DIY brass sorting ideas? Headstamp sorting?

[hexbasher]

I'm tired of sorting brass and head stamps the old school way

And ideas or input would be great. Right now my idea is to build some stackable boxes and take my router to them and cut various width of slots. Good for my range pickups. Simple. Or I'll copy the Dillon bucket sorter

But my main goal is to some how streamline head stamp sorting. My only idea is to plumb flexable vinyl tube into my hornady case feeder, then have the tube run down towards the bench, make a u-turn back up to a fixed mount on my bench to where I'll be sitting. Then have various bin around me (federal to the left, Winchester centre, norc to the right, etc....)


I'd like to small scale this (from cast boolits forum)

I'd imagine this guy has the cases running down two bars that get wider as the case runs down it,then drops into bins

 

[Spawn-Inc]

I've seen that on cast boolits and would love to have enough brass to make good use of it, but in the mean time I got a brass sorter from rookie on here.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1052868-Brass-Sorter

You will need hearing protection if you use it for an extended amount of time.

Took me about 3 hours to sort 3 full 5 gallon buckets.

 

[mr.e moose]

I just do it the old fashioned way, by hand and by eye. .380 auto and 9 mm are to close in size to separate mechanically.

 

[hexbasher]

I just do it the old fashioned way, by hand and by eye. .380 auto and 9 mm are to close in size to separate mechanically.

you're lack of technology i find uninspiring

9mm vs 380 is a problem i want to solve, im getting a makarov, so i want to be able to find all those 380s among the thousands of 9s (as well as sorting the headstamps of a millon 223s)

 

[mr.e moose]

you're lack of technology i find uninspiring

9mm vs 380 is a problem i want to solve, im getting a makarov, so i want to be able to find all those 380s among the thousands of 9s (as well as sorting the headstamps of a millon 223s)

Take a whole host of cases that are almost identical in rim dimensions with the only difference being case length. To sort them you would have to develop some thing that would determine rim diameter and then sort by length.Possible to do?Yes. Feasible for the everyday re-loader ? No. As to the head stamp issue you would need a optical reader to do this. All fine and dandy if you had a commercial reloading plant,but I don't think you would like to foot the bill as a hobby re-loader.

 

[Blastattack]

I really don't get the why behind this. Nothing will beat the hand and eye, and trying to design a mechanical device capable of doing so will give you, your engineer and your banker nightmares. It's not fast, but if you're sorting range brass, you should be inspecting each cartridge anyways to screen out damaged cases. Also, mechanically sorting two virtually identical cartridges such as 9 NATO and 9 MAK will be just about impossible. They are just too close to reliably separate without some very complex machinery.

 

[hexbasher]

i agree, thats why i like my idea of running a tube from my case feeder hopper to infront of my face, looking at the headstamp, and then tossing in whichever bin, this saves me on time of orientating the cases

a minute on the lathe to make a bushing/tube adapter and im sure i have some 1/2" id tube laying around, easy, free.....

why? cus im asking for ideas and im curious of other people do besides handling every case. id like to have all my brass well sorted before the reloading process even starts

give enough boredom, who knows, i could build something retarded, i am a machinist and i know an eccentric electrical engineer, i know people...

 

[Spawn-Inc]

I really don't get the why behind this. Nothing will beat the hand and eye, and trying to design a mechanical device capable of doing so will give you, your engineer and your banker nightmares. It's not fast, but if you're sorting range brass, you should be inspecting each cartridge anyways to screen out damaged cases. Also, mechanically sorting two virtually identical cartridges such as 9 NATO and 9 MAK will be just about impossible. They are just too close to reliably separate without some very complex machinery.

Your so inspirational.


It would be very easy to sort case length once you've sorted by diameter. You just need to have the cases stand on end (case feeder does it). Once they are standing up you can use an optical device to trigger a solenoid to push the odd case off to the side.

Or you use use an angled sheet of metal with a hole cut to the height of your shortest case. Have cases pushed in a track towards the hole and the smaller ones will go through while the taller ones will fall to the side. With this option you would likely have to play around with the angle and speed of the cases to prevent them from tipping over.