I need a sturdy one-piece cleaning rod for my 20-inch double barrel shotguns. Also, our SASS club handed out 3/8-inch dowels with handles as participation gifts.
(Sometimes you need to push obstructions out of the barrel, like when a .38 shell is accidentally loaded into a .44 rifle. Hey, it happens. NOTE: a .38 Spl shell drops all the way into a .44 Mag chamber, and cannot be fired, and totally locks up the rifle. Don't ask me how I know. But I digress.) But back to cleaning rods.
The thought dawned on me that a 3/8-inch wood dowel rod, cut to 24 inches, would be the ideal length for the effort needed to push mops, brushes and cleaning jags down the 20-inch 12-ga barrel.
But I wanted the rod to be the larger 5/16-27 thread for shotgun-sized cleaning accessories.
How to put sturdy threads on the end of a wooden rod?
Turns out a 9mm Luger shell fits over a 3/8" rod perfectly. And with only a bit of sanding to reduce diameter, a .32ACP shell also fits. This gives you a brass cap to support the threads.
Deprime the 9mm (or .32 ACP) shell and epoxy it to the end of the dowel.
After the epoxy sets up, drill a Number 30 or a Number 29 hole through the empty primer hole into the wood about a half inch. (The slightly smaller Number 30 allows for better threads in brass.)
Thread the hole with an 8-32 tap.
Presto. You have a cleaning rod that can accept all normal 8-32 cleaning accessories.
And by screwing in a brass 8-32 to 5/16-27 adapter, which seats nicely against the bottom of the shell -- offering excellent support -- I can now use it for larger calibers like .44 Mag, .45 Colt/ACP or S&W 500 bores, up to 12 ga shotgun.
The soft wood shaft and brass tip will not harm barrels.
Took all of 15 minutes to build (including the 5-minute epoxy to set), for pennies. Make 'em to custom lengths if desired.
If you wanted it even sturdier, a 7/16-inch or 1/2-inch dowel and a .45ACP shell might work. (Haven't tried it.)
EDIT: I got a 5/16-27 tap and drilled a Letter I hole though the primer pocket in a .45 ACP shell. You get serious threads there -- about 1/4" deep. Lot of brass in a .45 ACP head.
The shell fits nicely over a 7/16" dowel. Now I don't have to use the shotgun adapter to hold shotgun sized accessories.
These are 9mm shells on 3/8" dowels: