Tip of the day

Occasionally, dust (in general) will cause my sinuses great grief...
Click to expand...
I can relate to that. I have allergies that showed up in my late 40's and I'm never sure when they are going to be bad and when not. I do find that a tablespoon of local honey every morning helps a great deal. I've told others about that trick and they found it worked also. But just plain old dust, that's a tough one. I have sawn relatively green lumber from a saw mill across the street from our club and that seems to get me as well. But in the larger scheme of things, I can live with the sniffles or stuffed sinuses if that's all I have to complain about. ;)
 
Not sure this is a tip. It's more of a mod to make things more convenient. It's actually two mods.

Many kitchens have a bread drawer. A deep drawer that will hold bread and rolls. A mod to that drawer can make life easier. Install two small aluminum angles along the top sides of the drawer opening. There is normally room because the drawer itself is not as tall as the drawer opening. Now get a HDPE cutting board that is long enough and wide enough to fit into those two angle brackets. Better to buy a wider board and just cut it to width on a band saw. You now have a cutting board stored above the bread drawer. Open the drawer, remove the bread, then pull out the cutting board and slice your bread. The crumbs fall into the drawer and when you close the drawer, the cutting board is pushed back into place.

Cutting Board.jpg


Second tip is for the same bread drawer. Install a holder where you put your favorite bread knife. Made mine from a piece of rock maple, but pretty much any wood will work. Used the same drawer drawing. Added the holder in the facing the drawer view and then put a knife in it for the side view. I attached mine to the drawer using double faced tape. It's been there for over 25 years. Size and position the holder for your specific knife.

Bread knife holder.jpg
 
Our shop is a metal clad building and cell phone reception inside the building is horrible, its an almost perfect Faraday cage. One step out the door and its 4-5 bars, one step inside and nothing...

I was going to have a phone signal booster installed, they cost anywhere from $400 to several $k plus installation. Basically an outside antenna, an amplifier/booster, and an inside antenna. As I was doing some online research into the best one to buy I read an article that explained that all the major carriers (I have AT&T, Scott has Verizon) now have voice over WiFi. You can change a couple settings in your iPhone (and other brands) so that if your cell phone reception drops below a certain level the call will automatically switch over to using the WiFi network you're connected to.

We have a very good WiFi network in our shop. Once Scott and I changed the settings in our iPhones we got perfect telephone communication.

Here is how to do it on an iPhone:

Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling - Apple Support

With Wi-Fi Calling, you can make or receive a phone call if you have a Wi-Fi connection in an area with little or no cellular coverage. Learn how to make a voice call using Wi-Fi Calling.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Making phone calls over WiFi makes it hard for emergency services to locate you from your phone signal so it will ask you for a location to use for 911 services. My phone auto-filled in my home address location but if you want to have the ambulance roll up somewhere else you can change it.

I figure the hour I spent online learning how to do this saved me $700 or more.

This won't help if you don't have WiFi but if you do it's a good hack. It seems as if there are a lot of places where there is good, even free WiFi but very poor cell phone coverage. This will help that situation for free!
 
Snakeoil said:
For some reason, mould halves do not want to stay together when they are stored without handles attached. So, I made a bunch of these small clamps to keep the halves together when being stored. You can stack them up and not worry about them coming apart and maybe damaging the mould in the process.

I make these from 1/16" sheet aluminum. But you can make them from sheet steel as well. You over bend them a bit to take advantage of the springiness in the metal. I bend little ears on them to engage the handle screws. You simply slip it into the handle grooves and then insert the screws. They work great and you can make them in a few minutes. I always thought that the mould companies should include something like this with every set of mould blocks. They could make them from plastic for pennies.

View attachment 28573
Click to expand...
Metal strapping, as used on lumber, would work good for this. Clever!
 
Last edited:
Snakeoil said:
I can relate to that. I have allergies that showed up in my late 40's and I'm never sure when they are going to be bad and when not. I do find that a tablespoon of local honey every morning helps a great deal. I've told others about that trick and they found it worked also. But just plain old dust, that's a tough one. I have sawn relatively green lumber from a saw mill across the street from our club and that seems to get me as well. But in the larger scheme of things, I can live with the sniffles or stuffed sinuses if that's all I have to complain about. ;)
Click to expand...
Raw honey is medicine IMO. Good stuff, and as you note, the more local, the better. Really helps with a sore throat for me, better than anything else.
 
Snakeoil said:
...But just plain old dust, that's a tough one....
Click to expand...
I don't know for sure, actually. Could be specific dust or pollen or something else. I'm just like dust as some are with spiders or snakes - they think all spiders or snakes are evil and must be eradicated on sight.

I'm that way with dust. Possibly irrational, and maybe it's not even dust. It's just out of the blue and I can't tie it to anything - BAM, it hits me. Maybe a couple times a year. I do know that when I mowed around the white pines in the wind break this spring that the pollen nailed me. I saw smoke coming out of the trees and sat there on the mower trying to figure out HOW the trees could be on fire. It was pollen the breeze was blowing out of them and I was just sitting there in it.

I've got honey - local honey. I'll give it a try.:)
 
Jeff H said:
I don't know for sure, actually. Could be specific dust or pollen or something else. I'm just like dust as some are with spiders or snakes - they think all spiders or snakes are evil and must be eradicated on sight.

I'm that way with dust. Possibly irrational, and maybe it's not even dust. It's just out of the blue and I can't tie it to anything - BAM, it hits me. Maybe a couple times a year. I do know that when I mowed around the white pines in the wind break this spring that the pollen nailed me. I saw smoke coming out of the trees and sat there on the mower trying to figure out HOW the trees could be on fire. It was pollen the breeze was blowing out of them and I was just sitting there in it.

I've got honey - local honey. I'll give it a try.:)
Click to expand...
We were at a big Cowboy shoot years ago. The club was a huge pine grove. I was driving a black Grand Cherokee at the time. Black cars have to be kept clean and mine usually was. At the end of the shoot, my vehicle was yellow.

My allergies started out in the Fall. When I sucked up leaves with my lawn tractor, it would start. That night, I'd be watching the tube and my eyes would itch so bad that I'd want to claw them out of my head. I learned to wash my face and hair as soon I came in from sucking leaves and that helped a lot. Before that, I'd go to bed and it would get worse. A friend turned me on to honey. We have a apiary right down the road from us. Nice old couple with great honey. Started the 1 tbsp a day regime and my eyes never itched again. It was Fall so it could not be pollen. Had to be either the chemicals in the changing leaves or maybe fungi from decomposition.
 
For members who has an RCBS JR 2 or JR 3 press and have devised clever methods of keeping its handle in the up position, here is the simple fix. Located on one side of the toggle block, and between it and the press frame, is what RCBS calls a "bow washer". It's a very thin spring steel washer and if you've never stripped the press you may not know of it.
1. Remove the "C" clip from one side of the toggle pin and remove it, being careful to prevent the toggle block and ram from falling clear of the press. Don't loose the washer!
2a. Using the method of your choice, add more "bow" to the washer, and reassemble.
2b. Call or e-mail RCBS and ask to purchase a JR's bow washer. If you've been round the RCBS block, you know you cannot buy one, but, nonetheless, one will magically appear.
3. Clean, lube and reassemble.
520DC1F4-C333-486D-A789-B2238212843E.jpeg
 
HAR! For sure! I watch a lot of old British industrial films and everyone seems to wear a tie, vest, coat and hat 24/7/365!

Honestly, I prefer a spotlessly clean work area. But reality is a cruel mistress, so I settle for MY mess and hope no one moves anything as I may never find it again!
 
Bret4207 said:
HAR! For sure! I watch a lot of old British industrial films and everyone seems to wear a tie, vest, coat and hat 24/7/365!

Honestly, I prefer a spotlessly clean work area. But reality is a cruel mistress, so I settle for MY mess and hope no one moves anything as I may never find it again!
Click to expand...

Can't stand clutter (or noise) in my work area, so I try to clean and organize, return tools to where they belong as I go. Doesn't always work out and I end up with twenty tools from twenty different locations and barely finish in time to move on to some other priority.

So, often, I start a project with a mess to clear out/clean up before I start the next project.

My reloading "bench" is very compact though, so it HAS to stay organized, because there's nowhere to leave stuff lying about - problem solved. It's a college dorm locker I paid $2 or $4 for many years ago when a local college remodeled a bunch of dorms.

Everything in it's place - because there's no OTHER place for it.

Case trimmer and extra single-stage press are stored below and clamped to an adjacent bench when needed.
DSCF1734 (Copy).jpg
 
Jeff I really like your storage shelf for the LEE turrets. I was thinking of doing the same setup but wall space is in short supply in my reloading room. I keep mine in my top drawer in grooved trays. Works good but having them in a drawer is a pain.
 
Glaciers said:
Jeff I really like your storage shelf for the LEE turrets. I was thinking of doing the same setup but wall space is in short supply in my reloading room. I keep mine in my top drawer in grooved trays. Works good but having them in a drawer is a pain.
Click to expand...

Glad you said that, because I'd considered doing a drawer, but I see what you mean. Only because I can close the door on this do I get away with having them "in the open." The cabinet is in my wood shop, so dust would be a problem otherwise. I considered using a 1/4" aluminum plate, but don't have access to "scrap"and "drops" these days, so it's poplar. 3" hole saw leaves just enough to let the turrets nest without having to orient or align cogs and it doesn't clink or clatter when I grab one.
 
Loaded Lee turrets fit nicely in the small, plastic Folger's coffee containers, along with a dedicated shellholder and a couple of "dummy" cartridges and even a cartridge checker if you like. All you need is a shelf for the containers. I like the containers because they keep the dust off of the dies.
 
Yeah I remember your turret storage system, looks efficient. But…
I’d have a habit of grabbing a Folger’s can and start looking for filters and a scoop out of habit. I realize this is personal problem because of my severe addiction.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.