I Usually Smoke a Cigar While Reloading....

[gatesbox]

[NOT!]. But tonight I was out anyway. So still inspired by loading up my nice brandsy newsy 45 colt brass I decided to get fancy with an empty cigar case. I spent a couple hours on the laser engraver cutting out these inserts for a couple cigar boxes. One came out nice with exactly 100 rounds, the larger is a bit odd ball with 132 round capacity. Anyway, let the reloading Porn commence.

[Dark Mod]

Im not gonna lie, thats pretty epic dude

[barbasol]

Me likey

[gatesbox]

I tried doing this with a drill press a while ago, and learned some new four letter words in the process. On the laser these cuts pop right out.

[Sac-AR15]

That's pretty sick. Can you make me 10 of those??

[gatesbox]

That's pretty sick. Can you make me 10 of those??

I have been thinking about if it is worth marketing, but it is hard to recover the time value. Because the boxes I get are odd sizes each one has to be plotted and adjusted separately. If I can find a consistent size box, I'd do it in a heart beat. It takes about 25 min for the laser to do the work on four layers of 3mm inserts.

[Whiterabbit]

Or you make the inserts and sell them raw for folks to cut on their own to fit in their OWN boxes they supply locally.

Made to order with a price that reflects fair value for the machine time. So you have zero inventory and anyone that really wants one can just deal with the lead time and high price. It's either worth it to them or not.

[M27]

I like it. It would be cool to do something in a deeper box with multiple layers too.

I do smoke a cigar while reloading as long as it has nothing to do with powder or primers.

sorting brass, decaping, resizing, belling...

[gatesbox]

I like it. It would be cool to do something in a deeper box with multiple layers too.

I do smoke a cigar while reloading as long as it has nothing to do with powder or primers.

sorting brass, decaping, resizing, belling...

I had been thinking of two layers for some deeper boxes. Might be able to double stack two layers of 50. But this would work better for 45 acp, 10mm, 40sw, as the OAL is a bit less. I'll give it a go when I get back from vaca. Two layers of 45 acp.

[lpspinner]

awesome!

[Munk]

I tried doing this with a drill press a while ago, and learned some new four letter words in the process. On the laser these cuts pop right out.

Making them uniform on the press is the problem. I tried it by using a guide and some spaced blocks and managed to make a reloading tray that was ok, but still generally worthless.

I've since learned that it's not worth using a drill bit to do a partial drill-through, and would have been better off going entirely through the board and then adding a backer board.

I've also found that if you want to get a cleaner hole, you need to sandwich and clamp the board between two scrap pieces then go all the way through (works for doing multiple identical trays at once too).

[gatesbox]

I've also found that if you want to get a cleaner hole, you need to sandwich and clamp the board between two scrap pieces then go all the way through (works for doing multiple identical trays at once too).

The sandwich is the key to the drill press operation, but still nothing beats the digital precision of the laser. With the right jig the drill press might be faster overall. It takes a few minutes for each of my "layers" to cut. I believe the machine I was using was 45w. But each hole is .5" and there is exactly .1" between each hole.... I love that thing.

[gunprofit]

I haven't had a Diamond Crown in such a long time. Personally, I think its as good as an Opus X.

[gatesbox]

I haven't had a Diamond Crown in such a long time. Personally, I think its as good as an Opus X.

Well now I have yet another reason to empty a box, back to the smoke shop....

[LAWABIDINGCITIZEN]

Bravo!!!!!

An exquisite display cased used by reloaders with the most discriminating of tastes who prefer their brass tumbled, not stirred.

Be sure to use white gloves as you load these rounds into a mag for your $2200 Charlton Heston commorative .45!