Picked these shells up at the range- drilled out the primers, installed tubes and polished. I used gun metal for the parts. Not much lathe work except for the drilling and polishing
Now that is one fine looking pen. Different, but still fine. Did you have much problem getting the center to like up? It looks perfect. The gun metal goes very well with this pen.
Charles
Charles, I use a 4 jaw chuck to hold the shell when I drill out the primers- as long as I go slow with the drill bit I have no alignment (centering) problems.
I had the exact same idea. Although you did more by drilling and installing tubes. I had some pre-made ones laying around when inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago.