Making that Bullet Collator

[lablover]

Oh yeah? I would love to see if they work for you. Which ones are you printing?

This one
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3508115

I tried another different one and it’s a good design but for the life of me can’t figure a way to get the light sensor tube to fit on it. For the one that I posted the link too I’m trying to print a small adaptor to attach the drop tube to the die. I’m sure it’s something you could do easily. Will find out in a few minutes when it’s done.

They do work, Karl Bibb is making them with good luck. Broke down several months ago and bought one from him for my .32 acp and works perfect.

Got some little ball bearings on the way as well. If ya need some let me know

[j_dude77]

Cool, thanks a million!
I’ll give it a try. Printers are tied up right now with bullet feeder dies...oh boy

You would think with the amount of money we spend on firearms, reloading etc a simple $50.00 die would be easy to buy....but nooooooooo

Yep. A few weeks ago, saw they had all in stock. So I picked up one of each.

[djinnpb]

Like I said, I love the concept. I could probably adapt his stl pretty quickly to my base. Are you using the wire version or the one with the built in ramp? Just curious if the ramp really has to be that steep to function, or if would work with a ramp that went from the "deep dish" up to the stock ramp.

I've been using the ramp and it seemed to work a lot better than the wire one. Though the arc is way less on the AM base.. I'll try a print without the ramp by scaling the width in cura to match the ramp space and see how it does. Definitely will try it and see for you though.

[djinnpb]

This one
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3508115

I tried another different one and it’s a good design but for the life of me can’t figure a way to get the light sensor tube to fit on it. For the one that I posted the link too I’m trying to print a small adaptor to attach the drop tube to the die. I’m sure it’s something you could do easily. Will find out in a few minutes when it’s done.

They do work, Karl Bibb is making them with good luck. Broke down several months ago and bought one from him for my .32 acp and works perfect.

Got some little ball bearings on the way as well. If ya need some let me know

I printed the 9mm (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4257070) . Ended up modifying it so a tube could fit in. it had a adapter in there but it was way too short so I modified it to have the same hole as the 45acp (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4317058) and made a bushing that slips in either to adapt the tube. The 45acp one did require print thin walls (check via prepare before making spagetti like I did) because I use hole expansion and I ended up printing the die body inner hole bigger to get the clearance for the ball to work right. 9mm other than the adapter shallow top.. it was gtg. I'll get the stls up somewhere if anyone wants to try them.

[TylerR]

This one
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3508115

I tried another different one and it’s a good design but for the life of me can’t figure a way to get the light sensor tube to fit on it. For the one that I posted the link too I’m trying to print a small adaptor to attach the drop tube to the die. I’m sure it’s something you could do easily. Will find out in a few minutes when it’s done.

They do work, Karl Bibb is making them with good luck. Broke down several months ago and bought one from him for my .32 acp and works perfect.

Got some little ball bearings on the way as well. If ya need some let me know

Man you guys just keep sending me down new rabbit holes. lol. I just looked at that link, and then did a general search on thingiverse for feeder dies. Unfortunately it looks like they are all by different designers.
I already have a number of parts that adapt to the drop tubes, so I could definitely create one. Just have to examine the stl file and see what the dimensions are. I would love to not have to buy any more at $50 each, since I still need 9mm, .223, and .308 at least.

[TylerR]

I've been using the ramp and it seemed to work a lot better than the wire one. Though the arc is way less on the AM base.. I'll try a print without the ramp by scaling the width in cura to match the ramp space and see how it does. Definitely will try it and see for you though.

Cool. I loaded up his stl file and examined it. There is a little going on there but not too bad to recreate. I do wonder if the ramp needs to be as steep as he has it. I will play around with it.

[TylerR]

I printed the 9mm (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4257070) . Ended up modifying it so a tube could fit in. it had a adapter in there but it was way too short so I modified it to have the same hole as the 45acp (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4317058) and made a bushing that slips in either to adapt the tube. The 45acp one did require print thin walls (check via prepare before making spagetti like I did) because I use hole expansion and I ended up printing the die body inner hole bigger to get the clearance for the ball to work right. 9mm other than the adapter shallow top.. it was gtg. I'll get the stls up somewhere if anyone wants to try them.

I would be interested in the stl's

[TylerR]

the plate is about the 18mm excluding the lip. That deep dish flip tray combo (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3547193) worked the magic for the longer flat base flat nose subs

Can you give more detail on what exactly was failing when you tried to use the standard AM collator plate and slide? I am just curious how it was going bad.

[djinnpb]

I would be interested in the stl's

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...km?usp=sharing

threw some pics in also of the spacer and the depth change on the 9mm. It fits 1/2 pex perfectly. I use the tom penn light tubes currently. Haven't printed yours yet but if they're the same at the bottom it'll fit. if not I can modify and fix. Will print a 10mm tube tonight to check.

[lablover]

Man you guys just keep sending me down new rabbit holes. lol. I just looked at that link, and then did a general search on thingiverse for feeder dies. Unfortunately it looks like they are all by different designers.
I already have a number of parts that adapt to the drop tubes, so I could definitely create one. Just have to examine the stl file and see what the dimensions are. I would love to not have to buy any more at $50 each, since I still need 9mm, .223, and .308 at least.

sounds like the 3 I need as well.
Die came out great and first adapter was a smidge too small. round 2 printing on the adapter. GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
HAHAHAHHA

[djinnpb]

Can you give more detail on what exactly was failing when you tried to use the standard AM collator plate and slide? I am just curious how it was going bad.

I think I was trying the tom penn adjustable ones with regular 308 plates. When I moved to the taller lipped plate from Ruebarb I think I used his flipper. I'll test both again (once it worked I stayed with what variables were gtg)

[TylerR]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...km?usp=sharing

threw some pics in also of the spacer and the depth change on the 9mm. It fits 1/2 pex perfectly. I use the tom penn light tubes currently. Haven't printed yours yet but if they're the same at the bottom it'll fit. if not I can modify and fix. Will print a 10mm tube tonight to check.

Cool, thank you. I grabbed them and will check em out. My drop tubes are designed to interface directly on to the DAA feeder dies, which is the same as Tom's. So anything else needs an adapter. They have an inner diameter of 16.62mm.

[lablover]

Tyler

Thanks for the updated funnels. I'll use at my risk.
Djinn, thanks for the google drive link with files. Should add another rabbit hole for all of us to go down

[GWS]

I finally got my horizontal bullet feeders' mount welded and installed. Made a short video showing the thing installed. I figure I can also 3d print a few plastic holders for other things to hang around too....no sense wasting a perfectly good hanging rod. might could mount a bracket for a powder measure too....but I'd probably have my nephew weld one, to hang down from it.

[TylerR]

I finally got my horizontal bullet feeders' mount welded and installed. Made a short video showing the thing installed. I figure I can also 3d print a few plastic holders for other things to hang around too....no sense wasting a perfectly good hanging rod. might could mount a bracket for a powder measure too....but I'd probably have my nephew weld one, to hang down from it.

Love it! You have a hell of a setup there.

[GWS]

This was the sketch he built it by that I posted 16 days ago!....Took him long enough....impatient is my middle name.


Tyler do you realize how many pages this crazy group has added on this thread in 16 days? ....... they may erase us for band-width hogging.....

My headless mount needs another base printed....time to do your upsized version! my P.C. 7 needs a rifle bullet and a case feeder.......fun! Since I have the big bed printer, I'm thinking about a bigger case feeder still......don't worry.....I'll only bug you on that if I get in big trouble.

BTW, all that steel tube only cost me one 20 dollar bill.....people ought to learn to weld......if I wasn't so damned old I would.....

[lablover]

GWS, THAT LOOKS EPIC,

Gives me some ideas for my basement reloading room...hahaha. Wife’s gonna be happy now!

Now to harbor freight for a welder. ��

[GWS]

Know what's neatest? It's steel.....that mean strong magnets stick to it......shucks, you could even stick your load sheet up where you can see it or a clip board...or tools.....wheels turning...anybody got any other nifty ideas for what I could hang there?

One big problem! the collators are too high for this short person.... can't see inside.......guess I need to make a pull out step under the bench......geeze....always something....

Lablover: Curious....wife happiness....how does this idea affect that? My setup is in my garage that never sees a car....the bench originally looked like garbage.....I rebuilt a motorcycle motor on it....THAT effected my wife negatively for sure. Remodeling the bench with stained wood and Formica top, and moving my reloading there DID help there, I admit......

[Gork]

Cool, thanks a million!
I’ll give it a try. Printers are tied up right now with bullet feeder dies...oh boy

You would think with the amount of money we spend on firearms, reloading etc a simple $50.00 die would be easy to buy....but nooooooooo

I have got Ammo Mike's wadcutter die (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2885660) working well. Took a bit of mucking about but that is half the fun. Feeding 148gn button nose, collated with the original collator using the 2 part slide from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3207921 .




Ugly, but it works. Using different shapes for the tilting piece should let you feed anything you want. The lump of lead is only there until I can find some small springs but works with a stack of 30 or so projectiles.

[Michael303]

Printing out new side walls for my feeder with a built-in electronics box here in blue. I ordered the 8rpm McMaster motor and it was slightly different from the 12rpm version so the electronics box I designed to attach to the motor didn't work. You can see the test piece I printed out in grey up front with the power plug and speed controller installed. 9 hours in and should be done in the next 15 min hopefully. Printed at 0.15mm layer height.



I also added some little knobs to my plate to agitate the bullets. I found the last few would just sit at the bottom of the plate sliding right over the top of the holes.