Got to thinking last night - possibly as a result of the article in recent Model Railroader about building an oversize load. I'm also a shooter, and I was thinking about uses for shell cases (centerfire, rimfire and shotgun). They come in all kinds of sizes and I find a LOT of .40 S&W and 9mm cases at the range. I have no use for these as I don't have guns in those calibers and it's really not worth the effort to clean an resell them. From time to time, I have .45, .38 and .357 cases that are not reusable and I also can get a number of shotgun shells - mostly in 12 ga or .410. Seems that the .410 3" shells resemble the oversize load built in the magazine, though shorter, of course. I also have a good supply of empty airgun pellet tins - they are about 2-1/2" in diameter and 3/4" high.
At any rate, ideas about how to utilize these would be appreciated. BTW - I 'do' N scale.
I'm also diabetic and accumulate a steady stream of test strip containers
- they're about the size of a 35mm cannister but very heavy duty.
I have utilized the pellet tins and test strip containers to hold small parts - coupler parts, track nails, parts for Atlas track turnout controls, etc.