Home Made auto Drives

More power to you. Sounds like a huge endeavor. If you can make it work apply for a patent. I'd like to see that in action.

.40

KY DAN said:

So as I am getting back into reloading and getting count of my brass and such I come to the final count of around 7000 pieces of 9mm brass. I remember in my teens this felt like nothing but one torn rotator cup later I will feel the burn. I will be using a pro1000 to resize the brass. I have watched videos of Dillon 650 being hooked up to electric motors with what I assume are gear boxes and cams to create the operational stroke. I get that only trial and error will generate any success, I am hesitant as to what power source to use as I already have a AC electric motor with a gear box(uncertain of theRPM) and I am leaning toward a air cylinder with limit switches. What are you thoughts on a air operated pro1000?

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If I were a betting man, I'd bet member jmorris has made something along that line. Maybe not with a Dillon.

You need a machine that’s reliable. If you can’t load 1000 rounds blindfolded you will spend more time “fixing” things than you save by removing the human element, because you haven’t. Here are some I have built.

For just processing (size/deprime and swage), you can go very fast.



For loading I slow the automated machines down quite a bit.



Quite a bit slower than I load manually even but you don’t have to do anything except keep collators full.



It doesn’t take really complicated or expensive machines to do simple tasks but also depends on what equipment you have and know how to implement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzPBLrtajCc





In my opinion the only reloading press I would automate (fired case to loaded round) would be the 1050, the others would at least require brass prepped on a 1050 or another machine that swages all pockets for uniformity to be anywhere near as reliable.

A progressive press and a decent case lube makes short work of a weekends worth of ammunition without a lot of effort. Folks that scoff at case lube on pistol cases are most often, folks that have never tried it.

Yup I sure agree with case lube on handgun brass when using a progressive press. I use Hornady spray case lube but any decent spray will work. Only takes a very light spray on the cases to make a huge difference.
I had rotator cuff surgery on left shoulder 6 years ago and will be getting another on right shoulder soon so I feel your pain KYDAN.

Case lube on pistol brass gunks up the case feeder and tube. I use RCBS case lube dies for my pistol rounds on my 650XL... they work beautifully for pistol brass and don't gunk things up and I don't accidentially over lube the cases. The lube dies make my 650 run slicker than snot.

I can't make it through a thousand rounds of 9mm without atleast 1 380 slipping in and causing a jamb. Same with .45acp and .40 cases sneaking in. With the lubed pistol cases the press runs so smooth that I immediately feel any kind of jamb and clear it quickly. If the press were automated I would expect stuff to really start getting twisted up and breaking... electric or pneumatic. If you decide to go electric I would want some kind of clutch and the PLC that jmorris uses to detect when there is something wrong and stop the press before it chews itself up.

Been using a spray lube for several years and no gunking up case feeder on mine. I suppose if one was to empty a whole can on a few cases and then put them through it may.

I use a few squirts of Dillon lube per bankers box lid of brass and let them dry before putting them in the collator and don’t have any issues either.

Having the wrong components make it into the press doesn’t indicate a problem with the press rather the sorting process.

My experience building automated assembly machines says that it is best to stay away from pneumatic for this application. It can be done, but you will not have the smooth motion you want, it will be jerky as the load increases/decreases, hydraulic would be much better, or full mechanical powered.

I agree, there are things you can do to help make pneumatic smooth but there is still “spring” to compressed air, that makes it jerky.

Like this.



You regulate the air input and over cylinder the device and that helps.



Still will not be as smooth as hydraulic or mechanical though.

KY DAN said:

What are you thoughts on a air operated Pro1000?

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Your automation idea is a good one. However, as a design engineer I think the multiple nylon parts used to adjust and advance the shellplate on that particular machine will be far too troublesome. 7000 hand pulls is not the same as 7000 automated cycles.

And I'm not just talking about quickly wearing out the nylon bits. Those bits advance the shellplate. Worn bits will fail to fully advance the cases, therefore the rising ram will run the cases into the bottom of the dies. That will break the diecast support for the shellplate (which is very weak on that model) and possibly bend the ram.

What I'm saying is that you haven't matched the resources to the job.

I know this is sort of an elementary point, but one of the key elements probably needs to be some sort of auto-shut-off for when things go pear-shaped. You don't want a press blasting mindlessly ahead while a sideways case is spindled on the decapping rod or a run of crimped primer pockets is igniting primers.

ATLDave said:

I know this is sort of an elementary point, but one of the key elements probably needs to be some sort of auto-shut-off for when things go pear-shaped. You don't want a press blasting mindlessly ahead while a sideways case is spindled on the decapping rod or a run of crimped primer pockets is igniting primers.

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Watch the 2nd video in #4.

jmorris said:

Watch the 2nd video in #4.

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Yeah, exactly. Got to include stuff like that... can't just connect a series of belts to a lawnmower engine and fire it up!