Making that Bullet Collator

[lablover]

Very interesting. Now I am curious to try myself. I am in the process of making a bunch of changes to my feeder so have to finish that up before I take on any more projects.

I got lazy and ordered one from Karl for my .32 acp loading. Works like a charm! Wish I had the brains to design one up in fusion 360. I can do simple stuff but not trying this die...LOL

BTW, I'm using cura and was wondering what profile everyone is using? I'm gonna start Tylers feeder and using 2.0 standard quality its gonna take almost 45 hours to finish the holder bin...WOW, 2.8 quality takes a day and a few hours. Just got some new filament and doing a temp tower..not sure my Microswiss direct drive and hot end likes this filament. I'm picky yes...hahahahahaha

[TylerR]

I got lazy and ordered one from Karl for my .32 acp loading. Works like a charm! Wish I had the brains to design one up in fusion 360. I can do simple stuff but not trying this die...LOL

BTW, I'm using cura and was wondering what profile everyone is using? I'm gonna start Tylers feeder and using 2.0 standard quality its gonna take almost 45 hours to finish the holder bin...WOW, 2.8 quality takes a day and a few hours. Just got some new filament and doing a temp tower..not sure my Microswiss direct drive and hot end likes this filament. I'm picky yes...hahahahahaha

Hold off before you print the main body. I have made a couple of improvements and should be posting it in a day or so. I am going to print a new one myself. I can give you more details on print settings once I do. I am going to go 4-5 walls and only 20% infill this time I think.

[Fil131]

Here's a link of a 3D printed bullet feeder die with springs. If this indeed needs springs it'd be nice to use pen springs like the flipper.

https://youtu.be/Sf4wwsLgiqY

[lablover]

Hold off before you print the main body. I have made a couple of improvements and should be posting it in a day or so. I am going to print a new one myself. I can give you more details on print settings once I do. I am going to go 4-5 walls and only 20% infill this time I think.

Sounds good buddy I will wait. Should I be good printing any of the other parts..electronic case and plates? Ohhh it’s like Christmas

[TylerR]

Sounds good buddy I will wait. Should I be good printing any of the other parts..electronic case and plates? Ohhh it’s like Christmas

electronics box is good to go. Drop tubes should be good as well. I am making some changes to the flip plates mostly, but I am tweaking a few other things as well. I should have it posted hopefully tommorrow or saturday.

[gnafin]

Making any plates for 9mm and 40sw?

[TylerR]

Making any plates for 9mm and 40sw?

Actually, that's exactly what I am doing. lol.
I am working out bullet and brass feeding for 45acp, 40sw and 9mm. Flipping both bullets and brass either nose up or nose down. I got a request for running it as a regular case feeder, which is the simplest things I have done so far. Base down case feeding is so simple compared to everything else.

For standard case feeding it should just be two collator plates, small pistol and large pistol. One standard slide plate. No flip ramp necessary. For bullet feeding I am looking to do also a small and large pistol collator plate with matching slide plates. So caliber swaps should be quick. Base up case feeding is a whole nother animal but making headway with that as well with those three calibers. .380acp will most likely be covered as well.

[TylerR]

Sounds good buddy I will wait. Should I be good printing any of the other parts..electronic case and plates? Ohhh it’s like Christmas

I just wanted to add that the main modification to the main body is a reliability change to how the flip ramp interfaces with the slide plate. It mostly affects base up case feeding reliability which some people have no interest in anyway.

[gnafin]

sounds good. and .380acp will be good. just need some primers now.

[Fil131]

I just wanted to add that the main modification to the main body is a reliability change to how the flip ramp interfaces with the slide plate. It mostly affects base up case feeding reliability which some people have no interest in anyway.

Awesome stuff, I'm only reloading atm not casting but may start making projectiles in the future. I am loading 380, 9mm, 40Cal, 10mm, 45ACP, 223, 300AAC Blkout, 308Win. So when my printer finally arrives next week I can't wait to start on this project. Are all of these calibers supported now on this bullet feeder?

[TylerR]

Awesome stuff, I'm only reloading atm not casting but may start making projectiles in the future. I am loading 380, 9mm, 40Cal, 10mm, 45ACP, 223, 300AAC Blkout, 308Win. So when my printer finally arrives next week I can't wait to start on this project. Are all of these calibers supported now on this bullet feeder?

I don't know that I would use the term supported.

This is obviously a DIY feeder and everything requires tweaking and willingness to work through problems. A lot of people have contributed to this project and there are many ways to skin the cat. I myself personally have focused on .45acp, and I have tried to innovate a few new concepts such as base up case feeding for bulge busting. I have not done any work with rifle calibers at this point. That being said, all of the principles are there to make those calibers happen, and the main body is designed specifically to allow people to create their own slide plates / ramps and such.

[Fil131]

I don't know that I would use the term supported.

This is obviously a DIY feeder and everything requires tweaking and willingness to work through problems. A lot of people have contributed to this project and there are many ways to skin the cat. I myself personally have focused on .45acp, and I have tried to innovate a few new concepts such as base up case feeding for bulge busting. I have not done any work with rifle calibers at this point. That being said, all of the principles are there to make those calibers happen, and the main body is designed specifically to allow people to create their own slide plates / ramps and such.

I understand, I didn't really mean "supported" so much as I meant to ask if they had collator plates for. I am new to 3d printing and just played with fusion a little, very little CAD experience from a high school class long ago. Not new to reloading tho but going to Dillon from Hornady.

[TylerR]

Just wanted to show the change to the main body so people understand. The way the slide plates are designed there was about a 2.5mm gap where the plate meets the ramp. This can cause hangups at times, especially with base up case feeding. The ramp itself will now be in a channel that lines up with the slide plate. Here are some pics to illustrate what I mean.

OLD:


NEW:

[lablover]

Good God man it is Christmas! Hopefully we can modify those plate specs In openscad.

Fabulous job Sir!

[GWS]

GWS,

Are you saying you like the RCBS dies better then DAA? I have the DAA dropper and expander die for 45, and while it works well, I don't feel like the expander die works as well as it should to seat the bullet firmly.

Keep in mind, that the "RCBS tube Rifle bullet seating dies" are Rifle....mine's .223 and .308. DAA's dies for rifle doesn't come with expanders. So apples and oranges. I have just a tad of an email relationship with one of RCBS's R&D engineers. (20 or so emails in the last 3 years) I told him how much I liked the new tube rifle feeders, and also told him the pistol feeders they sell aren't that great. I suggested they take the rifle design and upgrade the pistol dies to that technology. He sounded positive, like that was an interesting idea. I'm hoping. The rifle dies work. The mouth expanders work. The cost ....not outrageous.

DAA's feeders depend on a bullet stack's weight to "stick" bullets well. As you can see from the video, I dropped ONE bullet stroked the press to drop it.....and one bullet stuck............that IMO is better.



Close-up of the "M" expander with the 1/16" pocket to hold on to a bullet:

[Fil131]

What video GWS? Is there a link I missed?

*Nvm I see it in post 1105 so in the case of loading with a DAA bullet feeder vs RCBS if your loading exactly 100 rounds the last few not having a stack above may keep them from sticking well within the case mouth?

[GWS]

Only what I hear from some who have one....I don't....so from me it hearsay. Is this one perfect?....close but like everything else, no such thing. The clear plastic part on one I dropped on the concrete floor and it shattered into a million pieces. I'm going to print me some for backups....they don't have to be clear.

I also ripped a slit down one side of the graphite tubes lengthwise so I could see bullets. That worked perfect....still rigid and stronger than hell.

One more little thing....like any die you DO have to do minor adjustments for different bullets.

[Fil131]

No prob, good info either way, what is it about the RCBS that lends it to impact bullets more into the case mouth? Is there just a longer section between the ball bearings and the lowest part of the dIe allowing the bullet to gain more speed or something else?

I know you stated you aren't sure but would like to start a conversation about what makes it better and or worse so we can improve on it for reliability. It'd be fairly easy to design as it's a tube with channels and holes for the ball bearings to ride in.

[GWS]

My intention isn't to print one....only the clear plastic part that breaks like glass. As for why bullets stick....that would be the "M" die design, not the feeder die. I doubt plastic is a good use there. I know one thing....and they've proved it before. If you were to figure a way to improve on DAA's product, they will copy it and patent it if they can. I expected them to make "M"s for the rifle dies by now. But with RCBS's non marketing.....they probably don't know about it yet. I notice they have a bigger bullet feeder model now.....and a tube loader.....both copied ideas from reloading forums.

[Fil131]

My intention is to have the bullet feeder work on all the calibers I'm loading to give my left hand a break. On a serious note the feeder dies from DAA are $50 each so buying 8 would cost over $400. I may attempt printing the designs I've already found or attempt to recreate my own DAA with improvements.