3D Prints Can Improve a Lee APP

[GW Staar]

The Lee APP does a lot of things.....some really well, some after a tweak here and there.

After they plowed the pass-thru shell holders to fix other feeding problems, I had trouble feeding smaller pistol cases for depriming. They tipped into the plowed areas and hung up. See the video below:



So I made something to backup the bases on 9mm and .40S&W. First picture shows what I did. And yes it worked. See below:

But.......I had to take the wire out for other things. Seems I would have to end up with more than one case shuttle base.....if I could find them.

Then I got a 3D printer, and started learning a new way of modding things from some real masters of the 3D printing scene. One was TylerR who frequents CastBoolits.Gunloads.com, who has done a lot in Mike's 3Dprinted Bulletfeeder thread there. Anyway he posted this...... http://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...let-Collator&p=5010823&viewfull=1#post5010823 and I thought, PERFECT!

So I printed one of his published STL files and replaced Lee's shuttle base with Tyler's design. (the new printed base is the black part under Lees red part)

Works as good or better than mine....and so easy to print one. Now I can have both functions. Thanks Tyler!

So now what else can I find or design myself to 3D print that will make an APP user's life easier?

 

[durachoke]

I’m dying to get a 3d printer. I keep telling myself it needs to be a priority.

 

[whughett]

A cottage industry is born. I’ll take one. Mine occasionally launches a 9MM across the room.

 

[GW Staar]

A cottage industry? Maybe Titan will print some for sale.....I know he has a printer because he does make a 3-d printed tube separator for the 4-way feeder that he sells.

The printer I bought was one with a bigger plate (Creality CR-10 V2 for $500) but the Ender's are cheaper and smaller and can print out the bullet feeders. And the Anet kits are even cheaper. Jmorris printed a bullet feeder just fine with that one.

My thinking was, for $500, is that better spent on a single DAA bullet feeder for one caliber/use, or on a machine that can make 10 bullet feeders for that price and many other useful things. You can make 2 bullet feeders with one $24 roll of PLA plastic.

 

[durachoke]

In that case I’ll pay you for the full roll and you can double the parts for me. I’ll split shipping. Don’t wanna miss out on this deal.

A cottage industry? Maybe Titan will print some for sale.....I know he has a printer because he does make a 3-d printed tube separator for the 4-way feeder that he sells.

The printer I bought was one with a bigger plate (Creality CR-10 V2 for $500) but the Ender's are cheaper and smaller and can print out the bullet feeders. And the Anet kits are even cheaper. Jmorris printed a bullet feeder just fine with that one.

My thinking was, for $500, is that better spent on a single DAA bullet feeder for one caliber/use, or on a machine that can make 10 bullet feeders for that price and many other useful things. You can make 2 bullet feeders with one $24 roll of PLA plastic.

 

[durachoke]

Real talk on 3D printing these parts, are they difficult at all or temperamental? I’ve seen difficult prints out there but never seem to hear anyone struggle with these.

 

[GW Staar]

There is a learning curve, you have to pay attention to details, but on the other hand, there are lots of videos to help and the learning curve isn't all that long. When jmorris posted his first thread on this subject, I was skeptical......I mean jmorris isn't exactly a babe in the woods.....he's about as talented as anyone I've seen.....and I wasn't sure I could to it. I'm a tinkerer, he's a machinist.....lots of difference there. Granted I build buildings and homes for a living, but others do most of the details now days......getting old, besides, if I built the kitchen cabinets, I couldn't build nearly as many projects....it's time consuming to build cabinets from scratch. While I dig footers and pour concrete someone else is building the cabinets.

3D-printing compares to that in only one way, besides the creating of something. It takes a long time to print something, especially if it's printed solid fill. Even with 20% fill it took me 18 hours just to print the base can.....and another 6 1/2 hours to print a rotating bullet drop plate. I printed a large T-rex for my Grandson that took 20 hours for the skull and 10 hours for the lower jaw. I know......slow.

BUT, you don't have to be there once it starts.....just check in once in a while....so that's like having an cabinet builder build your cabinets while you do something else, except he doesn't keep working while you sleep!

You asked about temperamental.....struggles happen during the learning curve. Just remember the software addage, junk in junk out. So you have to do good design or find good designs....then set it on the build plate/bed so that you have the least extra support necessary...considering that, although hot liquid plastic sets up quick, you can't print in mid air.....at an angle, yes....to a point. But all the help on Youtube, and Thingiverse, and in our hobby's case CastBoolits.com (special projects), makes it pretty simple to learn......and the printers have improved a huge amount.

I think the following video of T-rex (I know its not a bullet feeder but it illustrates what a 3d printer is capable of) illustrates what I'm talking about best. Not my design, It's from thingiverse. It was my first major print.....so it can't be that hard can it? Did I make a mistake? See the video...



I printed the lower jaw first.....then the skull. I forgot to up the scale from 1 to 1.5 as I had planned on the first print....so had to do it over.

Printing stuff in our hobby is way easier to design. Even the complicated stuff. The design is the hard part. So if you can't master some sort of cad, then use other people's designs on Thingiverse and other places.
The next picture is as complicated as I've done.....the green stuff is my design, the black stuff by AmmoMike, Thingiverse.



Bought my printer in August.....pretty reasonable learning curve.... That's my nose down bullet feeder to feed the Lee APP bullet sizer operation. Not too bad for less than $20 worth of plastic.

 

[durachoke]

Thank you for that thorough reply. I’ve got enough experience in cad and fabrication to get myself in trouble and not know how to fix it. But I think the rewards far outweigh the risks.

 

[GW Staar]

Durachoke: If you decide to do this.....besides getting a decent printer, you have to decide on slicer software that converts 3D cad files to instructions the printer can understand. I think that's personal......some like Cura, some like Prusa, some pay their dues and buy Simply3d. I'm usually a divergent with everything else, so it should come as no surprise to hear I prefer IdeaMaker.

IdeaMaker is sort of a free Simply3d. Very easy to use in my view (like Simply3d). Has every control one can think of, yet it's organized in my way of thinking....easy to find the tweaks I'm looking for. Cura for me was unwieldy and hard to learn, harder to customize settings, and buggy to boot.....but others swear by it.....maybe they are more intelligent than me. For me it was like trying to understand Apple, from a Microsoft point of view.......bad enough I suckered into an Apple phone that I swear at daily. I don't think Apple.

 

[durachoke]

Durachoke: If you decide to do this.....besides getting a decent printer, you have to decide on slicer software that converts 3D cad files to instructions the printer can understand. I think that's personal......some like Cura, some like Prusa, some pay their dues and buy Simply3d. I'm usually a divergent with everything else, so it should come as no surprise to hear I prefer IdeaMaker.

IdeaMaker is sort of a free Simply3d. Very easy to use in my view (like Simply3d). Has every control one can think of, yet it's organized in my way of thinking....easy to find the tweaks I'm looking for. Cura for me was unwieldy and hard to learn, harder to customize settings, and buggy to boot.....but others swear by it.....maybe they are more intelligent than me. For me it was like trying to understand Apple, from a Microsoft point of view.......bad enough I suckered into an Apple phone that I swear at daily. I don't think Apple.

Good call. This’ll be it’s own unique bridge to cross. Thankfully I’m on the technical side with software so I imagine adapting to whatever is best will be an “easy” ish step.
Just more things to research and decide on.
For the 3D printer I expect to go with a creality ender 3 variant, hopefully with a Black Friday discount.

 

[GW Staar]

As with everything there are annoyances. For me the first one I refused to abide, was manual print bed leveling. After suitable research I bought an Ezabl Pro bed leveler over the BL touch. Best money I ever spent.....really takes the annoyance out of the experience. Two members here, RedlegEd, and AR-Bossman also chose the Ezabl Pro. It has no moving parts to wear out like the BL Touch does. BTW, those two gentlemen are definitely my mentors.....if not for them and jmorris, I would never have attempted this at my age. And what a super distraction it is from Covid and poisonous politics!

 

[durachoke]

Welp I think Santa will be bringing a 3d printer then, and hopefully a lee APP for swaging. Thanks for all the help and advice.