Greene and Greene Plugs in a Bullet Casing Polishing Tumbler?


wouldwurker

Recommended Posts

Had this harebrained scheme....

 

If you make your own ammo, you're familiar with a casing tumbler.  If not, it's essentially a cheap plastic machine that fits over a 5 gallon bucket, filled with media (walnut shells or corncob) and a few drops of polish.  Add your spent, dirty, and scratched casings after a day at the range, turn it on, and it agitates for a few hours.  The casings come out spit and polished to a mirror shine.

 

I remember as a kid, putting basswood up to the metal buffer in high school shop class and getting mirror like results.

 

Since G&G plugs are miserable to make, even with the power drill method....I'm thinking this might work.  Especially since I have to make a million of them for the guild-build Adirondack chair (99% done since June, BTW...just sadly sitting on the assembly table.)  Do the rough pillowing with 100 grit via drill, saw to size, and throw the whole lot in the polisher.

 

I'll let you know how my experiment goes....I'll not about to waste a morsel of black ebony, so maybe some walnut, purple heart, and hard maple.

 

Maybe a few squirts of Menzerna right into the media.

 

Curious if anything similar has been tried?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if it did work, I think you'd still have the problem that Barron mentioned but seems to have been overlooked...

 

It would round over all the edges, including the ones that are supposed to seat tightly into the corners of the mortised hole...which means you would have little gaps at those corners and consequently a sloppy look.  You don't want all the corners to be rounded...the peg should be perfectly square except for the exposed part that is pillowed.

 

G&G ebony plugs are a PITA...unfortunately the drill technique is the shortcut.  Nice try anyway. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flat bottom, yes...I'm talking about the edges in the vertical orientation (the long grain edges).  Rounded edges don't fit tightly into square corners.  The bottom doesn't really matter...it's the gaps in the corners that would be a problem.  The round peg in a square hole thing...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tape the middle to preserve square edges in the middle of double length pieces maybe?

That's what I was thinking, but at some point it's easier to just do it by hand.  You want to replace "per unit" operations with batch operations.

 

Here's something that would only work if you were making a huge number of plugs.  Make a bunch of "sockets", just scraps with mortices in them to accept the plugs.  Cut the plugs, put them into the sockets, and put them in the tumbler.  The socket protects the edges that you want to stay crisp, and they are re-usable.  This only makes sense if you are going to make many batches so you'll re-use the sockets.

 

If the plugs fall out of the sockets during the tumble, they'll be ruined, so that'll require some thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   3 Members, 0 Anonymous, 47 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    421.8k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,759
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    R Parekh
    Newest Member
    R Parekh
    Joined