Lee APP with a little help from 3d printed parts Depriming .357 Mag

[GW Staar]

I want to tumble a bunch of .357Mag tomorrow, so I deprimed some using Lee's APP and TylerR's quick change case feeding parts. One base with a ring (black part), and one caliber specific down tube (red).

I loaded two 36" tubes full of cases....25 cases each and videoed them to show you all how well it works......I even sabotaged the second tube with one upside down case to see how the system would handle it. (2 cases flying...one deprimed, the upside down one obviously didn't).

I will print one more case collator for the APP for the future later this month. That will be the icing on the cake....

 

[GW Staar]

TylerR's mod with caliber change is simple: Done by lifting one downtube off and dropping another caliber downtube over the ring....then if needed, pushing one size sliding shuttle off the shuttle slide and pushing another height shuttle on....10 seconds maybe. No bolts to have to get to and remove under the bench. That's the genius of his APP quick change system. Plus the downtubes support the cases and the only time they fly across the room is if you screw up and feed one upside down.....and that's a good thing. Gets your attention but doesn't stop the operation.

There is one more printed part that prevents case bases from tipping and stopping as it tries to go into the case holder. It does that by providing a support at the base. I made such a thing before I had a 3D printer. with a paper clip....pictured below....

But TylerR perfected it with a 3d printed shuttle base with the support built in:
Works extremely well.

 

[dgod]

How much would you charge to make me a case collator and send it to me?? I’m trying REAL HARD to determine what I could use the Lee APP versus all my other presses. My zip code is 73089

Thanks
Dan

 

[GW Staar]

You can buy an Ender 3 and a spool of plastic and build your own for less than someone could build you one and ship it. I'm not in that business. Trying to retire.....not totally successful, but still trying. Besides, though the print files are free, they are patented by TylerR, for people to use "free", not for resell or profit. Learning to use a 3D printer is not hard....plenty of YouTube video help....and building stuff for this hobby is only the tip of a fun iceberg.

The Lee APP isn't a normal press. APP stand for Automatic Processing Press, which means in English it's a bullet or case processor (prep) made to speed up case or boolit processing to make reloading on your other presses faster. In effect the APP is the first and only single station press with a built-in case feed to speed things up. That's the feature that got me into it. All my work to speed up my Rock Chucker II to prep brass, went under the rug, when I found the APP. People can and do use the APP for loading, but that's not what it was designed for....heavier press are better for that IMO, and I have plenty of those.

 

[Waterboy3313]

You can buy an Ender 3 and a spool of plastic and build your own for less than someone could build you one and ship it. I'm not in that business. Trying to retire.....not totally successful, but still trying. Besides, though the print files are free, they are patented by TylerR, for people to use "free", not for resell or profit. Learning to use a 3D printer is not hard....plenty of YouTube video help....and building stuff for this hobby is only the tip of a fun iceberg.

I have been 3d printing for almost year now. I'm not a big tech person but it can be learned. The learning curve is steep and usually you burn hours of time before you either have a problem or realize you have a problem. I spent about $300 on my printer and about $20 a spool of petg. It's cool and fun but if you are borderline line or straight up short on patience like I am it may not be for you.

The AR bolt face trailer hitch receiver plug I printed for my truck is kind of cool. Most people don't realize what is but I have had people approach me and tell me it is cool.

I have actually printed myself quite a bit of gun/reloading stuff. I have learned a lot in the last 11 months but I still consider myself a beginner rookie at best.

 

[jmorris]

That’s almost what I wanted to do with a cheap single stage. Now to print a mount and linkage for a gear motor to the head.

 

[GW Staar]

Waterboy: I only started last year end of July.....so about 15 months total. Maybe had you started with PLA instead of PETG, you'd be a lot more comfortable. PLA is still all I print with....it's much easier than PETG ..... so guess I'm still a beginner. Nevertheless, although the learning curve continues for years, I've printed 3 collators 8 collator plates, 4 bullet feeding dies, a whole bunch of APP parts, 2 LED press lighting systems, and a full size Starwars helmet for a grandson, and a 12" high T Rex skull for another grandson, and I'm 73. If I can do that most anybody can. I used the many teachers on YouTube and had a few bumps to start, but what really helped most was adding a sheet of polypropylene over the top of Creality's treated glass bed....then all my "lifting" problems went away. Also I added a TH3D bed leveling system....the other game changer.

jmorris: I've seen that and drooled over it more than a few times, but until YOU talked me into trying 3D printing, I would never been able to have done anything to approach it. Check out the new PLA 3D printed pistol bullet feeding dies below, that I did a few weeks ago to replace my Hornady part-time working models. Really impressed with their performance using only two ball bearings and two tiny springs. Thanks one more time.



Again, I plan to print collator #4 for this APP........ 3D printing was the great "enabler" for me!

 

[GW Staar]

If there is a negative with the Lee APP it's caliber change. The beauty with TylerR's quick change system is that it makes it so that just changing the slider top with Lee's tallest one, and lifting the .357 drop tube out, then dropping the .270 rifle drop tube in, allows you to deprime rifle brass as large as .270/30-06. Two minutes or less! The screwed in 3D printed case/bullet feeder base stays put, unlike the factory one, where you have to get under the press and unscrew the feeder and change parts, and then screw it back in under the press.