I have been making my own Cartridge pens for a while. I use the gold Cigar kits from Woodturnz as they are inespensive. I made my own tooling to hold the bullets and cartridge case to drill it to size.
If the cartridge cases you have were blanks to fire the salute you will need to get them neck sized as they were never intended to be loaded with a bullet. As far as the bullet I use a 168 grain boat tail hollow point and drill from the base that way the hole comes out center of the nose. I then melt all the lead out of the bullet and repolish.
I use the tutoral put out by rherrell listed in the library, he has done most of the hard work.
I am including a thread I posted a while back that may help'
"Making cartridge pens can be somewhat of a trial when drilling either the bullet or cartridge case so being more of a machinst than pen maker came up with a few fixtures to ease the problem along to completion.
The Lee reloading company makes a spinner to hold cartridge case to clean them in most calibers I use #2 as it will work on .308,30-06 cases.
To hold the bullet I bored a piece of 3/8th brass to .300 diameter and using a slitting saw made four cuts. to drill the bullet just insert the bullet in the piece and chuck it in a 3/8th collet and tighten if you drill and ream the fixture in the collet you are going to use it will allow you to drill a dead center hole each time.
To hold a case I did same thing altho used a piece of 9/16th diameter brass rod (it was a mistake from another project) 3/4 or 5/8th inch would work just as well, and drilled and reamed it to the outside diameter of the case, and using a .026 slitting saw cut four slots so when clamped in the collet it holds the case for drilling. I drilled the fixture so it would bottom out deep enough so that only 3/8ths of the rear of the case protrudes from the fixture. As the case is tapered be sure to cut to the portion you are going to clamp to, drilling a pilot hole in the end of the fixture for the neck of the cartridge case to fit in helps aline it for clamping.
The other piece I made is for holding the cap for the top of the pen again I used 3/8ths piece of steel rod, turned half of it to fit the inside of and the same lenght of the 10mm brass tube and drilled and tapped it for a 10-24 screw one inch deep and again used a slitting saw to make four cuts 3/4 inch long, and used a 62 degree center drill, drilled a taper in the tapped end and used a socket head flat head screw with a trimmed diameter for a wedge to expand the end to hold the 10mm brass tube.
I used the cartridge making tutorial made up by rherrell that is listed in the library for the basic plans for the pens and use the cigar kits for the internals. With these plans the top of the pen needed to be from 3/8th to 1/2 inch longer than the tube to fit over the end of the cartridge so this fixture allows you to chuck the cap to allow the end to be bored to fit the end of the case. I use both tubes that come in the kit with the longer one in the case and the shorter one for the cap.
Boy I hope this makes sense if not let me know and I will attempt to clear up any questions.
If I can help any further let me know At least thats my story
