Completely new progressive machine

[jamesp81]

Things I'd like to see

1) You mentioned this, but feeding primers from a tray instead of pickup tubes or buying an expensive machine to fill the tubes.  Let me take this further.  A larger primer magazine.  I'd like to be able to fill the primer magazine with 500 or more primers at a time for fewer interruptions.

2) A case feeder that works without constant fiddling.

3) A bullet feeder that works without constant fiddling.

4) A press that works without constant fiddling.  Are you sensing a pattern yet?

5) A machine that doesn't cost 10 billion freaking dollars.

6) Minimize number of parts changes needed for caliber conversions as much as is practical.

 

Honestly...if the Lee Classic Turret press had a bullet feeder, a way to auto eject completed cartridges, and an automatic primer feeder, I'd have never given my last one up.  There are days I wish I had it back instead of this LnL AP monstrosity I have to babysit every time I want to load some ammo.

Seriously.  As much as I have to babysit my LnL AP, I should've bought a Lee Loadmaster.  I bought LnL AP on the idea I wouldn't have to tinker with it, but since I do anyway, I should've bought the cheaper press and pocketed the extra money.

Edited January 17, 2017 by jamesp81

[Livin_cincy]

2 minutes ago, jamesp81 said:

Honestly...if the Lee Classic Turret press had a bullet feeder, a way to auto eject completed cartridges, and an automatic primer feeder, I'd have never given my last one up.  There are days I wish I had it back instead of this LnL AP monstrosity I have to babysit every time I want to load some ammo.

I have a Hornady bullet feed die and Inline fabrication makes a case kicker set up.

I remove primers and resize before I clean so that die is not in the turret.

The AutoDrum powder measure makes caliber changes only $4 vs the cost of a Dillon powder measure for each caliber & load.

You might look into it.

[jamesp81]

7 hours ago, Livin_cincy said:

I have a Hornady bullet feed die and Inline fabrication makes a case kicker set up.

I remove primers and resize before I clean so that die is not in the turret.

The AutoDrum powder measure makes caliber changes only $4 vs the cost of a Dillon powder measure for each caliber & load.

You might look into it.

Hornady bullet feeder is iffy with cast bullets which is 99% of my loading, unfortunately. 

[PacificNWRider]

A short observation on presses.  If you research the various brands of presses you'll notice that for some presses the majority of the use group posts are "how to get the press to operate" or to overcome a particular design problem with the press.  Others mfg related posts are of the nature of "it would be nice if"  types of tweaks. For example, I've noticed that progressive presses which try to do everything with little to no case feed optimization have feeding  problems, while those which  have engineered parts which are changed for various calibers and  optimize the handling process work much better.  That's not to say your idea for a Universal she'll plate won't work,  it's that sometimes these things are a trade off. I sold a press because there were too many things which "sorta worked"; despite my extensive  engineering background, I didn't want to fix other people's designs.  So I recommend  you consider having your press tested by both novice and experienced reloaders and listen to their assessments,  before calling the design final. I hope your endeavour is successful and I see your product  for sale. 

[Livin_cincy]

10 hours ago, jamesp81 said:

Hornady bullet feeder is iffy with cast bullets which is 99% of my loading, unfortunately. 

There are YouTube videos to get cast bullets to function.  You end up using a file and polishing it down to work.  It will not run FMJ or Plated after you do this.  So a second set of internal parts would be needed to do FMJ.

[jamesp81]

On 1/18/2017 at 8:13 AM, Livin_cincy said:

There are YouTube videos to get cast bullets to function.  You end up using a file and polishing it down to work.  It will not run FMJ or Plated after you do this.  So a second set of internal parts would be needed to do FMJ.

Something occurs to me having watched the video.  The issue is that lead bullets are usually a bit too large to drop through freely.  In my case, with 45 ACP, I size all my 45s to .451, like jacketed bullets.  I am aware that this is unusual, but the fact is that neither of my 1911s will chamber cartridges loaded with .452 projectiles.  They will if you run them through a Lee FCD...but all that does is swage the bullet down to .451 anyway.

The Hornady set up might work unmodified with my 45s.  Not so with 357 and 9mm.  Still, worth looking into in conjunction with the Bully Adapter for the Lee tube feeder.

[BeerBaron]

How does the new mk7 press effect your plans? 10 station machine with integrated autodrive. Very impressive and very expensive at $8500. 

[Savageman25]

On January 17, 2017 at 9:36 PM, PacificNWRider said:

A short observation on presses.  If you research the various brands of presses you'll notice that for some presses the majority of the use group posts are "how to get the press to operate" or to overcome a particular design problem with the press.  Others mfg related posts are of the nature of "it would be nice if"  types of tweaks. For example, I've noticed that progressive presses which try to do everything with little to no case feed optimization have feeding  problems, while those which  have engineered parts which are changed for various calibers and  optimize the handling process work much better.  That's not to say your idea for a Universal she'll plate won't work,  it's that sometimes these things are a trade off. I sold a press because there were too many things which "sorta worked"; despite my extensive  engineering background, I didn't want to fix other people's designs.  So I recommend  you consider having your press tested by both novice and experienced reloaders and listen to their assessments,  before calling the design final. I hope your endeavour is successful and I see your product  for sale. 

I understand exactly what your saying but I am a person who really struggles with the thought that there can't be a press that can do everything well. Think of all the achievements we as humans have made through great designing and engineering. My plan is have some beta testers but that's still a long ways off. I don't look at this project as a fast moving one.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Savageman25

[Savageman25]

15 hours ago, BeerBaron said:

How does the new mk7 press effect your plans? 10 station machine with integrated autodrive. Very impressive and very expensive at $8500. 

Don't know anything about it actually. I was scared reading your post for a second until I saw the price. Not a concern really but I'll have to do some investigating on it.