Greetings all,
I've become a bit of a collector of reloading memorabilia and I tend to snatch up unusual pieces when the chance arises. I picked up this beast today from a eastern European fellow that found it among some reloading equipment in a rental house. That is the extent of the machines history as I know it! Here are a few pictures and a link to a video of it in operation.
Overview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYl-BYT-_lE
Video of the punches in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00IGojtaxD4
Video of the left cam and hopper shaker mechanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5yGzGswhJw
Video of both cams in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qgHABoesmQ
It appears to be a semiautomatic sizing machine, but for what, I cant tell. Each turn of the handle move the "hopper" feed over the die, shakes it a bit, move the feed away, lowers the punch from above and then raises a punch from below, knocking out the sized object into the discharge chute. It appears that the "die" can be removed and swapped out. The die that is in it is somewhat larger than .224" as a bullet of this size will freely fall into it. The stroke of the punch is approximately 1/2 inch. The horizontal "gears" on at the bottom of the machine are actually large thumb wheels that adjust the limits of the knock out punch. From what I can tell, it is home/shop built. There are no identifying marks anywhere except for the paper sticker on the front of the base. The all the pieces are steel except for the "hopper" that feeds the "die". This is aluminum. The welding work is fantastic! It is approximately 20 inches tall, 12 inches wide, and weighs nearly 40 pounds!
My best guess is that it sizes large diameter lead shot? The stroke and thickness of the die would prevent it from sizing most bullets as there isn't enough stroke/clearance to fully size.
My alternate hypothesis is that it is a jmorris-built Rolly Polly Roller. You feed un-rolled Pollys into the hopper and it spits out rolled Rolly Pollys.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
Thanks!!
DdB