Making that Bullet Collator

[calgarysparky]

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.

Sure did. We'll see how it goes, you can see right down the hole from the top. My reason behind this is my bench set up and the equipment that is on it. My APP and the AI case sorter use the same 300 that is mounted on a post. Depending on what I am doing I can rotate the 300 to get to both machines. Plus I like to fiddle n fart around, hehe.

[flybyjohn]

Be carful stretching springs. I was stretching one last night with pliers on one end and holding the other with my hand. The pliers let loose at full stretch and the thumb got a nice round chunk of skin removed really clean. Not sure what actually did the cutting but assume it got between two coils when the rest of the spring came back.

Bad place for a boo-boo. The thumb does a lot of things dying the day.

[TylerR]

Be carful stretching springs. I was stretching one last night with pliers on one end and holding the other with my hand. The pliers let loose at full stretch and the thumb got a nice round chunk of skin removed really clean. Not sure what actually did the cutting but assume it got between two coils when the rest of the spring came back.

Bad place for a boo-boo. The thumb does a lot of things dying the day.

Ouch! Stretching springs is definitely a gamble. I lock one end in a vice. Hold the other end with vice grips and stretch. I wear leather gloves, glasses, and turn my head away, lol. I have not had one let loose on me yet.
Of course the other trick is to actually stretch it the correct amount.

[calgarysparky]

WHOOOP WHOOOP!!!! My chute works like a hot dam!!! Just sent 500 cases through the 300 with my modded plate and new chute and zero jams and everything flipped!!! SUCSESS!!! Such an amazing project!!!

[TylerR]

WHOOOP WHOOOP!!!! My chute works like a hot dam!!! Just sent 500 cases through the 300 with my modded plate and new chute and zero jams and everything flipped!!! SUCSESS!!! Such an amazing project!!!

That is great news! Would you be willing to share a video of it running? To be honest you are one of the first people to run base up on the collator, and I would love to see it in action. So far the only video out there is mine.

[calgarysparky]

That is great news! Would you be willing to share a video of it running? To be honest you are one of the first people to run base up on the collator, and I would love to see it in action. So far the only video out there is mine.

I will do one up in the am. It's fascinating how it works.

[TylerR]

I will do one up in the am. It's fascinating how it works.

I appreciate that analysis. I spent more time on the base up design than all of the other aspects of the collator. It was a real head scratcher. If you look at the details of the slide plate you kind of get a sense. Every little thing on that plate is to solve a particular issue. The pivot points were a huge part of it which RedLegEd helped me with in openscad. And it is something that no other collator offers, free or otherwise. To have someone use and appreciate it is satisfying.

[GWS]

Congratulations! Very satisfying to make something like this.....that works....first time even....impressed to say the least.

[calgarysparky]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LWk7aHOQxMs Runs like a champ!! Added my light sensors to the drop chute, everything filled right up, no snags on anything and bulge busting on the APP is golden!!

[TylerR]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LWk7aHOQxMs Runs like a champ!! Added my light sensors to the drop chute, everything filled right up, no snags on anything and bulge busting on the APP is golden!!

Very nice! You are actually the first person to run it on the 300mm size collator, so that's awesome.

[TylerR]

One part that you are not using is the brass base up ramp. It may not be necessary, but if you find cases are sometimes having a hard time flipping it will fix that.
https://github.com/BF556/Feeder/blob...e_Up_300mm.stl

[calgarysparky]

One part that you are not using is the brass base up ramp. It may not be necessary, but if you find cases are sometimes having a hard time flipping it will fix that.
https://github.com/BF556/Feeder/blob...e_Up_300mm.stl

Thanks!

[calgarysparky]

Well after 3k pieces I am happy to say that I haven't had any jams or cases come down the incorrect way. Only thing to do is slow the speed down some so the cases have time to fall into the chute.

[TylerR]

Well after 3k pieces I am happy to say that I haven't had any jams or cases come down the incorrect way. Only thing to do is slow the speed down some so the cases have time to fall into the chute.

I did notice in your video you were running it pretty aggressively.

[rogerandre]

Dear Team !
Anyone else than me that have had issues with the feed die dropping more than one bullet at a time ?
Running 223 Rem bullets (Hornady 55 grain FMJ) with the ball bearings in the lowest position. Using 2 springs for the feed die.

[GWS]

After I printed mine, I got two drill bits out.
One, the inside diameter hole size, and ran it through the bottom hole set all the way threw the die....hand twist it just enough, so the holes are round. Repeat for the other two hole sets.

Then find a bit, the larger outside diameter size, and carefully clean up the outside, hand twisting only. Use the angled drill tip to just touch and clean the angle between inside holes and outside holes. ,You don't want to drill through or bearings will fall inside. But enough so that the ball bearing is allowed to go nearly half way in,
or IOW's in far enough to be flush with the outside diameter of the inner part of the die.

Doing that, mine worked to perfection.....but note that my printer is tuned well enough that dimensions really do print to spec. You may have to test your state of tne, because there isn't much room for error on these mating sliding surfaces.

Or you can bag it and buy Lee's new inline bullet feed dies in that tiny, the most sensitive caliber.....@ TitanReloading .... $36.50 on sale. I've been wanting to try one so I ordered the .243 version (no TylerR version yet anyway) ..... yes it works too. (Couldn't miss since they copied TylerR's design, except they use an internal spring to replace the outside ones.) https://www.titanreloading.com/?s=Le...t_type=product

My post with the test video of the new TylerR .223 bullet feed die that I did is: https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...=1#post5668568

[TylerR]

Dear Team !
Anyone else than me that have had issues with the feed die dropping more than one bullet at a time ?
Running 223 Rem bullets (Hornady 55 grain FMJ) with the ball bearings in the lowest position. Using 2 springs for the feed die.

That is a new one on me. I use the same die. first thought, how far is the die pushing up when loading a bullet? It should be the smallest amount to allow a bullet to drop.

[rogerandre]

Hi TylerR
I had a look at GWS video and minimized the distance of the die lift and that seems to work. Will do some further investigations.
Any experience on how many bullets a printed feed die will be able to handle before time to renew with new printed parts ?

[TylerR]

Hi TylerR
I had a look at GWS video and minimized the distance of the die lift and that seems to work. Will do some further investigations.
Any experience on how many bullets a printed feed die will be able to handle before time to renew with new printed parts ?

have not heard of anyone needing to replace one yet. it is not a high wear part.

[calgarysparky]

Hi TylerR
I had a look at GWS video and minimized the distance of the die lift and that seems to work. Will do some further investigations.
Any experience on how many bullets a printed feed die will be able to handle before time to renew with new printed parts ?

Got 40k on mine so far loading 9mm. I had a buddy snap his, but he was a little gassed and fell into his press, LOL