GW Staar
Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2009
- Messages
- 3,718
The video above shows the case feeder.....working....carefully.....but I wouldn't want to put a motor drive on it! Nor get in a hurry....nor hold my mouth wrong!
I will fix this thing and make it efficient and reliable and at the same time fast....period!
It's one thing to make a new product that works. Entirely another to make it so that others can make it work, starting by providing complete instructions non-engineers can follow, including the "common sense" details they never seem to think to add, never realizing that non-engineers don't already know as a matter of course......things that are necessary to keep the product working.
This Case Feeder is almost ready, just not for non-engineering types who have trouble figuring things out, NOR should they have to!
Many will need help from RCBS, RCBS will need to improve a few things, and I plan to be a burr under their saddle until they do!
First case in point (pun intended)....after more than several hours working the press hard, testing a mod on the little Case Pusher part (see end of this post), that out of the box will do 9mm admirably, but nothing much else, the case feeder started coming apart. (adjustments started going south to Mexico all by themselves)
First, the clear feed tube dropped to the slider. (1/4" long set screws holding it up are set in just so, to allow the clear tube to sit on them.....but they are not meant to be tightened.....bad idea....set screws not tight, turn and turn until the thing they are holding up drops! Fix is shown at the bottom of the tube holder in the picture below. I bought a couple of Hex bolts at Ace, 1/4" long that you can tighten against the head so they don't work in and out.
And notice the other two hex head bolts......also replacing set screws that came loose and made the case-stop quit stopping cases!......Yup....all the cases fell out of the tube to the rail below.
Now I can hand tighten those to make adjusting for different case heights easy.....and makes it easy to keep it tight.
As I set this up for different cases I will drill through the tube holder to have quick non slip permanent settings for each caliber. Then those bolts you see below will turn in tight and stay there.
To be fair Hornady's feeder has it's problems still, and Dillon's had theirs out for a long time....bet they had teething problems too. Takes time to evolve great products.
Now for my next gripe, the Case pusher:
The part below is the included case pusher that only does 9mm well and .45 fairly well.. Everything else will work, as long as you do it sloooooooow. That's just not satisfying, or for that matter acceptable.
The picture below shows the part using only a "V" block? to center everything and push? If not done slow enough, it just knocks them down.
I slightly modified it with a Dremel, and some files, and a lot of trial and error! Hours today.....but I won. Below is what the same part looks like now.....now it will feed .9mm, .45ACP, .357, .223, and .308.......and even 30/30 & 300 Win. Mag!, and much faster. 100%? Getting there ...... still tweaking.
The bottom is cut out to keep cases like 357 and 30/30 happy. Above it is a shape to go in most ejection grooves, which keeps the tall cases from tipping sideways. Just above that is a centering radius, including wings to grab any thing unstable. It ain't pretty in it's "1st prototype", and already it works way better than their "V" block. Stay posted on that.
Speaking of not pretty, the Homemade front part of the plastic articulated pusher I created for my Pro 2000 has the award for ugly.....and it also works every time as fast as I can push for any caliber I use. Pictured below, Pro Chucker one in the background.
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