Custom door pulls for my reloading room cabinets

[RandyD]

My compliments to both Bigbossman and Boarhuntor on your creations.

[bigbossman]

Retired boomer with too much time on his hands.

Besides, in CA we need camouflage. Maybe some simulated tofu pulls.

Boomer, yes. Retired, not hardly.

[bigbossman]

50 BMG would look good, but I don't feel like buying 13 of them for drawer pulls.

I like the two pictured below, but cannot quite grasp how they made them. I'm guessing that the web area is thick enough to drill and then tap..... I'll try that and see. I particularly like the 30-30 - both because I like the way it looks, and because I have literally hundreds of 30-30 casing on-hand.

Did you give your thought to 50BMG? It would be dandy....Especially with a bullet still inside.

[Boarhuntor]

50 BMG would look good, but I don't feel like buying 13 of them for drawer pulls.

I like the two pictured below, but cannot quite grasp how they made them. I'm guessing that the web area is thick enough to drill and then tap..... I'll try that and see. I particularly like the 30-30 - both because I like the way it looks, and because I have literally hundreds of 30-30 casing on-hand.

Use a dowel inside, stick both cases from either end and drill through the hull.
It will hold them together.
For more security, you can fill the cases with epoxy before skewing them on a dowel, let it set overnight and secure with screws.

[bigbossman]

Use a dowel inside, stick both cases from either end and drill through the hull.
It will hold them together.
For more security, you can fill the cases with epoxy before skewing them on a dowel, let it set overnight and secure with screws.

Seems simple enough, and so that's what I did. I made two versions to see what I liked better..... both have 9mm casings for stand-offs, but one is made from 38-55 and the other 30-30 as pictured above. I've got a ton of all these cases, so no additional expense incurred..... and the 38-55's are all from my "end of life" pile, so win-win.

The 38-55 is much easier to build because a 3/8" dowel is a press fit to the point that I used a small hobby mallet to drive the cases onto the dowel. No epoxy, no wiggle, never coming apart. On the other hand, the proper dowel for the 30-30 only fits snugly in the neck area, but not snugly enough. The casings can be easily slid off and onto the dowel,and there was a lot of air space between the dowel and the lower case body (I need to have drill-able material inside for the screw), so epoxy was required. Not a huge deal, but messy and time consuming to mix the epoxy and get it into the casing. Also, I needed to provide an escape for the air/excess epoxy as the dowel was inserted (I made a flat spot on the dowel center to solve that issue). I kind of like the sleek look of the 38-55 cases, so that's what I'm probably going to go with.

As an aside, WRT to shot shell pulls - the 9mm casings look a little too long to replace the white nylon spacers.... looks a bit out of proportion to me. Maybe .380?

[Boarhuntor]

As an aside, WRT to shot shell pulls - the 9mm casings look a little too long to replace the white nylon spacers.... looks a bit out of proportion to me. Maybe .380?

Looks good.
I agree on 38-55. I'd also try one 12GA nobs as i sent pix and install them side by side on board.
Yes, 9MM looks a little out of proportion. You can use Dremel to shorten 9MM, 357 or whatever. Easy enough.
BTW, 22 looks even better IMO, more delicate.
Anyway, whatever you choose it is going to be not only good, it is going to be great, i already can visualize it

[bigbossman]

First pass at installation complete. They look pretty good:

[NapalmCheese]

Jeez man, reload more and decorate less!

Looks good. Seems you could just use the case head from a shotgun hull for small drawer pulls (in place of knobs) should you need one; would match the motif.

[bigbossman]

Jeez man, reload more and decorate less!

Looks good. Seems you could just use the case head from a shotgun hull for small drawer pulls (in place of knobs) should you need one; would match the motif.

LOL..... I've got so much ammo loaded and ready for the COVID Welcoming Committee, it's not funny. And if you think I went overboard on this project, wait till you see the next project I'm dreaming up......

I made a few case head door knob pulls, but decided that they were too puny for my big sausage fingers.

Ok - last set of pics below (I promise!), as I finished installation yesterday. I decided to switch the white nylon spacers out for .380 casings and it does look a lot better.

[Newshooter]

Love those 12 gauge pulls. May have to make some of my own. Thanks so much for posting this. Great ideas!

[bigbossman]

OK, those are, really, geeky They are also very(!) cool geeky. Nicely done

But all y'all've got, way too much time on your hands.

You've got to be retired.

Nope, not retired. Once I doped out how to proceed, I made up some jigs from scrap and went to it. Pretty easy, not too time consuming. The hardest part was sanding down the dowels to fit into the 12 gauge hulls - the closest size was just a smidgen too large in diameter, and the bottom has to be tapered somewhat to seat properly in the bottom of the hull. Also, getting the correct length to ensure a good looking crimp took a bit of trial and error. Having a drill press did help quite a bit to keep the holes centered and perpendicular.

Like so: