Friday, October 2, 2020

Reloading Press

 A friend of mine had 2 of these things in his shop when he moved but had never seen them used, nor any idea what they were for. He figured they had to be good for something and guessed that I might think of something so he gave me one. 


It's all pneumatic and came with no tooling at all. It indexes through 8 stations and can be made to stop accurately so I thought I might try automating my reloading press. So far I've made 8 shell holders, the ring which will hold the tooling, and a frame to hold it all together. Shells are loaded at the 5 o'clock position, decapped at 6 o'clock where the tall tower is mounted, primed at 7, inspected for primer at 9, etc. 



This is proving to be a non-trivial project so don't hold your breath waiting for video of shells falling like rain at the 3 O'clock position. The primer inspection will be just a poke with a wire which will trigger a light if it goes too far up so that should be easy. All else is done from the top and might be done by mounting the tools on ball screws. I'm thinking it will be run from an Arduino controller so I can include emergency stops if one of the inspections fails or whatever

As I've warned you before, prepare for retirement by starting an unending project so you'll have a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and your immortality is virtually assured. If you don't, you'll be dead in 6 months.


2 comments:

Kevin said...

Just a suggestion, take it or leave it, but check for a primer with a photocell. Shine a light into the case and look through the primer hole for light. To check the powder charge, use an adjustable mechanical sensor with a go/no-go measurement.

Billll said...

Very reasonable idea on the primer check. I want to check for not only presence but for orientation as well as upside down primers though rare, crop up when you need them least.

I have a powder charge checker die in my Lee press already. Just a wood plug that lifts 2 batteries up against an LED wire. Makes a bright blue light in my face if there's too much powder.

Something similar in the powder dispenser would turn on a red light when the level got low. I think I'll build it into the lid.