Sylvanite
Member
Another member asked if I could make a bullet pen kit for him out of an old shellcase from a military funeral. He didn't know what caliber it was - but it turned out to be 7.62x51mm (a.k.a. 7.62 NATO - the military version of 308 Winchester) blank. The case had been sitting around for 40 years and had tarnished quite a bit. Here is what it looked like:
The first thing I did was remove the worst of the corrosion. I chucked up the case on my lathe and rubbed it with 0000 steel wool until it was moderately clean:
Then I trimmed it to length, expanded the case neck, drilled the case head, and sanded out the remaining tarnish and as many of the dings as I could. I used 400 grit, 600, 800, 0000 steel wool, and finished with ammonia-free brass polish. This is how it looked afterwards:
Then I seated a drilled-out bullet and soldered in a 7mm brass tube. This is the result:
Finally, I laser-marked the cartridge, polished again, and powder-coated it in gloss clear. The completed kit looks like this:
I look forward to seeing a photo of the completed pen. I hope this was interesting.
Regards,
Eric
The first thing I did was remove the worst of the corrosion. I chucked up the case on my lathe and rubbed it with 0000 steel wool until it was moderately clean:
Then I trimmed it to length, expanded the case neck, drilled the case head, and sanded out the remaining tarnish and as many of the dings as I could. I used 400 grit, 600, 800, 0000 steel wool, and finished with ammonia-free brass polish. This is how it looked afterwards:
Then I seated a drilled-out bullet and soldered in a 7mm brass tube. This is the result:
Finally, I laser-marked the cartridge, polished again, and powder-coated it in gloss clear. The completed kit looks like this:
I look forward to seeing a photo of the completed pen. I hope this was interesting.
Regards,
Eric
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