BachelorJack

The price on that one has been on a steady increase for the past two years. Had I ordered one when I first called and sold it here now I would have come out quite well...

If your goal is to get it setup to make 300blk brass, you are in for a beating. Assuming you get the Auto drive working, your OAL will be all over the place. You need to go rotary with a modified gear, like an egg. So it speeds up and slows down on the same stroke. That way it can slow down at the bottom of the stroke, replicating doing it by hand to get that perfect cut.

I don't know what machine you are trying to use. That info changes things slightly. For the sake of this discussion, I'm using modified Dillon Super 1050's all purchased new. Mine are motor operated, but I'm not using the PW Autodrive units as I could not get them to work in this application. I tried both speeds and still got an inconsistent end product. They run at a consistent speed through the stroke, and for trimming brass consistently it needs to slow down at the bottom of the stroke. So you either go extremely slow the entire way or variable speed through the stroke. Which is tricky and impossible to do with a PW Autodrive unit. I knew early on that I didn't want to have to stand there and fix jams or clear blockages all day. I found that the blue vac collar, die, and tool head needed to be modified differently than how everyone else seems to be doing it. It didn't work for me either at first. I got so frustrated with it I abandoned the project for six months. Currently, my machines are all running with identical stroke pressure and timing. This was one of the biggest things that made the most difference. I couldn't ever expect to pull a handle and get consistent anything over multiple hours because it's impossible. Especially multiply that repetition 10k times a day for a week. I can produce a crazy amount of identical brass in a short period of time. Could clear out Notar's backlog in less than a week. For me the biggest pain is cleaning the cases. I spend more time loading and unloading cleaning machines than anything else. When trying to trim that much brass sucking the swarf up and then down the vac port hose didn't work as well as sucking it straight out the side and down the vac port hose. The die lock ring and associated edges didn't help and neither did the 90 degree bend down to the vac hose. So mine suck straight out the side. The dies are now modified for their respective tool heads along with the blue vac connector. It requires essentially destroying a tool head, die, and vac connector but never getting any jams or blockages is worth it. I'm running a simple shop vac on each trimmer. It draws through a cyclone attached to a container which collects the brass shavings. This alone gives me a really high level of consistent suction which doesn't bog down, ever, no matter how much I have trimmed. There are similar kits on Amazon for collecting dust or wood shavings. I found the trimmers need a certain amount of suction to clear that much swarf. When the suction values change for a second or two that's where the blockages start. This is of course after you've created a path for them to travel clear of obstructions and bends. I didn't add any holes. In fact I run a tight seal and the sound of the air rushing through the die changes when a case enters it changing it to an almost whistle. Will this nuke my vacuum? Maybe at some point. $40 and a trip to Lowes and I'm back in business. Yes the bluecollar will ride up. You can try to wedge it but that makes a crappy seal. Some cheap closed cell foam and a razor blade and you accomplish the same thing, and get a better seal. I read online how brass pieces can go up into the trimmer and destroy it. This usually happens when a previously sized case enters the die and starts to spin freely. There is a way to modify the die to ensure this never happens. This modification also keeps brass strands from wrapping around the trimmer shaft and creating excess heat or wear on the trimmer itself. It appears this will only work with the side suction modification. But the bonus is the trimmer can't be destroyed or damaged anymore. I heard a steel case will destroy a trimmer as well. They make magnets already formed in circles. Easiest way to get one is to destroy a desk paperclip holder. Then slide the circle magnets halfway down the casefeed tube and secure it with tape. Problem solved. Now steel cases will never feed into the machine. I bought 2x at a garage sale for $1. The easiest way to keep the trimmer motors cool is by adapting PC cooling equipment over. The right stuff can be had reasonably to ridiculously cheap and power consumption is minimal compared to fans which blow crap everywhere. This allows me to run the machines all day straight without having to stop every 150X like Notar does. It also keeps crap from blowing willy nilly which drives me nuts. I de-prime and swage as a separate operation before washing the cases with stainless media. It's the only way for me to get the flash holes clean. My dedicated machines just form and trim. One actual die doing work on the tool head. The other stations are filled with gadgets like a sensor which verifies each case is deprimed and nothing is obstructing the flash hole. When I tried to do both operations on the same tool head I had issues with the de-priming aspect jamming up the works. I found it easier to setup a separate machine to just deprime and swage. An optical sensor running to the controller attached to the motor and a modified Lee Universal De-priming die and that machine will now stop if it hits any problem cases. Otherwise it runs full bore kicking out cases ready to be cleaned nonstop. So there you have it. Guys like Notar are pulling the handle and doing 150x cases on 2X machines by hand then taking a short break. I'm filling hoppers, changing bins, loading and unloading cleaning machines, packaging, and taping boxes while my heavily modified machines just form and trim cases pretty much nonstop. I was sitting there today looking at them run thinking I would have been better off just ordering the parts I actually needed next time instead of a full Super 1050 then stripping it down then cutting it up. Case lube was mentioned. I make my own. Mine has a higher alcohol content in it than you would believe. Apparently the alcohol is commonly used to apply the lube to the case evenly. With the goal being you let them dry first and all the alcohol evaporate. Ha. A wet alcohol soaked case seems to act like a highly lubed one, without causing die buildup or a mess. Added bonus is your tumbling media used to remove case lube will last exponentially longer. The swarf also doesn't stick to shit, nor does a sticky build up form in the vacuum tubes. Total cost was $13 for the spray bottle, alcohol, and lanolin and I've still got some left after doing 250k+ cases. For lubricant on the machines I'm using a Mobile Synthetic motor oil. Which given their nonstop motion, seemed appropriate. It also works a whole lot better than whatever dillon greases them with before shipping.

I think at least 3 members here are making brass and selling it. Notar (bradswarehouse) Tom Freeman (Hoser) and myself. There are some tips and tricks, but I doubt anyone will share. When I was setting up my machines I went back and read old posts, did google searches for key word strings, and studied pictures and videos. When I would get stumped, I cannot tell you how often I would notice something small in a video or picture that made just that little bit of difference. There are a lot of nuggets out there. It was trickier for me getting setup than the other guys mentioned. But my machines will run autonomously, stop on preset intervals for QC checks, verify a primer pocket and flash hole are empty, and do other neat tricks. It can be done. And figuring it out SUCKED and took me the better part of a few months. I will say getting the trimmer running at a constant stroke did a lot to improve the cutting precision. For me, I automated them and let a machine do all the work. But I also needed to be able to process 10K a day every day with minimal effort and time on my part. Now all I do is fill hoppers and press buttons... It is out there. Just be prepared to spend some time finding it.