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I was sent a few shell casings a while back by Txcigarcop. He wants me to make tampers from them and here is what I've come up with so far. The blue one with white swirls is something I've been toying with for a while, in my head anyway. It's got a stainless steel internal pick. It is drilled and installed just like the stem on the pipes I make. I drilled a 1/4" mortise and used delrin for the tenon. I cut off stainless steel Tig rods for the pick. Turned out pretty well.

Then of course are the others, all just regular tampers. I did however cut the casings off, as I think they look better short on tampers.

They look much better than the pictures portray. I've also polished the brass up on the ones in the picture of three and they look much better.

Let me know what you all think.......... I may even be open to make and sell a few of these in the future if anyone is interested.

Those are really cool. I've been toying with the idea of installing a brass screw in the end and then turning it down to make a brass end, but this idea is better.

I may just have to "borrow" this design.

Todd

Very nice! I've got a particular affection for the bamboo tamper.

Thanks for the positive comments....... If you want, take the idea and run!

Pretty cool stuff Steve !

Edward wrote:Pretty cool stuff Steve !

Agreed!

What could you make out of these?

With those? Well a lot bigger tamper of course. But then, the pipe would have to be lots bigger too.

Wow, I see we share similar ideas! I made a couple tamps on the same principle a few moths back (before I belonged to the forum). I like yours a lot, especially the blue acrylic piece, it's very nice!

What did you do with the primers? Did you just leave them in place?
I left them on the first few I made. Then I found some solid brass rod that was the same size as a small pistol primer and made my own solid brass "primers" and pressed them into place (I reload, so I have all the necessary equipment).

@Kenny you ever hand load .25-35 WIN? The round between the 7.62x51mm and 5.56mm (right in front of the linked 20mm) is a .25-35 WIN out of an 1894 lever action I got (literally over 100 years old). Hard round to find and a pain to reload with the pinched neck. Wondering if you have advice since I'm 99% sure I'm doing it the hard way. Got a couple books about hand loading but don't have any secret tips and tricks.

ive used rifle casings as stems before, they work well