GSI bullet feeder

[parrott1969]

My GSI bullet feeder arrived today. This thing is amazing. I can not wait to get it on my press.

[jmorris]

A 650 one or 1050?

[parrott1969]

Jmorris, I ordered it for my RL 1050. Man that thing is something else. It took a while to get it up and working. I had a few issues to work thru. The first one was a jamb that gumbed up the whole works. I loaded a couple hundred when it happened. It took a few minutes to clear it but then the collator would not rotate. Another few minutes of searching revealed that one of the fingures had been pushed into the hopper ring and would not let it rotate. Loosened one screw and readjusted and I was off and running. Then suddenly everything stoped. the bullet indexer stop idexing. It was only advancing half a click. So I started studing on it and realized that the caming plate was bent m(My fault). So I placed a washer behind it. After that, I had no more problems and man it sure speeds things up. All in All I am very happy with it. Every piece of equipment takes a little tweaking even Dillon's. And this is one complex piece of equipment, So many things happening at once, I fully expected to have to tweak a few things. I sent Xavier an email explaining the minor issues that I had. And I do mean minor. Actually I think I tweaked the caming plate when my 1050 jambed.
I had some concerns as to whether the collator could keep up with the press. As the bullet column filled my concerns grew. I kept thinking " man I am going to have to wait for this thing to catch up it only holds 10 or 15 bullets". My concerns proved unwarranted. It does a fine job and I never had to stop and wait on the collator.

All I can say is WOW. I made a pile of bullets very quickly and I did not have to sacrafice my safties. What more can you ask for?
When I buy another 1050 the first thing I am doing is ordering another feeder from GSI.

By the way, they have changed where the hopper mounts. It is no longer on the tool head. Instead they supply a post and you mount it 9 inches from the side of the reloading machine. I think that solved the problems they were having.

[jmorris]

I had my GSI feeders before they made their collators so I built my own; however, I did play with one a friend had trying to get it to run 100%, with no luck. That was a few years ago, glad to see they finally got them to run.

Moving the collator off the tool head is a step in the right direction as well. I assume that takes away the need for the gas strut?

I had cam issues with one of my 650 feeders and Xavier sent me a few extras, fixed the problem. The index cam return started with only one spring that if you were not smooth with the down stroke over indexed the bullet "wheel", adding an extra spring fixed that problem too.

I run a KISS dropper on my 1050 because GSI didn't make one for rifle bullets, I would like the PC die but I can live without it with the loads I use, its small charges of fast powder that I can't see in pistol cases that I really need the PC dies

[parrott1969]

Jmorris, they have not eliminated the gast strut. I kind of like it as it aids with return. Only problem is that I have to be carefull and not let it return too fast or the press throws powder out of the brass.
I have decided that if the collator starts to give me problems I will adapt my hornady collator to the stand and see if it will do any better. But from my time with it on saturday, I do not feel that it will be an issue.
Two things that bothers me is that leather wiper. It just seems to hang around doing nothing. I may design a spring wiper for it. And the fact that I lost my cartridge bin support bracket. I am boing to install the case feeder supports in the two bottom holes and make a bracket that will bridge the two and serve as a bin suppoet. Seems to be a simple fix. If it works I will send you a pic.

With that said, it still works and works well.

[Doby45]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b327/Doby45/untitled-1.jpg

[parrott1969]

If i knew how I would. This thing wants a URL thing a ma bobby. I am a proud redneck and I have no idea how that works. I can email you pics if you can figure out how to post them,

[Doby45]

Just for you Darryl :)

http://i55.tinypic.com/mrg010.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/jgseub.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/6zaiox.jpg

[parrott1969]

Not to toot my own horn but man that looks good! Now if only someone would make a white press. I could have the old red, whit and blue with 50 bullets in the middle.

[Russel Nash]

cool!

not to drift this too far, but I wonder how well something like that would work for feeding a Star lubesizer if it was outfitted with its bullet feeder. They (Magma Engineering) want a pretty penny for the M-A...err..M-S Systems... bullet collators.

I also wonder how well other bullet "feeders" (collators really) would work...say like the Mr. Bulletfeeder or the RCBS.

Those last two look surprisingly simple that I gotta wonder how easy it would be make one.

[parrott1969]

you would need a way to flip the bullet. they drop base down. should be easy to design

[jmorris]

If Parrott is willing to drift a bit, I have built my own soultions to those problems.

My first bullet collator was to feed my homemade sizing machine. I used a rotating drum with a blind hole in it to flip the bullet. They land in the drum base down rotate 180 and drop out nose down, into a push/pull device that works like a kids gumball machine feeding the bullet into the die. All the way in and the bolt head runs the ram down and back.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/center.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/left.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/die.jpg



The first collator I built was pretty involved but had a cull device that droped bullets out a trap door if they were base up 100%, even the $1000 MA systems collator is not 100%.

This is the collator.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/feeder1.jpg

The cull device.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/feeder2.jpg


The KISS style feeders are far more simple made out of PVC and 1/2" thick plastic and a section of round plastic for the flipper.

Here are two I built along with a wheel for a 3rd, along with the fixtures I built for the slot pattern.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/reloading/bullet%20feeder/DSC01472.jpg

Inside viwe showing the flipper. If the bullet is base down it simply passes and drops in the hole. If it is nose down the tip catches in the slot and it drags it out onto the ramp that flips it back up. Simple and works great once you have the right slot and speed.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/reloading/bullet%20feeder/DSC01537.jpg

[deltaenterprizes]

I had a MA Systems 12'' collator attached to a Star luber with the Magma feeder until Katrina messed it up. I still have all the parts and one day when I get a round tuit I plan to clean it up and get it working again. Right now for the level of shooting that I do hand feeding my new Star is fast enough.

[parrott1969]

JMorris, I am amazed. A while back you had posted that you could load something like 1800 rounds an hour. I kind of heckled you about the production rate claim. I appoligize and confess YOU ARE THE MAN! The reason for posting this is I loaded 106 rounds in 2 minutes and 45 seconds. That included adding bullets to the hopper.

I still can not get over it, that equates to a lot of ammo in an hours time.

[jmorris]

I understand, for years I thought a turret was fast, and it was vs my single stage. I have done 100 in two and a half minutes but generally stick around the 3 minute mark. If you really want to feel like your cheating add an auto drive. It doesn't run quite as fast as I do but when you can casegauge while loading it still cuts process time in half.

[Spanners]

Sorry to drag up an old post, but did you have any issues the collator needing adjustment Parrot?
Mine was jamming every 10 rds, and I moved the flip plate aorund and have it better now, but still jamming

[Gremlin460]

My turn to drag a old post up, Jmorris put me onto GSI a few weeks back. Well I tripped over a bit of cash and ordered the toolhead last night, now the hard bit... waiting for delivery.