3700lb boolit gc seater/bumper outer setup

[MBTcustom]

I have this mold that is a stinkin little sucker that has just been my go-to 30 caliber for years. In fact, for the first ten years of my casting experience, it was my only 30 caliber mold.
The problem is that I have been casting with it since my mid to late teens, and pretty much treated it like a $2 rented mule with an attitude problem like I did all my equipment at that time in my life It hadn't sunk in that some of these things are hard to replace and are also rather fragile. (Surely I'm not the only one here that tore stuff up as a teenager!)
Anyway, the cavities don't line up perfectly anymore, and what I was doing for years was sizing and lubing straight out of the water (dried off with a paper towel of course) and bumping them a little with the 450 (did I mention that I tore stuff up when i was a kid?) to iron out the janky drive bands and close up that nasty step put in them by the mold blocks not lining up anymore.
Well, the 450 is toast, and I now have a Star, but no matter how I do it, I can't bump the boolit up with the Star without bending the handle! (LOL! Just kidding!)
I am now in need of some boolits that are sized .315 for my Argentine, and the little 311466 falls woefully short. I just get two shiny streaks down the sides of the boolit. The other little problem I am having is that the GC's are not seating straight, and I wanted to seat them. Unfortunately, the 311466 is a RN design and any attempt to push on the nose will cause a deformed flat.
SO, I had the simply brilliant idea of using the milling machine to precisely bump the boolits while seating the GC at the same time!
What I did was to cut a precise boss in the surface of my milling machine vice (any of you nay sayers can take a hike! It's a Grizzly cheapo. I wouldn't be caught dead doing that to a Kurt.) and while it was still perfectly aligned with the chuck, I installed a 450 punch that would push the nose without deforming it. I did a little experimenting with the crush depth till the boolits would clean up perfectly when pushed through a .3145 die, then I just ran them all through.
Here's some pictures I took:

101594
Here she is ready for the bump:
101595
El cruncho!
101596
Ready for the sizer:
101597

[starmac]

It is a wonder what a guy will come up with in this hobby. lol I would say that should do the job. lol I have a 45 mold that the gas check shank is a little bit too big, maybe I should get me a grizzly to seat them checks on. lol

[geargnasher]

Nothing like a $10,000, one-session-use solution to a problem!

I had to go to a similar extreme to get Hornady checks on that .30 SIL boolit, at least I did on the first mould.

Gear

[MBTcustom]

Nothing like a $10,000, one-session-use solution to a problem!

I had to go to a similar extreme to get Hornady checks on that .30 SIL boolit, at least I did on the first mould.

Gear

Yep! Kinda like welding a spade to a backhoe bucket.
It was amazing how little effort it took to bump those boolits. Perfect alignment, perfect concentricity, perfect depth control.
I'm still working on a neck turning jig that mounts in the mill. Once I get that going, I should be able to achieve even more perfect runout control than I have ever been able to experience up till now.

[uscra112]

Where's the pick-and-place robot for load-unload?

[country gent]

A small arbor press would accoplish that task also. we had a supply of the at work with a hole in the ram and lock screw for repairs and fixturing. Some even had return springs fitted so operators only had to push down. Some had stops to limit travel hence force. Hmm you could adaplt one of those crimp tourque levers to your mill and just run to the click also. As to the neck turners for your mill they have been made for drill presses ( I made around 1/2 dozen or so for people when neck turning was the rage in NRA High Power for 600 yds and out. PM me if you want to know more.

[Doc Highwall]

Tim, this is the neck turning tool that I have and it works great. Think about making something that floats to find the center like this does.

http://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-reviews/neck-turning-lathe-from-21st-century/

[Love Life]

Why can't somebody sneak in CBRick's reloading shack, take an incredible amount of photos of the most amazing case prep tool ever to exist, and duplicate it?

[btroj]

Why can't somebody sneak in CBRick's reloading shack, take an incredible amount of photos of the most amazing case prep tool ever to exist, and duplicate it?

Yes. This. Come on Tim, be a good sport and giggle your way in to get some details on that sweet little device of Rick's.

[cbrick]

101656

You mean this little thing? If I can make this so can you! Two motors, gear and chain drive, five output shafts running at three different speeds. Does every operation to brass that doesn't require a press. Simple.

Rick

[btroj]

We need a spec sheet, drawings, and a parts list. Oh, and someone with the know how to make it all work.

Face it Rick, you need to spend some time at Tim's place making a few of those.

[cbrick]

Face it Rick, you need to spend some time at Tim's place making a few of those.

Produce them? I dunno, listening to Tim he is far to busy to get rich.

Rick

[Love Life]

I wouldn't bat an eye at a $500-$600 price tag for that machine, Rick.

[MBTcustom]

I wouldn't bat an eye at a $500-$600 price tag for that machine, Rick.

Better double that.

[Love Life]

Which one? The $500 or $600 number? It would be a lifetime purchase due to the flexibilty of the system, easily replaceable off the shelf parts (Pilots, cutting tools, etc) so even at that price I would be throwing money at whoever built it.

Think about it. The case turning lathe is few bills, a giraud is 4 bills, etc.

Ricks evil contraption would be the holy grail of case prep tools. My time is worth money, and with the time I'll save this tool would pay itself off in short order. Especially when I get a new batch of pistol brass in because I trim all of my pistol brass to a uniform length before reloading. Then there is the neck turning, primer pocket uniforming, primer pockeet reaming, and trimming operations. Plus if you build it, it'll be built right and won't cut my brass at a 45 degree angle...

For that machine $1,000-$1,200 doesn't scare me at all.

[Love Life]

Here is how I truly feel about the machine (said politely and tactfully of course):

[MBTcustom]

Next time im up in Ricks shop ill take a closer look at the trimmer. $1200 I might be able to do if I make six of them I would think.

[cbrick]

To give an idea of costs to build it, 25+ years ago when I built it I had no drawings, no spec sheet, no wiring diagram. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I had the aluminum box made at a sheet metal shop, bought an 1800 rpm motor, pillow block bearings and a 12v gear motor at Grangers & bought gears, sprockets & chain at a shop that specialized in that. I had a machinist friend make many of the shafts, tool holders etc. I already had the Forster & a few odds & ends laying around the shop. At Radio Shack I bought the parts for the 12v power supply & wiring needs. The pillow block bearing alone were like $65 and there are three of them, I needed to use them because I could attach them to the aluminum box.

And 25 years ago I spent over $300 building it even with the stuff I already had and the free machinist work.

I had originally planned on making them for sale but the start up costs were stifling. I needed blue prints and the only guy I found willing to sit down and measure things to do a proper computer blue print - $5,000. I wanted to use an aluminum casting for the housing instead of the box (avoid the pillow block bearings) - $10,000 to get started plus a list of other costs like a patent. I didn't have the money to do that then and I don't now.

Several years later I talked with a guy that had the machine tools and knowledge to build them right, he wanted to build them & he looked into it in some detail. He came back that he couldn't see the investment coming back nearly quick enough to make it a worthwhile investment in time & money based on retail cost and the probable number that could be sold at that retail cost.

It would be an extensive, expensive time consuming project to put it into production. Here we have one person willing to buy one.

Rick

[MBTcustom]

To give an idea of costs to build it, 25+ years ago when I built it I had no drawings, no spec sheet, no wiring diagram. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I had the aluminum box made at a sheet metal shop, bought an 1800 rpm motor, pillow block bearings and a 12v gear motor at Grangers & bought gears, sprockets & chain at a shop that specialized in that. I had a machinist friend make many of the shafts, tool holders etc. I already had the Forster & a few odds & ends laying around the shop. At Radio Shack I bought the parts for the 12v power supply & wiring needs. The pillow block bearing alone were like $65 and there are three of them, I needed to use them because I could attach them to the aluminum box.

And 25 years ago I spent over $300 building it even with the stuff I already had and the free machinist work.

I had originally planned on making them for sale but the start up costs were stifling. I needed blue prints and the only guy I found willing to sit down and measure things to do a proper computer blue print - $5,000. I wanted to use an aluminum casting for the housing instead of the box (avoid the pillow block bearings) - $10,000 to get started plus a list of other costs like a patent. I didn't have the money to do that then and I don't now.

Several years later I talked with a guy that had the machine tools and knowledge to build them right, he wanted to build them & he looked into it in some detail. He came back that he couldn't see the investment coming back nearly quick enough to make it a worthwhile investment in time & money based on retail cost and the probable number that could be sold at that retail cost.

It would be an extensive, expensive time consuming project to put it into production. Here we have one person willing to buy one.

Rick

Exactly.
Although, I would be looking at pulling a few tricks out of my sleeve in order to ditch some of the gears and stuff, and simplify/streamline it wherever possible.
Probably not possible, but it's worth taking another look at. I'm thinking of DC power right off the bat.

[Love Life]

It's definitely not a tool for your average bear, but I still want one.

[cbrick]

Two reasons for the gears & chain drive. Gear reduction equals torque plus the output shaft rpm.

Rick

[Love Life]

RPM are vital. I tried to mimic Rick's masterpiece using pulleys to get variable speeds. Epic fail....

Tha main faling of the RCBS and Hornady powered trimmers is RPM. SLOWWWWWWWW.
The case trimmers that register off the shoulders will always suck because of shoulder setback variation.

Outside of that one photo and the forums, how many people have seen the unicorn?

[dragon813gt]

Does that machine use the Forster collets? I hate them and find them to be the weak link in the design. Wish I could build a dedicated one for each cartridge but I don't have the tools. And I was less than thrilled when I had them make one for 7.62x54r. I was hoping it was made just for that case. But they simply opened up one of the standard ones, for a substantial cost. Oh well. W/ how much I hate brass prep the machine that Rick built looks really appealing.