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

Nice..

for those who do not have a lathe. #2 photo works well with a factory trickler and a leaded bottom. Either a lead melt and fill the bottom void or epoxy/seal in lead shot
 
Trimming Station

A little plate steel, some box tubing, some help from a 60 ton press, add in some sparks from a miller wire welder and you have a trimming station. Not quite sure if I need to bolt it down, it's a tad on the heavy side as is.
 

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I measured the thread to thread spacing on my Lee bullet seating die at .040". Dividing that by 8 gives me .005" per mark.
 

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I have a fairly large plastic funnel which I cut off the small end to make a two inch hole.
The hole is broad enough to hold it up, and set it in the primer tray, Dillorn or Lee, and then shake them upright.
 
They make a prospecting pan that has larger colander holes in the bottom, works perfectly for sorting brass brom media. I just sit the pan on top of a five gallon bucket and dump the vibrator or tumbler pot in the pan. little shake and all done, then pour the media baci in the tumbler.
 
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I wish I could find an easy way to dry my range pickup hulls after running them through the washing machine. I've just been standing them up in old cookie sheets and letting them sit for a couple of days.

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I just throw em in a net bag and toss em in the clothes dryer. Works great and done fast!

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You must be joking!! They would beat each other, the dryer drum, and impart lead into the drum and all clothing following. The heat would accelerate this.

I suppose if you had one of those dryers with a shelf for sweaters inside, that would work. But it also seems like an awful expensive way to dry shells.

Good luck.

Just let them dry out. Sit a room fan to blos on them, they should be dry in an hour.
Give them a bit of a shake in the middle of the time to expose new surfaces.
 
I, too, have taken to cleaning brass in the washing machine. After several trial runs have found a setup that works well.
First decap with a universal decap die. Put the cases in lingere bags. I sort by size so they don't "nest".
Our washer has a built in heater, so it's Tide powder, Oxy-Clean, and a shot of Borax. Run them on full HOT. I wash cases with shop rags, too.
With this they come out better than several hours of tumbling and are essentially dry. I let them sit overnight and they're good to go:

brass.jpg
 
to Sawblade, try this for drying the wet cases, get a really big terry cloth towel (beach type) pour wet brass in the middle. at the ends of the towel, grab the corners at one end in one hand and the other end - corners on the other hand. .... lift right hand and drop the left a little to make the brass tumble in the towel, then raise left and drop right hand, repeat, repeat repeat / you get the idea.

Similar one: use an old pair of trousers (USA: pants?), tie the bottom of one leg with cord. Pour your wet brass into the leg. Grab the top of the leg with one hand (closing the opening), and the bottom with the other, then start the exercise routine as above (i.e. lift left hand & lower right then lower left hand & lift right etc etc). Check carefully for cases left behind after emptying to avoid mixing brass.

Thanks to John C for that one.
 
Tumbling Media Sieve, Small Storage Bins, Sorted Brass

I use the frying basket from an old deep fryer as a sieve for by tumbling media. I found a lid from an old crock pot that just fit on the opening of the basket and and I turn it upside down and various directions to get all the media out of the brass. I catch the media in a large plastic dish pan I got at the $1 store.

On my wooden reloading bench I attached plastic, nail on, electrical connection boxes as small storage bins for things like shell holders, deburrer, camphor tools, etc.

I use ziplock bags to hold brass sorted in various stages of the reloading process. You can easily mark on the bag where the brass is in the process.
 
Size-o-matic cheap powder bushings

Just finished up some holiday machining in my workshop. I wanted to get a set of ponsness warren size-o-matic shotgun progressive powder bushings but the ponsness warren brand bushings are pretty expensive. Mec bushings are like $1.99 each.

Thee mec bushings are smaller on the id of the charge holder then the od of the ponsness warren powder bushing. I machined a piece of aluminum to match the mec bushing charge bar hole and the outside ponsness warren bushing.

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Its a rough cut but within a thousandth precision so I'm happy.
 
I am not sure of the placement of your primer catcher, but it sounds like an open tray that circles the press. I had a similar problem with my Lee Challenger, it has a cast bucket in the side of the press. I solved it by using the shop vac to just vaccum the primers out of the bucket. That doesn't drop a single one.
 
I came up with a device similar to that of post #701. I took an electric can opener, removed the cutting mechanism leaving only the gear.I mated it up with a plastic gear salvaged from a toy that I attached on the powder measure as like in 701's picture. I can trickle the powder fast or just bump it to dispense a single grain of powder. I built a box for all of this to stand on so the scale is at eye level. I made lines on the box so I can quickly line things up. I made it so I can remove all of the items and store them inside the box when I'm finished.
 
My progressive Hornady seems to be sensitive to case cleaning media getting stuck in the primer feeder groove.
Even though I sift the media out of my cases, and individually shake each case to get everything out of the cases, I somehow still end up with a few kernels of media still in my clean cases.
When I started using the automatic case feeder, the problem with the media seemed to get worse, because the case feeder tube would direct any media straight down to the shell plate area. My solution was to drill a small hole at the very base of the case bin, and then use a dremel grinder to make a small groove in the bin leading down to the hole. I duct taped on a little container to catch any media that comes out.
It seems to work very well - as the case feeder plate turns inside and tumbles the cases, any remaining media gets shaken out, and works its way down to the bottom of the bin, where it exits via the small hole to the container. Since I made this little modification, I haven't had a single problem with any media or trash getting into my primer feeder groove.
 
When I started reloading I balked at the price of corn cob media in the gun shops and online, where it's often found at $2+ per pound. (!!!)

Corn cob ground media can be bought at the local grain silos here in Illinois for $5 per 50lb bag (and that's 2005 prices, I haven't ran out since the last time I drove over to McLean and spent $50 to fill up my truck bed..!!). A lot of folks around here have corn cob burning furnaces, burns very clean, smells decent, is extremely cheap, and leaves very little ash.

Anyway, I'll take 10 cents per pound any day over $2 per pound.
 
Ever have a static problem in your press powder hopper?

Solder a 1/4 watt 1 meg resistor to some small electrical wire and fasten one end under one of your press bolts (using an eyelet) and the other to the screw on a grounded outlet cover. It's what's used for electro-static sensitive electronic repairs. You'll never see it if the wire is routed correctly

It illiminates static.
 
Thanks Vidal Sasson

I was in my shop where it has no heat and no A/C. And this is in East Texas. Gets hot and can get pretty cold as well. The shop was just above 34 degrees when I went to size and lube some 45 cal slugs in my old Lyman 450 system. Bought well before heaters for this device, I was faced with a problem. The lube (50/50 Alox/Beeswax) was like a brick in the lube chamber. I put a lamp on it thinking this will help. But it would take all morning to heat the thing....

Then as I was looking around the shop I spoted in a milkcrate under the bench, a 110 volt handheld hairdryer piled in with the rest of the junk my wife shoved under my bench. Shucks, it's worth a try. Holding the dryer to the old 450 for about 3 minutes made the thing pump out sized and lubed rounds faster than ever! I was tickled.

I'm sure that this little trick is not the first time to be used, but I felt since it is winter some may be having problems with their unit and might be able to use this to speed things up for loading in the cool temps. No invention, just something from desparation to lube and size some big bullets to load!

Wade
 
No lube needed for .357 sig

I found that if you run a .357 sig case thru a .40 s&w LEE FACTORY CRIMP DIE with a LEE BULGE BUSTER kit, (do this on a single stage press first), then when you are loading on a progressive press, you do not have to lube the .357 sig case. This is because the .357 sig and the .40 s&w cases are the same diameter, except for the neck on the .357 sig. When you run the case into the .40 s&w factory crimp die,which has a CARBIDE sizing ring, it sizes the case to factory dimensions, and all you have left to size when reloading, is the neck and shoulder, hence no lube needed......:)
 
I use a good ol' chum bucket from your local sporting goods store to shake the media from tumbled brass. It fits perfectly inside of a 2 gallon paint bucket so there's virtually no mess.
 
I made a homemade brass tumbler. It consists of an old electric Ice cream machine motor assy, a wooden stand on 60 degree angle. a metal popcorn tin. I installed two fins in side the tin to act as tumblers. the motor is connected to an old Photo enlarger timer. I use english walnut shells from the pet store with some brasso. Works great. pics on FB

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6238572&l=aa0f4b57a3&id=603038026
 
I mark the bottoms of my cartridges with colored sharpiesthat are color coordinated with my load book. Even if they spill out(God forbid) I can still separate my reduced loads from other rounds and not risk blowing my hand off with the 1916 mauser. It also helps me keep track of my Makarov cartridge conversions and keep them separated from my 9mm parabellum brass.
 
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