Howell Nose Down Collator Adjustment Help?

[Kawgomoo]

Hey everyone,

I have a Howell {i believe?} nose down collator for feeding the sizer. Its been in storage for a number of years, having been passed down to me. I got it up and running, but the wire "sweepers" that help clear and collate the bullets are wildly out of adjustment. As such, about 1 in 15 bullets ends up coming down the chute butt first. Ive tinkered, toiled and fiddled. Ive searched youtube endlessly, but cannot find videos showing the adjustment of such a feeder…Only the "Mr. Bullet" style can i find. I will attach a picture of the collator to help anyone out there identify it. The wires i believe i need to adjust are located at about 12oclock and 9oclock inside the bowl. Yes i know the chute is broken in this pic, but its since been fixed :)

161738

[Labanaktis]

Hey, your on Cast Boolits to!

[Labanaktis]

It looks like a early Howell??? Please post a video.

Matt

[Kawgomoo]

Yes mid 80's from what i can tell. It says "Olympic manufacturing" on it, but the guys at Howell seem to think its an old one of theirs. I will try to get out there and get a video of it.

[Labanaktis]

Please do. If you can't get it tuned in, I might be interested in it.

Matt

[Kawgomoo]

Oh, ill get it running :) Ive got bullets piling up.

[Polishmike]

Mine feed nose up on purpose so I can't help much, unless you need pictures or details of that.

Dumb question but have you tried calling them? The crew there is very supportive (if you can make it through thier phone system).

[Kawgomoo]

I have talked to them, getting through is such a pain in the *** though i feel like I'm taking them away from their business for my old troubles. If i had spent money directly with them, id be more apt to bug the **** out of those guys.

[jmorris]

I think they take your particular bullet and machine parts so the collator works with them. Not a "one size fits all" setup.

I fiddled with the "sweeper" concept years ago and can tell you that the MBF style is easier to get working 100%.

This was my base down collator.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/feeder4.jpg


A poormans MA Systems copy but even they had a 1:1000 failure rate so I built a fail safe device that detected and culled inverted bullets.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/feeder2.jpg just a matter of wiring the switch backwards for it to work nose down.

The switch won't trigger on the ogive but would on the larger diameter of the base. Switch triggered a timer that opened up a "trap door". Don't have any videos of it doing bullets but here is one of it sorting cases by height.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/reloading/brass/th_9mm380.mp4 (http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/reloading/brass/9mm380.mp4)

[Kawgomoo]

jmorris, your ears must have been burning. I've been studying your videos and photo bucket trying to glean some of your magic. That case sorter is so simple, i always wondered how it worked having heard it mentioned but never seeing it. Makes perfect sense!

I have another "home made" collator that looks like it was an attempt at knocking off the howell style. I plan to convert that one to a MBF style in the next week or so. The MBF style seems to be the way go, are there any known plans or angles for the flipper ramp to go off of?

I have heard of Howell machining parts to fit your bullet, but from my contact with Jeff Loman {sp?} It seemed they offered the caliber conversions in 9 40 and 45…. He told me they were made to order, i just had to give him the word and they would transfer me to shipping and get the order placed. Im sure i could have the pieces tailored to my bullet, but that wasn't offered to me without my asking.

[jmorris]

I don't know of any, most I have made took a few try's to get them perfect but that part is removeable/adjustable.

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/IMAG0372.jpg

Someone recently posted some photos and a video of the new style MBF converted for nose down and this is an old style that Rick converted.

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/th_01PtDwnDAA_zps7a02454c.mp4 (http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/01PtDwnDAA_zps7a02454c.mp4)

[AbluquerqueBullet,LLC]

Howell started in 89 and Olympic was in the late 70's to late 89 they where located in the same city just a few blocks away and i think it was a bought by Howell. so it IS the predecessor. it is smaller then the Howell's they make 2 sizes.

guess i should answer the real question. adjusting is done with parts kits. they will make you parts for each individual bullet so they work 100% you can not and don't need to adjust anything other than angle and speed. send it to howell and drop a measly 600-850 on the parts kit. they will need 50 of each bullet you plan on collating to test.

the wires do bend with time and will need some adjusting but you will be best remembering what they looked like in the beginning. the angel and speed may also be off. try laying it back more. and watch how that effects it.

And remember if you cant figure it out i will always take it off your hands.

[Kawgomoo]

Thanks Abluquerque, I talked to Howell on the phone. He said he'd sell me the parts for 259 to convert it over to another caliber. Made no mention of sending bullets or the collator to dial anything in.

I didn't get the warm fuzzy it would all just drop in and work, which is why I'm hesitant to pull the trigger.

Sorry about the late reply, my dog drowned my macbook and I'm just getting back online.