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.
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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.
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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.
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I roughed out the O.D. on my bandsaw which went quickly because MDF is
soft.
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And just like that I have six pieces ready to work with.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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....
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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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