Your Favorite Home Made Tools

[Shiloh]

I saw a post on another website so I thought it would be great for the Cast Boolit Forum. What is your favorite home made tool for reloading, casting, or other wise?
Mine is a primer pocket cleaning tool made from a broken barette style needle file.

I shortened the handle, ground a point on the tip, wedged it in the flash hole of a 45-70 case and filled it with epoxy. the ground to fit file scrapes the primer pockets clean effortlessly.

I'd like to get ideas of tools I have to have from all the clever casters and re-loaders here at the forum.

Shiloh :castmine:

[Southern Son]

Well, my favourite home made tool that I made would probably bee my Drop Tube for black powder. The tube is a 3 foot long section of brass tube from a hobby shop. The funnel on the top and bottom end I made from a sheet of brass, also from the hobby shop. The funnel on the top is about the same size as a normal powder funnel from the big makers. The one on the bottom is ony about 3/4 of an inch round and the tube extends about 1/2 an inch below the bottom funnel. This lets me sit the funnel on the top of the case (which stops the powder bouncing out of the case). I soldered the whole lot together myself and it looks hideous. A real Frankenstein's Monster, but it works. With a boolit from my Steve Brooks Creedmore mould, I can fit about 80 grains of black in the case with only a little bit of compression (using the Lyman Post I could only load 68grains, and the powder was compressed heaps).

My favourite "made for me by a mate with a lathe" is the case annealing jig a mate made for me. It looks like a large socket with a pin comming out the bottom. You put the pin into your cordless drill and a case into the "socket". You then stick the case into the flame of a propane torch and just as it starts to change colour, your tip it into a bucket of water. You then insert another case and start all over again. I annealed 100 cases the other night in about 40 minutes.

[dnepr]

I am one of those lucky people that have a lathe ( 2 actually) so I have made a bunch of reloading tools , My favorite will probably always be the next one. but as for now I am kind of fond of the .410 reloading dies that I made for my rifle press. They ain't pretty but they work.

[crabo]

Pictures would be great for this thread.

[Maximilian225]

Pictures would be great for this thread.

+1

8411

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/AFAA00BBB05054B/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/0B70F154CE0FFF8/standard.jpg

Probably one of the neatest tools is this Krag action socket. Left photo shows a stripped Krag action and why you need this socket deal. There's just no other way to get a grip on it! The right photo shows it basically done. Hasn't been slit yet (but the mark is there) nore D&T'd for the 10-32 sockethead bolts to cinch it up on the action ring. Yup it has a whooptie there on the edge where I dragged an endmill acrosst it, dagnabit! :-(

http://www.fototime.com/50A882DF6A6564F/standard.jpg

This one I use a lot. It's a tailstock mounted die head for doing small stuff that's a PITA to single point. It was a fun project too.

http://www.fototime.com/FEB48295FDD2804/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/7C6776752B29618/standard.jpg

Made a size and seater die along with a shellhoulder for the 11.7x42R Brazilain Comblain. Uses 32 ga brass shotshells. The dies were made from the front strut rods from a '87 Chevy Celebrity. They're hard chromed so the threads had to be cut with carbide :-).

Then you have swage dies, form dies, nose punches, M die punches, lube size dies, push through dies, etc & etc.

................Buckshot

[Lloyd Smale]

two that have saved me time are the mount a made for square deals that allows me to quickly swap presses on the bench. I dont have room for all 5 of my square deals so i hang 4 on the wall and leave one on the bench and just swap out presses as i swap calibers. It has 4 wingnuts to hold down a press and i can swap them out in about 2 minutes. The other i didnt make but my buddy did. Its a lube extension for my star sizer that allows you to put in the equivelent of about 3 sticks of lube. With it a gun can acutually spend more time sizing then he does adding lube.

[SpaceGlocker]

lloyd would love to see that device for swapping out presses

[Shiloh]

lloyd would love to see that device for swapping out presses

Ditto That!!

I'll see if the bride will show me how to post pics of some of my stuff.

Shiloh :castmine:

[KCSO]

A home made copy of a set of Sharps 1876 reloading tools copied from a set used by Buff hunters. Second would be my shaping planes for long rifle stocks.

[heathydee]

Press body ia made out of a piece of 4140 chrome-moly 4 inches isn diameter . Ram is 1.25 inches in diameter . Threaded 7/8 x 14 . back of the ram is slit to allow primers to fall out . Weighs about 45 pounds. It don't flex much.

[Buckshot]

Press body ia made out of a piece of 4140 chrome-moly 4 inches isn diameter . Ram is 1.25 inches in diameter . Threaded 7/8 x 14 . back of the ram is slit to allow primers to fall out . Weighs about 45 pounds. It don't flex much.

............Holy Smoke! How much of a footing hole for concrete didja have to dig for the bench leg for that thing?! A new definition for heavy duty :-)

...................Buckshot

[heathydee]

I used to operate a 300 ton hydraulic press when I made this . A simple linkage press looked a little insubstantial in comparison. It needs a few bolts to hold it down and there are difficulties in removing and inserting cases and shellholders . I generally leave a sizing die in this one and use another press for bullet seating . Around the back I have a dinky little primer seating tool .

[JeffinNZ]

"it don't flex much". Love it.

Mine is my case "tumbler". MDF box with bicycle tubing slung over it. A server fan from an old PC to pump air over the motor. Cradle sits on the tubing and motor has a couple of flatten .50cal maxi balls on the shaft to unbalance it and cause a vibration. Works REALLY well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/IMG_0004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/IMG_0005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/IMG_0006.jpg

[Lloyd Smale]

cameras broke but maybe i can explain it. I took a 5 inch long piece of 3 inch pipe. I welded a 6x6 piece of 1/4 inch steal plate onto it for a base. I welded the pipe centered on that piece and then drilled 4 holes for mounting to the bench. I then took another piece of plate and welded it to the pipe for a base for the presses. I welded that one offset so the base was sticking out slightly over the bench. Then i drilled 4 holes that matched up with the pattern on the square deal presses. I stuck bolts through these holes from the bottle and welded them in to make studs that stuck up. I then just place a press on the studs and bolt it down. I took 4 nuts and welded tits on them to make them into wing nuts. Its a nice setup as it also works like a strong mount in that it gets your press up to a better level for loading.
lloyd would love to see that device for swapping out presses

[oneokie]

Chamber cleaning tool for 38-55 Winchester

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn16/oneokie/100_0360.jpg

Made from 3/8" soft copper tubing, J-B Welded a modified 32 acp case inside. Acp case is modified to use a GM external points adjustment tool for turning the cleaning tool. A tapered punch is used to expand the teeth to fit the chamber.

[HotGuns]

Some great ideas here.
Heres a few of the tools I have made.

a 10 shot .50 BMG
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/almostfinished56.jpg

an adjustable bench rest
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/RifleRest-1.jpg


a half scale Kurt angelock vise clone
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/IMG_2503.jpg


a collect closer for the lathe
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/b21b9b83.jpg


a .50 BMG press and the powder measure for large volume powder charges.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/ReloadingPictures003.jpg

of course, having a lathe and a mill helps...:mrgreen:

[Shiloh]

Nice Photo's of your cool home made stuff!!

Yep, a lathe and mill definitely help!!

Shiloh

[heathydee]

Chicopee 22 rf and Chicopee C F in 30-30

[dromia]

How I envy you gentlemen your engineering and machining skills, it takes me all my time to screw a die into a press. :roll:

Thank you all for sharing, its quiet inspirational.

[Junior1942]

Some of you guys have more toys than I have.

[Southern Son]

Junior, everybody here has more toys than I have.

[Sprue]

This count?

I made the tools and rivet jigs to put these parts kits together. I use these two 'tools' infrequently.

The one on the right had never been fired. The one on the left was used in civil conflict.

They were both cut up into pieces for import to the U.S. I brought them back to life. They are now BATF 922r compliant.

They are Minute of a 24" gong at 250 yrds,:shock: and are very hungry.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/spilihp_2007/ROMI_Yugo_2.jpg

[Lee W]

I have a Dillon 500 tumbler that blew a motor. Instead of $40 to replace it with one that might blow again, I upgraded the motor... I just happen to have a variable speed AC motor and some stainless steel laying around.

[ronbo]

I made this brass tumbler over 30 years ago from plywood, two old clothes dryer pulleys and a used furnace blower motor. It works fast and holds a large amount of brass at one time.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/sling_434.jpg

[Buckshot]

.................Lottsa neat stuff being shown. Need to see more!

................Buckshot

[jmorris]

Homemade automatic bullet caster

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29452&d=1128176336

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29453&d=1128176360

Pneumatic auto bullet sizer

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=18363

Bullet feeder for bullet sizer

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=18362

Mooner

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=66875&d=1194536554

Main spring compressor

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=66876&d=1194536654

Extractor tension tool

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=66877&d=1194536852

Stuff used to swap scopes and keep zero

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=66878&d=1194536923


http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/ Link to videos of some of the above in operation and other homemade gun/shooting stuff.

Brass sorter

http://thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=68610&d=1196952403

[scrapcan]

JMorris,

Nice toys. I visited the photobucket account to view some as the images are not showing up for me.

[colbyjack]

nice and sent ya a PM great IPSC taget holders. -chris

[jmorris]

Nice toys. I visited the photobucket account to view some as the images are not showing up for me.

I noticed some didn’t come up, if you right click on the blank box then click properties, copy and paste the URL, they work. So, it will take someone more computer savvy than me to figure out what’s wrong.

[dominicfortune00]

Tried that and it told me i wasn't logged in to the High Road on the first pic.

Didn't try any others.

[Crooked Creek]

heathydee,
A friend of mine is currently building a Chicopee in 22 rimfire. I'm working with him a bit on the last phases of tuning and finishing up the action. I'd say he is a about 95% done. Getting ready to put in trigger adjusting screw, as there is a very generous amount of sear engagement in the design. After seeing that you have built two chicopees, I thought I would see if you have any advise beyond the book and based on your experience. I see you took different approaches to the stocks. Thanks in advance,
Roger Allen


Sorry Guys, Looks like I posted this in the wrong place !

[hydraulic]

I drove a nail into a board, one time, and didn't bend it over. Only happened once, though.

[cbrick]

About 25 or more years ago I got really tired of the hand crank on my Forster case trimmer so I built this. It does everything a Forster can do plus it has an adapter to hold the Sinclair primer pocket uniformer and a flash hole uniformer. It is both gear and chain driven with 5 output shafts running at three different speeds.

Huge time saver.

http://www.lasc.us/2006-05-25.jpg

Rick

[hammerhead357]

Nice Rick can you post some pictures of the open back side of this so we can see how it works????.....Wes

[Bret4207]

Oh man! I'm such a slacker. I don't have a single thing worthy of inclusion. I gotta get my butt in motion.

Nice work you over achievers!

[EMC45]

Liked the moon clip tool.

[Psycho0124]

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-4/1175566/tumbler.JPG
Dirt simple tumbler.
120v - 24v transformer
homemade full-wave rectifier (diodes and capacitors for smoothing)
switch and 0-22 ohm rheiostat
little 24v motor with gear reduction and an old chipset heatsink
cheap rubber bands
Coffee can with bolt and bearings

The coffe can is mounted to a bolt which spins on a couple small needle bearing assemblies (scrapped from a dead electric weed eater) pressed into the front and back of the 2x4.

It eats a drive belt about every 4 batches but theyre cheap (office max sells bags of a thousand for a couple bucks). It's slow (6 hours for a reasonably clean batch) so I just leave it on outside all night.

The wife got ahold of it while I was napping and gave it the flame job. For some reason, whenever I build or modify something with my soldering iron, she is just sure it's going to catch fire eventually.http://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif

Damn nice Cbrick! I gotta build me one of those! I have that exact same case trimmer and that short little crank handle can be a real pain in the arm after a while.

[rbstern]

Great stuff in here.

[cbrick]

Oh man! I'm such a slacker. I don't have a single thing worthy of inclusion. I gotta get my butt in motion.

OK Bret, you've had three days . . . what did you come up with? :coffee:

Rick

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/070024D8762A5A9/standard.jpg

.............Maybe 3-4 years ago I was high bidder on a 8lb box of short reamers. " Described as, "Some new, some good used, a few not so good and a bit of trash". Ever since they've been in the shipping box and moved from here to there and back again. It just seemed such a PITA to go through them all so I kept putting it off. I finally decided I needed to go though them as I might have a use for them one day. But how to hold them and then sort them by size? I decided to make the above.

http://www.fototime.com/42B6A6CCC1A868A/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F301C85F489D931/standard.jpg

It gave me a good excuse to do some math (which I heartily dislike) and lay out the coordinates so I could use the DRO on the mill. All the holes are on center to each other in both axes to .0002" :-) . To seperate the plates I drilled through some 1/4" drill rod, parted them off and then used 10-32 althread down through them. I could have gotten fancier then just using nuts but it was taking too long as it was.

http://www.fototime.com/75D18D379FBC754/standard.jpg

Here it is as I was loading it up. Anyone know what these type reamers were used for (obviously BESIDES used as reamers). All these have a 3/8" OD shank and there is a 0.100" hole drill across the shank. Most all of them were made by Pratt & Whitney. A bunch more have 1/2" OD shanks.

..................Buckshot

[Rustolium]

http://www.fototime.com/070024D8762A5A9/standard.jpg

.............Maybe 3-4 years ago I was high bidder on a 8lb box of short reamers. " Described as, "Some new, some good used, a few not so good and a bit of trash". Ever since they've been in the shipping box and moved from here to there and back again. It just seemed such a PITA to go through them all so I kept putting it off. I finally decided I needed to go though them as I might have a use for them one day. But how to hold them and then sort them by size? I decided to make the above.

http://www.fototime.com/42B6A6CCC1A868A/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F301C85F489D931/standard.jpg

It gave me a good excuse to do some math (which I heartily dislike) and lay out the coordinates so I could use the DRO on the mill. All the holes are on center to each other in both axes to .0002" :-) . To seperate the plates I drilled through some 1/4" drill rod, parted them off and then used 10-32 althread down through them. I could have gotten fancier then just using nuts but it was taking too long as it was.

http://www.fototime.com/75D18D379FBC754/standard.jpg

Here it is as I was loading it up. Anyone know what these type reamers were used for (obviously BESIDES used as reamers). All these have a 3/8" OD shank and there is a 0.100" hole drill across the shank. Most all of them were made by Pratt & Whitney. A bunch more have 1/2" OD shanks.

..................Buckshot

The square ones look like counterbores to me. Looks like you got a decent deal!

[218bee]

This is awesome. I really envy you guys with lathes and mills and such. I'm still wiping the tears out of my eyes from the one massive loading press though. What a great thread.

[357maximum]

Buckshot you got a nice rack :twisted::roll:[smilie=1:

[Chunky Monkey]

Buckshot you got a nice rack :twisted::roll:[smilie=1:

:-? Chicka Bow Chicka Bow Chicka Bow!!

Cancha just feel the luv in this forum. That is a damn nice rack though!!! :???:

[Old Ironsights]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/LFK072.jpg

Maybe if Montana passes their MFG law I can move there and tool up... all I need is a hacksaw & drill press... ;)

[Bigscot]

Oh man! I'm such a slacker. I don't have a single thing worthy of inclusion. I gotta get my butt in motion.

Nice work you over achievers!


I have made few bottle openers from old horseshoes. Does that count?

Bigscot

[KTN]

My favorites are these case trimmers.


http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o277/kainiin/IMG_1115.jpg


Next I try to scale it down to fit on my Dillon RL1050 to trim .223 cases.


Kaj

[beanflip]

I put an eight ball on my handle.

[Doc Highwall]

Did I hear that some body said that Buckshot has a nice rack?