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Hornady Case feeder


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I am curious if there is an optimal number of cases to have in the hopper so that the cases feed efficiently. It seems like if the hopper is too full, the cases don't feed into the fill tube as quickly as when there are only a couple hundred in the hopper. I am curious how many cases you guys generally run in the hopper of a Hornady case feeder.

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I've found that if there are too many, the plate binds and the clutch spins but it seems to be more volume/weight dependent than anything. I usually dump in what i estimate is about 100 or so cases at a time since i seem to replenish them about the same time as the primers. I can get more 9mm in there than 45 though. I use a quart sized bowl to lube my 9mm cases and i generally only dump half the bowl in at a time and that works. I use the same bowl to meter out a half-bowl of 45 cases from the bucket but haven't figured out the optimal amount yet since i just started reloading 45.

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I am curious if there is an optimal number of cases to have in the hopper so that the cases feed efficiently. It seems like if the hopper is too full, the cases don't feed into the fill tube as quickly as when there are only a couple hundred in the hopper. I am curious how many cases you guys generally run in the hopper of a Hornady case feeder.

I do about the same thing. 100 to 150 cases. What caliber are you loading? .40 with small pistol plate maybe?

Edited by 1in9twist
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I have found the Hornady case feeder to be an unreliable POS. Upside down cases, log jams at the top, cases don't drop and then jam the motor. Actually after a few times that happened the pin that goes through the motor shaft (which spins the case feed plate) broke. I drilled and tapped it out to make a more sturdy pin than just the factory roll pin. In general I have not been happy with it. Happens with 9 mm, 40 and 45. I have the small rifle plate but have tried any 223 yet

Edited by spideysteve
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Wow, I have an xl650 and the LNL sitting next to each other, by the way the wheels are interchangable. I keep brass in 3# coffee cans, so when it gets low I dump in about 1/3 to 1/2 can or 300 to 500 rounds. The trick to getting right side up cases and to avoid the brass rain is to take and cut a small piece of card board from a primer box and put it in the down shute of the case feeder which narrows the shute so that the case can not turn over in the shute. This is expecially true with 9 mm.

The only thing the Hornady does that the dillon does not do is every once in a while it will sling a piece of brass out, and it just goes flying under my truck.

And the thing that will cause the most havioc is a loaded round in with the brass.

I have to do the same thing on the XL650 with the card board, the Dillon won't handle as much brass as the Hornady. The major difference is the feed assembly, and the Dillon rocks in that, but then you have to buy a conversion kit of each caliber, but no adjustment, the Hornady well after about 200 rounds I get it perfectly adjusted.

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The trick to getting right side up cases and to avoid the brass rain is to take and cut a small piece of card board from a primer box and put it in the down shute of the case feeder which narrows the shute so that the case can not turn over in the shute. This is expecially true with 9 mm.

I tried the cardboard and it didn't seem to be any better. I ended up closing every 2nd slot in the feed plate and that helped some, but didn't eliminate the problems. Could you post a pic of how you put the cardboard in?

Thanks

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To stop the jams from cases not falling, make a wiper inside to knock the cases back down that are not vertical in the plate. I made mine out of a little piece of plastic stuck to the hopper with double sided tape. Never get failure to drop cases that jam up the motor now

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To stop the jams from cases not falling, make a wiper inside to knock the cases back down that are not vertical in the plate. I made mine out of a little piece of plastic stuck to the hopper with double sided tape. Never get failure to drop cases that jam up the motor now

If you get a chance, could you post a pic? What height did you make it?

Edited by spideysteve
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This is how I fixed the rain and up-side down cases. Now the cases just get stuck on the left side of the opening next to the movable metal flat plate. I used a business card and held up with black tape.

Notice the funnel shape in the drop, cut the card board from a primer box so it lines all 3 sides of the funnel, this reduces the dimensions enough that the round cannot turn over. Jams happen because a 9 mm is just the about the same length as the funnel is front to back when you reduce it then it can't lodge sideways in there and make it rain and it can't turn over. http://www.sashooter.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=825

Edited by CocoBolo
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This is how I fixed the rain and up-side down cases. Now the cases just get stuck on the left side of the opening next to the movable metal flat plate. I used a business card and held up with black tape.

Notice the funnel shape in the drop, cut the card board from a primer box so it lines all 3 sides of the funnel, this reduces the dimensions enough that the round cannot turn over. Jams happen because a 9 mm is just the about the same length as the funnel is front to back when you reduce it then it can't lodge sideways in there and make it rain and it can't turn over. http://www.sashooter.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=825

Got ya .. I'll give that a try .. 40 is a big problem for me as well. Thanks for the tips!

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I couldn't get the picture to show in this thread. But if you look at it you will see the right opening is over the edge of the right side of the chute. What happens is the cases are dropping out of the hole and hitting the edge of the clear plastic. A more elegant solution is to take the motor and the bowl apart, elongate the hole between the bowl and motor (the plastic) and reclock the bowl so it doesn't let the cases hit the side of the chute. Then you take a another piece and put it on the front so that it doesn't hit the front of the chute.

DSC_3495.jpg

Hate to say it but even after all this fiddling I replaced it with a Dillon 650. I got the casefeeder bowl working ok. I much prefer the 650.

Edited by 98sr20ve
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Mine runs fine with the cardboard trick. I did find that when I started with .223 cases they often lined up such that the top case didn't press against the wire trigger that stops the motor. I bent that wire a bit with needle nose pliers to make a more positive "catch" for the top case to press it enough to stop the motor.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Wow, I have an xl650 and the LNL sitting next to each other, by the way the wheels are interchangable. I keep brass in 3# coffee cans, so when it gets low I dump in about 1/3 to 1/2 can or 300 to 500 rounds. The trick to getting right side up cases and to avoid the brass rain is to take and cut a small piece of card board from a primer box and put it in the down shute of the case feeder which narrows the shute so that the case can not turn over in the shute. This is expecially true with 9 mm.

The only thing the Hornady does that the dillon does not do is every once in a while it will sling a piece of brass out, and it just goes flying under my truck.

And the thing that will cause the most havioc is a loaded round in with the brass.

I have to do the same thing on the XL650 with the card board, the Dillon won't handle as much brass as the Hornady. The major difference is the feed assembly, and the Dillon rocks in that, but then you have to buy a conversion kit of each caliber, but no adjustment, the Hornady well after about 200 rounds I get it perfectly adjusted.

I just opened a topic with regards to that. Saw your post here too late.

Can you explain in more detail about the cardboard thing how big, do you only do a sheet on one side or on all 4 and where exactly?

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Wow, I have an xl650 and the LNL sitting next to each other, by the way the wheels are interchangable. I keep brass in 3# coffee cans, so when it gets low I dump in about 1/3 to 1/2 can or 300 to 500 rounds. The trick to getting right side up cases and to avoid the brass rain is to take and cut a small piece of card board from a primer box and put it in the down shute of the case feeder which narrows the shute so that the case can not turn over in the shute. This is expecially true with 9 mm.

The only thing the Hornady does that the dillon does not do is every once in a while it will sling a piece of brass out, and it just goes flying under my truck.

And the thing that will cause the most havioc is a loaded round in with the brass.

I have to do the same thing on the XL650 with the card board, the Dillon won't handle as much brass as the Hornady. The major difference is the feed assembly, and the Dillon rocks in that, but then you have to buy a conversion kit of each caliber, but no adjustment, the Hornady well after about 200 rounds I get it perfectly adjusted.

I just opened a topic with regards to that. Saw your post here too late.

Can you explain in more detail about the cardboard thing how big, do you only do a sheet on one side or on all 4 and where exactly?

or maybe send me the pictures as for some reason I cannot see them

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To stop the jams from cases not falling, make a wiper inside to knock the cases back down that are not vertical in the plate. I made mine out of a little piece of plastic stuck to the hopper with double sided tape. Never get failure to drop cases that jam up the motor now

do you have a picture of this?

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Anyone tried to put a dillon case feeder on the LNL? Can't find a hornady in stock. Plus dillon is $100 cheaper. I have used the dillon 650 in the past and never had a problem with the casefeeder. Now I have several LNL machines and am setting them up different calibers.

Mike

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As a complete kit? No way. The Hornady comes with not only the motorized hopper, but all the other proprietary lower parts necessary for shell queueing and delivery to the press itself. Even if you bought the Dillon just for the hopper, you'd have to buy the lower parts from hornady piecemeal which is going to add up quick and offset that $100 "Savings". Bullet feeders, OTOH, are pretty much universal.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Attached are some pictures sent to me from Silerlock, showing the detail of his "wiper". I have been thinking of something along these lines for a while now but just couldn't come up with a good design. This one looks pretty good.

post-12016-0-63486900-1344047151_thumb.j

post-12016-0-95988600-1344047168_thumb.j

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  • 7 years later...

Just wanted to show a pic of the mod I did, works pretty well for preventing the jams in the funnel. This is a bit of 1/4" DOT air line ( you can get it at Napa) and a Christmas tree zip tie.  

(example: https://www.mcmaster.com/christmas-tree-zip-ties/ )  Requires a hole in the case feeder bowl to fit the Christmas tree.  For rifle cases, you can rotate it out of the way. So far, I've only loaded 9mm Luger in this setup, had to crank the clutch down a bit to run a reasonable amount of brass at a time, about a level blue inline bin. The timing setup with the cam wire seems pretty fiddly, especially since the bottom end of the cam wire is in a very bendable bracket.  With a bit of muddling about, I've got it to where it mostly runs, definitely easier on the left arm with the feeder. 

 

https://imgur.com/KeAoCBz

Edited by Lesliet
photo didn't work, adding url.
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