can share?
- Thread starter mooseman1
- Start date
- Location
- Fort St John BC
is there any Pictures of your full bench Kevin i also like the way you did those doors
If you need to neck up brass for your wildcat but the expander ball on your sizer die is too aggressive I used to take my RCBS collet die and use an appropriate sized bullet in the collet upside down. The ogive allows a nice gentle expansion.
Might have been mentioned already but with my RCBS dies the lock for the ring on the die rarely holds in place. Instead of gluing it I used a black marker to put a line on the die body, lock ring and also the press to get the ball park depth right if the ring moves. A scribe would be more precise. I don't glue them in case I need to reload for two rifles the same chambering.
Got sick and tired of my powder trickler not holding enough powder and also being too tippy so I fashioned one to look like my barrel table in my room. It is sitting on the shelf by the scale. If you tip that sucker you deserve to!
For the old Redding scale I made added a magnetic dampener using a piece of copper on the scale bar and two hefty magnets one each side of the copper, creating drag to slow it down, like what the modern scales use.
Lymans 55 powder dispenser seems to clog real easy on dropping a charge so a couple short powder drops were made from some 300RUM cases. Made a couple different size funnels on the bottom of them to accommadate .22-.338 cal and another for .338 up to .430". Works much better now. I just wish getting the remnants of powder out of this design was better.
In an effort to save space the mount on the back side of the press was added. The design is for standing while loading, it save my back from knotting up, which is why the scale is at eye level. No more trouble since. However if your table is not really heavy it will shake your gear up there.
Could't make up my mind where to locate the presses on my table so instead I used scrap 4"x6" HSS and built these clamps. Now it can move around anywhere and work just fine.
The wood bits box is for the common tooling I use, now there is just one small spot to dig thru instead of the whole table top. The tin is for catching cutting when trimming. Going to mount my Wilson trimmer on an angle like already mentioned so the swarf drops in there. A couple three gears will be used to drive the deburring tools off the same handle as the trimmer uses. ( Yes I like to tinker!)
Still figuring out a trap for the spent primers. My first bech had the press mounted inboard and nothing fell. I am a bit of a clutz and miss that.
The Whiskey barrel is not liking the heavy forces from resizing some cases so I am going to build another bench that anchors to the wall and has a shelf above it for the scale and powder etc. My Wife wants to use this table when we move anyway so I will need a new bench.
All the dies and fodder for the pigs is in the old hutch, saving clutter.
Found this design on the net and it might be handy for anyone designing a new bench.
Might have been mentioned already but with my RCBS dies the lock for the ring on the die rarely holds in place. Instead of gluing it I used a black marker to put a line on the die body, lock ring and also the press to get the ball park depth right if the ring moves. A scribe would be more precise. I don't glue them in case I need to reload for two rifles the same chambering.
Got sick and tired of my powder trickler not holding enough powder and also being too tippy so I fashioned one to look like my barrel table in my room. It is sitting on the shelf by the scale. If you tip that sucker you deserve to!
For the old Redding scale I made added a magnetic dampener using a piece of copper on the scale bar and two hefty magnets one each side of the copper, creating drag to slow it down, like what the modern scales use.
Lymans 55 powder dispenser seems to clog real easy on dropping a charge so a couple short powder drops were made from some 300RUM cases. Made a couple different size funnels on the bottom of them to accommadate .22-.338 cal and another for .338 up to .430". Works much better now. I just wish getting the remnants of powder out of this design was better.
In an effort to save space the mount on the back side of the press was added. The design is for standing while loading, it save my back from knotting up, which is why the scale is at eye level. No more trouble since. However if your table is not really heavy it will shake your gear up there.
Could't make up my mind where to locate the presses on my table so instead I used scrap 4"x6" HSS and built these clamps. Now it can move around anywhere and work just fine.
The wood bits box is for the common tooling I use, now there is just one small spot to dig thru instead of the whole table top. The tin is for catching cutting when trimming. Going to mount my Wilson trimmer on an angle like already mentioned so the swarf drops in there. A couple three gears will be used to drive the deburring tools off the same handle as the trimmer uses. ( Yes I like to tinker!)
Still figuring out a trap for the spent primers. My first bech had the press mounted inboard and nothing fell. I am a bit of a clutz and miss that.
The Whiskey barrel is not liking the heavy forces from resizing some cases so I am going to build another bench that anchors to the wall and has a shelf above it for the scale and powder etc. My Wife wants to use this table when we move anyway so I will need a new bench.
All the dies and fodder for the pigs is in the old hutch, saving clutter.
Found this design on the net and it might be handy for anyone designing a new bench.
- Location
- Fort St John BC
I can take a few photos if you are interested.
Some photos would be excellent im in the middle of updating my soon to be bench right now
I've discovered two simple things that have helped me:
1. I use a sharpy to fill in a letter on a headstamp after firing. It is an easy way to keep track of how many times you've reloaded a casing.
2. I bought a used RCBS uniflow powder measure that was missing the lid. I found that a lid from an IMR powder bottle, turned upside-down, fits just perfectly!
1. I use a sharpy to fill in a letter on a headstamp after firing. It is an easy way to keep track of how many times you've reloaded a casing.
2. I bought a used RCBS uniflow powder measure that was missing the lid. I found that a lid from an IMR powder bottle, turned upside-down, fits just perfectly!
burnt_servo
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- right in the middle of b.c.
It's not really an invention, but I built a base for my press that is screwed down to the top of the workmate that I use as a bench for the press. It made everything much more rigid and raised the press up to a useful height. I have used it to full length size .338 Win Mag brass with no problems at all. For those with little space for their reloading equipment, a workmate makes a decent low cost bench for the press. I bought mine for $10 at a garage sale. You can also see that I use boxes of bullets (cast .44 Mag, in this case) to add weight to the workmate, it helps keep everything stable for those tough resizing jobs.
Mark
looking at the grade stamp on the one piece of wood there , i'm pretty sure that came out of our mill here ........ it's a small world .
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- Location
- Saskatoon, SK
NOT my idea but it works slick and thought it should be in this thread. Props go to Abman for the idea and Repete for the part number.
Handles for your powder charge adjustment that uses a 5/16th bolt. I have them on all my Dillon bars
Home Depot part number is 222-840 made by Paulin.
Handles for your powder charge adjustment that uses a 5/16th bolt. I have them on all my Dillon bars
Home Depot part number is 222-840 made by Paulin.
There is some great stuff in here....Here is what I tumble my brass with....A fellow named Spike challenged me to build a tumbler for under 20 bucks.
Don't laugh to hard....It really works good.
Now this gives me an idea...
My wife has her bike in the house set up on a wind trainer. The same kind of set up, spinning off the back tire should work just fine. As long as I can get her to ride slow(ish) once and a while.
not really an invention, but old photocopiers have tons of cool stuff inside:micro switches,motors,chains and sprockets,pulleys and gears,bearings,shafts,etc. I used one to make a powered case neck chamfer tool.I took a portable battery charger housing and used the motor,chain and sprockets, and shafting with bearings and spring loaded chain tensioner.Fabricated a couple tool holders for the chamfer tools and it works great.
sounds about perfect for a small rotary type of tumble i want to make...
thanks for the heads up on the new item i just added to my ever growing list of items i look for while dumpster diving
LOL that's what is powering my small rotary tumbler - a geared motor from a copier I picked up at the curb.sounds about perfect for a small rotary type of tumble i want to make...
thanks for the heads up on the new item i just added to my ever growing list of items i look for while dumpster diving
like The Wrench said, lots of cool stuff inside. The optical switches are perfect for making a shutoff for the Hornady bullet feeder I'm getting.I'm not sure how clever this is exactly, but it works for me...
Most people when turning wheel weights into ingots only flux once they remove the trash (clips, irons, zincs, nuts & bolts). I find that the dross tends to stick to the junk, and I end up scooping out a higher quantity of alloy than I want when removing it, and probably a fair amount of oxidized tin.
To solve this problem, I throw in a couple (or few) big handfuls of sawdust right on top of the wheel weights when I first start my melt. Once they're just about all melted with the junk on top, I add a tea candle worth of paraffin for the quick acting redox effect. When the smoke dies down enough, I begin removing the trash. The clips and stuff are floating on top with a dark dry powder, and nothing sticks to them while scooping them out. They are as clean as a whistle, and not even a tiny lump forms in my junk bucket. Nothing sticks to anything - just clips, zinc/iron WWs, and powder.
Because I lower the temperature just before finishing the removal of the trash, little additional oxidation occurs and I can usually do a full round of muffin pans before having to flux again.
I was out today doing 2 full 20 liter pails of WWs, and was wondering if anyone else did it this way? Oh and since the backyard was full of snow, the only clean area was the driveway. So I said frig-it, and decided to set up the propane tank, turkey fryer, muffin tins, etc. all in the middle of my driveway in the front of the house.
Most people when turning wheel weights into ingots only flux once they remove the trash (clips, irons, zincs, nuts & bolts). I find that the dross tends to stick to the junk, and I end up scooping out a higher quantity of alloy than I want when removing it, and probably a fair amount of oxidized tin.
To solve this problem, I throw in a couple (or few) big handfuls of sawdust right on top of the wheel weights when I first start my melt. Once they're just about all melted with the junk on top, I add a tea candle worth of paraffin for the quick acting redox effect. When the smoke dies down enough, I begin removing the trash. The clips and stuff are floating on top with a dark dry powder, and nothing sticks to them while scooping them out. They are as clean as a whistle, and not even a tiny lump forms in my junk bucket. Nothing sticks to anything - just clips, zinc/iron WWs, and powder.
Because I lower the temperature just before finishing the removal of the trash, little additional oxidation occurs and I can usually do a full round of muffin pans before having to flux again.
I was out today doing 2 full 20 liter pails of WWs, and was wondering if anyone else did it this way? Oh and since the backyard was full of snow, the only clean area was the driveway. So I said frig-it, and decided to set up the propane tank, turkey fryer, muffin tins, etc. all in the middle of my driveway in the front of the house.
Learned a couple things that work for stuck case removal.
First, throw out all nickle cases. Problem solved....
Just kidding, I have the most trouble sizing them and they are the ones that lead to a stuck case though.
I used to get the case pulled and damage the decaping rod trying to get it out of the case. An easy solution is a 3/8 to 3/4" copper pipe cutter. Just rotate and keep turning the cutter in and the case is cut cleanly, pull the decapper through the neck and it is not damaged.
Second, a cheap pipe wrench will hold the knurled area on an RCBS die nicely and without marks if the jaws are made of softer steel than your die, within reason.
First, throw out all nickle cases. Problem solved....
Just kidding, I have the most trouble sizing them and they are the ones that lead to a stuck case though.
I used to get the case pulled and damage the decaping rod trying to get it out of the case. An easy solution is a 3/8 to 3/4" copper pipe cutter. Just rotate and keep turning the cutter in and the case is cut cleanly, pull the decapper through the neck and it is not damaged.
Second, a cheap pipe wrench will hold the knurled area on an RCBS die nicely and without marks if the jaws are made of softer steel than your die, within reason.
Nickel cases for pistol? I use them all the time, and never had a stuck case. I believe lube takes care of it.
