Work with me on a idea

[Johnch]

Well tonight I........my nephue made a mess , yep blame him
This AM before work I put LLA on 1000 or so Ranch Dog 432 265 gr boolits

Well after work I pick him up , as if he wants to shoot , he helps load

His job is to size them ( no GC )
I do the rest on the Dillon


Well he is sizing with a LEE push through sizer

He tells me the tub is full
So I go to empty it and proceed to dump the sized boolis all over :veryconfu :veryconfu
A little blue air ( he had to laugh )and the mess was cleaned up

So I got to thinking

Why push the boolits up into that container ?
Why not build a simple press to push the boolits down , sort of like a poor man's Star sizer ?

I have not put anything on paper , as to a design yeat
Still working on it in my head

But I was thinking I could easly make most of the press out of flat stock
By putting a lock nut on both sides of the bottom , to hold the die

Add a clear plastic tube to transferr the sized boolits to a tub or can on the floor or on a lower shelf


I took a LEE sizer die and droped a unsized boolit into it
It seemed to self center
I figured , why not just make a few different sized flat .....punchs to push the boolit through the die's

I think it would be a lot faster

Any thoughts ?

John

[jmsj]

jonch,
I think you might be on to something. Sounds like a cool project.
Keep us posted

[deltaenterprizes]

Look into a cheap Harbor freight arbor press

[geargnasher]

Buy an el-cheapo Lee press (I don't remember what it's called, but the one that costs like $24 or something) and mount it upside-down and re-index the handle to your liking. Then size like normal, or just drop the boolit in the bottom of the die and whang it through. You could use anything you wanted for a catcher.

You might want to put a handle return spring on it, too, to keep the handle from falling and making boolits out of your fingers!

Gear

[Johnch]

You might want to put a handle return spring on it, too, to keep the handle from falling and making boolits out of your fingers!

Gear

Yep good idea

But it is to late
I already have short stubby sausage type fingers

John

[Von Dingo]

What's the progress?

[Johnch]

Steel is on the work bench , ready to be cut
Hope to have prodotype built by the end of the week
If not sooner

John

[CiDirkona]

Food for thought:

Lee bullet-feed kit tubes are designed to into the top of the lee size dies. You could use one to snugly fit a collector tube, maybe out of clear vinyl flex tube or something.

I thought about this concept too, and here's what my came up with...

If you figured out how deep on the lube grooves were on your bullet, and figured out how deep the bullet sets into the die, you could drill and tap 4 holes into the side of the lee die, run some compression fittings and some sort of supply tubes for lube. Then, make some sort of piston that gets compressed when the ram reaches the end that pressurizes a warm lube supply... and you've got yourself a Star...

The one part I don't quite know is if the 'hole' in a Lee size die is tapered to swage the bullet or just a parallel straight tubular opening...

Mounting a press upside down is the easy part. Make it lube too! :D

[Buckshot]

..............Bolt your press to the overhead :-) Or if not that adventurous, how about the underside of your reloading bench?

Just trying to keep it simple.:popcorn:

............Buckshot

[Johnch]

Design #1 was made ,
And it worked , but it had several flaws that I am addressing in design #2.2
As the design changes in 2.0 and 2.1 were going to take to much $$ so rejected


I am trying to design a simple to make
Cheap and easy to make with basic hand tools

But right now the 600 acres of corn and almost that much beans need to be harvested and the wheat planted

After working 6 - 10 hr days

John

[Faust]

mount your reloading press upside down or put a hose over the die and in to a container; honestly, it sounds like too much work for little to no gain.
Good luck

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Buy an el-cheapo Lee press (I don't remember what it's called, but the one that costs like $24 or something) and mount it upside-down and re-index the handle to your liking. Then size like normal, or just drop the boolit in the bottom of the die and whang it through.

Gear,
this is a great idea. I read this post last night and started thinking about it.
Today, at the the company I am currently contracting for, I walked past the scrapmetal bin. There were two perfectly sized 3/8" thick plate steel pieces (5"x 6") nicely cut by their CNC Lazor. also in there was some 1.5" square tubing 1/4" wall about 30" long. I am thinking of basically welding a 10" stand, mount a press under the top plate...WA LA an inverted press. the Lee Reloader press doesn't have a handle that is adjustable and I am thinking I want something a little more robust since I plan to also use this setup to size down fully annealed, trimmed to length 5.7x28 brass to an O.D. of .305 in a modofied 280 rem FL size die to use as a jacket for a .308 swaged bullet.
So, I think I will be mounting my Lee classic cast press on this stand. The handle should be adjustable enough so no modifications will be needed.
thanks for the great idea.
Jon

[jbunny]

this ia what i did with my atlas press. i have a peice of aluminum screwed to the bottom of the 2x4 making a shelf for the bullet tray. great for zinc boolits.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/atlassizerpress.jpg

[Suo Gan]

this ia what i did with my atlas press. i have a peice of aluminum screwed to the bottom of the 2x4 making a shelf for the bullet tray. great for zinc boolits.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q273/MOUICH/atlassizerpress.jpg

As usual Bunny has been there and done that. Brilliant and simple.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I got my inverted press stand welded up last night:)
check it out...works great with the Lee Classic cast.
I think I will get a second Lee Classic cast press today
Cabelas has them on sale $84.99 and I have a coupon for $30 off a $100 purchase.
Jon
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/100_1360.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/100_1361.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/100_1362.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/100_1364.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/100_1363.jpg

[Tazman1602]

Man I love this forum. That is a GREAT idea.................I wonder if an even cheaper press could be used for this:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=807734

Around $30......................+ shipping.

Art

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Art,
my original thinking was to use the Lee Reloader press you linked to.
In fact I have holes drilled and tapped in this stand for that press.
during the design period, I deduced that this presses handle stroke
will swing too high...ie like ape hangers on a Harley. the press and it's
handle didn't look easily modifyable...Plus the handle is in the center of the press,
that would have to change also. So I thought I'd add mounting holes
for the Lee Classic cast, as that handle is off to the side and is reversable
and very adjustable. the little extra I had to pay for a second Classic cast press
is well worth the cost (and possible failure) of modifying a Lee reloader Press.
But Hey, maybe someone else here will have a simple solution for that.
Jon

PS And the Classic Cast moves so silky smooth conpared to the Reloader

[Von Dingo]

It looks like your residence will shift or flex before that platform will!

It also looks like you are there if you need to home rig up the "new" Lee Bulge Buster with parts you have on hand (provided you have a factory crimp die for the cases in question).

[old turtle]

I agree with Von Dingo. You are a man who does not take structural strength lightly. Excellent job!

[David2011]

The trick with a Star is the little pump/valve that lets the lube flow at the end of the stroke. Seems like a pressure system more like the Lyman would be easier to control and manufacture, even if it's not quite as fast as the Star. It also seems like it should work equally well upright with the Lee boolit catcher.

David

[Johnch]

OK Good job

I admit it

Your design for turning a press upside down is better than what I am working on

So I guess I will steal your idea and make a upside down stand instead of playing around piecing togeather a parts press

At least I started the idea and was smart enough to give up when a better design was stareing me in the face LOL

John

[Tazman1602]

Thanks JonB, now I have to hunt up some spare steel and see what I can go. That was a really good idea I think...............

...........if we could just figure out how to reverse the linkages that would be better. I'm back to work for a bit and once I get caught up I may look for one of the Challenger presses.

Thanks for rattling my brain!

Art

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Johnch,
You did start the idea, and a great one at that.
I thank you and Gear.
It is a problem I wouldn't have even thought of solving.
AND...It wouldn't have been anymore than an idea rolling around
in my head, if it wasn't for the perfect sized pieces in the
scrapmetal bin...I guess I could have used thinner steel, But that wasn't
easily and cheaply available.
But Hey, it is what it is.
I guess the right angle supports are over kill.
Jon

[jmorris]

After I built my automatic bullet caster, I shortly had a big pile of bullets that needed to be sized so I built a push through sizer to do the job. I didn’t want it to take up a lot of my time so I used a bullet collator I built for one of my presses to feed it and I had to make a “flipper” so they would go into the die nose first. I used a gear motor and a section of UHMW with a pocket bored in it. From there the bullet landed into a sliding section of UHMW that works like a child’s gumball machine that drops the bullet into the mouth of the die. When everything is lined up the head of the bolt that runs the shuttle back and forth triggers the pneumatic solenoid that drives the ram down and back up, shooting the bullet into a 90 degree section of exhaust tubing and into a basket below. I machined the die from stainless steel and mounted it into a double split set collar so I could swap them out. Pretty crude but it works. As for cost, I have a lot of what my wife calls “junk” laying around and keeping my hands busy saves money on beer.



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

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

[Arisaka99]

Wow jmorris, you are quite the inventor!! Good thinking guys!!!