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

[Docendo Discimus]

When empty the popcorn tins at wally world work well for throwing slag/dross into when casting. The lid works well on its own as a casting ladle and skimming spoon holder to protect the work surface underneath.

 

[1911tacticalnut]

The worlds first Geothermal Distillery

 

[rperyam]

I got hooked on this thread and have been reading it for a while. One of the suggestions dealt with Costco nut containers. I finally had some time to try it out. It was simple, put hot water from your tap in the container, wait a few seconds and you could peel the label off, finishing up with WD-40 on a paper towel to get any residual glue, if any. It actually works very easily. However, I have a few of the old round nut containers and they have a paper label and this doesn't work. I apologize for not remembering who suggested this, but thanks. I hated those labels.

 

[pert near]

I'm an old fashion sort of guy so I still use a long rod to measure the cartridge-over-all-length (COAL) of a bullet touching the lands. I use to use a cleaning rod & mark with tape until I found these 32" bamboo skewers at Walmart. They are in the sporting goods department along with the camping gear. On an empty chamber with bolt closed, slip skewer from the muzzle all the way in until it touches the bolt face. Using a razor blade, scribe a mark on the skewer. Next drop your favorite bullet into the chamber & seat it gently against the riflings. Run the skewer in again until it just touches the bullet tip & mark again. Using a caliper, the distance between the 2 marks is the COAL. Play with your seating depth from there to get your best accuracy. Of course you can use a cartridge seated to that COAL to then measure the Base-to-Ogive (BTO) for your rifle.

The skewers are $.98/dozen & reuseable.

 

[Skeeter330]

I'm an old fashion sort of guy so I still use a long rod to measure the cartridge-over-all-length (COAL) of a bullet touching the lands. I use to use a cleaning rod & mark with tape until I found these 32" bamboo skewers at Walmart. They are in the sporting goods department along with the camping gear. On an empty chamber with bolt closed, slip skewer from the muzzle all the way in until it touches the bolt face. Using a razor blade, scribe a mark on the skewer. Next drop your favorite bullet into the chamber & seat it gently against the riflings. Run the skewer in again until it just touches the bullet tip & mark again. Using a caliper, the distance between the 2 marks is the COAL. Play with your seating depth from there to get your best accuracy. Of course you can use a cartridge seated to that COAL to then measure the Base-to-Ogive (BTO) for your rifle.

The skewers are $.98/dozen & reuseable.
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I tried this with a cleaning rod and it was a headache. I will have to pick these up and give it a try. I used the hornady gauge but I have a 22H and it seems like a PITA to get a modified case for it

 

[Skeeter330]

I use a hair drier and a sieve to dry my brass after wet tumbling.
Dries 'em in under a minute!!! They be seriously hot though, be careful!!!

i do the same but i but them in a dollar store pan. The old lady gets peeved but I don't want to have to go out and get a heat gun

 

[Skinnedknuckles]

i do the same but i but them in a dollar store pan. The old lady gets peeved but I don't want to have to go out and get a heat gun

I use a food dehydrator. I put the brass in plastic 50 round pistol cartridge box liners, neck down, to hold the brass vertical for best draining and fastest drying.

 

[bigmike45]

I'm an old fashion sort of guy so I still use a long rod to measure the cartridge-over-all-length (COAL) of a bullet touching the lands. I use to use a cleaning rod & mark with tape until I found these 32" bamboo skewers at Walmart. They are in the sporting goods department along with the camping gear. On an empty chamber with bolt closed, slip skewer from the muzzle all the way in until it touches the bolt face. Using a razor blade, scribe a mark on the skewer. Next drop your favorite bullet into the chamber & seat it gently against the riflings. Run the skewer in again until it just touches the bullet tip & mark again. Using a caliper, the distance between the 2 marks is the COAL. Play with your seating depth from there to get your best accuracy. Of course you can use a cartridge seated to that COAL to then measure the Base-to-Ogive (BTO) for your rifle.

The skewers are $.98/dozen & reuseable.
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View attachment 1046345

They also work well to test the operation of a firing pin on a rifle. Be careful though I have seen the firing pin drive the skewer into the sheet rock ceiling and damage the finish. For pistols .30 caliber and larger I use a #2 pencil. Either one will show you if the firing pin is working without any possible damage to the rifling.

 

[Skgreen]

For those who use a kinetic puller and have trouble getting the O-ring back around that 3rd collet:

I haven't tried this with the small or large sets of collets, just the mid-size. Seems to be a good combination:

 

[BBarn]

My vibratory tumblers have a simple wing nut, washer and 1/4"-20 threaded rod holding the lid against the bowl. That works OK, but I found it often loosens up while tumbling.




Rather than over-tightening the lid and potentially stressing or warping the lid, I installed a stop using an upside down 1/4"-20 T-nut on top of a standard nut (I happened to use a square nut) and tightened them against each other. I positioned the nut assembly so that the lid was under slight tension when the wing nut is tightened down. Now I can tighten the wing nut as much as needed while not over-flexing the lid, and it doesn't vibrate loose even after running for hours.

 

[Tilos]

My vibratory tumblers have a simple wing nut, washer and 1/4"-20 threaded rod holding the lid against the bowl. That works OK, but I found it often loosens up while tumbling.
View attachment 1094847



Rather than over-tightening the lid and potentially stressing or warping the lid, I installed a stop using an upside down 1/4"-20 T-nut on top of a standard nut (I happened to use a square nut) and tightened them against each other. I positioned the nut assembly so that the lid was under slight tension when the wing nut is tightened down. Now I can tighten the wing nut as much as needed while not over-flexing the lid, and it doesn't vibrate loose even after running for hours.
View attachment 1094848

Nice
A wellnut works better than a wingnut and will not loosen up.
They have rubber that compresses when tightened, available at any hardware store.

works for me,

.

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

I installed a stop using an upside down 1/4"-20 T-nut

I sleeved a measured piece of 1/4 inch fuel line over the the threaded rod.

Same difference.....

 

[Skgreen]

One man's trash,,,

 

[uuolf]

I recycle food containers a lot... Mostly out of practicality... I use the same brands and quantities so I can then use the empty and cleaned containers... I choose the brands I like with really nice containers... And I'll pay an extra few cents for the product in order to get the well made container it's in... And containers full of sorted brass, polishing media, etc stack easily and can be looked for quickly.

 

[doubleh]

I have ben using Cabela's version of one shot case lube for years. I don't load a large amount of rounds at a time. 100 is about max. I use a medium sized aluminum cookie sheet and a hair dryer my wife gave me. I dump the brass on the sheet, spray it, shake it around and spray it again, then take the hair dryer to it. It only takes seconds to dry the lube and then I repeat the process. I have never had a stuck case after adopting this procedure.

 

[Tilos]

I recycle food containers a lot... Mostly out of practicality... I use the same brands and quantities so I can then use the empty and cleaned containers... I choose the brands I like with really nice containers... And I'll pay an extra few cents for the product in order to get the well made container it's in... And containers full of sorted brass, polishing media, etc stack easily and can be looked for quickly.

yeh, you mean like these:


.

 

[uuolf]

Exactly...literally

 

[deadeye dick]

Figured out how to hold a stiff box open to make it much easier to load it up.
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What i do is open the box and LIGHTLY heat the hinge with a hair dryer to give the plastic a "memory" Think this was posted here someware, just repeating.

 

[koni]

I recycle food containers a lot... Mostly out of practicality... I use the same brands and quantities so I can then use the empty and cleaned containers... I choose the brands I like with really nice containers... And I'll pay an extra few cents for the product in order to get the well made container it's in... And containers full of sorted brass, polishing media, etc stack easily and can be looked for quickly.

Food containers for small stuff, dollar store bins for large amounts of spares.

 

[Tilos]

Food containers for small stuff, dollar store bins for large amounts of spares.

Way out of my league...
I never have enough brass at the same stage of the process or condition to need any large bins.

.

 

[trekker73]

I discovered czech alfa-proj 9 shot revolver carbines in 22LR can be speedloaded with HKS- 9 shot 22LR pistol speedloaders.
I emailed the company to let them know, since I had initially enquired if any speedloaders worked in their guns and they werent sure . Got a thankyou reply too, probably some functionary thinking who in heck is this crazy guy.

 

[Chuck R.]

On my Dillon 650 with case feeder I use pieces of "soda straw' to "synch" my case feeder to my primer fill, by placing the soda straw under the primer tube warning buzzer activating arm.

Through trial and error I figure out the right length of straw by caliber. When placed under the activator arm on the low primer warning buzzer it makes the buzzer sound at the correct time for me to shut off the case feeder. That way I run out of primers at about the same time I run out of cases in the case feeder tube. I got tired of finishing a loading session and having a case feed tube full of brass that I had to remove when changing calibers.

 

[Docendo Discimus]

I had trouble reading the text on my Lee powder hopper so I traced the raised letters with a black sharpie. It is much easier to read now without squinting.

 

[Docendo Discimus]

Easy and effective Lee turret holders made from widemouth jar plastic lids. Pictures show the method. The holes are drilled with a 7/8 spade bit. You can get the lids at Walmart or out of your cabinet if the wife isn't watching.

 

[Tilos]

Easy and effective Lee turret holders made from widemouth jar plastic lids. Pictures show the method. The holes are drilled with a 7/8 spade bit. You can get the lids at Walmart or out of your cabinet if the wife isn't watching.
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Love that deburring tool (I have the set), not something many would recognize.

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