Homemade?

[txbonds]

Nothin fancy or technical, but this helps me a bit. When swapping turret disks on my Lee Classic Turret Press I needed a way to safely store & keep the dust off the disks that are set up with their own dies and Lee Pro Auto-Disk Powder Measure set and intact. I just cut a bunch of appropriate lengths out of a piece of cheapo 4" PVC drain pipe and used some inexpensive flat PVC caps. Keep in mind that 4" PVC pipe (SCH 40) is NOT the same as 4" drain pipe. I glued the bottom caps only.







You can label each tube, paint them or whatever you want. I'm considering lining at least the bottoms with something just to ensure that the decapping pins don't ever take a hard hit if I happen to drop the turret disk into the tubes. I know I don't 'need' a powder measure for each turret disk, but it's nice to not have to adjust it back & forth every cartridge I load. It's also nice to have extras for parts, etc...

Awesome idea, thanks for sharing that one.

[grumman581]

I was recently wanting to find a more convenient way of storing my Lee dies since I did not like the round containers that came with them. They just aren't designed for stacking in my opinion. Since my dies might get used in any of my three presses (RCBS, Lee, or Dillon), I can't just leave them in a turret disk. I stumbled across a green top food storage container over at Wal-Mart the other day that looked to be just the right size, but I didn't want the dies to be rolling around in there possibly damaging the screw threads. Turned out that a piece of 1-1/4" sched-40 plastic pipe is just the right size to fit over the dies and the hex nut (at least the hex nut on the Lee dies). Even with the thickness of the sched-40, I can put 3 dies, the shell holder, and the dipper in a single 4.5 cup box. If they had one that was a bit taller, it would also give room for the Dillon shellplate boxes, and I would probably should have gone that route. The brand was "Mainstays" and they were $1.84 for a pack of 4. I seriously doubt that they are air or water tight considering the way the lid just snaps on, but they're as good in that regard as the Lee holder which is open at the bottom. I periodically wipe things down with mineral oil anyway. I think that if you removed the nuts from the dies, you could use 1" sched-40 and could put 4 dies in a single box.

[NineInchNails]

No problem txbonds.

I had some sheets of rubbery naugahyde type stuff so I figured I'd make a softer base for inside my tubes. I used a sliver of the drain pipe as a stencil to draw a line with a pencil & cut some rubber disks. I traced the 'outer dimension' of the pipe the disks will be held down into the caps by the glued pipe.




I stuck 2 rubber disks into each cap so it's nice & thick.


I slapped on some PVC glue around the pipe and jammed the pipe into the cap.

[TES]

Obsolete

[62chevy]

The press I want wont be in until the end of June at Midway or any place else so I made my own sizer. Slugged my High Point 45 at .4525.

2x4 from Lowe's $3.00
2 3/8" washers @ .12 ea (bought 4 just in case)
11,5mm drill bit @ $10.00
8 #6 pan head sheet metal screws @ .08 ea


Thought I would get .4528 or .4530 with the drill bit but after sizing with a lead sinker it was .4540 or a hair less. That's .0012 over what the pistol slugged so think it's okay.

Any comments would be helpful as this is all new to me.


Edit: The picture on the right is the sinker I used to slug my pistol.

[Jeff R]

Thermometer Holder
The clip that came on the shaft of my RCBS provided no way to hold it in the molten lead. I made this holder from a coathanger.

Design time: 9 weeks
Construction and installation time: 10 minutes

Attachment 67863

[ncbearman]

Thermometer Holder
The clip that came on the shaft of my RCBS provided no way to hold it in the molten lead. I made this holder from a coathanger.

Design time: 9 weeks


Construction and installation time: 10 minutes



Attachment 67863

That's cool. I'm gonna do that tonight. Awesome.

[grumman581]

Thermometer Holder
The clip that came on the shaft of my RCBS provided no way to hold it in the molten lead. I made this holder from a coathanger.

Design time: 9 weeks
Construction and installation time: 10 minutes

9 week *design time*? Sounds like there were more than a few beers involved in this effort.

I saw a thermometer holder once where the guy had just taken a piece of 1/2" x 1/8" bar stock, bent a 90 degree angle in each end (pointing in opposite directions). He had drilled holes in one end where it attached to his workbench. In the other end that hung over the melting pot, he had also drilled a hole so that the thermometer could slide into it. It had a little flex to it, but I suspect that if he had welded another piece of bar stock across the portion that was mounted to the workbench so that it formed a triangle, it would have been a lot sturdier. Something like this maybe?

[Jeff R]

Thanks for your interest!
Grumman,
During the design phase, I envisioned something along the lines of your drawing. Today, I wanted to cast and I needed something in a hurry. The material costs were zero, but I am going to miss that old coathanger.

Attachment 67943

I just wound the wire around a phillips screwdriver shaft to make the coil.

Attachment 67944

Attachment 67945

After a casting session, it worked great, but I am going to move it. Imagine the pot is a clock face and the holder is mounted at 2 o'clock. I am going to move it to 10 o'clock. I found that when I was filling a mould, over the pot, the ladle would usually bump the thermometer. I think that if I move it to 10 o'clock, the ladle will have a clear path to move in, without bumping the thermometer.

Attachment 67947

This was a prototype. Metal coat hangers are like wheel weights. I'll have to hoard a few.
Jeff

[Four Fingers of Death]

The old metal coathangers are a terrific resource, but the last few years they are made of super light wire and are flatout taking my jackets without drooping, as to my big motorcycle jacket with the plastic armour and the winter lining, forget about it! Got a wooden one for that.

[Bzcraig]

Speechless and most humble! I wish I lived next door

I was thinking the exact same thing.....if you guys live in a 'red' state, please send address, looking for good neighbors!

[grumman581]

I use the large plastic hangers for SCUBA BCDs and such for heavy leather jackets. I've considered making my own hangars for heavy motorcycle jackets and such out of a piece of 2x4 with the outer corners rounded with a jig saw and then all the edges rounded over either with a router or a belt sander. The "hook" could be made a piece of bar stock that where the end was heated up and mushroomed like they used to do with rivets. I figure that would be over-engineered enough. If I can't hang my weight on it, then it's not strong enough.


Metal hangers though have made for quite a few impromptu steel welding rods for oxy-acetylene welding over the years. And have held up quite a few mufflers also.

[huntnfish72]

Made homade tumbler

[huntnfish72]

A chopsaw and a welder help a lot

[huntnfish72]

Plasma torch coming. Who knows what I might make

[TES]

someone getting their post count up

[grumman581]

someone getting their post count up

Or someone who doesn't understand the difference between a web forum like this and one of the idiotic "social networking" sites like Twitter.

[hickfu]

Well now.... I guess I wont post the pic of the small toothpick I whittled from a larger toothpick.
Seriously, there a lot of very talented people here!!!

Doc

[Four Fingers of Death]

I figure that would be over-engineered enough. If I can't hang my weight on it, then it's not strong enough.

Why use a one inch bolt when a two inch bolt will do?

[DonOhio39]

Here's 2 sets of nutcracker style mold handles for my Lyman 4 cavity molds. They turned out decent enough. The ferrules on the wood handles are made from sections of 12 gauge barrel, really stout!



This is a powder compression die for loading 45/70 BP cartridges. I made a seating stem too, so I could use the die as a seater and crimp as a separate operation.



Just little stuff, but fun to make(and use)

Don in Ohio