I'm tired of pulling that handle when sizing!

[lsippell]

Several months ago I saw on here a thread about epoxy coating boolits instead of lubing them. And then a thread about using a spray can of epoxy, 3 coats each baked for 10 minutes. I had to try this.

I had been casting a round nose and a truncated cone in Lee molds (a .358 and a .356 dia.) and sizing to .3565 in a Lee sizing die and tumble lubing before and after. Messy and some leading in my XDm 5.25 9mm.

I didn't want to lube them with tumble lube before sizing and have to clean it off before coating with epoxy and then lubing and cleaning again so I decided to look for a water based lube that would wash off with just water. Fred's Personal Lubricant (warming) works perfect. It was just a little embarrassing going to the register with all the bottles they had and their being a bunch of little old ladies in line with me!

And then me, being the lazy type, thought, 'It's a lot of work pulling this lever (twice) for each boolit I cast so I got think what did I have that could make this easier. I thought of using my leg somehow to work the lever but realized that would be just as much effort from me so that was out. I wanted something that would take the least amount of effort on my part. I got to thinking of a hydraulic ram but that meant a pump, an accumulator and possible hydraulic fluid leaks. That led me to pneumatics and this is what I came up with.

The 5 way control was supposed to be spring loaded to one side but wasn't and that’s why there is a bungee on the lever.
It works fast, about 1.5 seconds per boolit. The Lee sizer is tapered leading in but with a sharp turn into the bore of it which causes about 3 defects per 200 boolits from striking the edge. I'm having Lee radius it to get rid of the sharp edge to eliminate that. It will also eliminate wear on the ram A Lee technician told me.

What's nice about this design is that by changing the cylinder dia. the power can be easily increased. I also added a cheep eBay counter so I could confirm my compulsive counting of repetitive movements.

This works extremely well with the boolits I'm now casting out of an Accurate Molds 124gn. with no lube groves.

I've already got plans for building a horizontal one, dedicated to one cal. that all I'll have to do is drop the boolit into a channel facing the correct way and flip the lever. Won't even have to get my hand close to any moving part.

BTW: I get so little leading now its like shooting plated boolits.

I'm uploading a video of it operating to YouTube and will post the link as soon as it is up.

Video on me using it:http://youtu.be/ol5qOYkY7-0

[Garyshome]

I don't think i'll ever get that far along.

[Artful]

working your way towards this?

[Artful]

[Mk42gunner]

I'd mount the press upside down, with some plastic tubing going from the sizing die to a container on the floor.

Be sure to keep fingers and other body parts you don't want perforated out of the way; I don't see any kind of safety interlocks.

Robert

[lsippell]

I thought of mounting it upside down and even tried it with it when I did it manually. But setting the boolits in the die and them staying straight enough for the ram is sometimes problematic. As for as safety, I havent figured that one out yet. Considering that I have apx. 311 #'s of force at the end of the ram with my air pressure I'm real aware of what could happen. If you notice, there is a bungee connected to the actuator lever that's generates a fair amount of resistance that must be over come to actuate the ram.

[lsippell]

Naw. I don't need to lube and any way, mine cost me about $85 including the die and press and about an hour of my time compared to $372 for the Magma Star with die. And if i go steady, I can do about 1800 in an hour compared to 1300.

[jmorris]

Mine won't keep up with the machines that artful posted but it was built from "junk" and runs by itself.