Made a nice looking 10 gauge reloading shell holder today

[Tripplebeards]

Picked up a 1 1/4" thick cutting board up from my local salvation army for $5 today. I could have used a scrap piece of 2x12 I had laying around but figured I wanted to make something I was proud of and looked nice. I used a 1" wood bit to drill the holes. Spaced the holes 1.5" apart and and a little over an inch deep. The holes are deep enough that I the brass hulls are below flush.... The hulls will "weebile wobble" in the 1"x1" round holes but won't tip over and fall out. I sanded the pencil marks out until the top was smooth and put a coat of antique minwax finish on it. I used a tooth brush to varnish inside the holes I drilled. Imo it turned out nice for a $5 investment. Never played around with a drill press since middle school accept for roll crimping hulls the last few years. It was a fun, quick, and easy project. It took a few hours from start to end.

[725]

Very nicely done, indeed!

[slownsteady22]

Almost too nice to put hulls in, well done. Thats 5 bucks well spent.

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[country gent]

Very nice job. Looks good


If you have room clamp a rail along the back of the table for each row. saves alignment in one axis. This also helps hold the piece steady and secure.

[country gent]

Very nice job. Looks good


If you have room clamp a rail along the back of the table for each row. saves alignment in one axis. This also helps hold the piece steady and secure.

[longbow]

That does look nice! I did similar for my .45-70 brass because it didn't fit the plastic reloading trays I have but I just used scrap wood so not even close to as nice as yours! Functional I'll say but butt ugly! You did an excellent job so maybe that will stimulate me to remake a nicer version for the .45-70. Now I am jealous so maybe I'll get to that sooner rather than later!

In fact once I get my W&C Scott & Son 10 ga. repaired and shootable I will need a reloading tray for it as well. I guess no more scrap wood reloading trays after seeing yours!

Excellent job!

Longbow

[sukivel]

Great idea using using better wood than building lumber! I see those alot at estate sales.


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[Tripplebeards]

It was so fun to make. I might have to grab the piece of 2 x 12 and make a couple small 25 round blocks just for practice. Well, I think it’s gonna be a common practice for myself to grab any pretty looking cutting block like this one at a thrift stores from now on and start making them.

[Barry54]

That’s finer than frogs hair split three ways!

Good call leaving enough room between the holes for delicate work like counting buckshot pellets or adding messy buffer!

[Tripplebeards]

That’s finer than frogs hair split three ways!

Good call leaving enough room between the holes for delicate work like counting buckshot pellets or adding messy buffer!

Thanks…Thought the same thing on spacing. I figured if I put the holes to close to each other and get careless or sloppy I could have issues spilling into another cases. I also figured I might chip or crack the wood if I got to close with the drilling as well. There was a few little cracks on the very edge. I filled them with Elmer’s glue and then sanded over them when the glue was still wet. Can’t even see them now after finishing.

[No_1]

Very nice work!

Rob

Picked up a 1 1/4" thick cutting board up from my local salvation army for $5 today. I could have used a scrap piece of 2x12 I had laying around but figured I wanted to make something I was proud of and looked nice. I used a 1" wood bit to drill the holes. Spaced the holes 1.5" apart and and a little over an inch deep. The holes are deep enough that I the brass hulls are below flush.... The hulls will "weebile wobble" in the 1"x1" round holes but won't tip over and fall out. I sanded the pencil marks out until the top was smooth and put a coat of antique minwax finish on it. I used a tooth brush to varnish inside the holes I drilled. Imo it turned out nice for a $5 investment. Never played around with a drill press since middle school accept for roll crimping hulls the last few years. It was a fun, quick, and easy project. It took a few hours from start to end.

[jdgabbard]

Very nice! Been meaning to make myself one for a while. Just haven't gotten around to it.

[littlejack]

Beautifully done.

[beemer]

That one looks to nice to use. I make mine also, use furniture blocks I have left over from when I was working. Thing about making your own is that you get exactly what you want, hole size, depth and spacing.

[Tripplebeards]

Well, I had fun today and grabbed the 2 x 12 that someone had thrown out next-door when they were rebuilding the house a few months ago. I was a little sloppy with my hole drilling. They aren’t perfectly lined up, but I figured I’d make a few more blocks in different sizes out of construction wood that I can and use, abuse, and let them get beat up a little, and not cry like I would with that pretty cutting board.Lol. They didn’t look so hot when I got done so I messed around and tried to cut corners with my table saw like a router on the sides. I then got out a propane torch and gave them some love
It gave the wood some nice patterns with burning. Then I put a coat of antique Minwax finish over the top of all of them. Figured it be nice to have a few 25 count and some smaller ones just to throw in my reloading container that can get banged around. The wood was a little over one and a half inches thick so the holes are drilled deeper in these. The little eight count blocks I have the holes off center and got a little sloppy with them, but I figured those would be the little ones that I’ll throw in my reloading containers and I won’t care if they get beat up or not. The rest of them turned out pretty decent.

[TurnipEaterDown]

Torch on Pine --
Here is a nice trick I learned from a friend who learned it from a display maker for various high dollar shows:

Get common pine construction lumber.
Cut all your pieces to final dimensions and fit. Don't assemble.
Light up an acetylene torch.
Char the face you want to use for presentation.
Use a coarse steel brush (welders brush works good) on the charred wood with the grain - do Not brush all the char away, just down to nice & brown.
Heat up some brown shoe polish to liquid state.
Soak up some of the shoe polish on a rag and quickly wipe into the charred wood that has been brushed.

It will look like old weathered lumber that started with a deep rich brown color (if you get it - colour...)

My friend made a bar game for a relative, and it if didn't look like old mahogany with proud grain, I'd be damned.

[Tripplebeards]

That was the plan to make them look like an old vintage block.


I was thinking about throwing stain over the top after torching. Forgot to grab it with me when I headed over to another house to do the varnishing so I just threw the varnish on it and called it a day. I was even thinking about taking some food coloring and putting it on a brush and painting it over the top and letting it dry first, but I didn’t…was just gonna mess with them and have fun. The 25 count blocks turned out pretty nice. The holes weren’t too far off on those. The holes are pretty far away from the edges versus the other blocks. I just figured I wasn’t gonna toss the little odd ball ones since they were already made so I finished them off and figured I’d keep them for spares in my little compact reloading bag.

I can say there’s a big difference in cutting holes in hardwood versus that soft pine. I could just feel the chunks come out of the pine and you could see it’s a little jagged around the hole edges. The hardwood was never like that when I drilled holes with the same bit.

[longbow]

Hahaha! Even your "sloppy" loading blocks are nicer than mine! Now I do have to get busy and make something a little better. This is getting embarrassing!

I might even try that shoe polish trick!

[gns4me]

They ALL look really good!!! I'm going to have to get me a table top drill press soon. For this type of project and roll crimps. Will Forstner bits work better?

[725]

Nicely done. Now with multiple blocks, you can have various hulls all racked up at different stages of completion, or all off 'em prepared and just grab a few to finish off as needed. You are too organized!