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Auto-Drive your Case Pro 100


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Ponsness/Warren now offers an Auto-Drive system for the Case Pro 100, They tell me they run at 1500 rounds per hr. It's essentialy the same clutch and motor as for the 1050, And also they are working on a Video that will be on reloaders.com

Edited by hangem
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There have been a few folks on the forum that have built their own auto drives. Not that complicated. Finding a gear reduction drive motor at 30 or so rpm's is the first hurdle. Grainger has one for the paltry sum of $480.00. I'll stumble across one some day and build my own. Until then I'll keep pulling the handle.

CYa,

Pat

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  • 4 years later...

I just sorted an auto drive for my Casepro. Motor is 1420rpm and reduction gearbox is 60:1 so total rounds per hour is 1420. Got the Casepro used for not a lot, came with 4 sets of plates. 9mm already installed and required and therefore the first project.

Will have to change the slider as it is damaged as 380 brass will case it to jam, with the short length of the 380 a 9mm case will partially enter the slide behind the 380 case and lock it up and the machine wants to keep going until the pressure on the flywheel exceeds the bolt tension I am using as a clutch. I have 50K of 9mm to size up for ammo, and I have found 20 380 in the first case of 5K, more likely.

More importantly now the new one I ordered Feb last year has arrived I can connect the two of them to the same motor. So if we run two casefeeds we in theory will get 2840 rounds per hour.

Pictures of my dodgy connection system to follow.

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In theory no, in reality maybe, any case sorter that is based on rollers or slots in a pan sifter sort the 380 into the same bucket as 9mm. So hand sorting is best or buy a really expensive vertical vibratory sorter that sorts by height. Nice but not right now. The problem is I picked up 250K 9mm once fired (ex commercial range) for the shop and it supposed to have been cleaned and sorted, yeah right. 50K was held aside for the ammo project, the rest is being sold off to fund teh ammo project.

After selling or using 100K with out one 380 case turning up, the first box of 9mm (5K) I tried to run through the roll sizer had 20 x 380 in the first bag of 2.5K. Bloody figures. So we had that many jams once we got going, however, I have looked it over and with a modification to the case slide the 380 will go through the machine, not be roll sized properly and just fall into the outlet bin. Once roll sizing is complete I will decap and fully clean in a wet tumbler before full sizing and manufacturing of ammo. During the decapping procedure the 1050 will essentially find the 380 cases by also jamming, as that is manually done at this stage (auto drive being worked on for that), we will take care of it then without too much interruption to the whole process.

The 380 cases are about 1.5mm (1/16th inch) shorter than the height of the slider, they 380 case fully enters the slider and the rim of the next case in the tube also enters the slider, this causes the slider to jam as the upper case is still inside the drop tube, this bends the drop tube and the bolt that acts as a cam on the Case Pro damages the slider (which is made of nylon or delrin). The modification is to shorten the slider to 16.5mm, allowing 380 cases into the slider and another case will just rest on top of that case and then the case is processed without the next case being slightly inserted into the slider and jamming the whole deal. That way the upper case is still mostly supported by the drop tube and will stay within the drop tube whilst the slider goes forward and drops the 380 case in between the roller plates. I will construct a new drop tube end that is lower than the supplied one (which serves for 9mm and 38Super) to make one specific to 9mm and just clear the case in the slider should the case be 9x19. essentially the bottom of the drop tube will be 19.5mm from the bottom of the slider. Plus the new drop tube will be smaller in diameter to keep the cases more vertically aligned when being inserted into the slider.

Simple really!

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In theory no, in reality maybe, any case sorter that is based on rollers or slots in a pan sifter sort the 380 into the same bucket as 9mm.

Mine does not. Sounds like a lack of precision on the devices that are being used to sort.

The OD of a 9mm case is .394" the OD of a 380 case is .374" that gives you .020" difference and it is not that difficult to make a machine that will sort with that accuracy (mine will also sort 38 super .406" from 9mm, .012" difference).

There are details on how to build one in this thread.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11364&page=2

Also not rocket science to sort by height. This device was actually for something else but I shot the video of it sorting 380 from 9mm to show how it works.

http://vid121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/reloading/brass/9mm380.mp4

Edited by jmorris
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  • 2 months later...

I imagine any of them would work but I don't actually own a 550 collator. The 650 and 1050 collators are identical and interchangeable. If you mount it on 1" box tube and make the tube the correct height you won't even have to use the bolt to lock it down, if you use a round post you will want to use he screw to keep it from rotating.

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