I need a field expedient cake cutter

[snake river marksman]

I want to experiment with some pan lubing and I need some sort of cake cutter for 45 cal bullets. I'm only planning on doing a couple of hundred so I don't see the point in ordering an actual cake cutter. Is there a tube size that will work? Or something else?

[qajaq59]

What I did for my .50 cal was go to the local scrap yard with one of the bullets and found a hunk of tubing that fit it well. Then I simply ground a sharp edge all the way around the outside of it. Works fine.

[BBA]

Lower half of a 30-06 case will work. Or a piece of a golf club shaft.

[mroliver77]

an expanded .45 case with the case head drilled out or a nail through the flash hole to push boolit back out. 1/2" id tubing cut with a tubing cutter will usually be squished some at the cut and might be small enough to cut fairly close to the boolit.
Jay

[Just Call Me...G]

what "BBA" said...

Only I used a piece of .300 Win Mag brass.
I cut it off at the shoulder and base, took the dremel to the neck, got rid of the burrs and sharpened the edges.

Works like a charm.


Keep The High Ground,


G

[snake river marksman]

In that case the plan will be to cut off both ends of a 308 case, because I have lots of them, and go from there. thanks all.

[MtGun44]

Wrap a copper house wire handle around it and solder to give yourself a good grip.

Bill

[snake river marksman]

GREAT IDEA! I was wondering how stiff my hand was going to get even doing the limited number I think I'm going to be doing.

[Beekeeper]

I do a lot of pan lubing and made myself a set of cake cutters by going to the hobby lobby hobby store and buying brass tubing used in models.
Took a bunch of boolits with me and got the size that was the closest. a couple of them I had to open up and I used a socket and extension or a punch to do it. The brass tubing will swage up or down easy.
I made wire handles for them with a dowel to push them out or simply keep cutting until they come out the top.


Jim

[e15cap]

Push em out base first from your lube cake and you wont need one. Works for soft lube, hard stuff????

[ghh3rd]

Old golf club tapered handle - tube cutter at just the right place where the cut is just a hair bigger than you need. If you leave it 12-18" long, you can punch and 'store' quite a few boolits before you have to unload your cutter.

You may find you can make cutters for more than one caliber from one golf club shank.

I forget who suggested it in another post, but I tried it and it worked on the $2 club from the GoodWill store. Try to get one of the chrome handles rather than brushed aluminum, as the aluminum ones seem to be thicker material.

[DLCTEX]

I've got some graphite shaft clubs for sale.

[excess650]

for 45-70 I used a fired 45-70 case with primer pocket drilled out. Use a nail with the head on outside with a spring between the nailhead and case head, and a HBWC inside. Slide the fired case over the bullet, rock it L-R and lift out of the cake. Push the nailhead with your thumb to drop the bullet....repeat

[Lead Fred]

Dudes, Im missing something here.

Why do you need a cookie cutter?

You whack-a-mole them

[Dale53]

I have pan lubed thousands of bullets and NEVER used a cake cutter. Just arrange to do it while the lube pan is just under the point of burning you. Just push the bullets out with your thumb. You may have to make a "thumb stall" (a pad) on the more pointy bullets but with round nose and flat nose you can just push them out and the lube grooves will be perfectly filled.

When using Emmert's lube (50% Beeswax, 40% Crisco, and 10% Canola Oil), if you wait too long and the pan of bullets and lube gets too cool, then just pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees and put inside the oven for exactly five minutes and it'll be just about the correct temperature to freely push out.

FWIW
Dale53

[Goatlips]

Guess it's time to add my thutty cents worth into the mix:

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/panlubing.html

Goatlips

[excess650]

Dale53 "I have pan lubed thousands of bullets and NEVER used a cake cutter."

Dale, some lubes are too sticky, others are too firm. With the cookie cutter you never have to remove the cake from the pan, never damage bullet noses by hitting them, never have bullets with less than full grooves, and its easy. Some of the schuetzen spitzers are too pointy to even think about pushing out with a leather glove.

The OP asked a question, and now he has been given several options.

[Lead Fred]

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/panlubing.html

Gee wonder where I got my method from

[Boondocker]

Wrap a copper house wire handle around it and solder to give yourself a good grip.

Bill

I like that idea.

[mdi]

Another Idea, but not too expedient; cut a case of appropriate size to length (1" - 2") and solder it into a piece of 1/2" ID tubing. that will give you the length to hold onto and ability to cut six or seven boolits before emptying tube. My cutters were made of sainless steel tunimg reamed to a few thousandths inch over cas boolit size (the're still packed from my move so I can't measuer them now).