Reloading blocks

[Robin128]

The laborious part is drilling the holes? So put 10 sheets to gether and drill them all at once.

Then glue to 10 thinner blanks to form the lower part of the blocks...ie no holes.

Hope that makes sense.

[ovenpaa]

Ah yes I see what you mean now and you are quite right as well. I drilled my holes with a very crude drill fixture and an electric drill as I still have not found a motor for my pillar drill yet. Also the Forstner bit burned the holes occasionally, reducing the cutting speed and not rushing would over come this.

[Steve]

Oh I save the last inch and a bit so I can still use them! :lol:

Edit - they do tend to burn a bit but that is easily rectified, so far they have just been given a couple of light coats of sander sealer because it dries quickly and when I get a minute I will finish and oil them. I am tempted to buy another piece of work surface to make some more blocks for .308 bolt face as they are easy to make and it is way cheaper than buying factory made blocks, plus I like the feel and weight of wood.

One specie of wood i would recomend is 'tiger maple' because its so different to others.If you dont know what it looks like try Google.Or perhaps cedar-maybe a bit boring looking,but your reloading room would be filled with the most glorious smell known to man (people used to construct the bottom of draws in cedar for the smell effect) and it dont need sealing either.

[ovenpaa]

I know tiger maple and may even have a block or two somewhere, my all time favourites are ebony, African blackwood and snake wood. All of which are nice to machine. A loading block made out of snake wood would be something very special. Oak of course will always be a firm favourite.



No doubt Christel's first choice would be purple heart.

I need to call in and speak to Steve at Parmoor Stocks and I have already warned him I will be peering in the bins

[Steve]

Or be different and get a lump of eucalyptus.

[ovenpaa]

Heh! I seem to have a very large lump of the stuff right now in the form of a tree that has had to be severely hacked back and will probably need another attack.

[Steve]

Heh! I seem to have a very large lump of the stuff right now in the form of a tree that has had to be severely hacked back and will probably need another attack.

I had one too and introduced it to Mr Chainsaw couple years back.Damn thing grew like it was on steroids. :lol:

[DaveT]

If you do more you fancy selling some?

I am seriously thinking about building some more, for me .308 bolt face would be handy, I was thinking of making a 150 block in three groups of 50 on one block so I can segregate stages if needed. I need to check and see if I have the right sized cutter for the holes.

How big a load block(s) were you thinking of Mike? I have no idea how much a lump of beech surface costs these days as my offcuts were a few years old. I will have a look around, the problem is I doubt I can get the wood home and then post the finished item out as cheaply as Sinclair International do them for.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/pid=3 ... _50_round_

I will check

Just looking through some of these older posts as I also had a 'great idea' about making some top-end loading blocks and selling them as gift items BUT.... the cost of decent hardwood and then the labour involved in preparing it and Drilling / finishing pushes costs through the roof unless you simply fancy a nice 'toy' to use!!!

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[tikkathreebarrels]

100 SAUM

Aha- you got 7mm SAUM? How are you finding barrel life (you don't need to admit it publicly if you don't want) and how do you like long range accuracy?

[ovenpaa]

Just looking through some of these older posts as I also had a 'great idea' about making some top-end loading blocks and selling them as gift items BUT.... the cost of decent hardwood and then the labour involved in preparing it and Drilling / finishing pushes costs through the roof unless you simply fancy a nice 'toy' to use!!!

cutdown9610.JPG

Is this one you made Dave? You are quite right, the cost of hardwood and the labour involved would make high end load trays excessively pricey. I like the ones I built, they are solid, robust, hold 100 cases which is a bonus and they feel good as well. Now if I could sell them at GBP25/each I am sure I could move a few but the materials and labour costs are such that it would simpler to just mail a tenner out to anyone that ordered one. If I do manage to find a reasonable source of wood I will make half a dozen just to see if people will take them and realistically even GBP30 posted is expensive in my eyes.

Aha- you got 7mm SAUM? How are you finding barrel life (you don't need to admit it publicly if you don't want) and how do you like long range accuracy?

Yes, it is my F Open rifle, there is a picture of it somewhere on the forum. Accuracy wise, 25mm ish groups at 600m so it is accurate. I run a modified SAUM in that the shoulder angle has been pushed to 35 degrees, with N560 behind 180 Hybrids that I am now pointing. The barrel certainly does go away fairly quickly but all in all it is an OK rifle.