What's the most crazy thing you've ever done with spent brass?

[Et Spiritus Sancti]

IIRC Brass is not a desirable material for smoking implements. I believe that when brass is heated hot enough (ie with a lighter) it can produce thread-like particles which affect the lungs much like asbestos. Don't ask me how I know this... I may be wrong on this, but just a heads up. BTW, my first post here on THR, and I like it already!

If there was a constant direct flame I might be a bit more concerned, but I make sure everything is super-cleaned, and they never get hot enough to even melt the silver solder again, and cool down pretty quickly.

 

[rangerbill]

i made a bunch of concrete stepping stones for my yard one summer, (store bought aree too flimsy and expensive) i sprinkled them with Pea gravel to make them look like well pea gravel stones. then a few weeks later at the range an idea sprang on me to sprinkle the concrete with empty casings. i haven't tried it yet, but i think it'd look cool.

 

[GunnySkox]

I always thought it would rock if one just sort of "paved" a path with cases just hammered into the ground, mouth-first. Y'know, so the headstamps/primer pockets are facing up, forming a walking surface made of little circles. It'd take forever, though, and might be too slippery.

~Slam_Fire

 

[Warren]

Hmmm, if you were to gently place those cases mouth down in the ground with primers in them and walked on them with golf shoes what would happen?

 

[JonnyB]

I recently finished restoring a 1958 Champion two-place airplane. My father-in-law turned two wood knobs for the tops of the control sticks. Each stick has a push-to-talk switch for the radio, and I needed a way to mount them in the knobs. After a bit of head scratchng, I thought of using empty cartridges. After a bit of digging through my stash of empty brass, I decided that .44 mag was perfect. I drilled out the flash hole to fit the switch, counter-bored the inside to fit, and glued them into the knobs.

A finish nut on top holds them perfectly and you can just identify the case heads - if you're into guns, that is.

JB

 

[PCGS65]

Me and my brother made christmas lights from different colored 12ga shotgun shells for a christmas party about 5 years ago. They looked very nice by the way.


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THANK GOD FOR SMOKELESS GUNPOWDER!

 

[Brasspolisher]

Great thread -- looks like a lot of 'em on this board! I especially like the 'practical' uses, like the satellite connector and the PTT switch.

My own contribution (not too practical)...

 

[TMM]

i love the chessboard! if you made some custom bullets and set them in the cases with some epoxy, that would be totally coolness.

~TMM

 

[Brasspolisher]

Thanks!

The bullets are actually crimped in using a reloading press. I skipped adding powder, and the primer pocket has a small piece of plastic magnet glued in -- they're kind of like well-treated snap caps.

 

[Berek]

4 shot glasses from spent 40mm grenade shells. Then some b*stard stole them....

Matching planters from 105mm M314 casings.

Berek

 

[Red Dragon]

I've used spent .22 casings to punch extra holes into a leather belt

 

[Red Dragon]

I haven't done this but I just thought it might make for a novel idea. Large caliber casings uses as candle "jars". Just heat up some wax, add whatever scent you wish to the wax, pour it into the casings and add a wick. Stylish yet economical. a must for those gun display rooms.

 

[Bruce in West Oz]

What's the most crazy thing you've ever done with spent brass?

Swallowed it.

True. When we were kids, my brother and I would zealously collect Dad's spent .22 brass when he went shooting on my uncle's farm.

In the car on the way home, we would stick them to our tongues and lips by holding them and "sucking" to make a semi-vacuum. We'd see how many we could "stick".

You can guess the rest. As I was sucking to make the vacuum, it slipped out of my fingers and went straight down. I finished up in hospital that night being X-rayed to make sure it hadn't gone into my lungs. Fortunately, there it was, plain to see, in my stomach.

Fast forward a few years to me, now a cool dude teenager, trying to impress the sheilas, only to see, on the inside RH page of the newspaper (must've been a slow news day) a headline: "The things kids swallow".

There, in all its glory, was my X-ray -- and my name!

Fortunately, we shifted soon after that!

Bruce

 

[Gifted]

Hmm, I'm imagining a 10 ga shell shot glass...

My old shop got 30mm cases for the A-10. They cut them off and glued glasses into them to do the same.

I have to say though polishing it was the hard part... The navy taught me well...lol

Work smarter not harder. Drill out the primer, thread the hole, and screw in a bolt. Put the bolt in a drill press, and spin to your hearts content. Unscrew that one and put on another brass until you have the required number of pen holders.

 

[griz]

That is a great chess set Brasspolisher. What is a "plastic magnet"? If you have any brass magnets I'll buy one

 

[Brasspolisher]

Heh, thanks!

Plastic magnets are the flexible dudes pizza places give out to stick on the frig door (they easily convert to primer-sized circles with a punch, and go on to a more useful life ).

Brass magnets *would* be quite handy, but we're both still waiting on that invention...

 

[Rabbi]

My wife makes custom doll furniture and jewelery. At an art fair a few years ago, a guy approached her (obviously VERY rich) and asked if she could do a Sam Spade desk for him as he was building a miniature set of Sam's office. She got pictures of his desk from the 'net and built the desk out of teak in exquisite detail, including the chair with a little leather cushion. The drawers opened and closed, everything was right on, even the chair swivelled. To cap it off, she made a half dozen tiny pencils with the hexagon shape and painted yellow and put them in a .45 Colt case polished like gold. I'd be embarrassed to tell you how much he paid and tipped her. He said he paid over $1000 to have a Barbie type "Ken" doll turned into H. Bogart. I think maybe he was one of those dudes who doesn't leave any heel prints when he walks on the beach.

Rabbi

 

[Deersniper]

I made a shift knob from a spent 30mm from an A-10.

 

[Rotty]

my wife makes garlands and ornaments out of them for christmas decorations....no i am not kidding...it was even her idea!

 

[1911JMB]

In 4th grade my friend took a large bag of 12 gauge emptys to school and we used them to make pencil holders in art class.

 

[CajunBass]

About the only thing I ever did with spent brass, was took an empty 30/30 case, resized it, seated a bullet, and used it for a pipe tamper.

 

[Gewehr98]

Not too crazy, really.

But every year my buddy and I sprinkle a little tarnished rifle brass on the grass on a certain knoll near Dealey Plaza. Last year, it was 8mm Mauser. This year, I'm thinking maybe 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. It's good for tourism, ya know...

 

[GRB]

Pasties....I think they were 45 auto.

 

[bfox]

I like to Scrollsaw so a few years ago I was cutting out some small
Christmas trees . I put brass shavings for tinsel and painted
the primers for ornaments .
At the Gun Club they had a wreath made out of
red and green Shotgun shells .

 

[rayra]

Made a set of wind chimes out of spent .50bmg brass, sticks and comm wire during a CAX at 29 Palms.
A General visiting our Bn HQ / FDC was amused. My Colonel was not.