What clever little things have you "invented or discovered" that you can share?

www.shellsorter.com

Here's another vote for the shellsorter from www.shellsorter.com
It makes it so much faster, and it can easily be used by the kids or grandkids to speed up their process, they like using it as well. Just be sure that those young kids with thinner skin use gloves!

Ice cream making machine tumbler

I made a tumbler out of an old household ice cream making machine. Why? because it was there, like the bear that went over the mountain. No kidding it works good. You have to get rid of the (can) that holds the ice cream ingredients then figure how to make the paddel work,it dosen,t spin when making ice cream (i used bailing wire) you'll see what I mean.Now the ice bucket is larger than the paddel but thats OK cause the Paddel follows around the inside circunference of the bucket

probably because of the bailing wire gives it enough slack it seeks it's own level so to speak. I only fill the bucket up less than half full, so far, with walnet shells media but that little ice cream moter has pretty good tourqe and it hasen't gotten hot yet. Try it,its a fun project and its not hard to figure out

.44 mag and Muzzleloader shooters

Anyone who Shoots .44 Mag and uses Pyrodex pellets in a muzzleloader. .44 mag rounds fits great in empty Pyrodex or tripple-7 boxes.

This is a post I made on another forum and I thought it might be appropriate for here also.

I have noticed several posts lately, both here and on other forums about weapons (both XD’s and others) becoming jammed. I have also read the various methods of un-jamming the weapon. These methods include using a screw driver to pry the slide back, holding the weapon in various positions and slamming your hand into it at various places, bumping the weapon on a carpeted floor and hooking the rear sight on the edge of a table and pushing down on the grip. Now I do not mean to offend any one and all of these methods may work but they just don’t get me all that excited.

I have a method that I came up with not long after my wife got her XD-9SC. It is really not all that different from some of the other methods but I feel that it gives a little more control and safety, especially if it is a loaded round you are dealing with.

You have to build a little tool for this but it is not a complicated project.



As you can see it is nothing more then a block of wood with a couple of holes drilled in it.








The only trick is the spacing on the holes and the size of the holes. The selection of spacing dimensions is based on the on center spacing of the weapons barrel and the guide rod. The diameter of the holes is based on the diameter of the guide rod and the diameter of the barrel.


First the “technical” part:
Material: white pine 2x4 nominal
Hole sizes: ½” and ¾”
Hole spacing: ¾” on center
Construction: cut your 2x4 block; drill holes as required; sand smooth

Note: Variations of dimensions are acceptable. Make modifications as required to fit your weapon and to please yourself. The above dimensions are for an XD-9 Tactical.

To “operate” the block, it is a simple matter of placing the block on a solid surface, even a board on the ground will do, aligning the barrel and guide rod with the appropriate holes and pressing down. The block allows the barrel and guide rod to extend and holds the slide back, and hopefully ejecting the stuck round.



Note closed breach.



Note open breach.

That’s all there is to it. I hope it helps.

Steven,
That's a wonderful tool. Good thinking. Sometimes the most ingenious methods are the simplest.

Thanks!!

Bob

I work construction. In the past seven years, our hospital has remodeled their X-ray, radioligy, and other areas. Areas that have walls lined with lead. When the walls come down, the lead is thrown away. I have about three 3'x8' sheets laying around waiting to be put to use. Just another source you wouldn't think of. Right place, right time.

Corn Cob "sand" bags.

I've been looking for sand bags to aide sighting in some rifles for some time. I made these bags out of some old bluejeans and filled them with corncob tumbling media. Cost me about 5 bucks for the cob and was gonna throw the jeans out anyway.
I guess I either have tooo much time on my hand or I'm just cheap (Yeah, I'm cheap ).



BTW: I sewed them myself!!! Just don't tell the WIFE!!!

Closet

I've been looking for sand bags to aide sighting in some rifles for some time. I made these bags out of some old bluejeans and filled them with corncob tumbling media. Cost me about 5 bucks for the cob and was gonna throw the jeans out anyway.
I guess I either have tooo much time on my hand or I'm just cheap (Yeah, I'm cheap ).



BTW: I sewed them myself!!! Just don't tell the WIFE!!!

Closet

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That is a good idea. Now I will have a use for my old reloading media when it is no longer usable.

That is a good idea. Now I will have a use for my old reloading media when it is no longer usable.

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I would use new media, not used media because you can have a lot of lead in used media making it dangerous to handle. Everything the bags touch and everyone who touches the bags can potentially be contaminated with lead.

That's a good idea about the bags made of old jeans.

I make shooting bags from old shot bags -- the size that hold 25 pounds of shot. I'm sure a lot of other people use the same bags. If you are a shotshell reloader, they are "free".

The difference is that I filled them up with some plastic beads that came from a bean bag chair that was being discarded. One bean bag chair provided enough stuffing for many shooting bags.

These bags work as well as sand bags. They hold their shape well when shooting, so that a gun doesn't roll off them. And, since the plastic beads are very light, they are a lot easier to carry to the range. I just put them in the shooting box (on top of everything else), and they don't even add any noticeable weight.

This is a good way to recycle all of those old bean bag chairs that you want to get rid of anyway!

After getting frustrated with the RCBS die wrench, I set out to get a real wrench. I looked online for the better wrench made by one of the die & componets companys but didn't find what I liked. So I ended up at Sears and of course the die nut is inbetween a 1 1/8" and 1 1/4" and Sears didn't have anything that would fit. That is until I looked over and saw the 30mm. Fits Perfectly I cut it down to just hand size and just need to drill a hole in the handle to hang on the pegboard. I'll use the box end for the bench with the open end for a back up. Hope this helps someone like so many of your ideas and inventions has helped me.

Hi,
I have only a small contribution to share right now;
I hate to see themaggot screw of a locking ring to damage the thread of my dies.
My solution; Take the screw out, put in a lead shot, replace screw.
The lead expandsinto the thread, locks the ring and the maggot screw does not even come near the outer thread of the die anymore.

This might sound goofy, but I'm serious. Scrimp all you want on a reloading bench. Shop at garage sales for cheap reloading tools, and browse the 'net for the best specials on boolits. But seriously: spend some bucks and buy a comfortable chair - even if it's at the Salvation Army. If you're going to be sitting at a work station for a while, a good chair makes for a not-so-sore back and bum. I have two: a used padded secretary-type office chair and an old wooden school chair. Both are very comfortable, and I'll sometimes start at one and switch to the other...slightly different position for how I'm feeling that day.

Couple of folks mentioned SAMS snack containers. I like Folgers coffee cans - they are plastic, so they don't rust. They also seal, but the lids pop off easy enough. I keep a bunch around, and use a Sharpie to write what caliber on the lid and any other info (range brass, polished brass, etc.) to keep them all separate.

Last, write stuff down! I thought I would remember what I was doing (powder weight, bullet type, etc.). Shoulda known I would have forgotten. Use the white space in the front/back of your manuals if you don't want a whole 'nother notebook. Just write it down!

Q

I'm too cheap for my own good, but here's my tumbler, made from an old coffee can and a gearmotor from the local surplus store. Turns about 80 rpm, and there are rubber strips inside the can to help the agitation. The can has a rubber grommet attached to the base that slips over the motor shaft, so I can detach the can and dump the whole thing if I want. Holds about 100 .38spl shells with walnut medium. It's very quiet.

You folks that shoot a lot could do the same thing with one of those plastic cement mixers from Harbor Freight.

What surplus store did you get that gear motor from and what is it accurately called - gear motor or something else and did the gear box come with it or did you have to get it separately?

They aren't cheap but Grainger carries similar motors:
AC gearmotors

A new tumbler from Midway is only ~$45:
Tumbler

I built my first tumbler using a tupperware style bowl. I bolted a motor similar to Billl's but without the gearbox to the bottom with the shaft facing away from the bowl. The motor came off of a scrapped record player turntable. For a weight to make it vibrate I took a shaft collar with an ID that matched the motor shaft, removed the set screw, and placed a screw that was about 2" long with lots of washers on it for weight. I slid the collar over the shaft and screwed the long screw into it to hold it in place on the shaft. Total cost was about $3 for the bowl and hardware.

I would fill the bowl about two-thirds with corncob, brass, and a little polish then put the lid on. I placed the bowl on the lid "upside down" on a piece of old carpet and plugged it in. It served it's purpose for about a year then a buddy and I went in together on a Midway tumbler. It is much faster and does a better job.

They aren't cheap but Grainger carries similar motors:

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I am way off topic here but I have been looking for these for a coffee roaster and didn't know what to look for.

What surplus store did you get that gear motor from and what is it accurately called - gear motor or something else and did the gear box come with it or did you have to get it separately?

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These guys frequently have low rpm motors that may work:

http://www.sciplus.com/

ac gear motor

Nice one on special
http://www.surpluscenter.com/electric.asp

Good selection and price it seems
http://www.electricmotorwarehouse.com/dayton_ac_parallel_shaft_gear_motor.htm

Search google for ac gear motor or ac synchronous gear motor.

Collet Bullet Puller Won't Relase

If you have a collet type bullet puller that still refuses to release the bullets after you have cleaned the inside of the collet:

Try lapping the inside of the collet with valve grinding or lapping compound.

I was looking at pulling 1260 rounds of 30 caliber Soviet block surplus ammo on which the primers had gone bad. My old puller (circa 1960’s) would not release the bullets, and the collets were no longer available. So I ordered a new Hornady puller from Midway.

While waiting for the new puller to come in, I was cleaning up the garage and ran across a can of very old lapping compound. Just about to throw it away, when the light bulb went off in my mind and I said “I wonder if…”

I took the old 30 caliber sticky collet and found that a 5/16 twist drill (.3125) made a perfect mandrel – the flutes held the lapping compound very well. Chucked the drill up in the drill press, applied the lapping compound to the last inch of the bit with a Popsicle stick, and by hand slowly ran the collet up and down over the end of the drill bit. [Edit: Forgot to mention the drill press speed was 500 rpm.]

After about five minutes of lapping, I cleaned up the collet, tried it out, and it released the bullets just fine.

The compound I had was 280 grit silicon carbide suspended in very heavy oil. Might be a little aggressive, but worked fine for me.

So now I have TWO 30 caliber bullet pullers that work just fine. I do like the Hornady better however.

Perhaps my “learning” will help someone.

If you have a lyman auto-flo tumbler

The bowl that comes with the tumbler is to low and it will spill over if you don't stand there and keep moving the media around. Picked this bin up at Lowe's and it works great.

crown royal bags for brass.

Precision check-weight for less than $2

Take a recently minted U.S. dime. With a Sharpie pen, write 35 on the front. That's all there is to it. A dime weighs exactly 35 grains. ($2 because I assumed you had to buy the Sharpie )
__________________
"Savoir Faire is Everywhere!"

not exactly 35 grains, but close enough for our purposes...

US Mint says it weighs 2.26800 grams = 35.0005887 grain

Penny: 2.50000 grams = 38.5808959 grain
Nickel: 5.00000 grams = 77.1617918 grain
Quarter: 5.67000 grams = 87.5014719 grain
Half-dollar: 11.34000 grams = 175.002944 grain
Dollar: 8.1 grams = 125.002103 grain
Golden dollar 8.1 grams = 125.002103 grain

Since I do not have a powder measure, only a Lyman 1200 DPS when I am doing large for me quantities.

I use a plastic spoon, and a 505 measure for when I am doing small batches. Eg 10 rounds to test a load. I also use a plastic tupperware container to hold the powder, which makes it easy to pick out of. This is generally because I do not want to wait 30 mins while the DPS warms up, and dont want to go through the hassle of emptying it the next time.

I do weigh every charge though.