After more than 45 years of gun collecting and reloading I have amassed a huge quantity of brass for the over 200 firearms I own. I don't have 20,000 cases for a 223 or 100,000 for my 38 anymore, but what I have is anywhere from 100 to 2000 per firearm. This presents a bit of a storage problem, I need to keep them separated and organized. A while ago I went to a shipping and bin supply company and bought 80 grey cardboard parts bins (4" H X 4 1/2" W X 11 1/2" L) with a vision in mind. These work great but I didn't have a receptacle in which to house them so they have been taking up all my shelving space in my gun vault.......and not very efficiently, I might add.
My vision was to build a set of drawers that would house these boxes properly and very space efficiently and would fit under my loading bench. The current space is holding empty cardboard boxes and empty bullet boxes and dead primers and primer boxes.........in other words an accumulation of trash. After some judicious measurements and calculations, I decided upon a design and withdrew to my shop to ply my wood working skills. The design was sound and now I have a set of 5 drawers that will hold 16 boxes each and fit ever so nicely under my bench where the dust bunnies and "got away" primers reside. The drawers are mounted on 24" drawer rollers rated at 100 lbs per set (thank you Princess Auto) and they glide in and out like they are on air. At a capacity of 200 - 500 cases per box, I now have efficient storage for in excess of 20,000 cases..........
My last quandary was what to use for handles that would be unobtrusive and yet I wanted something unique and representative of the application.........so after some deep thought I came up with the idea of cutting the heads off 10, 50 BMG cases. I cut them 3/4" long in my lathe and Brasso'd the sh!t out of them until they look like gold. I threaded the flash holes and now they mount just like any other brass knob with 8-32 machine screws......but look much cooler for a loading room. Now they are all cut and polished I shall reprime the case heads and VOILA, 10 very unique drawer pulls befitting a reloading oriented space.
I shall take some photos later today after the install under my bench and the loading of the boxes and brass.........and share them with you gentlemen.
All that's left to do is remove the knobs and seat primers to finish it up.
My vision was to build a set of drawers that would house these boxes properly and very space efficiently and would fit under my loading bench. The current space is holding empty cardboard boxes and empty bullet boxes and dead primers and primer boxes.........in other words an accumulation of trash. After some judicious measurements and calculations, I decided upon a design and withdrew to my shop to ply my wood working skills. The design was sound and now I have a set of 5 drawers that will hold 16 boxes each and fit ever so nicely under my bench where the dust bunnies and "got away" primers reside. The drawers are mounted on 24" drawer rollers rated at 100 lbs per set (thank you Princess Auto) and they glide in and out like they are on air. At a capacity of 200 - 500 cases per box, I now have efficient storage for in excess of 20,000 cases..........
My last quandary was what to use for handles that would be unobtrusive and yet I wanted something unique and representative of the application.........so after some deep thought I came up with the idea of cutting the heads off 10, 50 BMG cases. I cut them 3/4" long in my lathe and Brasso'd the sh!t out of them until they look like gold. I threaded the flash holes and now they mount just like any other brass knob with 8-32 machine screws......but look much cooler for a loading room. Now they are all cut and polished I shall reprime the case heads and VOILA, 10 very unique drawer pulls befitting a reloading oriented space.
I shall take some photos later today after the install under my bench and the loading of the boxes and brass.........and share them with you gentlemen.
All that's left to do is remove the knobs and seat primers to finish it up.
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