My Boolit Master

[RoGrrr]

My Boolit Master
So I lit up my MK II Boolit Master (built in the 70s) today to see if it would do anything and as the ingots melted the heating element burned out. Darn.
I mean DANM !
I called Magma for some info on heaters and since they don't stock a replacement element for the MK II they said they doubt I can find one. They say that an element will have to be custom bent to fit. They switched to a Watlow cartridge-type heater inserted into a 1 inch thick baselate. I asked what their model number is. They use either 4 or 5 750 watt cartridge heaters in their new version pots.
I looked at McMaster and the hottest cartridge they have is 300 watts. I need about 3000 watts for the hundred pound pot. Watlow has cartridge type heaters with NPT threaded fittings on them to screw into and seal in the lead pot and flanged heaters which are inserted into a thick baseplate. I haven't decided which way I'll go. It all depends on what I can find at the scrap yard to build my pot with.
Watlow recommends using the thick baseplate since a heating element that is not covered by the lead will overheat and burn out. A 1/2" element in a 1/2" hole will solve that problem due to the heat sinking of the thick plate. Also, lead is not a good conductor of heat, which further suggests mounting the heater in a thick baseplate, which is why Magma switched from the element that’s in the melt to a cartridge that is in the 1 inch thick baseplate of the pot.
The heaters I'm looking at are either 1/2" or 5/8" diameter, 5 or 6" long and are 1500 watts each. Price is determined by the diameter of the heater.
I spent about 90 minutes on the fone with the Watlow tech guy, discussing a heater for the custom pot I'm going to build. It's not worth buying an element for the old pot which is only about 50 Lb capacity. The new Magma pots are about 100 Lb capacity. The BM runs about 2200 per hour which will consume about 125 Lbs per hour when casting 45/200’s so I’ve decided to just build a new pot. I might as well put all the options in it - 3 heating elements in, or under 2 chambers, an inter-chamber valve, lots of insulation, 2 temperature sensors feeding into 2 PIDs.
The heaters we discussed are 1000 and 1500 watts. My dual chamber pot will have one side for pre-melt and the other chamber will be for the pour. I’ll put 2 elements in or under the melt side and one in or under the pour side. I’ll also install a valve to feed pre-melt into the pour chamber if I can figure out the mechanics of it - something like a toilet valve.
I posted 3 pics of my old pot and heater on imgur.com. Search for BOOLITCASTER to see them. My element is about 50" long, 7/16" thick. My pot is 6" x 11" x 4" deep, calculating to about 50 Lbs of lead.

[RoGrrr]

I burned out the heating element on my MAGMA pot and had trouble finding another element to bend to my specifications. He said I’d have that trouble so I decided to simply build a new furnace from scratch. So I started designing my new one and realized that it was just too small, especially since MAGMA has now gone to a hundred pounder. My old pot was about 40 Lbs.
Maybe the professionals know something I don’t. So I spent some time talking with Mark, the fella who builds these and got a lot of good ideas about them. Let’s see: 2200 slugs per hour X 230 grains = 70 Lbs per hour. Figure I’ll have to keep it at least half full all the time so I decided to build something bigger, too.
To the scrap yard I went and bought a piece of 10 x 13 x 1-1/4 steel plate for the base. Magma uses cartridge heaters fitted in holes in the base in their new version rather than the old immersion heater. Their base is ¾“ and their heaters are ½” diameter and burn about 3500W to melt about 100 Lbs of lead. My new one calculates out to about 175 Lbs but I’ll only fill it to about 125-150. I will put about 6000W under mine but this doesn’t really mean that I will be burning 6KW all the time. With the PID/SSR, it will probably coast along about 2000, if that much. But 6KW will melt the contents really fast so it’s going to be relatively economical. I could go with 4500W but there’s a tradeoff – initial melt fast with 6KW or slower with 4.5KW so I’ll go 6KW and it will throttle way back after it’s all up to temp.
My new heaters are 8” long and I don’t relish drilling 3 ½” holes.
The sides of my pot will be 6” high and I’ll have plenty of insulation wrapped around it. So I don’t have to design and experiment with a new one, I’m going to use the pour valve out of the old pot, since I won’t have any use for it now. Not sure what I’ll do with it….
I’m planning to build 2 sections in this pot with a gate valve between the pour section and pre-melt side, like MAGMA. One 2KW heater under pour and 2 2KW heaters for pre-melt. Also, 2 PIDs/SSRs to control them. Initially, I might set it up as a gigantic one section crucible until I figure out how to design and build the mixing valve. I’m not sure how low the valve orifice between the 2 sections needs to be. I forgot to ask Mark about that. He gave me some good ideas for the machine but since I’ve never seen one, I didn’t know what questions to ask.
Attached are pics of what I’m starting with.
8758887589875908759187592875938759487595

[Tazza]

Have you made more progress on this? I'd like to know how it all worked out.

Sure would be nice having it clunking away making loads of projectiles.

[kayak1]

Would love to see the pictures of the new setup and a video of it running!

[RoGrrr]

I haven't taken the time to work on the furnace for a week or so. I will be drilling my holes this week and will take some pics of that process.

This is going to be a long slow process...

[ReloaderFred]

Did you ever get the pictures I sent you of our Mk. 6?

Fred

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m606/ReloaderFred/th_CastingMachine009.jpg (http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m606/ReloaderFred/CastingMachine009.mp4)

[RoGrrr]

Fred
I got the pics of the furnace and valve but nothing else. I've not seen your MK 6, other than this one you just posted.

[Uptickk]

That is a good looking machine Fred, thanks for posting.

Does it have two tappers? One for the spruce and one for the boolits?

[kayak1]

I haven't taken the time to work on the furnace for a week or so. I will be drilling my holes this week and will take some pics of that process.

This is going to be a long slow process...

I don't think that any of us are in a rush. My guess is you would be the one that's int he biggest rush to see it done. It sounds like a great project and I would like to see how it progresses.

Good luck with it!

[kayak1]

Did you ever get the pictures I sent you of our Mk. 6?

Fred

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m606/ReloaderFred/th_CastingMachine009.jpg (http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m606/ReloaderFred/CastingMachine009.mp4)


Nice video, that for posting it! I didn't figure that the sprue tapper would just hit it once.

[ReloaderFred]

That was the first video I made with my new camera, so it's pretty jerky. We were still in the "getting accustomed to the machine" mode when I took the video, and right after I stopped the video, a chunk of lead got caught between the mold blocks and broke a shear pin. Fortunately, they've made the shear pin easily accessible, unlike most of the rest of the machine. You have to be a contortionist to be able to get in there and work on it. They should have made the side panels so they open on a hinge so you can get to the "guts" of the machine at the bottom of the carrier.

There are three tappers, one for knocking the sprue loose that you can see in the video, and at the bottom of the carrier there is one on each side that taps the sides of the carrier to knock the bullets loose out of the molds. All the tappers are air activated.

I've purchased a little larger tapper for the sprue knocker from Zorotool.com. The shaft on this one is 1/4" and is bent from who knows how many taps. The new one has a 5/16" shaft, and a slightly larger barrel. They both have a 1" throw, so it's just a matter of making the mounting hole a little larger, since the body is also larger, and I have to drill and tap a piece of aluminum for the head of it. The tapper head has to be softer than the sprue cutter or it will damage the cutter.

RoGrr, the float appears to be a piece of steel, but I didn't put a magnet to it to see. As long as the float material is lighter than lead, it will stay on top of the melt and activate the lever to open the hole between the two sides of the pot. It's a simple lever and fulcrum arrangement.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Tazza]

That's one nice machine. They seem to be so simple, but i'm sure if i got to look at one in person, i'd find out it's not really the case.

Watching the video, i was watching bits of lead falling around the molds, not a great design idea as you don't need a big piece to get stuck between two blocks and things will hang up. Glad they have shear pins, but not if you have to replace them all the time.

[RoGrrr]

Taz and Fred
I noticed the lead falling, too but look closely and you will see that it appears to be molten. I'm not sure why that's so. Maybe the pour timer is a bit long, maybe the melt temperature is too high. Maybe both. I see what I believe to be an excessive amount of sprue, suggesting way too long a pour opening. Can you shorten that a bit ? like maybe a quarter second or so....
I will be using a digital timer that allows me to change my pour duration in 0.01 second increments so I can keep from over-pouring.

Fred
Do you have a thermocouple to sense melt temp ? And I'm curious what your temp is.
Also, my sprue tapper is located the next station down so when it taps the sprue plate, the sprue consistently drops into the container.
I have a vid of a MK 7 with the tapper located in the same place but the bracket holding the tapper also holds the pin to cut the sprue. This places the pin between 1 and 2 inches higher, cutting the sprues sooner. I don't think the placement is critical as long as the sprue plate is rotated BEFORE the tapper taps.
Also, did you replace the shear bolt with a quarter-20 that is NOT grade 5 ? It HAS TO BE grade 2 or 3 (CHEAP hardware store variety with no marking on the head of the bolt) so it shears and doesn't bend up the machine.


That's one nice machine. They seem to be so simple, but i'm sure if i got to look at one in person, i'd find out it's not really the case.
Watching the video, i was watching bits of lead falling around the molds, not a great design idea as you don't need a big piece to get stuck between two blocks and things will hang up. Glad they have shear pins, but not if you have to replace them all the time.

[ReloaderFred]

When we got the machine, the original pour timer (Dayton) had been replaced with a Macromatic, and it was toast. I ordered a new Dayton pour timer from Magma, as that's the only one they recommend, but was having a problem communicating with one individual there, and he ended up sending me the wrong pour timer two times. I was finally able to talk to someone else and get the right pour timer, but it's defective, and wouldn't allow us to reduce the pour time, hence the overflow on the sprue. That's the timer on the machine when I took the video. If we tried to reduce the pour time, the pour valve would skip pours, in no particular pattern. It might pour once, three times, etc., then skip once, two times, four times, etc. The skipping didn't have a pattern, but when we adjusted it back to what you see in the video, then it would pour every time, but with too much sprue, resulting in the overflow at the back of the mold.

Forum member Angus6 was kind enough to send me a used Dayton pour timer that he had no need for, and it works perfectly. There is no longer a problem with the pour time at all, and we can adjust it properly for the different molds now. By the way, the pour timer is about $40.00 cheaper from zorotools.com........ I found that out after buying the one from Magma, and getting the proper part number.

We're the third owners of this machine that we know of, and the last owner was a country mechanic, to say the least. I tried to talk to the individual I had a problem communicating with at Magma about where the sprue tapper was supposed to mount, but all he could tell me was "just attach it to the two bolts on the machine", but I couldn't make him understand there aren't two bolts that will fit the mounting. I suspect the last owner jury rigged the mount, and that's why it's currently being held in place with visegrip pliers. We're going to change that at some future date, but we have other issues to address before that gets done.

The shear bolt I mentioned in the other post was one of about 20 shear bolts that we had to replace before we got the machine running properly, so yes, we're using the proper "shear bolts". We also had a weld break down inside the machine during all of this, and it's amazing that it held as long as it did, since this machine was built around 1994, or so, as that's the date on most of the molds we got with it. There was hardly any weld at all, and what was there was surface weld, with no penetration at all. The weld was pencil thin and only on two sides of the arm the shear bolts attach to. We had to completely disassemble the machine to weld the arm back in place, and if the side plate on the machine had been hinged, instead of permanent, it would have been a simple repair to make.

Both the premelt and pour sides of the pot have their own regulators. Right now we're casting a 105 gr. .38 bullet that has very small bearing surfaces and is hard to get fill out with. We've adjusted the pour temperature for THIS MOLD to 750* F on the pour side, and it's greatly improved the quality of the bullets. The premelt side is set at 725* F. When we first got the machine, both sides were set at 700* F, but the bullets wouldn't fill out well at all at that temperature, which is the reason we adjusted it upwards, which solved our problem.

In the video, towards the end, you can see the two temperature controllers on the right side of the screen. The left controller is for the premelt, and the right one is for the pour side. They both hold the temperatures very close to the settings.

None of the lead falling in the video is molten. It has hit the spill guard on the carrier and solidified, which is the purpose of the guard. This was caused by the long pour time required by the defective pour timer I got from Magma, when I was finally able to get the right one. Now there isn't any spillover from the pour, and the sprues are what they need to be for good bullets.

I guess I need to take another video the next time we run the machine and show how it works now. The last two casting sessions resulted in about 30,000 bullets. Oh, and I had to replace the counter, since it was toast, too. That counter was $48.30! The only cheap part we've found on this machine is the shear pins.............

Hope this helps.

Fred

[RoGrrr]

I'm surprised you didn't go with an EBAY timer that would let you set it digitally. That way, you can consistently set for boolit weight when you change moulds. At least that's my thinking. I plan to do 45/185, 45/200 and 9/125. I like to be able to set the pour time correctly the first time.
Not sure who you spoke with at Magma but the 2 fellas I spoke with were owners and knew what they were talking about. Also, they were very generous with their time. I'm going to AZ this month and they invited me to stop and tour their shop. I plan to take them up on that.
My machine has the pour guard but it's all bent up. Not a problem to straighten it and I think it's a good idea, tho once the machine is adjusted, it shouldn't be a necessity.
I have no idea how many people have owned my machine, since it was built in the 70s. When I got it, it was electrically gutted. The previous owner died and the auction company butchered the harness he had built to get out to where it could be viewed for the auction. The horror, the horror....
I sheared off one bolt while aligning things before I got around to melting any lead. I hope that will be my last one. And I haven't yet melted any lead, either.
Also, my platform for the furnace has been cut/butchered with an oxy-acet torch for some unknown reason. Additionally, the holes holding/locating the furnace were elongated with a file to align it. I'll probably weld them shut and redrill them since I'm building a complete new furnace.
I plan to update everything to current standards.
I noticed how difficult any major maintenance is due to having solid/closed sideplates. I'd thought about opening that up, too but just haven't gotten around to it. When I first got the machine, I took it to the car wash and did the high pressure wash on it. Then I completely disassembled it to dry and lube it. I learned a lot from that inspection process.

At 18 seconds in your vid there appears to be a tapper that is striking the mould carriers. What is that for ? Or maybe it's a microswitch to sense the presence of a mould to allow the pour valve to work.
Also, at 35 seconds, right in the middle of the screen is a knob I'm not familiar with. My MK II doesn't have that. What is it ?

[ReloaderFred]

We didn't know anything at all how the machine was supposed to work when we first got it, so we made the decision to restore it to original and work from there. I've had nothing but good service from Magma over the years, but this one individual and I just couldn't communicate. When I told him he sent me the wrong part for the second time, after I had returned the first one, he got frustrated and just walked away from the phone and someone else picked it up and we got things sorted out in no time. the second person said he would have a talk with the other person, whom I won't name, since others may not have had the same experience with him and I don't want to tarnish any contacts they may have. He said it only made sense that if the first part was the wrong one, then why would you send the same part a second time? Anyway, we got it straightened out.

As for the parts in the video you asked about, the part at 18 seconds is a contact switch. There is also a microswitch directly below it a couple of inches that you can't see in the video. If there isn't a mold on the carrier, the switch you see interrupts the signal and the pour timer doesn't relay to the pour switch. Both that switch and the microswitch below it have to be in contact with the carrier for the pour to happen.

The knob at the 30 second mark is an adjustment knob for the timing of the carrier so it's under the pour spout when the lead flows.

As for the pour timer and it's settings, there is a reading and setting for the pour, and we simply record that for each weight bullet and go back to that when we change molds. We'll be pouring bullets from 92 grains to 240 grains (the caliber doesn't make any difference in the pour time, as you know). When we got the machine, it had four .45-70 405 grain molds on the carrier, which apparently were the last bullets cast with it. We believe the pour timer had quit working prior to that, and the past owner was cycling it by hand, as the air line was disconnected to the pour relay, and there were both full bullets and partial bullets in the molds, which indicated some trial and error on the operator's part. Since he passed away several years ago, there's no way to know for sure, but all indications are that's what he was doing.

Considering the description of your machine, ours was in pretty good shape! It would have helped us if we'd had someone familiar with the machine to instruct us on it's operation. The on line manuals from Magma are for the Mark 8 machine, and the instructions are obviously written by someone who knows the machines forwards and backwards, but doesn't know how to write a manual for someone who turns the machine on for the first time.

I got the Lube Master working that last casting session, and it does a good job, but that M-A Systems Collator just may end up at the bottom of the ocean! That thing is a nightmare, and it's set so long in a wet environment that all the aluminum parts are oxidized to the point they make the bullets look like they've been dragged down the street behind a truck. We're going to dismantle the collator and try polishing all the aluminum, including the plate and wall of the bowl. I'm told that once they're adjusted properly, they work fine, but I tried every adjustment the M-A manual had listed and we still got bullets coming down upside down about every fifth or sixth bullet, or bullets dropping out the back when one gets jammed in the drop tube, but that's all for another thread.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[cast emill]

I am thinking about making a big electric melt pot like yours and I have a few questions.

1. What is the thickness of your side walls
2. Where did you get your heating elements from and what is the number so I would be able to get the same ones.

[RoGrrr]

My pot will hold over 100 pounds of melt. At 230 grains, casting 2200 45 slugs an hour will pour about 1300 OUNCES of lead per hour. That's over 80 pounds an hour so I went big with plenty of heat under it.
My pot is made from 2 pieces of 3/16 plate which I sheared to 6" x 17" and bent at 90* top form the sides of the crucible. I welded them them onto the base. The base is 1-1/4" thick, only bcuz that's what was available at the scrap yard. Magma uses a 3/4" plate with 1/2" holes drilled for the heaters. They use several (maybe 5) 750 Watt heaters while I'm using three 2000 watt heaters, 2 under the melt side and one under the pour side. I'm using 2 PIDs for separate control of each section. I got my heaters thru SEAGATE CONTROLS, rep for WATTCO. Toledo, Ohio 800.472.8812 My technical contact is JR in sales and I'm sure he will remember me if you drop my name - Roger - and mention lead melting.
My stainless steel heaters are 1/2" diameter and about 8" long with 20" of lead wires, costing about $80 each.
Here's their catalog:
http://www.watlow.com/downloads/en/catalogs/heaters.pdf
page 44 - J8A101 is the basic number for what I got.


I am thinking about making a big electric melt pot like yours and I have a few questions.

1. What is the thickness of your side walls
2. Where did you get your heating elements from and what is the number so I would be able to get the same ones.

[cast emill]

What type of lead control valve setup are you using on your melt pot? Is it the one you had pictures of on another thread? I was kicking around the idea of making a 4 hole setup for my Lyman 4 cavity molds. Maybe using a contact switch so when I slide the mold in and touch the switch it fills all 4 cavitys at once. I am a machinists and our shop is a full cnc shop so I can make just about anything I need.

John ( cast mill)

[RoGrrr]

cast emill
First, welcome to the forum.
When I visited Magma last month, one of the things I wanted to see was their valve between the melt and pour chambers. I decided that it's just as easy to buy the complete assembly from them rather than try to make one myself. I'll post pics of those parts in a few days.
I'm using the pour valve from my old pot. It's the one I posted couple months ago. I figger that I really don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Your idea of making an automated 4-holer sounds good. I hadn't thought of using a switch but you should trigger a digital timer to get consistent pour times, digital so you can EASILY command/control different weight molds - repeatability. What I think is that with a gallery that runs that long distance to the first and last pour spouts might cause you some problems with the gallery draining the melt.

Why not put your location in your user CP ? It'd be nice to know where you are. I found a couple fellas fairly close to me.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Redlion: for controllers they are better and cost less, and if you get the right one you can rebuild them when they burn out, the folks working there know their stuff-- not Wattlows.
1st thing we did to our "new" machine was pull the elements, install 1000 watts all around, pull out the controllers installed : Redlion controls ( they have some newer stuff, just as good less money), switched out the dayton junk, switched out the motor, the ears - tabs that mount broke on several we had.

The really old units with those emersion style elements all went away, upgraded them with the 90-100 pound pots. try getting all the lead out of the pot when the element goes bad and 50 pound of lead stuck around , then what tip the machine over, no, dip a spoon in there and pour out the lead a little at a time. NO
Changed- added & relays so the machine could not pour the pot out onto the floor any more. It would reset and re-ingage after the machine would rotate and then pour again, , turned off the valve pour solenoids ( those thing suck get the air system you'll never go back) turned the motor off with that switch to keep from bending the **** metal bar that pulls from the back to front, Bent it so many times, we chucked it and replaced it with thicker metal, better grade ends to, they wore out too fast.
Keep on trucking, love to see you do this. Are you going to market them too??

[Uptickk]

ReloaderFred (or anyone else),

I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing the zoro part number for the spruce/mold tappers you picked up. I finally got around to firing up my machine this past weekend and had a lot of spruce and boolits sticking to my molds. Someone in another thread posted these http://www.trossenrobotics.com/p/large-solenoid.aspx but you mentioned your are air powered. I am not too versed in that area and what to get something that provides enough force but not an excessive amount (probably the benefit of using air). Looking at the Magma instructions it looks like they recommend a setting of about 40 psi.

Thanks

[Uptickk]

ReloaderFred

Upon watching your video for the umpteenth time it seems as through you might just have one solenoid that fires multiple air cylinders (pour, spruce, and mold) at the same time. If you wouldn't mind sharing both the cylinders and solenoid I would greatly appreciate it.

[cast emill]

Yea I was planing on using a digital controller for the valve. I was also thinking of making the 4 hole manifold with a small heating element and wiring into a pid to add some heat to it to keep it from freezing up. I have been on the forums for a while just looking at things but never posted until now. I live in Georgia near Atlanta.

[ReloaderFred]

Uptickk,

Here is what I bought for the sprue plate knocker:

Air Cylinder, Single Acting, Round Non Repairable, 1 1/16 In. Bore Dia., 1 In. Stroke, 250 Max. Pressure (PSI), Mounting Style Nose, Cushion Type None, 1/8 NPT Cylinder Ports (In.), -10 to 165 Degrees Operating Temp. Range (F), 3.56 Total Le(more...) 12.59 12.59 G1990152

The part number is: G1990152

On my Mark 6, there are knockers at the bottom of the carrier on each side of the mold, plus the sprue plate knocker. The mold knockers strike the mold halves from each side to knock the bullet from the mold. The sprue plate knocker hits the sprue cutter just hard enough to jar the sprue loose. It has an aluminum "hammer" on the end of the piston, so it won't deform the sprue cutter. You just want it to tap the sprue cutter, not knock the holy bejesus out of it.

I don't know what the number is for the solenoid, since we haven't had to replace it. There are actually a couple of solenoids, since one activates the air for the pour spout, and the other activates the knockers. Magma's diagrams aren't a lot of help, either. They appear to have been written by someone who knows the machines inside and out, so they skipped a lot of the detail when they printed the manuals.

The key to getting the sprue to fall out at the proper time is lubing the sprue cutters. I've been using the cheapest Pam product I can find ($2.99 a can) at the restaurant supply store. It works just fine, and smells like you're cooking popcorn while casting bullets. I spray the cutters about every 1,000 casts, whether it needs it or not, since I hate picking out the sprues from the bullets.

I need to take another video of the machine in operation, since it's working smoothly now. I've cast about 80,000+ bullets on it, and I think I've finally got the knack of it, though the bullet I'm casting right now is a 105 gr. .38 caliber bullet, which has very little bearing surface and it's hard to get them to fill out properly. I've experimented with more tin, different temperatures and pour times, and I'm now getting very few rejects.

We had to take the old M-A Systems collator off our Lube Master, since it's oxidized badly and was chewing up the bullets, and about 20% of the bullets dropped into the tube the wrong way. M-A tells us that's not a bad percentage, but that's not acceptable, since those 20% have to be remelted, since the lube is all over them, and it's wasting lube and time. We've been loading the bullets into tubes, which is a pain it the butt, but we don't get any rejects that way......

I'll try to remember to take another video the next time I'm at the shop and the Bullet Master is running. I'll also try to get a more detailed view of the actual operation, if that will help, but it's going to be at least a week before I get up there again.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Uptickk]

Thanks ReloaderFred!

Are you saying that the spruce plate knocker and the carrier knockers were not originally the same type of knockers? I was hoping to just get 3 of the same air cylinders.

No need to worry about the solenoid. I am currently using one for my pour spout but don't see why I couldn't use the same one for my tappers. Maybe just step down the pressure on the leg going to them. If it doesn't work I will just pick up another solenoid. I used Blaster, a spay graphite lubricant on my spruce cutters. Once I get the tappers going I will see if I need to change up lubricants.

Someone else posted that they think the collators are a *** in the following forum, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?209532-Automated-Master-Caster, but I am not sure what other alternatives are out there.

Looking forward to your next video and thank you once again for your help!

[ReloaderFred]

Uptickk,

The sprue knocker is very different from the mold knockers at the bottom of the carrier. I wasn't even sure what they were until we were able to get the pour timer replaced and the machine working. They barely move, and they're a completely different configuration from the straight forward sprue knocker, which is basically just a piston with a soft hammer on the end.

Those mold knockers are hard to see, and I don't understand why Magma didn't build their machines with door panels, so you can reach in there for cleaning and maintenance? Our machine may end up with those panels cut into the sides, since one of the partners has a plasma torch.

It's supposed to rain buckets here this weekend, so I just may go up and cast bullets on Saturday. If I do, I'll try to get more pictures and a video with more detail. Like I mentioned before, it's set up in one of the partner's shop, and it's about 30 minutes away from me.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Littleton Shot Maker]

That was me.
But you are asking the right question, What else is out there now these days.
Didn't dillion put out their copy of the collater.

In principle the way it works sucks.
Little tabs of thin sheet metal to push the bullets down off the plate.
I always thought the base plates should be style and shape specific, the bullets can never go in upside down for example.
The stupid little clear tube with springs hold them together with are weak will and do fail- or break and bullets go all over the place,
AND I hope you have at least two of every single part on that thing so when it does break you can keep going.
The set screw in back will back out I don;t care what you do. UNLESS you drill it and put in a heavier screw then a screw that locks that in place.
The clear tube in the top, at the back, breaks real easy if a bullet does not drop, gets hung in between and the motor does not get turned off right then,

I just can not remember all the bad we dealt with in 20+ years using them

KEEP in mind the collators where not designed to handle THAT much weight, pills, nuts, bolts, tiny stuff okay, heavy lead stuff not so ok.

I was running 3 big casters sometime 4 and at the same time running 2-3 sizer lubers, ALL at the same time. Yes I had helpers, but they didn't know why it did what it they just sorted bullets, or fed bars in , or feed bullets into collators, NEVER never did I let any of them ever hold a tool or fix any stinking thing in the shop. That was my main job, fixing and teaching and more fixing.

[Uptickk]

Thanks for the information Alan. I not sure about Dillon but I thought the Hornady collater was only to be used with jacketed or plated bullets, I could be wrong about that.

I ended up pulling the trigger on 3 air cylinders for the spruce and mold tappers. Based on ReloaderFred it doesn't seem that the mold tappers use air cylinders but without any other ideas I figured I would do a little trial and error.

RoGrrr, I cannot help but feel like I highjacked your thread. Just say the word and I can start a new one. I didn't intend to detract from your Boolit Master but simply to get more information about bullet masters in general.

[ReloaderFred]

I didn't get to cast when I thought I would, so no video. We had freezing rain, so I stayed home where it was safe. We've had crappy weather ever since...... Next time I'm at the machine, I'll try to get you some better pictures.

Fred

[Uptickk]

No harm done, I am glad you are safe and sorry to hear about the weather. My time at the workshop is in limited supply so I have to make things fit when I have the free time (workshop is about an hour each way to get too). Still looking forward to your pictures. Hopefully I can finagle the air cylinders into working...

[No_1]

Great info in this thread. I would love to find an older machine such as this at a reasonable price.

[RoGrrr]

SNIP
RoGrrr, I cannot help but feel like I highjacked your thread. Just say the word and I can start a new one. I didn't intend to detract from your Boolit Master but simply to get more information about bullet masters in general.

Fellas
Don't worry about hijacking the thread, even tho it was about my bullet master. I've enjoyed reading all your posts and have learned some things. I'm considering a few changes based on some of your thoughts.
That said, I have to get back in my shop, back to work on my caster. I've been way behind and am running out of boolits so I do need to shake a leg.
Keep posting.