Loading Block Suggestions?

[BruceB]

I need a loading block which will accept .45-70 cases mouth-up. The two hardware stores in our little town both have loading blocks in stock, but not ones which will take the base-down .45-70.

So far I'm considering two possibilities. One is two layers of 3/4 plywood, with the top layer drilled with suitable holes BEFORE using the second layer as a base (to give neat "bottoms" in the holes. The other is cutting one of those thick white-plastic "Delrin" kitchen cutting boards in half and doing the same as with the plywood. Much nicer to the eye, I'd think.

Any others?

[carpetman]

BruceB---Oak makes pretty good loading blocks and many pallets are made of oak. It helps if you have drill press. Drill all the way through and then glue on a bottom. If you have table saw you can cut a piece of the pallet--or whatever you use to make it thinner and it looks better---you dont need the bottom as thick as the block. By putting on the bottom,it hides the tear from showing where you drill through. You can prevent the tearing,but if you going to cover it why bother?

[Junior1942]

I use the inserts for plastic boxes which hold 100 20 ga shotgun shells.

[Johnch]

I took a 2x6 10 " or so long and drilled 50 5/8 holes thru it .
I then glued and nailed a piece of 1/4 " luan underlayment to the bottom , both job site scrap .

I gave it a nice coat of paint

It cost me nothing other than time and the paint.

For pistol blocks I use 1/2 or 3/4 plywood and the right sized holes .

I just made 10 for a freind for his different cal.

Johnch

[MGySgt]

MTM 20 guage loading block - Has 50 hoiles in them and they take any rifle case along with 357 and 44 mag cases. Been using one for better then 30 years. I tried some of the other loading blocks, but the holes are too close together for my fat fingers!

Drew

[slughammer]

I made a block for 44 by using a piece of wood and a spade bit. Spade bit was run with a drill press and the depth was set for consisitency. The base would be big enough on 45-70 that the pilot from the spade should not matter.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Bruce, If you make that loading block, you must use a drill press, or you will HATE the finished product. One who knows.

[45 2.1]

Midway has a very nice wood loading block specifically for the 4570 case head that holds them base down. I've used two for years.

[Sailman]

Like Slughammer, I used a spade bit in a drill press. You can take a 1 X 4 or
1 X 6, cut it to the proper length, layout out the holes, and drill with a spade bit. You will have a nice flat surface for the brass and you don't have to make the unit in two pieces.

Sailman

[wills]

Just bought my 2d 20 guage plastic one. Beats messing with a drill press, forstner bit and a 2X12.

[floodgate]

If you load into standard 20- or 50- round ammo boxes, make your blocks with 25 or 55 holes (5 x 5 or 11 x 5); that leaves you witha blank row as you work across theblock, and helps keep track of where your are (or were, when the 'phone rang). floodgate

[stocker]

Oak from pallets is good stuff. Cut and plane to 2" thick. Lay out your hole centers allowing about 3/16 between hole edges. Drill 5/8" holes with a Forstner bit in a drill press using the depth stop and avoid having to glue on a separate base. Round the edges with your router or plane them to a 45' , sand and give a coat or three of urethane. I have about 25 of these on the shelves made up from different types of wood and they have real value unlike the injected plastic type.

[carpetman]

I worked on a state job and the new furniture would come in very sturdily packed. Had to,the cheap crap would break. This was furniture made gluing sawdust together(pressboard)and covered with plastic. The packing crates were oak and thrown away. Talk about keeping afterbirth and throwing babies away. I salvaged the crates and made several things from them.

[Scrounger]

I worked on a state job and the new furniture would come in very sturdily packed. Had to,the cheap crap would break. This was furniture made gluing sawdust together(pressboard)and covered with plastic. The packing crates were oak and thrown away. Talk about keeping afterbirth and throwing babies away. I salvaged the crates and made several things from them.

What pen was that, Huntsville?

[Scrounger]

BruceB---Oak makes pretty good loading blocks and many pallets are made of oak. It helps if you have drill press. Drill all the way through and then glue on a bottom. If you have table saw you can cut a piece of the pallet--or whatever you use to make it thinner and it looks better---you dont need the bottom as thick as the block. By putting on the bottom,it hides the tear from showing where you drill through. You can prevent the tearing,but if you going to cover it why bother?

Do you use oak pallet material for the fancy scratching posts you sell?
http://photos.gunloads.com/images/Scrounger/zscratcher.jpg

[BruceB]

Gents;

Many thanks for the suggestions!

Being a firm believer in the KISS principle, and realizing that I hadn't checked-out the shotshell boxes in our local stores, I went back this morning.

DANG! One of the stores had the 20-gauge blocks as spare parts, so I didn't even have to buy an un-needed box. With tax, $5.31 bought me a perfect loading block for my .45-70s, with no drilling, screwing, painting, cussing over mis-aligned holes, or WAITING...and Mama still has her cutting boards intact.

Thanks again.

[wills]

Good for you. For those inclined to complicate things here is a site than can generate grid patterns you can use to lay out a loading block.

http://www.incompetech.com/beta/plainGraphPaper/

[13Echo]

I make my loading blocks out of whatever good piece of wood that is available. So far I've used 2x4s, 6s, and 12s and 1x whatever. The thicker pieces are for rifle cases and the thiner for pistol and bullets. The holes are drilled with a Forstner bit. This is better than a spade bit as it drills a perfect hole with a flat bottom and only a very small center hole. I set the drill press so there is about 1/8 to 3/16" inch of wood left at the bottom - no need to attach plywood to the bottom. Layout isn't too difficult - just arrange cases on the piece to see how many will conviently fit, allow about 1/4" for the sides of the block and about 1/8" or a bit less between holes. When you know how many cases will fit you can calculate where to mark the centers with a formula I developed. If anyone is interested I'll post it later. It can be used to calculate the number of holes that will fit on a piece, how wide a piece needs to be to hold a given number of cases/bullets, etc. My best recommendation, though, Is; use a Forstner Bit, mark each hole and center punch, make certain the bit center spike enters the center punch and use a drill press.

Jerry Liles