3D printed case feeder

[Muddydogs]

Decided I needed one of them 3D case feeders so I ordered one from a guy that prints them.






The feeder works very well, I sanded a few parts but found out that one doesn't want to sand very much as there's more rough area under the exposed areas so a light sanding with fine grit worked best just to smooth things out a little. Adding some grease to the friction areas, I used Super Lube, helped smooth out the operation. The feeder started out running rough but after a little grease and Hornadys red Akro bin full of sized 9mm cases ran through the feeder it smoothed right out.

I added the inserts that go into the Lee collator which are supposed to help 380 and 9mm brass orient base down when shaking the collator but I found the brass didn't want to feed at all so I removed the inserts and added a washer held in place by a 22 LR case inserted into the hole in the collator, see first video. The washer helped all but a couple cases per 4 tubes orient base down. Without the washer or inserts I was getting 3 or 4 pieces of brass wrong side up per tube.

The round cut piece in the above pic is supposed to be used between the feed tube and case loader to keep the cases from falling but it sure doesn't do anything for 9mm brass so I cut a piece of tubing and made my own drop tube.

 

[jmorris]

Looks like a winner, have a link?

 

[AR-Bossman]

I'm building mine right now and early tests are fantastic. Hornady better take notice because these things are very very effective and cheap to build compared to that over complicated system they have now.

 

[Muddydogs]

https://reloadingmounts.com/shop?olsPage=products/hornady-case-feeder-printed-parts-only

I got the added brace as its supposed to make it stronger.
I'm not sure what's up with there colors, I ordered red but got orange. Not that I care but its kind of weird that they advertise red and have pics of orange parts.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Wow I like the LNL bushing and shell holder mount they have. Going to have to order me one.

 

[Catpop]

That looks great!

 

[AR-Bossman]

https://reloadingmounts.com/shop?olsPage=products/hornady-case-feeder-printed-parts-only

I got the added brace as its supposed to make it stronger.
I'm not sure what's up with there colors, I ordered red but got orange. Not that I care but its kind of weird that they advertise red and have pics of orange parts.

I bet they ended up with a filament that was on the orange-ish side of red and just used it. Also, the picture on their site doesn't show the added mid brace they had to make in order to keep them from breaking. There is a guy on youtube you did a 3 part series and to, who I think is reloading mounts' credit, they fixed the issue and sent the guy new and upgraded parts.

 

[jmorris]

Thanks Muddydogs, for folks with 3D printers here is where you can download the files.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2488944

 

[Muddydogs]

I bet they ended up with a filament that was on the orange-ish side of red and just used it. Also, the picture on their site doesn't show the added mid brace they had to make in order to keep them from breaking. There is a guy on youtube you did a 3 part series and to, who I think is reloading mounts' credit, they fixed the issue and sent the guy new and upgraded parts.

These are a couple videos I checked out before ordering. Reloading Mounts has links to both of these vids. The new brace is very similar to the one shown in the second vid with the addition of a couple screws to help hold things together.

The second video also shows how the angled pusher thingy was sanded real smooth. Well that's the part I tried to smooth out but ended up removing some roughness and lines only to get more lines and a couple small holes. Guess its not a solid block? First time messing with sanding 3D printed stuff so I didn't know. My over zealous sanding didn't really hurt anything and it all works just fine still but be warned to not go crazy with the sand paper. I was thinking about covering the angled pusher thing with something to really smooth it out, maybe aluminum flashing, but think I will just leave it until I have an issue if I ever do.

 

[greyling22]

I built something similar to adapt a spare Lee case feed to my Dillon 650. I love it. The Dillon and Hornady case feeders are cool, but way too expensive. I'm glad too see somebody bringing case feed to the peasants.

 

[captain awesome]

Someone should tell him his press is indexing out of time. Very cool. I like that better than Hornadys offering.

 

[rpenmanparker]

These are a couple videos I checked out before ordering. Reloading Mounts has links to both of these vids. The new brace is very similar to the one shown in the second vid with the addition of a couple screws to help hold things together.

The second video also shows how the angled pusher thingy was sanded real smooth. Well that's the part I tried to smooth out but ended up removing some roughness and lines only to get more lines and a couple small holes. Guess its not a solid block? First time messing with sanding 3D printed stuff so I didn't know. My over zealous sanding didn't really hurt anything and it all works just fine still but be warned to not go crazy with the sand paper. I was thinking about covering the angled pusher thing with something to really smooth it out, maybe aluminum flashing, but think I will just leave it until I have an issue if I ever do.

Quality 3D printing shouldn’t make parts with voids inside. Probably using a cheap or older generation printer or crappy plastic.

 

[jmorris]

Quality 3D printing shouldn’t make parts with voids inside. Probably using a cheap or older generation printer or crappy plastic.

There is actually a setting for “infill” at 100% it would be solid but at any other number it won’t be. More like a “shell” around a honeycomb.

Like this collator wheel.



Takes closer to half the time and material to print at 50% infill vs 100% and if it’s strong enough...

 

[rpenmanparker]

There is actually a setting for “infill” at 100% it would be solid but at any other number it won’t be. More like a “shell” around a honeycomb.

Like this collator wheel.

View attachment 826180

Takes closer to half the time and material to print at 50% infill vs 100% and if it’s strong enough...

Sure, but lightweighting provides no advantage for this device except perhaps material cost. And plastic is cheap. So why?

 

[jmorris]

Sure, but lightweighting provides no advantage for this device except perhaps material cost. And plastic is cheap. So why?

Time. 3D printing is very slow. Like a tenth of a mm at a time slow, layer by layer.

That wheel above can take more than 12 hours to print. So you reduce infill and you cut the time it takes to create the item.

 

[rpenmanparker]

Time. 3D printing is very slow. Like a tenth of a mm at a time slow, layer by layer.

That wheel above can take more than 12 hours to print. So you reduce infill and you cut the time it takes to create the item.

I guess so. Plastics was my field, but I just brushed by 3D printing before retiring. Thanks for the information.

By the way you know the most widely accepted name for the technology is “additive printing”. Really stupid thing to call it. 3D makes so much better sense.

 

[jmorris]

Here is an example, the part on the green paper will look the same on the outside as that is a “shell thickness” setting.

If you set the infill at 50% it takes 2 hours and 55 min to print (bottom right of the screen).



If you print it with 100% infill, that puts you at 6 hours and 45 minutes.



I generally print stuff at high infill because I am not waiting on it. I printed bullet collators and went away for the weekend and they were still printing when I got back.

 

[rpenmanparker]

Here is an example, the part on the green paper will look the same on the outside as that is a “shell thickness” setting.

If you set the infill at 50% it takes 2 hours and 55 min to print (bottom right of the screen.

View attachment 826200

If you print it with 100% infill, that puts you at 6 hours and 45 minutes.

View attachment 826199

Understood.

 

[bbqreloader]

The members on this forum are awesome! Here's another one that was printed up for me.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/3d-printed-case-feeder.846410/
Just got it yesterday, so going to assemble and get the bolts to hook up to LNL tomorrow. But the engineering, expertise, and time that people put into making great items to make reloading more efficient is spectacular. Too bad Hornady wouldn't/couldn't come up with something this easy... where there's a will there's a way

 

[Muddydogs]

Well i've ran 1500 9mm cases through the feeder over the last 2 nights without a problem. Plastic parts have worn in nicely and everything is running smooth. I get about 2 cases per 100 wrong side up in the tubes.
Just for information the Lee tubes hold 23 pieces of 9mm brass each and the way I have the feeder set up the tube over the case feed slide takes an extra 4 to fill it so 96 total pieces per 4 tubes.
I will probably take the case feed slider apart and sand the track the spring rides in just a little as its popping as the slider moves back and forth.
I should have my order from RMR in a few days and I'll go into full 9mm loading mode, should be interesting with a case and bullet feeder. My left hand might get bored.

 

[LiveLife]

Very nice! Good job!

 

[Muddydogs]

After I installed the counter on my press I of course had to test it out so now I'm up to having run 2500 pieces of brass through the feeder and resizer die. The feeder is still working just fine.