Semi-automated boolit sizer and high capacity magazine feed

[1845greyhounds]

Thanks for the kind words OS OK.

If you were to use hardwood strips to form the magazine slots, glued and air nailed in place, would that form the magazine just as well without all the tablesaw work. It would rotate their guide points by 90 degrees and do the same function. I know that doing router work and tablesaw work like this requires you to operate 'Murphy free' and that's no easy task.

You could do that, but you'd have to change the width of the magazine guide's opening to match each magazine caliber, or make some shims to buildup the sides of all the mags to the thickness of the largest caliber mag.

My V-groove magazines are laid out to maximize their boolit capacity. To do this, the channel diameter was also setup to be the center-to-center dimension between each groove (see the C-to-C dimension on each magazine side plate drawing). The following CAD images show the 36 caliber magazine setup with V-grooves and rectangular grooves.



As you can see, for the rectangular groove mag to equal the V-groove mag capacity, the strips must be very short and narrow. I'm not sure you could even nail something that thin.

Personally, I don't think cutting inclined dattos is all that hard or any more dangerous than regular table saw work. I cut the grooves at their full depth in 1 pass using my fence as a lateral datum, and tile floats to drive the work down against the table and laterally against the fence. I haven't observed any significant lateral reaction force in the wood as it starts and passes over the exposed datto saw blade. The same is not true when I tried to make the V-grooves with a router. Because router bits have fewer cutting edges, the active cutting edge applies torque into the work which can cause it to move laterally in any direction. For me, that resulted in a V-groove that wandered away from where I intended it to be (see shaded area in the next picture).



I initially did this design work to (1) satisfy my personal needs and (2) potentially commercialize at a hobby level. With commercialization in mind, I constrained each assembly's size to fit in a USPS flat rate box, and really focused on using the most repeatable and simplistic manufacturing methods available to me. I also focused on making essentially 1 design that could accommodate multiple calibers with minimal changes (preferably just the magazine). So for me, using an inclined datto on my table saw to cut the V-grooves made the most sense. It's "easy" to setup, repeatable and fast. A key aspect of using V-grooves is that the boolits are always centered between the 2 magazine side plates. This allowed me to have the same total thickness for all of my magazines, regardless of caliber. This meant I only needed one magazine guide for a complete kit (ie. I didn't need multiple mag guides to match different thickness mags).

Because of the way that magazine feeds over a hole it could be swung to the right on a radius while keeping the drop hole centered and the front side further to your right making a wider space in the work area around the press.

Will you share a picture of a sketch of what you are suggesting? I'm not sure I'm following...

[OS OK]

Attachment 163962
Sorry for the CAD work…I learned to draft in the 60's and never had opportunity to learn CAD…big mistake!
I see what you mean on the mag. spacing. I have a set of shaper profiles for the tablesaw one of them is a point like the grooves you are using If I think of it I'll post a picture later today when I finnish mowing, I'm on break at the moment…still have 3 acres to go.
Love your CAD work…I'm extremely jealous pard!

OS OK

Now after posting I see that I didn't draw the 'down hole' from mag. in the correct place…sorry was in a hurry, but you get what I was saying anyway? I hope?

[1845greyhounds]

Nice sketch! CAD's nice for seeing scale, but a sketch will do in most cases (like this one).

I understand what you're saying and that was one of the biggest challenges of this project. Given my self-imposed size constraints and a general desire to keep the swing plate's cost as low as possible (i.e. make it smaller), I didn't have very many options where to place the magazine. As it is, I can run the press right handed without my hand ever touching the magazine or mag guide. It's close, but my knuckles stay clear.


Increasing the clearance is actually quite involved. The following images attempt to explain.




Now that you've got me thinking about this I may try to incorporate something to raise the magazines vertically higher, orienting the magazine motion parallel to the front of the press, and guide the boolits to the swing plate with a flexible drop tube. Maybe a piece of clear tubing or a long spring.

[OS OK]

It's funny how an idea comes together in our minds…you work on design, assemble it…watch it work, etc…then fabrication and assembly of the prototype…bing-bang-twist-tweak…walaaah!
Then you have a brand new working whatchamacallit…all the time the mind is already reworking for the next modification or new build altogether!

[Tazza]

That is very cool

Everyone finds their own way to do the same job

[pmer]

It looks like a lot of good thinking went in to this. The video really helped too.

[Walter Laich]

I like pictures when something new is presented; video is even better

great effort on this!

[quasi]

your design , video and write up are excellent. You must be an Engineer , a Teacher or maybe both? The only improvement I could offer is to perhaps spray lube your boolits to allow for easier sizing.

[parkerhale1200]

Very old post but i was looking for some ideas to speed up my sizing proces.
I like your magazine approche very much.
However i would not use your rocking/tumblin table to transport the boolits from the magazine to the die.
I would use a slide bar to get a boolit from underneat the magazine that will guid it to the die.
In this setup you will not have to do the effort to move the magazine forward.

I would also make the magazine at that level so a boolit wont have that "drop".
I am also trying to figure out how to implement a air cyclinder on the lube.
incl after sizing the removal of the boolit.

I think a combination of bt snipers setup and the slide bar will do the trick.

Thanks
If anybody has some ideas i would like to know.

this was no attempt btw to hijack this post.

[jdfoxinc]

Well I must have developed a stop and a heavy brow ridge.

[jmorris]

Very old post but i was looking for some ideas to speed up my sizing proces.
I like your magazine approche very much.
However i would not use your rocking/tumblin table to transport the boolits from the magazine to the die.
I would use a slide bar to get a boolit from underneat the magazine that will guid it to the die.
In this setup you will not have to do the effort to move the magazine forward.

I would also make the magazine at that level so a boolit wont have that "drop".
I am also trying to figure out how to implement a air cyclinder on the lube.
incl after sizing the removal of the boolit.

I think a combination of bt snipers setup and the slide bar will do the trick.

Thanks
If anybody has some ideas i would like to know.

this was no attempt btw to hijack this post.

I made this, it all bolts to an unmodified lee breechlock.