Automated my Master Caster

[Kingsley]

Not much of a poster, but had to post this one. First thanks to Hatch and Wymanwinn for doing all the leg work on this project. They saved me a ton of money as I was looking into getting a Bullet Master from Magma. My wife and I shoot competition and go through about 50-60k lead bullets a year, and running the MC manually was just too time consuming. Something I currently have very little of now, time that is.

Anyway I ran into a few snags with the project and Hatch walked me through all my issue's. Got the system up and running on Wednesday and cast about 2,000 200 grain 45's last night. Life is good! Got a little tweaking to do on the system, but it does work fantasatic. When I get off work, we'll see how it knocks out 125 grain 38's.

Thank you Hatch, and thanks for walking me through the project. And thank you Wymanwinn, who I did not need to contact for problems.

K

[HATCH]

Where is the video?? Got to show it off

[Kingsley]

I'll get one tonight I hope. It was too cold out in the garage last night to even think of shooting a video.

[ButterNutZ]

It would be great if you post a video, maybe even a parts list. Sounds like a great project.
Does it run on air or is it servo motors, or gear box maybe?

[Kingsley]

I will post a video, but all credit goes to Hatch and Wymanwinn. They did all the research and work. I just followed their instructions and parts listing. Here's Hatch's post, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...o-skin-the-cat, which links to Wymanwinn's and has all the parts needed to build it. It's controlled by a PLC and use's air for movement. Very easy and inexpensive.

K

[HATCH]

Wyman should take the bulk of the credit. The automation process is simple compared to engineering the mechanical part (IMHO)

[ffries61]

Approximately how much $$ to do this project, not including the MC ? if you don't mind my asking, been thinking about trying this myself.

Thanks, Fred

[Kingsley]

Let's see. Without digging all the invoice's out. Not sure I even kept them. I would guess around $500, but then I had some items already on hand. To plumb the machine up for air, from Wymanwinn's post was $180 from McCaster. Also throw in another $50 donation for the program for the PLC from Hatch. It could be written if you know that stuff, but it was worth the additional $50 to not write it.

K

[Kingsley]

Ok, uploaded a video to youtube, hopefully this works. Never done this before. I can hear the MC running in the garage while I'm attempting to do this.

Hatch, I see the need for the side plates on the cutting area. There being cut now and installed tomorrow. Went out to the garage and I've got bullets and sprue all over the table and floor!

A big plus to buying (donation) Hatch's PLC program. I've already gotten two programs written (actually modifying his) to run my 200 grain 45 and 125 grain 38. Reloading the PLC takes just a few minutes and your up and running.

[HATCH]

I got a question. In my setup the red light and the greenlight should never be on at the same time. One is stop and one is run. How is yours wired up?
Also I will put this out there- there is a extra input on the plc. You can rewrite the program to use that input to switch between the two 'programs' you use.
To be honest I just run one program for all of them. I guess I could tweak it for each one
I could get a rotary switch and the extra input block. I could run multiple programs and just switch between them. Its endless what you can do.
The basic program is just a roadmap. Changes are easy to do

[HATCH]

And sure you can write the program if you want but there is about 40 hours into that program with all the modifications. The initial program was a week of evenings but keep in mind its been years since college.

[Kingsley]

I've got the red light hot wired to 24vdc, this is per my wife's request. She wants to be able to run the machine and wants the light lite so she can hit it at anytime without seeing a "out" light. After 29 years of marriage, we know what to do!

The re-programming for me is easy. I've got a permanent cable attached to the PLC with the output connector attached to the box. I just connect the cable from the computer (wish it was in MAC format) and away I go.

One question Hatch. When you speed up the casting process, do you cut time off at the lead fill stage or the mold cool down stage? I'm betting it's on the mold cool stage. Again thank you so much.

Casted about 3,000 38 cal tonight. Hatch the next time I'm up in you AO, I owe you and your wife dinner. This modification to the MC has helped my life so much. Time is so important at this stage. I've got 18 months to retirement, at which time......

K

[HATCH]

If you are casting lighter weight boolits like those 38 125's you would adjust both timers.
There is really three timers (from memory).
The oh **** which is like 1 sec.
This is the pause before you pour lead. You can set this to 0. This was if you saw a problem you would have enough time o stop the machine .
The lead cool timer - you can take a second off this timer. You don't want to make this too short as the sprue will still be liquid if its too short.

Mold cool down timer. You can really cut this down to whatever you want .

You need to keep this in mind. This setup isn't about speed or volume. If you need more then 600-700 boolits a hr then you need a different setup.
I have run it on a 7 sec cycle casting 38 125's but it want banging them out literally.
If you get it down to about 8.5 sec in the timers then with the mechanical time (physical time to do stuff) you should be at 720 boolits a hr

[Kingsley]

I understand about the speed and volume. I just started to run it with a 38 spl 105 grain WC mold. The timing for your original settings were perfect for my 200 grain 45. Just with 1/2 the weight now, the time's are excessive. I cut down the cool down time, mold open, by 2 seconds for the 105 grain and it's dropping perfect bullets. Again thanks so much Hatch, next I need to tackle the lubersizer.

K

[HATCH]

I have the 105 mold too. You should be able to do like 6 sec overall cycle rate with that. 1200 boolits a hr!!!
Also I cast most 200-220 grain boolits so that's what its optimized for.

[bstone5]

The automation sure helps in casting a large volume of bullets.

I also used the info available on the site for automating my Master Caster.

I used the first program from Hatch, modified the program some what so the mold would stop in the blower position.

Thanks again for all of the work done by others in the development of the automated Master Caster.

It is a challenge to not cast the bullets over the last several months I have purchased a total of 12 molds for use on the Master Caster.

bstone5