Inspired by copperlake, what bits and pieces of cut offs, broken, bent, cracked or otherwise throw away things have you used to make something worthwhile? Pix please.
CB

Yesterday I made a brake spring bracket for a WC63 out of a spring bumper backing plate that the rubber fell off of decades ago.
I have the actual piece here somewhere but I can't find it, so I made one until I do. Or don't.
Ok it's not a gun but is does have a gun holder.

It's all good. 6 wheeler, 98 Mauser, Massey Ferguson, barrel channel scraper. Whatever. Pro or novice. Doesn't matter.

Needed an express sight base for a Martini 375x2.5 I was putting together, major sticker shock! The barrel at that point was 3/4" so I got a 3/4" threaded rod connector, maybe 3 bucks, bored out the threads with a 3/4 bit and cut in thirds lengthwise with a slitting saw. Cut the dovetail and mounted it up, not a masterpiece but it looks fine and I've still got two left out of my meager inestment

Out of barrel scraps, I make dies, as well as tuners. I’ve also made many one off tools, such as headspace, and cone measuring tools.

make various caliber shotgun chamber inserts from scrap rifle barrels... .22lr in 12ga or 20ga is most common... ..38 and 357 come in 2nd... .44 barrels are harder to find.. ive made 30/30 too... mainly a novelty, but functionally accurate if you make the insert about 10-12" long and use an o-ring to make it fit the barrel...

Couldn't find a lathe chuck key yesterday, was 11/32" size. found a tap with 11/32" square on the shank, ran it into a 1/2" pipe piece, chamfered the ends, hole for cross rod, and was good to go. Everything except the tap came out of the scrap iron bucket.

blasers but not by me

That's just plain nasty.

Lots of various tooling fixtures over the years came from the scrap bucket.

Early last year I hauled off 14 of 5 gallon buckets filled with small scrap steel from parts that was made on the machines to the scrap dealer. Each bucket weighed about 90 pounds each

Then I cleaned out the old broken machinery and big odds and ends, took 5500 pounds up to a different scrap dealer and got a better price since it was all big items

J Wisner

If only you lived closer Jim.
Would have been fun to take a couple [buckets full] off your hands & cherry pick them. Sure do need the welding practice..
CB

OK, for my namesake: cut out for a crab boat Freeman hatch, 1/2" water valve, tin-knockers vice grip (I never use), ball joint, and various SLA (stuff laying around), my tig welding setup for tiggy stuff:

That's beautiful man...

Not all gun related....I'm always getting laughed at by my co-workers for taking home all the odd bits of offcuts, alloy and stainless and bits of junk that get thrown out.....



Fridge magnets and magnetic keyring



Mostly Tasmanian oak off cuts from flatbed truck floors, incomplete domino set and old fence palings, keyrings, two person Chinese checkers ( 38 cases or dowels )solitaire game, assorted coat racks and knife holders......I don't condone golf, a wanton waste of a good rifle range or motocross track

Roger

This is a hard question for me to answer as I have no scrap its all good stuff just waiting to be reborn,

I'll second that motion !!

Recycling old stocks into pantograph patterns



...empty gas cylinder, exhaust pipe offcuts, water pipe and stainless steel offcuts




Roger

Other than building a firing pin or a 1897 Marlin from 1/4" rod stock or building a great smoker out of an old Norge refer. I would have to say that my best was due to the fact when I 1st bought this property we had no well or the money to dig it, so we hauled water in 55 gal. drums. I built a tower to hold 4 drumms + depended on gravity feed to dispurse water into vessels below. The trick was getting the water from the drums in the back of the truck into the battery of barrels on the tower. A hand pump worked but was too time consuming, so I built a bracket that would attach to the motor block of my truck on a hinged piece of wood that I had mounted a pump from a washing machine. Totally passive, just put the belt over fan belt pulley (after purging pump) + let your engine idle only. After 3-4 beers while sitting on the tailgate the tower tanks are full + we have one more week of water. It's amazing how frugal one can be concerning water when the option is running out.

NOrman Conquest gave me a rotary electric powered annealer that turns out annealed brase like a sub machine gun, for which Im very grateful..I don't know if he built it or what, but it works for large amounts cases..Its only flaw is I get a hernia everytime I have to move it!

Ive made knives, spurs, bits, and some other stuff from pitchfork heads, horseshoe rasps, files, truck springs and metal form scrap dumps on a number of ranches, used deer and elk horn, cow horns..lots of stuff..

I purchased 4 surpluses Mausers for $25.00 each, they were advertised as 'suspect'. The barrels were shot out, the stocks had been in the jungle too long to be useful, the bolt faces had been eaten up with hot high pressure metal cutting gas, and the trigger guards were missing pieces. that left barrel bands and 4 receivers. The dealer helped me with the bolts, he replaced 3 of them.

I cut the barrels off at the beginning of the rifling, I then measured the length of the chamber from the shoulder to the protruding case heads, all of the case heads protruded .110. I barrel had a case head separation; I removed the case with a 3/8" starter tap.

I took one 30 Gibbs chambered Belgum barrel to test 3 of the receivers with one bolt. There was not .001" difference between the length of all 3 chambers. I used 280 Remington cases to form the cases. The 280 Remington case is .051" longer than the 30/06 case when measured from the datum to the case head and .041" longer when comparing the case length.

I formed a second shoulder and then trimmed. Fire forming, I needed the case to fill the chamber and form to the shoulder, I had no interest in doing it twice, so I used the maximum load of H4895 for a 150-grain bullet, instead of the 150-grain bullet I used a 200-grain bullet, for that I was accused of getting into some strange stuff.

A smith in Arizona named Seaweed, a most pleasant person was not used to working with someone that measured chamber with ball micrometers and dead-end micrometers, but that part worked out.
He did not agree with the fire forming load. rather than disagree with him I called Hodgen, they said I could fireform cases with that load but after the cases are formed the fire forming load would become the maximum load for a 200-grain bullet. And then they suggested reducing the load by 3 grains and then work up.

I used this procedure with 3 of the receivers.

F. Guffey

Made out of scrap; I used the chamber cut-offs as chamber gages. I only needed one 30/06, that left me with 3 cut-offs for other chambers gages.

As always there is a need for tomato stakes. And then there are always 8mm57 shot out barrels and 7mm57 barrels.

F. Guffey

Forgive, I forgot. Many years ago, I thought rules were important, rules like the ones that should apply to annealing; no one agreed so I put a short list together and as the rules applied to annealing, I made an annealing tool that did not disagree with a few rules. At the time all I could explain about annealing was the rational for the/my procedures. The thought and effort did not cost me anything but a little time, I had the drill press that could be set up to drill perpendicular holes and drill bits etc

F. Guffey.

Cool stuff here.