Making that Bullet Collator

[calgarysparky]

Not flatter. You need a lot of angle on the feeder for the mechanism to work.

Perfect! Just drawing up a 300 size plate based on your thickness, with a couple of tweaks, heh.

[calgarysparky]

Perfect! Just drawing up a 300 size plate based on your thickness, with a couple of tweaks, heh.

[TylerR]

You need to include the pivots. Base up design needs them, and was the original reason they were coded.

[calgarysparky]

You need to include the pivots. Base up design needs them, and was the original reason they were coded.

Missed them!! Adder time

[calgarysparky]

Just to save some material.

[TylerR]

Just to save some material.

I like that design. you are modifying the openscad file or using something else?

[calgarysparky]

I like that design. you are modifying the openscad file or using something else?

The openscad generator, then modded up with freecad. It's printing right now so we'll see how she works tomorrow.

[GWS]

The openscad generator, then modded up with freecad. It's printing right now so we'll see how she works tomorrow.

On pins and needles........ Saving material is a good thing if it's still strong enough. Couldn't help wondering if starting the pivots at the peak and continuing the angle to the edge would be another option if needed. But what you got could work too. Interesting unique design for sure.

Curious how you are using an openscad file in freecad......didn't know they were compatible.....details?

[calgarysparky]

All I do is import the stl and create an object. Then mod away.

[calgarysparky]

finished project. Will let ya know how it works this eve.

[GWS]

So Freecad can edit .stls. That may be worth looking at. Design Spark took that feature away in it's new lesser free version, which was disappointing. It didn't modify circles well anyway, but it was useful for some things.

Plate looks good, hope it works as good as it looks. Always sweet when a design works perfect the first try. If is has problems with cases not wanting to go up the incline, try more angle. If that's necessary (hopefully not), you may even want to make an outlet with more angle. Fun stuff isn't it.

[flybyjohn]

I’ve been using freeCAD, to modify STL‘s also. What I do is make a mesh out of the STL then make an object out of the mesh and then refine the object. The problems I’ve been running into doing this is that freecad is really slow in doing any drawing or updating the file with the converted STL. Besides, the APP inserts, which were very easy to modify, I found the bullet plates take too much time to update the drawing with my modifications. It was actually faster to just draw out a plate myself with my modifications.

The other problem I ran into was that any STL file I brought in wasn’t on the XYZ axis center that I wanted it so I would have to offset my XYZ to try and match the STL. But like I said the Lee APP inserts, since Tyler had already figured out the sizes and heights I left the outside dimensions alone and just modified the insides to fit my tubes and tightened up the bullet fit better. It only required a quick one sketch drawing of the inside profile from top to bottom and then I padded it around the z axis. I left the outside alone and they printed and work very well.

[calgarysparky]

So Freecad can edit .stls. That may be worth looking at. Design Spark took that feature away in it's new lesser free version, which was disappointing. It didn't modify circles well anyway, but it was useful for some things.

Plate looks good, hope it works as good as it looks. Always sweet when a design works perfect the first try. If is has problems with cases not wanting to go up the incline, try more angle. If that's necessary (hopefully not), you may even want to make an outlet with more angle. Fun stuff isn't it.

I've done a lot of changes and additions to this project to suit my personal needs and enhance my usability of certain things. I'm going to see how the drop chute works but will probably draw one up with a angle to it or maybe an adapter that has an angle to it. I run 9mm exclusively so everything I build is tailored towards that. I forked the project and keep adding items to it and maybe I'll send a pull request to Tyler when I am happy with my final additions.

[TylerR]

I'm going to see how the drop chute works but will probably draw one up with a angle to it or maybe an adapter that has an angle to it.

If you are using it for baseup brass feeding DO NOT DO THIS. I mean you can certainly try, but it will just cause you endless headaches. I probably burned 50 hours on this issue alone. Any changes to the geometry on that drop chute will cause cases to jam.

Base up brass feeding is extremely finnicky, and every detail on the design represents hours and hours of problem solving, design, redesign, and a lot of filament.

[GWS]

I sure wouldn't know.....I have bulge busted some .40S&W on a RockChucker years ago with a Redding Gx, but never have run into 9mm problem brass....so that's not a feature I use. Brass for me is base down collating only....and glad of it, I can see. I only do two things on an APP....deprime brass before tumbling, and swage primer pockets....and I never collate, base up, anything, bullets neither.....so that in my mind, as my best friend loves to say, "is just wrong"!

[calgarysparky]

I sure wouldn't know.....I have bulge busted some .40S&W on a RockChucker years ago with a Redding Gx, but never have run into 9mm problem brass....so that's not a feature I use. Brass for me is base down collating only....and glad of it I can see. I only do two things on an APP....deprime and swage primer pockets....and I never collate base up, anything.....so that in my mind, as my best friend loves to say, "is just wrong"!

Glock bulge is a thing, even with MA dies. If I forgo powder check and use a FC die I can get down to 4-5 out of 100 that need to run through the buster, otherwise it's like 15-30 every hundred. Don't feel like dropping 1k on a rollsizer so busting prior to loading should help. I'm a competition shooter so I'm very picky about my ammo, lol

[calgarysparky]

If you are using it for baseup brass feeding DO NOT DO THIS. I mean you can certainly try, but it will just cause you endless headaches. I probably burned 50 hours on this issue alone. Any changes to the geometry on that drop chute will cause cases to jam.

Base up brass feeding is extremely finnicky, and every detail on the design represents hours and hours of problem solving, design, redesign, and a lot of filament.

So was it the lip of the inverted case catching on the printed lines? I'm thinking of printing it in abs and vapor smoothing to eliminate that issue. Fun weekend ahead!! LOL

[TylerR]

So was it the lip of the inverted case catching on the printed lines? I'm thinking of printing it in abs and vapor smoothing to eliminate that issue. Fun weekend ahead!! LOL

That is part of it yes, and you definitely want to smooth it out. But if it is angled no amount of smoothing will solve the problem, in my experience.

to expound on your question about feeder angle, you want a lot of angle because gravity is what forces the case to pivot outward on the pivot point.

[calgarysparky]

That is part of it yes, and you definitely want to smooth it out. But if it is angled no amount of smoothing will solve the problem, in my experience.

to expound on your question about feeder angle, you want a lot of angle because gravity is what forces the case to pivot outward on the pivot point.

Gotcha. Here is my attempt this weekend, LOL.

[TylerR]

Gotcha. Here is my attempt this weekend, LOL.

Good luck. I assume you left the geometry of the chute intact? If you make that bend very gradual and make it smooth as glass you may get it to work. For me I just rely on the natural curvature of the spring.