Making that Bullet Collator

[HuskJ]

Which collator plate are you using for.357 bullets? Small pistol?

[TylerR]

Which collator plate are you using for.357 bullets? Small pistol?

I think we decided large pistol worked well.

ETA, that's brass. For boolits, small pistol should work fine.

[HuskJ]

Thank you, trying to size some .357 boolits this weekend and printing the small plate now. I thought it would work but wanted to double check prior to printing. I will let you know how it goes Thank you!

[Smarty]

Hi All,

Well Ive started printing the feeder and have completed nearly all of the parts, and I have to say its looking great! Thankyou to all of those people involved in the design.

I have read through a lot of the thread, however havent seen many pics of how people have mounted the electronics in the control box, is anyone able to share some pics?

I have the speed controller board and the board for the LED sensor setup to mount in there and its really tight with not much to screw things too, so would be interested to see what youve done to keep it all neat and tidy.

Still waiting on a few things like hex drives to turn up, then I'll be able to rig it all up and test it.

[wbbh]

No pictures, my wiring tends to be a mess anyway, just some things to consider.

I test assembled the components outside the box.

I ended up using some small crimp on spade connectors for wires that go into the screwed connections of the speed and photo boards with screwed terminals. I pulled off the plastic and soldered the wires.

Tinning the wires made them too thick, especially if more than one wire went to the same connector.

I found stranded conductor silicone insulated wire easier to deal with.

I soldered leads to the round power switch, before mounting it in the box. I also made all the connections to the speed controller board before mounting it into the box.

I made my wires long enough to make all the connections before installing the components.

I used small strip of double sided tape to hold in the relay for the proximity switch version.

[SuperMoose]

Well. I finally got my RL 1100 the other day and got around to hooking up everything including the bullet feeder. Testing it this morning I'm having some issues with my 9mm bullets orienting correctly. Mainly when the collator plate spins and the bullet is oriented correctly (nose up) it is flipped on the ramp and orients itself the wrong direction (nose down).

Currently using a #5 slide plate (I printed a #6 and had the same issue). Any suggestions on what to do or to look for? Bullets are 147gr RNFP.

[TylerR]

Well. I finally got my RL 1100 the other day and got around to hooking up everything including the bullet feeder. Testing it this morning I'm having some issues with my 9mm bullets orienting correctly. Mainly when the collator plate spins and the bullet is oriented correctly (nose up) it is flipped on the ramp and orients itself the wrong direction (nose down).

Currently using a #5 slide plate (I printed a #6 and had the same issue). Any suggestions on what to do or to look for? Bullets are 147gr RNFP.

Try a steeper angle on the feeder first. Most issues are caused by too little angle. Go to the #4 plate if you need to.

[SuperMoose]

Try a steeper angle on the feeder first. Most issues are caused by too little angle. Go to the #4 plate if you need to.

Printing a #4 to try now. I had it at a pretty steep angle and was still getting ones that were flipping the wrong way. Regardless, it is cool to see this actually come to life after sitting around for several months in pieces and only being test wired on my bench.

[SuperMoose]

Still having issues, although less so. It seems about 1 in every 12 is going in nose down. Here are some pictures to try to show the angle, etc. I'm not sure how much further I can tilt it before it loses the ability to grab bullets reliably, especially when its low on them.

Maybe I should try the #5 again?

[TylerR]

Still having issues, although less so. It seems about 1 in every 12 is going in nose down. Here are some pictures to try to show the angle, etc. I'm not sure how much further I can tilt it before it loses the ability to grab bullets reliably, especially when its low on them.

Best way I can help is if you post a video of the problem.

[GWS]

If I had to guess, I'd say the slide has too much ledge that keeps those particular bullets noses from dropping into the flipper....so they can always reliably flip nose up.

Also, I'm not terribly impressed with the distance to the feed die.....and the amount of spring stretch forcing both ends to angle strongly out of the collator drop and strongly into the feed die. Bet you will get some hangs. I've never seen that press set up, but can't you rotate the bullet feeder forward?....or is the 1100 mounted too close to the other feeder on the left? I'd be surprised if that doesn't bite you down the road.

As TylerR mentioned.....a video would help, but I can see that's not so easy with the feeder that far back.

[SuperMoose]

If I had to guess, I'd say the slide has too much ledge that keeps those particular bullets noses from dropping into the flipper....so they can always reliably flip nose up.

Also, I'm not terribly impressed with the distance to the feed die.....and the amount of spring stretch forcing both ends to angle strongly out of the collator drop and strongly into the feed die. Bet you will get some hangs. I've never seen that press set up, but can't you rotate the bullet feeder forward?....or is the 1100 mounted too close to the other feeder on the left? I'd be surprised if that doesn't bite you down the road.

As TylerR mentioned.....a video would help, but I can see that's not so easy with the feeder that far back.

I'll try to grab a video later.

As for the mounting...yea it's too close on that side. I've played with its location as close to that side as I can get it (even propping it up on the other case feed) but the issue remained (string stretch) I looked at all the other images I could find of where people were mounting their bullet feeder on the 1100 and even mounting it there, that string is still stretched pretty far like that.

For example:



Holding the feeder in my hand and flipping it 180 degrees alleviates that stretch...however, there is the issue of lack of mounting holes. Alternatively...I might just have to get a longer spring? This is the one from DAA.

[GWS]

No spring stretch in the DAA picture above. If I had a Dillon 1100 I'd mount that bulletfeeder where I can see it out front where the primer tubes are hanging and move those to the back or side.

[SuperMoose]

No spring stretch in the DAA picture above. If I had a Dillon 1100 I'd mount that bulletfeeder where I can see it out front where the primer tubes are hanging and move those to the back or side.

Tried moving it. No dice with the string stretch. Still the same. The only way to alleviate it would be to flip the bullet feeder 180 degrees. No idea why mine has stretch like that but none of the other units pictured do.

Here are two videos. I can snap more if needed. Tried the #5 plate again.

https://i.imgur.com/04TEy3W.mp4

https://i.imgur.com/iHragFw.mp4

[TylerR]

I'll try to grab a video later.

As for the mounting...yea it's too close on that side. I've played with its location as close to that side as I can get it (even propping it up on the other case feed) but the issue remained (string stretch) I looked at all the other images I could find of where people were mounting their bullet feeder on the 1100 and even mounting it there, that string is still stretched pretty far like that.

Holding the feeder in my hand and flipping it 180 degrees alleviates that stretch...however, there is the issue of lack of mounting holes. Alternatively...I might just have to get a longer spring? This is the one from DAA.

I have holes for the mount and the electronics box on both sides, so you should be able to reverse it.

[TylerR]

Tried moving it. No dice with the string stretch. Still the same. The only way to alleviate it would be to flip the bullet feeder 180 degrees. No idea why mine has stretch like that but none of the other units pictured do.

Here are two videos. I can snap more if needed. Tried the #5 plate again.

The #5 plate is going to make the problem worse, not better. You want the ridge to be further out. You can play around with this by manually sliding the plate out a mm or two. Not sure what is going on with this setup, but you could go all the way to the #3 plate.

[SuperMoose]

I have holes for the mount and the electronics box on both sides, so you should be able to reverse it.

I don't think so. The reverse is missing the two taller holes which I'd need for the mount. I suppose I could always just drill baby drill.

Here's the mount side.



Electronics side:

[TylerR]

I don't think so. The reverse is missing the two taller holes which I'd need for the mount. I suppose I could always just drill baby drill.

Here's the mount side.

Electronics side:

That is an older version. I forgot you printed this awhile ago. You could definitely drill it. The new design has one hole on the opposite side, because of the way it is designed, but one is plenty.

[SuperMoose]

That is an older version. I forgot you printed this awhile ago. You could definitely drill it.

I'll hit it with a drill now and print that #3 plate.

[TylerR]

Tried moving it. No dice with the string stretch. Still the same. The only way to alleviate it would be to flip the bullet feeder 180 degrees. No idea why mine has stretch like that but none of the other units pictured do.

As far as I can tell, the spring is stretched so far because the bullet feeder is basically behind the case feeder, instead of being on the side more to the front. But it looks like the case feeder on the other press is in the way.