new uses for old things

[JMtoolman]

I don't know about you but I often find new uses for old objects. I have been saving my wifes snap top black plastic bottles that her test strips come in for her diabeties blood work. These are about two inches high and of the best quality plastic snap top bottles, unbreakable, and absoulitly water tight. My Lyman lube sizers fit in them perfectly! A little room to move in so they don't stick like the plastic tubes they are supplied in. I use a label maker to put the size on the top. No more digging around in a box full trying to find the right size. I only have thirty or forty of them from about fifty years of hording. It took me about six months to save enough for all of the dies, but the supply has finely cought up with the demand. They are also great for hooks and sinkers, and jug heads. I am sure others have found better ways of handling some of the things we use, anyone else have some better ideas. The toolman.

[lwknight]

I find that the temporary urn , a nice plastic box is great for storing boolits. The crematorum sends peoples ashes in the sturdy plastic box to the funeral homes to put in the new fancy urn. They throw the plastic ones away because they cannot reuse them.
Best of all, they are free and stackable.

[Shiloh]

I use broken surgical intruments as primer pocket cleaners and deburring.

Shiloh

[AZ-Stew]

I use the small, brown plastic "child proof" prescription pill bottles for storing my Lyman lubrisizer dies and top punches. They're see-through so I can tell whether there's a top punch inside. This is useful for .30 caliber where I have a number of die sizes (.308 - .314) and fewer top punches. I just wish they didn't have all the embossed printing on the lid so they would be easier to mark, either with labels or a china marker. Hmmmm... Just had a thought. I may try running one of the lids over my belt sander to see whether I can make it flat enough to mark. Just might work...

Regards,

Stew

[beagle]

Plastic 35mm film cannisters (usually free for the asking at any Walmart photo section) make darn good containers for lubricator/sizer dies. If you get the ones with the gray lids, you can size and measure a bullet and write the actual sized measurements on the cover.

These are stored in order in a plastic worm box used by fishermen and allows the selection of a particular die at the first grab./beagle

[AZ-Stew]

It worked. They'll be easy to find in the drawer now with the marked white lids on top. I'll have to go through the drawer and mark all the other ones now.

Regards,

Stew

[peter nap]

Boy...That list can go on forever.

I use the Folgers plastivc cans to store brass in.

A trick with both the test cans and 35mm bottles. Screw the lid to the underside of a shelf and snap the can to it. Doubles your storage space and you don't have to look for it.

[jimb16]

For the deer hunters, those same black plastic tubes can be used for doe urine. just put a wad of cotton in them then some Tink's. Easy to carry and easy to spread around. Then easy to remove when you're done hunting!

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Take a 4-5 inch section (or longer) of old/worn out hacksaw blade and shape one end (against the corner of a grinding wheel) with a curve from either side coming to a flat that fits the diameter of a large pistol/rifle primer pocket. Make sure that the flat tip is straight across. Then go to the other end of the blade and do the same for the fit to match a small rifle/pistol pocket. A winding of electrical tape along the length of the blade section will protect against the teeth that are left (you can grind them off if you wish) and keep any palm sweat from rusting the blade. Your new home made tool can always be touched up on a wetstone, will always do a superior job of keeping your primer pockets super clean and it will last for a very, very long time. LLS

[blackthorn]

Desk-top metal card-files screwed to the bottom of the loading bench hold loading die boxes, label side up. These can also be screwed to the underside of shelves for easy acess and space saving.
Dental picks---already mentioned.
Old pill bottles for sizer storage.
Cigar boxes, peanut-butter jars etc. for bullet storage.
Used dryer sheets in the polisher to collect dust.

[mpmarty]

plastic peanut butter jars with lids screwed to underside of head high shelf. Stores many different items over my loading bench. Labeled with sharpie right on the plastic jars.

[mold maker]

A large fine screen kitchen sifter or an old window screen, used outside, will separate lots of the fine dust from your polishing media.
Don't breath the dust, that's where most of the poison is.

[Shiloh]

Take a 4-5 inch section (or longer) of old/worn out hacksaw blade and shape one end (against the corner of a grinding wheel) with a curve from either side coming to a flat that fits the diameter of a large pistol/rifle primer pocket. Make sure that the flat tip is straight across. Then go to the other end of the blade and do the same for the fit to match a small rifle/pistol pocket. A winding of electrical tape along the length of the blade section will protect against the teeth that are left (you can grind them off if you wish) and keep any palm sweat from rusting the blade. Your new home made tool can always be touched up on a wetstone, will always do a superior job of keeping your primer pockets super clean and it will last for a very, very long time. LLS

I have one of these as well. From a hint right here at Cast Boolit Forum!!:wink:

Shiloh

[cattleskinner]

I've used the black diabetes tester tubes for holding a quick load of powder for muzzleloading too. Another one I just come across the other day was to use old clothes hangars you get from the stores(with the spring loaded clip at the end). Cut the clip off with a hacksaw, melt the sharp ends with a lighter, and you have a really good, cheap potato chip bag clip. Another good one is to use an empty .22 lr rifle shell and a hammer and tap it slowly through a belt, works great to make clean holes and no need for a leather punch.

[cheese1566]

I find that the temporary urn , a nice plastic box is great for storing boolits. The crematorum sends peoples ashes in the sturdy plastic box to the funeral homes to put in the new fancy urn. They throw the plastic ones away because they cannot reuse them.
Best of all, they are free and stackable.

Ewww!!

Good idea though! Talk about recycling!
I suppose they are relatively clean, just being bone fragements and all.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I use the 2 gal. ice cream tubs my family keep emptying to store brass in.
I use small pocket screwdrivers for primer pocket cleaningm other than using my trimmate.
I grind the tip of a flat headed pocket screwdriver to about half thick width. This leaves a leg about 3/16" long. I use this for re-installing the trigger return spring on my S&W revolvers.
The obvious use for broken hammer handles is to mount a stir spoon in it for both stirring and removing crud from the melt pot after fluxing.
Robert

[EMC45]

I use every sealeable container that gets discarded at my house. Cream cheese, sour cream, peanut butter, coffee cans, formula cans, vitamin bottles etc. Cast bullets, brass, parts etc.

[jdgabbard]

I find that the temporary urn , a nice plastic box is great for storing boolits. The crematorum sends peoples ashes in the sturdy plastic box to the funeral homes to put in the new fancy urn. They throw the plastic ones away because they cannot reuse them.
Best of all, they are free and stackable.

Something about this weirds me out....

[mroliver77]

I am trying to find a new use for this old body! It dont seem to want to perform the tasks I have always put before it.:( Although I am only 49 Ive been rode hard and put up wet too many times. My odometer has turned over many times already! It's not easy for us big strong handsome men to fall apart. ;)
The used temporary urns kinda weird me out too!
Jay

[DLCTEX]

I am trying to find a new use for this old body! It dont seem to want to perform the tasks I have always put before it.:( Although I am only 49 Ive been rode hard and put up wet too many times. My odometer has turned over many times already! It's not easy for us big strong handsome men to fall apart. ;)
The used temporary urns kinda weird me out too!
Jay

My hopes also were prodded by the title, and I could do 49 standing on my head:bigsmyl2: try a 64 yr. old one. Who is that old man in the family Christmas pictures?

[SciFiJim]

I posted this in another thread. A use for an old piece of 2x4 from a fence that I tore down.

A bullet puller can be made from a piece of 2x4, a strip of wood and a screw. Drill the outer hole first with a 1 inch wood boring bit, deep enough to hold your shellholder. The hole in the middle was drilled with a 1/2 inch bit, almost all of the way through the 2x4. Place the loaded round in the shell holder, insert nose down in the hole, cover with wood strip to hold in place and whack on concrete. Use an old dried out piece of wood and you can recover your powder without getting sap or moisture in it.

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/SciFiJim_photobucket/100_2587.jpg
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/SciFiJim_photobucket/100_2588.jpg

[Ricochet]

I started reading this thread thinking about film canisters, and it occurred to me that soon only old timers will know what a "film canister" was.

[Catshooter]

Ricochet! That avatar is just wrong! Where's the facial hair?


On topic of new uses for old things, I have some old ex-wives, and I been thinkin . . .


Cat

[Ricochet]

Christmas is over. Santa's gone. Wait till next fall.

[blackthorn]

If you think 64 feels old----just wait till you get an invitation to your oldest kids half century birthday party!!! Comming up on April 18 2010!

[paul edward]

For storage of sizer dies I shorten and use the tubes that come with bullet lube.

[Kskybroom]

I use a 12ga two peice plastic shell box to store sizer dies in, You have to digem out But it holds 25 an fits in a small space...

[johnlaw484]

I use an old plastic collinder for seperating tumble media from the brass after polishing. Works great.

[StrawHat]

I use 5 gallon pails to store brass (separated). Also use them to store polishing media.

Rx bottles, cheese containers, etc all get reused. Heck I reuse cereal boxes to make wads for my black powder loads. (The ones marked "Breakfast of Champions" don't help my shooting any better than the Fruity Pebbles ones.)

[ebg3]

Ewww!!

Good idea though! Talk about recycling!
I suppose they are relatively clean, just being bone fragements and all.
That is Ghoulish but I like it!

[armyrat1970]

I have two aquariums so feed a lot of fish. I pull some milsurp powders from time to time and after washing the plastic fish food containers I use them for the different powders. I also use empty 1 gallon plastic ice cream buckets to store my brass, boolits, cases and for lubing with LLA. Used one of my wifes old muffins pans once to pour ingots and had to replace it but hell it poured good 1 1/2 to 2lb ingots and I couldn't help myself. Now have a convection oven my wife was throwing out but still works and may try heatreating with it. I'm pretty much a packrat and save about everything for future use.

[WHITETAIL]

Ok, I save plastic chew cans.
I do not chew!
But they work great for storing
my cut patches for cleaning my guns.
And they stack nice in the cabinet.
The old baby food jars get my lube put in them.
Then when a refill is needed in my 450,
I just warm it and pour the lube in the sizer.
The empty orange juice cartons are used to
make paper gas checks for the 45-70.:veryconfu

[bbs70]

I use an old plastic collinder for seperating tumble media from the brass after polishing. Works great.

I do this myself.
I dump my water dropped boolits into the collinder to get the excess water off them and let them dry.

[lwknight]

The old baby food jars get my lube put in them.
Then when a refill is needed in my 450,
I just warm it and pour the lube in the sizer.

I like it. That would beat casting tubes of wax in my book.

[Tom W.]

Cheese, they put the cremains in a plastic bag inside the plastic box, and the ashes are very very fine, no bone chips or such.

Don't ask....

[lwknight]

I'm glad to know that they use the bag. Now I don't have to worry about accidently snorting someones ashes.

[brad925]

I don't know about you but I often find new uses for old objects. I have been saving my wifes snap top black plastic bottles that her test strips come in for her diabeties blood work. These are about two inches high and of the best quality plastic snap top bottles, unbreakable, and absoulitly water tight. My Lyman lube sizers fit in them perfectly! A little room to move in so they don't stick like the plastic tubes they are supplied in. I use a label maker to put the size on the top. No more digging around in a box full trying to find the right size. I only have thirty or forty of them from about fifty years of hording. It took me about six months to save enough for all of the dies, but the supply has finely cought up with the demand. They are also great for hooks and sinkers, and jug heads. I am sure others have found better ways of handling some of the things we use, anyone else have some better ideas. The toolman.

I use those same test strip bottles for speed loaders in my .54 Hawken.

[DLCTEX]

A friend buys cat foood in 2 1/2 gallon plastic retanguls pails with a lid that half of it opens. I use them for storing shotshell hulls and wads in.
One of my sons in Fl. took his wife's relatives into the Gulf on his pontoon boat to scatter a loved ones ashes. When they reached the area chosen, someone scattered the ashes overboard, into the wind. The deceased went home with each of them.

[johnlaw484]

I do this myself.
I dump my water dropped boolits into the collinder to get the excess water off them and let them dry.
That is the other thing I use it for.
I also use those tin popcorn cans you get around Christmas time to store my AA tube in.

[Tom W.]

One of my sons in Fl. took his wife's relatives into the Gulf on his pontoon boat to scatter a loved ones ashes. When they reached the area chosen, someone scattered the ashes overboard, into the wind. The deceased went home with each of them.



My Dad's ashes are still in my sister's home in Gulf Breeze..... We gotta go and do the same thing. Thanks for the reminder about the wind.....:groner:

[Ricochet]

In Johnny Cash's autobiography "Cash," (a very entertaining read), he tells how his friend Faron Young's ashes were scattered at a memorial ceremony at the Cash's lake house. A gust of wind similarly blew Faron all over the assembled mourners, in their eyes, etc. Johnny was touring and unable to attend, but when he got home and took the car out on an errand, he found Faron's ashes on the windshield. He said he turned on the wipers and watched Faron go back and forth, back and forth, till he was gone.

On another gun board a few years back I read of a member's long friendship with a fellow hunter and shooter. When the friend had died, he soon got a call from a very embarrassed sounding lawyer who was the executor of the estate. He said he had a very odd request in the will that his ashes be loaded into shotgun shells and used to shoot a round of skeet. He laughed and said "No problem!" Mixed ashes in with #9 shot. Said he ran 25 straight with them! The rest of the ashes were scattered around the gun club property.

[MT Gianni]

Cheese, they put the cremains in a plastic bag inside the plastic box, and the ashes are very very fine, no bone chips or such.

Don't ask....

Tom, they are fine because they are run through a grinder. [Friend with a crematorium]

[armyrat1970]

My brother-in-law died three months after Katrina. He was a retired Submariner. Requested his ashes would be spread out at sea. His son was also navy and got his request granted. He spread his fathers ashes at sea. I don't make light of these things.

[leadman]

Nestle's Quick container work good for patches, boolits, etc. I have my luber-sizer dies and punches in a rectangular plastic container that is divided with a flip lid. Got it from my wife, she stored bobbins for her sewing machine in it I think.

Small baby food jars make good container for a little Hoppe's #9. Since I buy it in the big bottles with the small opening this allows me to wet the patch easier. Also not as much waste when I drop the jar!!

[Linstrum]

I had a buddy who wanted me to get his ashes and make them into aerial burst star shells and shoot them off on the 4th of July, but another one of his friends claimed his ashes before I could get down there. Human ashes are mostly calcium phosphate, and calcium salts color a flame a brilliant pinkish-red, quite a beautiful color. I suppose 12 gauge Very pistol flares would be the most practical to make since I know nothing about making those big star burst fireworks like George Zambelli makes.

I found a use for a bunch of little brass bottles I found all over the ground where some people were shooting guns up a local canyon here awhile back. I discovered that they are all sorts of sizes and many of them are a perfect fit in my 9mm, .45 ACP, .30-06, etc., and it isn't much of a problem to insert a primer in one end and a boolit in the other with a bit of powder in between. The big honkin' plastic bottles I discovered are a perfect fit for my 12 gauge shotgun! :kidding: (:twisted: Sorry, I couldn't resist that one :evil:)

I do use old bottle neck rifle cartridges for making kids' pocket whistles by cutting a wedge-shaped slot into the shoulder and then filing a flat on one edge of a gas check and inserting it into the neck for the air guide. When made right they are very shrill, so be sure to only give them to the kids of people you don't like so their kids can drive them crazy for you so you don't have to. :bigsmyl2:


rl747