doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cutting paper hulls

I just drill a hole slightly larger than the case in a block of wood. And run them through the table saw with a plywood blade.

John

I am a bottom feeder, don't like to spend money on store bought stuff and often can't even get to the power tools and drill presses. I have an aluminum bar that fits snuggly into the shell. I mount a sharp kitchen knife (well, actually my asparagus cutting knife) in a wide jaw vise with the blade barely protruding for several inches. I "roll" the shell over the protruding blade like a rolling pin, cutting the unwanted crimp area from the shell. No fuss, no muss, no cutting on a spiral. Just remove the shell and when mounting the next shell, the cut off section of the previous shell slides up the aluminum bar. The cut is very neat, no power tools involved and no replacing of fragile razor blades. However, John E's method looks fast and easy as long as the correct blade is used on the saw.

New and improved...If you were to drill two or more holes in the wood block for the hulls. You could eliminate the shims that are now used to keep the block from teetering on the saw fence.

Thanks, John

I could see clamping John E's jig on my chop saw banging out 100 cases in, oh, maybe 20 minutes.

A block with 100, maybe 150 holes, coupled with a water cooled cut off blade on a chain saw body....Actually, my method, the rolling pin, one at a time, works pretty well, but volume is power.

Mike,
I toyed briefly with Ballistic Product's trimmer, didn't cut cleanly on Federal Gold Medal paper hulls--once fired. It left tags of in inner liner paper. The device is great for plastic, though. If I were you, I'd try some of the other recommendations before investing $40 if paper is your only use.

Steve

I haven't tried any paper with the rolling pin method, but the sharpness of the blade would be a factor. I have never tried to cut a groove into the aluminum rod because of the difficulty of locating the cut exactly at the groove. The knife blade cuts plastic shells very cleanly with the rod ungrooved. It may work the same way with paper. I'll try some paper and report back. Unfortunately, I don't have a cutoff blade for my chain saw so can't report on that method.

Really? how do you install recoil pads? with your asparagus knife?

Mike,
I use the BP cutter, that I modified as shown in the pictures.
This works great for paper hulls.




The screw on the end is for adjustment of hull length.
Hope this helps, I've cut 1000's of the 16 gauge paper hulls with this.
Dave

I happen to have a Dremel Hobby table saw left over from my model airplane hobby days. I will probably give John E's a try. I like power tools.

Thanks to Rudy, Bill, Mike, and Dave for their posts. I have several likely looking methods and one of them will surely work out.

I will report back what I find.

Thanks!

Mike