Collecting Everyday Items For Casting And Reloading...

[ArrowJ]

Note: Also posted on the Ammosmith forum.

Greetings,

I thought it might be interesting and beneficial to put together a list of items that can be recycled, reused, or repurposed for reloading, casting, or other aspects of the shooting sports. One obvious item would be scrap lead, but I saw a thread somewhere about saving certain aluminum cans to make gas checks from. I do not know if that is actually something people do, but it gives an idea of what I mean. I also collect pill bottles, ice cream tubs, etc. for storage. What would you add to the list?

Scrap Lead
Storage Containers
Gas Check Material (not sure what qualifies here)
Honey Comb (can this be used for flux?)
Various items that might be fun to shoot :) i.e. an aluminum heat sink from a computer

[Jal5]

Discarded coffee maker to heat the lubes- just missed getting one at work yesterday. already pitched in the dumpster before I thought of this idea.

[PS Paul]

What a great idea for a thread! Lots of terrific and inventive ideas from our forum members I'll wager.

I got nothin' groundbreaking, but I'm gonna chew on this for a bit and think about some of the more cockamamey, err, "inventive" things I've done out of necessity and cheapness over the past few decades. ha-ha!!

[ShootNSteel]

Discarded coffee maker to heat the lubes- just missed getting one at work yesterday. already pitched in the dumpster before I thought of this idea.

You gotta dive in there and get it!

I save pie and cookie pans or any pans for that matter. All the tooling from my work comes in great hard plastic containers that I save.
Also the tooling comes covered in a hard cosmoline that makes great flux or fire starters in the winter when mixed with sawdust.
I use old silverware, particularly ice tea mixers as a dross scrapers. Just don't use the silver plated ones, lead sticks to them.

Any small motor or gear reducer unit that's getting thrown away at work comes home with me. I saved some great little motors and gearboxes to build a case feeder and rotary tumbler this winter.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Any cast iron muffin or biscuit tins.

Rich
Sua Sponte

[45fan]

I took an old stainless steel bowl I used as the dogs water bowl. Drilled a hole in the base added a wooden handle, cut an opening in the side of it for my mold handles to stick out and use it as lid to cover my molds while they sit on my hot plate. Makes the hot plate more like a little oven heating the aluminum mold and steel sprue plate a little more evenly.

[Jack Stanley]

My beloved broke the ceramic crock part of our crock pot/deep fryer . I salvaged the deep fryer part to use as a double boiler heater for blending lubes .

Jack

[Silverboolit]

Folgers coffee cans, plastic ones, great for storing boolits in and they stack,..Also, when I go to the range, I go dumpster diving for empty cartridge boxes and the sticky 'pasters' that come on the newer shoot n c targets. Cheap paper plates and pasters make for alright targets.
Just my way of recycling and saving the planet.

[Jal5]

I too am a big fan of coffee containers for storing bullets, brass, etc.
I look for discarded ammo boxes at the range too.

I went back for that discarded MR. Coffee maker but the dumpster had already been emptied!

[zuke]

I go to the dollar store for their big soup spoon's/ladle's.
The "holy" one is great for skipping out the WW clip's and ****, the ladle I use to pour ingot's.

[turmech]

I re purposed an electric candle warmer I had not seen the wife use in years. I use a small glass candle jar on it for warming LLA for dip lubbing. When done put the lid on the candle jar and keep LLA in it for the next session. Kind of like a smaller scale version of the crock pot dip lube method requiring less LLA.

[canyon-ghost]

Yessir, 3# coffee cans and teaspoons with 1/4" holes drilled in them, rags (especially tee shirts), candles, Prego jars with the resealable lid (for mineral spirits- I use just enough in the jar to cover the brush or jag), pencils with erasers (cleaning mold cavities), sharpie laundry markers for drawing targets (a quarter makes a black focal point visable out at 100 meters), grocery sacks (paper sacks for drawing targets) and 1/3 sheet or odd size plywood for target boards.

[ArrowJ]

I always keep paper grocery bags in the garage for all kinds of things. I buy them from Aldi for 6¢ each.

[kmag]

Friend of mine came up with this tip. He keeps all his junk mail that is printed on one side of full sheets of paper. Uses the clean side and a magic marker to make targets. At least doing that you get some return for opening all the junk mail.

[0verkill]

Folgers coffee cans, plastic ones, great for storing boolits in and they stack,..Also, when I go to the range, I go dumpster diving for empty cartridge boxes and the sticky 'pasters' that come on the newer shoot n c targets. Cheap paper plates and pasters make for alright targets.
Just my way of recycling and saving the planet.

At least I'm not the only one that saves pasters.

Never throw away jeans with a good leg. Cut it off and sew up the ends for sandbags.

[0verkill]

Friend of mine came up with this tip. He keeps all his junk mail that is printed on one side of full sheets of paper. Uses the clean side and a magic marker to make targets. At least doing that you get some return for opening all the junk mail.

Also don't forget to send a reply in the post paid envelope asking for donations.

[adrians]

I re purposed an electric candle warmer I had not seen the wife use in years. I use a small glass candle jar on it for warming LLA for dip lubbing. When done put the lid on the candle jar and keep LLA in it for the next session. Kind of like a smaller scale version of the crock pot dip lube method requiring less LLA.

Hey, i have one of those somewhere and never thought of using it for LLA,
but i will now THX .

Don't forget that stuffed animal your dog chewed all to pieces , it,s guts makes good filler [smilie=l: .

[Sasquatch-1]

Yessir, pencils with erasers (cleaning mold cavities),

The other end of those pencils are good for stirring the pot when casting.

I also save the empty 1lb propane bottles for targets when visiting a friend. We did not have any explosion and do place the a good distance away. :veryconfu

Now this isn't repurposing but I do print out pictures of "Barney" to use as targets. I get lots of comments on these at the range.

Big Lots sells a cream cheese storage box that is a nice rectangle shape that is just big enough to hold 100 240 grn .429 cal bullets.

[NSP64]

Never throw away jeans with a good leg. Cut it off and sew up the ends for sandbags.

Last time the kids bought jeans they didn't have any good legs on them to start with. lol

Guess I could cut mine off the ones that don't fit anymore.

[dickttx]

"Custom Made Press Cover" and "Scale Cover"
But none of my large stash of Folgers cans. I use all three sizes.
Oh, and crochet hoops. Great for corralling brass, bullets, small parts, etc.

[Bullet Caster]

Maybe you need a double bagger! Lol. Just kidding, of course. I save all containers the Mrs. doesn't need any more. I commendeered her wash basin (about 3' in dia.) made of aluminum wash tub that now contains my rock tumbler. Sometimes the lid won't stay on and it leaks when not propperly sealed each time. When that happens I used to have to clean up a big mess. Now I just stop the machine and refill it with the loose pins and citric acid that got dumpped out.

I got so many reloads now that I had to build me a wooden storage box to hold it all. I made it about the size of a foot locker so now I've got powder, primer and reload storage. I save the big gallon sized ice cream containers. They now contain brass, etc.

I got 2 different sized drill bits to ream crimped primer pockets, one for small, one for large. When I run out of Imperial Sizing Wax I plan on using Mink oil for case lube for full length sizing.

Since I smoke electronic cigarettes, I save the little caps off the ends of the refills to use as boolit condoms. When reloading for rifle, the condoms keep the powder from spilling if I knock one over. Since I operate a single stage press I do every thing in batches--like batch mode processing. After I get all the cases full 'o' powder and it's boolit seating time, I just remove the condom from the case and seat the boolit. These little things have save many a powder mess.

I could go on and on. You pick up tips by reading here and by doing things yourself. Some tips save time and some aren't really necessary, but that's what makes reloading and casting all the more fun. After burning off my ladle handle through much use, I screwed an extension piece of metal onto the dipper with two screws and nuts, then attached it to a wooden handle with hose clamps after flattening one side of the handle with grinder.

I believe that there are stickies in the past covering this topic of tips. Just use the search feature and you can pull up all the tips from the past. BC

[boltons75]

Wow, nobody else uses peanut butter jars, & mayo jars. They work great for brass, lead and many other things. I save them all, small to large.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

[D Crockett]

lets see old bead frams == in my oppion make the best ingot moulds ever made == 20 lb propine tanks = the best lead cleaning pot never have to worry about it melting like you do with aluminum pots or cracking like you do with cast iron pots just to let you know I have had both happend to me == used candles = make great flux == used chop sticks = a good flux == used hack saw blade with a 90 deg bend on the end = good pot scraper == large speeker magnet with a T handle weilded to it = a good tool to get ww clips out of clean lead == old plastic toy box = great lead storage contaner these are a few thing that I have made for casting D Crockett

[.22-10-45]

I always keep a bunch of no.2 pencils at casting bench..good for rubbing on mould tops..prevents lead sticking & graphite lubricates plate..also good for removing lead "plating" in mould cavity or block face.
Wooden matches for smoking cavities. Hobby shops/hardware stores sell thin brass or
copper strips..I file edge sharp & use as scraper to remove lead spatters..with no danger of scratching moulds.

[Plinkster]

The little 3/4" stick on garage sale price tags make great pasters, I think the blank ones were $1/300. I also save any plastic food container with a screw or snap lid. Each caliber I load for has two folgers plastic cans: one labeled dirty the other clean and put a hash mark on the clean each time it gets filled to keep track of the # of loads with that lot of brass. Bamboo shish-kabob skewers for casting pot stirring/fluxing.

[historicfirearms]

I'm so frugal (wife says cheap) that I save our used ziplock bags from lunches. A quick rinse and air dry makes them perfect for lots of things in my gun room. I can lube a bunch of cases for resizing at once and keep that bag for more lubeing later, very little waste that way. I also can store gun parts and boolits in the smaller bags. One other thing I do with them is apply bullet lube when I want to tumble lube.

[hanover67]

I use empty tuna fish cans to store empty cartridge cases before or after tumbling. If you bang one edge down they also make a good ashtray for a cigar. I also cut 1/4" wide sections from old bicycle inner tubes to use as elastic bands to hold mold halves together.

[markshere2]

I salvaged a rectangular aluminum pan out of an ancient coffee maker. It held plumbing bits for years until I needed a container to catch the bits of lead that fall off when I knock the sprue plate.

Cast iron dutch oven for smelting, corn muffin molds for ingots, turkey fryer for heat, ladels and skimmers ...Man Country looks like Emerii's kitchen on smelting day!

Plastic coffee cans for ingots, recycled wood pellet bags for bringing home wheel weights, ziplock bags for everything in the reloading room, plastic peanut and mayo and pnut butter jars for brass and boolits... yeah I'm frugal.

I do keep ammo in...ammo cans. as much as I have room for...

[Jack Stanley]

I don't generally use mayo and peanut butter jars , they are to big for samples I make and two small for the storage I use . I do reuse gas check boxes for samples of bullets . When they bullets are going to be stored I have a storage rack that holds drawers made of three quarter inch plywood glued and nailed together . They are about the size of a smaller shoebox and fit in the rack eight high and three wide . Each drawr holds about forty pounds of bullets depending on caliber . Gas checked and lubed bullets are still stored in cigar boxes and I may get to making a set of wooded drawers for that also .

Jack

[flipajig]

Butter,soure cream,coffie cans work great for Boolit storage and for brass
Built some hanger's for old refrigerator crispers tha I mounted under my loading bench for molds lube. Made a small box for my sizeing dies and top punches with help from a Morrtison bit each has it's own hole for storage.
Your emanation is the limit with a litle help from some tools and some simple supplies.
Flip

[3006guns]

I'm so frugal (wife says cheap) that I save our used ziplock bags from lunches. A quick rinse and air dry makes them perfect for lots of things in my gun room. I can lube a bunch of cases for resizing at once and keep that bag for more lubeing later, very little waste that way. I also can store gun parts and boolits in the smaller bags. One other thing I do with them is apply bullet lube when I want to tumble lube.

+1 on recyling zip loc bags......especially the gallon size. I can get as much as 200 rounds of rifle ammo in one of those things and it all "custom fits" in a .50 cal. ammo can for the range. Makes for nice dry long term storage too.

Smaller bags good for bore cleaner bottles, brushes, etc.

One cut off leg from Levis with the cuff sewn shut make a dandy cheap carbine case.

I HATE plastic coffee cans! Bring back the metal ones immediately!

[TXGunNut]

Business cards make excellent offhand practice targets for a .22 rifle @ 25 yds, guess that's a wee bit off-topic. Duuno how many plastic coffee containers I'm using for WW's, brass, boolit and other storage but I wish I had a few more. Have 18 full of WW's and next smelting session will free up some space.
Thanks for the strainer spoon ideas, may even spring for a turkey frying setup and a cheap Duch oven this year.

[Sasquatch-1]

Plastic milk crates are excelent for ingot storage.

[Pmc]

My neighbor is in the drywall business. One day I asked him for drywall mud buckets. After about 10 I told him I had enough. They are great 5 gallon buckets.

[trixter]

may even spring for a turkey frying setup and a cheap Duch oven this year.

I bought a dutch oven for smelting and it worked great but is flat bottomed, hard to get all the lead out. I had a friend cut a propane tank and used the bottom 1/3 and it is round bottom and much easier to get all the lead out.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Immediately after a local election I scamper around with my trusty knife and remove the wonderful plastic signage for use as targets.

Not only will you be doing a community service by removing those ugly signs but you will also have a very nice target backing for your paper targets. There is also a bonus here if you find photos of Politicians you do not like.

Do not past a paper target over their faces.....just shoot their faces fulla holes and make your day.....

I cannot wait until November 7th 2012.......

[trixter]

Hey now that is a great idea. I'm all over it.

[I'll Make Mine]

I posted to my local Freecycle mailing list on Friday, and tonight I picked up an old, non-working (but repairable) Coleman single burner stove. It holds about a pint of white gasoline (aka camp fuel), and should burn for a couple hours on that amount -- and ought to run on (somewhat cheaper) unleaded automotive gasoline, too, though it's possible I might have to change the generator for that trick. I figure I should be able to melt a ten pound batch of wheel weights at a time with it, or a similar amount of ingots when I have a mold and ladle and am ready to cast.

Speaking of which, I'm repurposing a cast iron corn bread mold that I haven't used in years (seven round, flat cavities -- closer to johnny cakes than what I think of as corn bread) to be an ingot mold, and an old stainless kitchen kettle is going to become a smelting pot. Need to visit Goodwill or Salvation Army and look for a cheap stainless strainer spoon for skimming and stirring.

[Sasquatch-1]

I Need to visit Goodwill or Salvation Army and look for a cheap stainless strainer spoon for skimming and stirring.

Get one of those wire looking ones that the Chinese cooks like to use. They run about $4.00 to $5.00 at places like Big Lots, Olies and Walmart.

This isn't the cheapest source by far. But this is what I am talking about.

http://www.amazon.com/Typhoon-Professional-Cooks-Wire-Skimmer/dp/B0009XHERK/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1349179723&sr=1-8&keywords=strainer+spoon

[I'll Make Mine]

Nice idea, Squatch -- but if I can get a stainless roncible at Goodwill for fifty cents, guess which will win?

[I'll Make Mine]

Well, that was a pleasant surprise. I finally got some time to really check over the little camp stove I got via Freecycle a few days ago. It's a Coleman Feather 400, runs on white gas (aka Coleman Fuel or camp fuel); when I brought it home, I couldn't get it to light, and there was something very much not quite right in the pump.

Tonight, I pulled the pump core out of the sleeve and looked it over -- nothing damaged; the neoprene cup looked almost new. Too new, in fact -- it wasn't lubricated. Two drops of good old 3-in-1 oil, spread evenly around the cup, I stuck it back together, and now, by gum, it pumps up. Took me about half a dozen tries to get a match to stay lit long enough to light the burner in the wind (I was working in my carport, no place inside the house I'd consider safe for this kind of work, at least until I was sure the stove was working right), but once I got a good flame in there long enough to open the valve, it fired right up and, after a minute or two for the generator to heat up, settled down to a clean, hot flame.

In other words, there's nothing functional wrong with this free stove. I've got enough camp fuel already on hand to melt a couple small pots of lead, I think, and I hope to get some more soon (and look into the dual-fuel generators made for other nearly identical stoves, that would let me use unleaded automotive gasoline, about half the price of camp fuel); now I just need a couple suitable pots (time to start prowling Goodwill and Salvation Army in earnest), a ladle, and a mold.

[ronz]

The wire mesh garbage cans from the dollar store make good brass drying baskets

[I'll Make Mine]

I picked up what look like viable lead skimmers -- three nested stainless strainers for a buck at the dollar store.

[Sasquatch-1]

The wire mesh garbage cans from the dollar store make good brass drying baskets

These are also good to get a lot of the dirt out of range scrap before sorting and melting. I use one of the trash cans and then a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth to sift out a lot of the garbage.

[grullaguy]

Cat litter boxes for sorted range scrap and ingots
Margarine, sour cream, peanut butter and other containers for cloth and paper patches, as well as bullets and brass.
Old business invoices from a dot matrix printer for paper patches.
Lightly used pants for cloth patches and old shirts and other clothes for rags.
Cardboard milk cartons for over powder cards.
Old candles for flux and lube ingredients.
Beef, pork, deer and bear trimmings for lubes.

The list goes on.....:drinks:

[garym1a2]

Kitty litter scopper to get my boolits back from my dirt hill. I recycle my lead over and over.

[I'll Make Mine]

Kitty litter scopper to get my boolits back from my dirt hill. I recycle my lead over and over.

These also work well for separating brass from media after tumbling.

I've got three old cat food buckets (buy cat food at Costco, comes in a nice approximately 4 gallon plastic bucket with hinged lid) into which I'm sorting my first bucket of wheel weight scrap. I'm using the smallest screwdriver blade in my Leatherman multi-tool to test the weights; coated lead and coated zinc are hard to tell apart, until I scratch through the coating, then the difference is obvious.

[Silver Eagle]

Save printer paper that is printed on one side for printing your own targets or using pasters on.
Have a roll of red adhesive backed stickers (Dad found them) in my range bag that I stick on targets for a color contrast on my printed targets. Color printing costs more.
Some cheap cell phone or camera cases make dandy .22 or pellet holders as long as they fully close and the bottom does not have any openings.
Old or dentist freebie toothbrushes make great brushes for action cleaning.
Cotton swabs dipped in bore cleaner or oil make a great .22 or smaller bore swab. Just push them through with a dowel or plastic rod.
A lot of airgun shooters swear by a piece of weed wacker line. Cut one end sharp and the other end heated up and a ball formed on it for an easily packable bore cleaner. Just push on a patch, dip it in solvent and pull it through the bore. It also works for .22's or smaller as opposed to a bore snake.
Altoids or other mint cans are always saved for a number of uses.

[Lance Boyle]

I'm another that will recycle a food gallon zip lock for range use. I use them to put my dirty empties in.

I repurpose those spring clip paperclip things for large bundles of paperwork, you know the type, a piece of stamped metal spring with the two chromed loops for openers. They make good target holders on the backer. I have a staple gun but when it's windy these come out and hold the larger thin paper targets that would get pulled off by the wind.

I don't throw away the plastic jacketed bullet boxes, I store my lubed cast rifle bullets in them or other reloading stuff like my hornady headspace kit parts.

Old lead shot bags also make good sleeves for the class 3 tow ball and hitch to keep the rust and grease off the truck upholstery.

Larger plastic coffee jugs I have used for citric acid cleaning of really coroded range pickups. I use the ffrogs pad recipe for that before I got a thumler and steel pins. google will give you the recipe but it was basically water, liquid laundry soap, salt, lemon juice. Mix and put in brass and agitate every 5 minutes for 15-20 minutes and you get nice clean usuable brass. Not as clean as SS pins but good enough.

[SciFiJim]

When I first started casting in '09, I found a 3 quart stainless steel pot and a slotted spoon at Goodwill (total of $1.50) to smelt my WWs with. I used the side burner on my gas grill. I got a soup ladle at the dollar store and bent a spout in it to use for ladle casting.

[Bored1]

I have talked the cooks @ work into saving me the 1 gallon plastic mayo jars. They work great for storing all sorts of stuff and fit perfectly lengthwise in a Priority Flat rate med box. Last try I got right @ 30# in one and didn't have to worry about it breaking when it shipped!

Also use any plastic containers left instead of throwing them away.

[Ecramer]

I use old aluminum ice-cube trays to catch bullets as I knock them from the mold. I take a piece of old scrap cloth, folded into two or three layers, line the bottom of the pan, and rest it next to the furnace.

I have limited space and cast on my kitchen table. I use a 10-lb. Lee bottom-delivery furnace, which rests on an old cookie sheet (c-clamped to the table) when I cast. The metal cookie sheet catches spills, and sprues, and gives a nice lip to secure the ice-cube tray so it doesn't move as bullets fall into it.

[Ecramer]

I use old aluminum ice cube trays (thank you DAV thrift store) lined with cloth to catch bullets when I knock them out of th emold.

[trixter]

Attach a push pin to one of your shelves in front of your press/work area and clip your load data to it.
49365

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

[wgaynor]

Friend of mine came up with this tip. He keeps all his junk mail that is printed on one side of full sheets of paper. Uses the clean side and a magic marker to make targets. At least doing that you get some return for opening all the junk mail.

My Dad taught me to take the junk mail, open it and remove the self addressed stamped envelope. Then load it up with something heavy like gravel and mail it back.:)

Make em pay for wasting my time.

You can also white out their address info and use it for your own...

As for Bullet Casting, I dumpster dive at the range for empty boxes and trays. I also use paper plates for targets.

[I'll Make Mine]

My Dad taught me to take the junk mail, open it and remove the self addressed stamped envelope. Then load it up with something heavy like gravel and mail it back.:)

Make em pay for wasting my time.

You can also white out their address info and use it for your own...

Changing the address info on a Business Reply Mail is probably some kind of offense -- though there's a limit to how far someone will pursue a 28 or so cent fraud. Mailing back something other than the intended payload should be limited to actual paper or paper-like materials, to avoid damage to Postal Service sorting equipment or having your envelope just deposited in the "dead letters" bin after the contents start to leak out and it's found not to contain the intended material.

Now, if the internal envelope has an actual stamp, do what you like with it; unsolicited items received in the mail (as long as they're addressed to you or to "resident" or similar) are legally a gift, but I haven't seen a genuine stamp inside junk mail in decades.

[Sasquatch-1]

I will sometimes take the solicitation mail I get in a week and stuff it in the largest postage paid envelope in the batch and mail it back. The trouble is that most of the companies are no longer putting the postage paid envelopes in their mailers.

I also like the companies that place a coin in the envelope (probably got at least a buck and a half this past year) and tell you what they can do with this amount of money. Well if you can do so much with a nickle or a dime, and in one case I actually got a dollar bill, then why are you sending them out? Anyone of average intelligence can figure out that the company is sending out thousands of dollars, even in nickles.

:veryconfu

[ArrowJ]

My wife brings these home from the hospital, but I have not figured out what to use them for. They are fairly tough and have measurements in ml on the side up to 700. Any suggestions?

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/12/05/ahy5enaj.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/12/05/nu8y2u4e.jpg

[root]

Those look like saline bottles. (used for wet wound dressing) they will hold some pretty corrosive chemicals.

You could cover the bottom in sol alox and just shake/swirl the boolits around. after it gets all gunked up and hard spray a tiny amount of miniral spirits in it and repeat.

That's what i'd use them for in the house.

Outside I'd use then for the "dip" on my stainless steel suppressors' baffles.

[Sasquatch-1]

My wife brings these home from the hospital, but I have not figured out what to use them for. They are fairly tough and have measurements in ml on the side up to 700. Any suggestions?

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/12/05/ahy5enaj.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/12/05/nu8y2u4e.jpg

Those would work well if you bought a couple of 8lb jugs of powder to share with some friends(to help offset hazard fee). Make up appropriate labels and fill bottle. Would line up nicely on a shelf.

[ArrowJ]

Those would work well if you bought a couple of 8lb jugs of powder to share with some friends(to help offset hazard fee). Make up appropriate labels and fill bottle. Would line up nicely on a shelf.

That was my original thought, but I thought I would catch hell for suggesting powder be removed from its original container :) Does light harm powder? If so I would need to only use the black ones.

They originally contained enzymatic agents, and other fluids used in the laboratory.

[a.squibload]

If you can't figure anything to store in those,
fill with water, secure cap, set on ground,
back off 50 yards or so, shoot with .44.

I get a few pallets every year, cut up any good flat parts,
use the air-stapler to make trays to store ingots.

[WRideout]

When we had to throw out our plastic bowl-type salad spinner I saved the bottom to make a strainer for case washing. I use the citric acid/Dawn wash on my cruddy rifle cases, and the inner movable basket makes it easy to get them out of the wash, and rinse them.
Wayne

[Wayne Smith]

Let me reverse this - shooting stuff used for other purposes. I have a couple old percussion cap cans that I use to carry pain killers or other pills around in my pocket.

[dickttx]

55943
Found this at the Goodwill the other day (cocktail shaker). I am always dropping the bullets from my hammer type bullet puller into my powder jug or powder measure when trying to salvage the powder. Should be able to empty it into this, then shake the powder out.

Edit: Tried it yesterday (12/16) with a couple of rounds and it worked great.

[cloakndagger]

I use old tires from the local tire shop as a bullet trap, mounted on an old pushmower about 4 high and filled with sand, tip it over into a screen made from our last remodeling project scraps and I have all the lead my friends are nice enough to deposit in there. Also, not very homeware related, but a couple $10 howitzer ammunition tubes serve as spent brass and range lead receptacles, toss in a few silica gel packs (get em outta the electronics and shoe boxes you get this christmas) and youre good to go. If in need of another workbench or range table I cruise the tractor and lawn stores in town and pick up their old shipping crates. Slap on two reenforcements and flip em over, top with an old solid core door and youre set.

[JPinMI]

I save the pill containers that I get from the pharmacy, & ask for the white snap on non-child proof cap. The smaller diameter ones fit the Star sizing dies with punches with nuts attached. On the lid I write the size of the die and store them in an old metal storage box just big enough that they stand upright so I can see the lids. The bigger diameter bottles have been used to store the Mihec hollow point pins that I'm not using at the moment, again marking the size on the top in permanent marker.

[howlnmad]

I salvaged the heating base from an electric fondue pot. Works great for warming moulds and keeping them warm.

[grogel]

A Idea found on the forum but worked great, 1.99 golf club shafts from the Good Will make fine cutters for pan lubing and multiple sizes can be had from one shaft.