COE Shot bag: School me...

What to pick up a shot bag to form some metal... what do I need to know? Material? What's the filler? etc?

 

Leather bag , I use used glass beads but have used lead shot . Use it low enough that you can get you elbow slightly past parallel when you hit with your hammer . Have fun .

 

Skier , this is one of my bags with two of the hammers I use most . I also have a cap to an oxygen bottle with a 1” pipe welded through the holes for a handle . Just polish the end of the cap so it doesn’t scratch too much .

 

great info, Blue. Thanks!! Glass beads as in Media Blasting Glass Beads???

 

Yep nice and soft and holds up fair , cheap for me since that’s what I use in my blast cabinet. You can get it at Tractor Supply or some hardware stores . Guess coarse sand would be fine .

 

I have silica sand in mine, seems to work fine. I filled it too full at first... after I removed a bit it works much better, the media needs some room to move around. Also need a sturdy work surface.
I made a hammer from an old baseball bat...easy to reshape the face if needed. Lotsa fun!

 

this seems like a good way to vent your frustration

 

make sure to buy or make one that is a decent size, mine is 24 inches square. Nothing worse than some of the small bags sold on Epay etc. Once you have one you'll wonder how you ever managed without one, I find I use mine for all sorts of things.

 

I bought a Baleigh leather job from Summit. We'll see what kind of destruction I can create.

 

I have one from Ron Covell somewhere in the shop. Santa sent it to me a number of years ago. I put coarse sand in mine but never stitched it up as I wanted to vet the filler material first. Haven't made the time to find the right task to test it yet. Like Lexcoe said, size matters - mine is only 12-14" in diameter and what little I fussed with it found it to be a wee bit short. I'd also suspect leather thickness/quality in a cheap version.
JML

 

I even use mine to weight things down, its pretty heavy.........

 

https://www.proshaper.com/

 

Interesting, Proshaper recommends closing up the small opening in the bag with 5 minute epoxy after filling.
Their 20" bag looks like the best BANG for the BUCK.
(double dad-joke whammy right there - straight out of the "dad-debase")
JML

 

https://m.roadkillcustoms.com/how-to-make-a-beater-bag-shot-bag/

 

I took the legs from a worn out pair of denim jeans and sewed them up into a beater bag and used beach sand for filler. Cost me zilch! (mouse chewed a hole in it years later, so I made another)