jmorris

.380 is smaller than 9mm, you can see in the video they drop into the same bin as .223, before the 9mm can drop because of the larger diameter. 38 super has a larger diameter than 9mm and they fall into the next bin. That said, it’s even easier to sort by length. That device can even sort 357 sig from 40. That said, I haven’t even come across any, 32 S&W Short/ S&W Long/H&R Mag/327 anywhere I have picked up brass but will admit most of it comes from matches not public firing ranges and no one competes with those rounds.

That’s an easy task to do mechanically, no need to add the complication of writing a bunch of code and teaching a machine for the simple operation of sorting by size.

I have had one for too long, kept walking by stuff that looked like it could make this, so I threw it together. Really needs a larger diameter cylinder but could be an easy way to make a stand alone auto decap machine.

Certainly could be a difference between 5.56x45 brass and .223. The 223 cases I had when I did the calculations above averaged 95.23 grains each. Of course different brands would also vary as they do with wall thickness. Good use of search function though.

A little more complicated with the added feature of pocket diameter sorting.

This isn’t hand crank but pretty simple and motor most might think it too weak for the job.

I knew a guy that thought he was really smart. He was bragging about figuring out how to reload the aluminum cases CCI claimed were “not reloadable”. About 6 months later and the cost of replacing a Kart barrel, he figured out the difference between shouldn’t and can’t.

Last communication I received from him was May 23, he hadn’t had time to modify the pistol file and the rifle mod he made didn’t work to his liking. He still pops in from time to time though, last time was Aug 26 , so I hope he’s OK.

Federal isn’t the first or only one to put them on their sides, they do make the package so large the big flip tray has a purpose.

I wouldn’t worry about them, steel is by far the easiest to sort out.

Unfortunately case color isn’t a positive ID. Like the brass plated steel S&B 9mm case below, clean and new they look the same as an S&B brass case, a magnet picks them out instantly though. I have also came across nickel plated steel cases as well, my magnet at the case feeder caught it. Aluminum cases, if not already removed during a previous sorting process would be pretty easy because the “N R” in the head stamp. You are making great progress, keep up the good work.

For image capture I was just going to try a glass slide instead of the load cell and have the cases pushed out on to it from the collator one by one, like I did the sorter by weight but a glass slide vs the loadcell. How fast one could get the image capture and logic to work would dictate the direction I went for the sorting device, lots of ways to do that part.

I’m glad to see your still after it. I don’t really know a lot about the code side of things for the project but did gather all the components to put this one together to learn something but of course haven’t. https://coral.ai/projects/teachable-machine/#project-summary Would be interested knowing how you setup the image capture/classification on yours?

The only benefit would be faster conversions between small/large priming systems. Takes less than two minutes on the 550. The 650 has the most reliable priming delivery system of all reloading presses. The complaint most often heard is that they always feed primers, other presses could be so lucky. That too can be fixed. Put me in the “step backwards” group.

I sent you a PM.

You can get a 3D printer for under $140 shipped and print your own collator. The files are a free download. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?354324-Making-that-Bullet-Collator

If it keeps someone from having to do it, I don’t see that as much of a issue. If it’s fed by a collator so you can turn it on and do something else, it wouldn’t be a problem if it were only one a second.

Figure out the computation part and I’ll knock out the physical part. I did get a little further on my sort by weight project but it’s still not much more than proof of concept at this point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_Hm3oqlO4

Once you know how to make them work, it’s easy to keep them working. I didn’t use the Loadmaster case feed as they originally intended, rather fed it with a Dillon collator. So not sure how many cases were in the tube but it wasn’t full to the top. The orange thing clamped to the case feed tube is a proximity switch that starts/stops the collator. SPP cases with large primers can be quite the issue with the LM as you don’t seat with “feel” like most other presses. I have made a couple different devices to take the human error part out of sorting cases. This one is stand alone.

Yes, for precision rifle stuff. I built this one years ago that sorts by caliber much faster than the above machine could.

This one is a 3 ph motor using an Automation Direct GS series VFD, so it can run off 110ac.

Hardest part was learning how to program the PLC and display.

I haven’t had much time to play with this, built the electronics part, did the programming and threw together the mechanical parts months ago. It’s still a long way from being a finished product but it’s also one of those projects that can get lost do to “life getting in the way” if I don’t see some sort of progress. The idea is to begin the sort by a 10 grain differential with those dropping into one of 10 bins, then take all from a single bin and change the resolution to 1 grain differential, then take all from a single bin and change to .1 grain resolution. So in the end you can have brass sorted to the tenth of a grain without having to touch a single case. Proof of concept and hopefully enough inspiration to finish it out when it cools off outside.

Yep, it’s been a few years but posted this video here somewhere back then.