Paddy
member
So, after dicking around for much too long with thehornady bullet feeder die in 45acp with the clear "linens n things" tube (sans collator) I decided that the engineering in the die was incorrect. Not that it won't work for some people but for me, no amount of polishing, adjusting, and swearing would make it work right. It would double feed, or not feed a bullet about 30% or more of the time. So, long story short, I purchased a double alpha bullet dropper die and WOW! It only takes two seconds looking at it to tell this is "correct" engineering. I'm sorry hornady, I love you, and you have good engineers and products, but you should give up on is collet baloney and admit defeat. The DA dropper works, every time, to the last bullet. It does so, not because it wants to, but because it HAS to..
anyway, this thing is so nice it inspired me to make a feeder for it. So, I'm going to try.
To choose a design so far I've focused on complaints from other users about other designs. People tend to love what they have so to me complaints help tell a story sometimes more honestly than praise.
The hornady is apparently very loud, but has a sort of universal bullet plate and adjustable spring fingers that sort and spit bulets tha are not ordinated correct. This has advantage of less parts, but potentially time consuming to dial in for different calibers or bullet shapes.
The mrbubullet feeder seems solid, and I like how ey flip the upside down bullets. This is the style I've seen replicated at home and I think I will head that direction as well.
I don't have a gear motor sourced yet but I've aqcuired a plastic cutting board that I salvaged some high density 1/2" thick plastic, and then promptly launched it out of my lathe while truing the edge, damaging it. Amazon seems to have 1/2" cutting boards at 5$/ sq/ft s I ordered a large one of those. I also found a chunk of large aluminum pipe with 7.5" ID so this will be my collator body. Welding a plate to its base will give a solid platform to mount motors to and easy attaching of parts.
Anyone who has input please chime in! My focus on this project right away will be for 45acp and maybe 308 in various weights and shapes. One concern is being able to easily and reliably change bullet shapes and still have the collator work. Some feeder designs seem dependent on bullet shape. Ie, round nose, hollow points, or in the case of the 308, needs to accommodate a large range of lengths.
anyway, this thing is so nice it inspired me to make a feeder for it. So, I'm going to try.
To choose a design so far I've focused on complaints from other users about other designs. People tend to love what they have so to me complaints help tell a story sometimes more honestly than praise.
The hornady is apparently very loud, but has a sort of universal bullet plate and adjustable spring fingers that sort and spit bulets tha are not ordinated correct. This has advantage of less parts, but potentially time consuming to dial in for different calibers or bullet shapes.
The mrbubullet feeder seems solid, and I like how ey flip the upside down bullets. This is the style I've seen replicated at home and I think I will head that direction as well.
I don't have a gear motor sourced yet but I've aqcuired a plastic cutting board that I salvaged some high density 1/2" thick plastic, and then promptly launched it out of my lathe while truing the edge, damaging it. Amazon seems to have 1/2" cutting boards at 5$/ sq/ft s I ordered a large one of those. I also found a chunk of large aluminum pipe with 7.5" ID so this will be my collator body. Welding a plate to its base will give a solid platform to mount motors to and easy attaching of parts.
Anyone who has input please chime in! My focus on this project right away will be for 45acp and maybe 308 in various weights and shapes. One concern is being able to easily and reliably change bullet shapes and still have the collator work. Some feeder designs seem dependent on bullet shape. Ie, round nose, hollow points, or in the case of the 308, needs to accommodate a large range of lengths.
