Rifle Case Collator for Lee's Progressives

This thread is for Lee Progressive owners (and others) who want to collate RIFLE brass without breaking the bank….after all that’s why you bought Lee’s fine presses in the first place.

I built this one for a Lee owner, but I use a similar one for my two RCBS progressives. My intention this time was to use readily available (inexpensive) parts, (Lee and Home Depot and Amazon) with no need for casting.

Those experimenting with 3d printing could conceivably make the collator, copying the "features", with one print.....if I had one I might have been tempted to try, but I can't get those cheaply at Home Depot.

This is probably my last project of this sort that I will be posting here as I am winding down. I know it won't be popular with the blue crowd who can spend lots of money on the hobby, but that's okay....it's pointed at simpler folk like me.

I will say that it's faster to set up and use than the expensive electric collators and can keep me in cases on my progressives just as well....especially with the longer thinline tubes I use.

Lee has not made a version of their little $12 collator to feed rifle brass, yet their Load Master could use one….so could their sweet little Auto Breech Lock Pro.

Yes, I know the ABLP can only load .223 with the auto-advance in place……however……the Dillon 550 doesn’t do auto-advance at all….and many load .308 on those just fine….

So, what’s to stop ABLP owners from removing the auto-advance, temporarily, so they can load .308? Or even just speed up .223 or similar, with a simple cheap add-on for a Lee collator?

First you need to buy an extra $12 collator, and the Universal Feeder that allows .45 acp and .308 cases to drop through. ($24?)

The Universal can be passed from pistol collator to rifle collator easy enough, so you only need one of those.

Then make a trip to Home Depot and buy a 2 gallon bucket, and an egg crate lighting lens. Hint: They nearly always have broken egg crate....bargain for 3/4's off.



Using flush cutting diagonals cut the red out to make the center piece.....the black is the perimeter to remain.



Do the same this size.....make three of these four cell squares with the red cut out.


Round off the corners inside the cutouts.....don't need to be perfect....just make room for the .308's to drop. Make sure to do that on all four layers before you glue them together.



Cut the bottom out of the bucket (6-1/8" Diameter hole...center it.)



Cut upper bucket off leaving only 2-3/8" tall sides....or there abouts.



This is the goal..... Note that the Lee collator has a rim.....the hole is small enough that the rim keeps the collator from falling through....a keeper is screwed over the top to hold it....see in the steps below...



glue three of the small cutouts to the big cutout......I used markers to make the cutout areas easy to see....but they smeared when I removed them with lacquer thinner (or alcohol). that's why mine is so pretty.....you want pretty or do you want clear instructions?; Notice the epoxy putty blobs on each side....I used the kind with steel fragments mixed so I could drill and tap them....not hard...the 8-32 tap costs a few dollars...or borrow one. I'll show you where and how in a minute. Remember this is a triple-decker on top of the big piece. Use a liquid plastic model cement for glue....use an cheap artist paint brush....hold two pieces together at a time and dip the brush and touch the joints....capillary action sucks the glue into the joint....hold a few seconds release wait a few and do it again....til you have the next picture complete.



You need to cover the egg crate with styrene sheet and again glue. Cut a 5-3/4" circle. I used liquid Tenax, which dries fast, but any liquid glue for styrene or plexiglass works. It welds by desolving the surface of each slightlym then fuzes together. When you go to a hobby store to get the glue, also buy a sheet of styrene....I used clear because I had some, but white is fine, if you think ahead. You have to cut out the "el-shaped" holes in it. Clear is easy to see where to cut, but if you mark them before you get the triple decker glued up, you can do it with opaque white.



Here you can see what the epoxy putty is for....8-32 thumb screws. drill and tap and screw them in. Notice how high the egg crate is above the Lee collator...the triple ply squares provide the correct standoff.





When you are ready to mount the modified Lee collator to the bucket, remove the top thumb screw only and replace it when the collator in place. Notice I drilled three holes in the bucket (more about that in the next picture). Also notice the red mark.....it helps when you are pre-fitting things to make locator marks so you can repeat things.

Cut a piece of 1/8" plastic sheet 8-1/8" Dia outside, 5-7/16" Dia inside. Place in the bottom of the bucket and drill three equal distant holes for the three bolts and wing nuts shown. IMPORTANT: I used a utility knife to bevel the inside diameter....it doesn't have to be pretty, just bevel the edge so the cases don't hang on an edge....or grind it with a Dremel. Next picture shows that I added nuts underneath to use as standoffs....holds things nicely too. I don't show it, but I ended up used two nuts each for stand offs...worked better.




All done....ain't she pretty? Videos next to show the results as well as one to show how I cut out the egg crate. One thing to mention about the egg crate. It isn't enough to just cut them out.....a little file work to smooth things is important as well to make cases drop.

So how well does it work? Those who watched my previews in "what I did in the reloading room" thread know.

One thing this design does well.....100% case orientation for both calibers without changing setup for caliber at all. That's a time saver all by itself.

You can drop them upside down directly in the holes....but if you load the bucket from the edges like I did.....it NEVER goes in upside down. Just use a little common sense.

Here's the videos....the first is .223. I didn't load enough which slowed it down at the end, but now I know 4 handfuls not 3....too much is better than not enough.



Then .308...just as easy, nothing to change to change calibers.




Two more little vids:

The hole shape concept is shown in the short video below. I started with just cutting double length holes.....they worked....just slow. I found that making "els" tripled production:



Cutting the egg crate can't get any simpler, see the video below:

Thank you twistytorn and kcofohio for acknowledging my thread by posting.....it was as much work taking the vids and pictures as it was building the collator!

One thing I had to deal with was the fact that the Lee factory collator, the feeder, and the tubes are just slide fit and on the loose side.....and fell apart with no effort. Yes, I did have the experience of having to pick up a load of collated cases off the floor when it came apart. So I found some tiny elastic cords....pictured below:




Maybe the pictures will help someone out there....maybe not....but I had them so I posted them....the last of the project pictures....of the last project.

I do have some stuff I'm going to post on various things I've done this year in the loading room....then I'm going to retire from internet forums....time to pass the baton.

Muddydogs said:

While the above project is cool if your not into doing another project there is another option. This https://www.amazon.com/American-Accurate-Collator-Progressive-Presses/dp/B013ZAGW08 collator works great for collating the 223 and 308 I have run through it as well as pistol calibers from 380 to 44 mag. Collator comes with an aluminum insert which is used for small brass like 380 and 9mm which helps keep the brass feeding base down.

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Yes a difinite improvement over the Lee. I have looked at their tool and watched a few videos of it. It's an improvement for sure....the plate is bigger for one thing, but video reviews still show some going in upside down....which IMO isn't real great since when you are running a batch...one near the bottom upside down is a real bitch. That's why I used a bigger bucket....so I could load them to the side and not have that problem....and the el-shaped holes don't allow the longer cases to drop backwards unless they are literally dropped straight in.

One guy even used paper towels on the bottom...then dumped the cases...then pulled the paper towel and he still got one upside down on the "American" unit. Pulling the towel must have flipped some? Who knows.

Keep in mind, my version is rifle only.....the pistol only version of Lees works, excepting that I slide the next small thin wall tubing inside Lee's, to prevent 9mm and even an occasional .40S&W from turning upside down.

I appreciate the compliments etc., but honestly, I really am about done with the hobby. Health is not what it used to be.....I haven't been to the range in a year.....and while I can still make stuff and do still love to tinker, I haven't done enough reloading compared to past years to spit on. Maybe this winter will change that.....we will see.

Truer words.......thankyou.....I'll still be looking in for a while....and working on my Pro Chucker 7....just no more projects unless something unforeseen happens.

The factory Pro Chuckers aren't perfect yet (I know....no progressive is)....yet RCBS seems to have lost the desire to make the improvements necessary to make it world class....really disappointed, the concept is exciting, they just quit before they finished. I'm sure it has everything to do with stupid corporate overlords holding the purse strings.......yet, I am hoping still that they will yet get to finish. Mine's working great but I can't recommend them to others when I can't provide "kits" to make them sing just as well for you all.

Walkalong said:

Do think about that, you can always just slow down a little.

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I am and I have............You are one of the reasons I've stayed this long. I appreciate many on this forum. Breath of fresh air compared to most of the others.

Thank you Blue. Sorry for your loss! I had a great loss three weeks ago too. A nephew on my wife's side I was close to, who had everything going for him...beautiful, supportive wife, 6 great kids, good job, outdoorsman and hunter......and recently, terrible depression and panic attacks. A suicide, no one saw coming nor thought could happen. Good thing I have a strong faith in God and where we are all going after this life....we will see them again...and it'll be old times all over again! Sure of it!

Sorry about your back.....they can do a lot for that these days. Do some research and Get good help! I had two vertebrae crushed when I was 26. I came back fine once they fuzed, just took a while.....but I can certainly relate and am full of empathy.