Clocks  2                                              06-2020

 

Shop Aid

 

I cut my MDF oversize to 15" square, which should give me plenty to work with. I also got tired of using that string method to make some circles so I made a large compass.
 

 

 

I made the compass out of 3/4" square pine and they're 20" long. I drilled a hole for a pencil on one end and cut the head of a finishing nail for the other. If I need to sharpen the pencil it's easily removed with a small screw (see the above picture). They are held together with a 1/4-20 bolt and a wing-nut, which makes it easy to adjust and it was really easy to draw my 14" circles.
 

 

 

Back To Work

 

I drilled and reamed a 5/16" hole in the center because that's the size of the clock mechanism. And I'll use this hole to center my work on the rotary table too.
 

 

 

I roughed out the O.D. on my bandsaw which went quickly because MDF is soft.
 

 

 

And just like that I have six pieces ready to work with.
 

 

 

Bullets

 

Now if you're wondering why I have all this ammo reloading stuff here, well...it's because I'm going to add my own special touch to these clocks. Now I use to reload all my ammo awhile back, which included shotgun, rifle and pistol but I sold almost all my equipment many years ago. However, I don't plan on reloading here per say, but I do have a plan to remove all the powder from the bullets that I'll be using.

What you see below is a bullet puller with two different size collets along with two different seating dies, and two shell holders round out what I'll be using here.
 

 

 

Here is my very old single stage reloading press made by RCBS. This type of press works very good but it's slow. However, this is one of a few pieces that I didn't sell, just in case I wanted to load for my deer rifle again.
 

 

 

The first thing I did was remove some of the rust with WD-40. Once all the movable parts were working freely again, I clamped the press to my workbench with my 6" Kant Twist clamps. Yes that's the real name of those clamps and they're not cheap, but I've owned them for many years. Side note: this style of clamp is unmatched in holding strength just in case you wondered. Now I'm ready to get started on some bullets.
 

 

 

I'll be using 9mm for the minutes and .223 caliber for the hours. Another side note: with all the problems in this season of life, it's a shame to disassemble all this ammo because it's not cheap right now. In fact, it's very hard to get either one of these calibers just about anywhere. In fact, I'm sure I could sell them and even make money. Anyways.....moving on....
 

 

 

I'll be starting on the .223 ammo and I have the bullet puller die in the press. What you do is pull down on the large green handle till it bottoms out, then turn a smaller lever at the top of the die to tighten the collet onto the bullet, then push the large green handle upwards again. At this point, the bullet is still in the collet in the die so you remove the brass, then turn the lever on the die and the bullet falls out. I let it land in my hand when doing this.
 

 

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