Bullet casting

[colt]

Do you work at NASA on the side !! Thats a casters dream !!

[Matt Cheely]

Wow. Nice work

[AzShooter]

Not that's a great casting operation.

This thread has brought out a lot of good information and inovation

[20nickels]

Awesome Can we see the sizer too? I'm microwaving popcorn for this one.

[Flexmoney]

jmorris, thanks for posting. I was going to dig that up on another forum (I think you posted it on THR?).

Cool.

[jmorris]

Yes, I originally posted the caster on THR in ’05 as someone else was asking about the mastercaster.

My bullet sizer uses a collator not unlike the Dillon case feeder except it uses “sweeps”, has a 3 o’clock exit, and a simple set collar clutch. I originally wanted to use the collator for both the bullet sizer and my bullet feeder for the 650 (some photos of that project are here http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/ on the 2nd page), so the collator drops the bullets base down, for the bullet feeder.

However, to size the bullets I needed them nose down. So the gear motors on the left side run a “flipper” consisting of a piece of UHMW with a pocket machined in it so the bullet drops in and is rotated 180 degrees then falls back out. Another gear motor (yeah a buddy gave me a whole box full of them) at the bottom of the machine runs another piece of UHMW back and forth bringing each bullet from the feed tube to the sizing die (like a child’s gumball machine). When the bullet, brass ram and die are in proper alignment the bolt on the feeding gear motor triggers a SPST switch activating a solenoid driving the ram down and back.

The size die on the bottom of the device is made from stainless steel and is held in place by a double split set collar (so it’s not too hard to change calibers). There is a machined step in both the bottom plate and the size die to maintain proper alignment. If you look closely in the blurred photos (sorry) you can see a section of tubing and the baskets the bullets drop into after the sizing process.

The sizing and casting machine are all mounted on one small (although top heavy) wheeled cart so I can stow it out of the way during the summer.

[20nickels]

Very nice. Tks for sharing.

[redmanfixit]

Wow!! Both of these machines are VERY nice pieces of work. Very impressive and well executed. You must have a pal with a welding shop and or machine shop!! Did you do drawings for these? I'm a sparky and I have wanted to build a larger electric pot for melting but could not find a suitable controller, where did you get the 240V unit or does it use a relay? I have a bunch of questions !!!! Nice work!!

AHH! I calmed down and read the text more closely, there is a relay on the 240v circuit. Thanks for posting this!

Edited October 24, 2008 by redmanfixit

[peter69gunn]

I have a Master caster and I love it. I cast nine different calibers/ sizes and I bought it used for $200.00. I am thinking aboput purchasing a new one and have a local kid help out.

As far as the Star lubrisizer THEY ARE GREAT I have three with the heating base and one of those has the air lube feed and the automatic bullet feed. If I had bought these 20 years ago i could have avoided to carpal tummel surgeries. They are great.

I stumbled on to this forum by accident and decided to join up. I found a topic that dealt with the KISS bullet feeder and wonder if anyone can tell me the website?

Thanks

[atbarr]

Welcome!

A.T.

[5Shot]

I have a Master caster and I love it. I cast nine different calibers/ sizes and I bought it used for $200.00. I am thinking aboput purchasing a new one and have a local kid help out.

As far as the Star lubrisizer THEY ARE GREAT I have three with the heating base and one of those has the air lube feed and the automatic bullet feed. If I had bought these 20 years ago i could have avoided to carpal tummel surgeries. They are great.

I stumbled on to this forum by accident and decided to join up. I found a topic that dealt with the KISS bullet feeder and wonder if anyone can tell me the website?

Thanks

try here....Ghost Holsters....

[Kayak1]

Yes, I originally posted the caster on THR in ’05 as someone else was asking about the mastercaster.

My bullet sizer uses a collator not unlike the Dillon case feeder except it uses “sweeps”, has a 3 o’clock exit, and a simple set collar clutch. I originally wanted to use the collator for both the bullet sizer and my bullet feeder for the 650 (some photos of that project are here http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/ on the 2nd page), so the collator drops the bullets base down, for the bullet feeder.

However, to size the bullets I needed them nose down. So the gear motors on the left side run a “flipper” consisting of a piece of UHMW with a pocket machined in it so the bullet drops in and is rotated 180 degrees then falls back out. Another gear motor (yeah a buddy gave me a whole box full of them) at the bottom of the machine runs another piece of UHMW back and forth bringing each bullet from the feed tube to the sizing die (like a child’s gumball machine). When the bullet, brass ram and die are in proper alignment the bolt on the feeding gear motor triggers a SPST switch activating a solenoid driving the ram down and back.

The size die on the bottom of the device is made from stainless steel and is held in place by a double split set collar (so it’s not too hard to change calibers). There is a machined step in both the bottom plate and the size die to maintain proper alignment. If you look closely in the blurred photos (sorry) you can see a section of tubing and the baskets the bullets drop into after the sizing process.

The sizing and casting machine are all mounted on one small (although top heavy) wheeled cart so I can stow it out of the way during the summer.

What is the process to inject the lube?

[jmorris]

No lube injection with my sizer, back when I first built it and when the thread above started 5 years ago, I was using a water biased dip lube that was originally used for forming stamped steel parts. It was faster than anything I have seen or heard of because you could lube thousands of bullets in seconds.

It still smoked like conventional wax bullets and leaded a bit as well but it was cheap and super easy.

Tried a few other things over the last few years and use the bayou coating right now.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=173215&hl=%2Bbullet+%2Bcoating+%2Bpart#entry1977795

Edited August 12, 2013 by jmorris

[glynnm45]

I marvel at your talent. Wish I had your mechanical abilities.

[jmorris]

Thanks, you just have to have more time than money and a lot of "stuff".