THIS is why I bought a 1,000lb auction lot of brass

[Love Life]

Thought the military was destroying brass making it unusable for reloading?

False.

[Groovy]

The last time I qualified my base range had a locked container for brass that gets picked up for recycling to be reloaded.

[Pb2au]

I am pretty sure either;
1) my arm would fall off after resizing/de-priming that much brass. Or
2) I would simply build a machine to do it. Iv'e built equipment to do more complicated tasks....
I think I would go with point 2.
Wow, that is just a lot of brass.

[376Steyr]

Thought the military was destroying brass making it unusable for reloading?

They've tried a couple of times, but got stopped by Congress. Last time was a couple of years ago. As I understand it, multilated brass gets sold locally for recycling and the money goes to the base to be used on the installation. Intact cases bring more money at auction, but the money goes into the big DoD pot, never to be seen again. Thus the temptation to wreck cases.

[W.R.Buchanan]

One of Morris' D1050's with the motorized drive would be the way to go. You would tumble the brass in a cement mixer and then feed the cleaned cases to the 1050 which would deprime/size, swage, reprime, charge, seat bullet and then crimp. Or just deprime/size and swage the primer pockets.

One round every 1.25 seconds. 73 rounds per pound = 91.25 seconds per pound of brass. You would have to add the time for the initial mixer full of brass, but after the loader started running you would be running the mixer and the loader at the same time.

The expected output would be 2880 rounds per hour less any shut downs for replenishing bullets primers and powder. or 39.4 lbs of brass per hour.

Most of those boxes in the pics above have about 2900 lbs in them so 73.6 hours of run time to completely process one of those boxes. That's for complete reloading or simply processing the brass ready to load. With a rotary transfer machine you get the same output whether you use one or two of the stations or all of them.

With 100 cases weighing right at 1.25 lbs you would be looking at 2320, 100 round packages, which you could in turn sell for $10/100 rounds for processed ready to load cases or $23,200 for three 24 hour days work or 9 8 hour days.

This would easily pay for your equipment in one run, and the rest is gravy.

How many of those boxes are available?

Randy

[dragon813gt]

How many of those boxes are available?

Randy

Right now there are quite a few auctions for large quantities. I'm talking 8000+ pounds. Don't forget you need certified funds to purchase the brass. Plus a way to transport it. The bases usually offer forklift loading. But there are also lots that are to be dumped into an open top vehicle like a dump truck. How big do you want to go

[jmorris]

Depriming 1,000 lbs. of brass might just take me the rest of my life...

It is just the way you are doing it. "Nothing but a mole hill for a high stepper".

Another pic of a room where they load "odd ball" rounds.

They need some of my PLC controls for the driven machines they have but I have focus in another area right now.

[OnceFired]

Gotta love all those machines lined up.

[Rhino45]

I'd just like to have couple thousand rounds not pounds

[W.R.Buchanan]

I meant to include the fact that if you have multiple machines running that you cut your time by a factor of how many machines.

IE two machines = 1/2 the time,,, Etcetra.

With all of the machines pictured above set up to do the same thing, you could process 3000 lbs of brass in a matter of a few hours.

I worked around Automatic Screw Machines for several years. They are automatic lathes used for machining simple parts in large quantity.

Progressive reloading machines operate under the same rules as Screw Machines in that there is a cycle time per part and that cycle time divided into one hour will yield the production per hour. That number multiplied by the price per part = the amount of money per hour the machine is producing.

I had a job in the shop once that had a cycle time of 12 seconds or 5 parts per minute. These parts were worth $1.25 each! That's $6.25 per minute or $375.00 per hour! ( it was a good job while it lasted) Typically runs were 3500 parts per month which would take about 12 hours of actual run time to produce. Typically that would turn out to be about 2-3, 8hour days when you consider the downtime, which was minimal but mostly caused by the machine sitting idle when the bar of stock was consumed. I got 45 minutes per bar and there was nothing more satisfying than going to lunch while the machine was running back at the shop. I ran lots of errands with that machine running without me.

Wish that job would come back.

Randy

[MtGun44]

So what kind of prices are they getting for thousands of pounds of once fired
5.56 brass?

Bill

[dragon813gt]

So what kind of prices are they getting for thousands of pounds of once fired
5.56 brass?

Bill

Depends on the auction location. I haven't seen any go for less than scrap value by me. The commercial reloaders bid on them and know the value as well. Better have some cash if you want to bid on the large lots. I'm waiting for one that's nicely packaged in ammo cans so I get the bonus of the cans w/ the brass

[OnceFired]

I recommend not buying the brass with the cans at the auctions. The price of separate cans is less than the weight of the brass the can is absorbing. You have to alter your price accordingly, and often these lots are overbid because people don't do so. On the other hand, buying brass in cans can be one way to try to keep it in good shape. But it's certainly not a guarantee.

[dragon813gt]

I know what the cans weigh. I know what the cans and brass are worth. I can use the cans as well as the brass. Anyone that doesn't perform some simple math before they bid gets what they deserve. Like all auctions you set your max bid and don't go above it.

[Love Life]

You can also email the auctioneer to ask if the weight of the cans is included in the auction weight. Ammo cans are pretty expensive these days...

A 1050 is the ONLY way to go if you plan any level of prep for the market besides cleaning. You gotta think large scale here. I remember at the height of all the fun Phil3333 made a SS tumbler that held 2,000 pieces of 7.62 brass!!

[MBTcustom]

OP rocks, and post #27 also.

[zuke]

"One piece at a time" and the rest of the song!

[MaryB]

I could use a couple hundred pounds... beyond that I would go insane decapping/crimping/cleaning