Thread: Home made reloading tools

We can put up some home made tools here. Something quick and ugly I did today but does the job, sr primer gauge. Its just a 4.5mm drill with the shank sanded down in the drill press and screwed into a piece of dowel. Ugly but it works.

One of mine and one a mate made up for me. Both for shot shell reloading.



The turned aluminium one is for opening up the old crimp on one end and putting some taper on my roll crimped shells on the other end. The wooden one is for cutting shell's down, even length adjustable with the screw.

Great thread topic.
I have something similar assembled using a 5.5mm drill for a Large Rifle primer pocket gauge. When sanded down to the right amount of taper it won't seat when the primer pocket is still good, but bottoms out in the pocket when head expansion has got to the point where it's time to discard the brass. Soldered into a length of ½" brass rod.

nicely made @Puffin

Concentricity gauge on the left all made from delrin / plastic. Doubles as funnel stand when needed.

Loading Blocks. The bottom one is the first thing I made when starting out. These ones don't melt when you spray them with lube!

Home made Concentricity Gauge on the left. Does a slightly different measurement to the 21stC.

Primer Pocket Tools/gauges, PP cleaner (old file ground down) pin for depriming crimped milsurp, PP uniformer for milsurp 30-06 (ground down tap). Commercial gauges on the right.

Funnels and Drop Tube (500mm).

Anti Tip Over Lube. Only tipped the original over once so stuck the container to an old lid!!


There are other bits and pieces that I made when starting out. Apprentice wages were not great back then.

Tipping over a cannister of graphite is like burning your leg on a motorbike exhaust- a nasty steep learning curve that doesnt tend to recur.

I keep my Imperial graphite in a baby glass jam jar with a ring of Blutac on its base. Grabs my reloading bench well


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Not tools, but a chippies machinery adaption, which gets me by, also used to case as well, give you accuracy a Guys a laugh.

DIY scoops that can be adjusted.
DIY trickler. Just an old tirch and a piece of cat arial. The base is filled with lead shot and araldute to make it stable.

@Oldbloke your measures had me fosic around to find my long unused measure I made for blackpowder, before I ended up getting a flash harry one. Also my home made Lee one.

[QUOTE=zimmer;1505592]@Oldbloke your measures had me fosic around to find my long unused measure I made for blackpowder, before I ended up getting a flash harry one. Also my home made Lee one.

Your post got me thinking for black powder I have made scoops,funnels,cleaning rods,moulds,nipple wrenches,powder horns,short starters and a myriad of little accessories.
For reloading powder tricklers,priming tool and presses.For belling cases these tapered punches work well in tge drill press.



For knurling bullets for lube or to hold paper patches these worked a treat.

@Oldbloke how have you fashioned the trickler hopper? Is it part of the torch body acting as a catcher?

In the 60's and 70's reloading gear was not readily available like primers today so reverse engineering reloading gear was common .

Originally Posted by Preacher

@Oldbloke how have you fashioned the trickler hopper? Is it part of the torch body acting as a catcher?

Its just a cheap torch body (ally tube) 2 holes drilled for the old arial tubing ( one about 2mm lower than the other) and abt 3mm hole drilled in the arial.

Base of torch is filled with lead shot and araldite.