Load cell and stepper motor bullet seater!
- Thread starter #40Fan
- Start date
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
I like it
That pretty Cool you should show some numbers on a few that you seated on a spread sheet. Did you make it your self and how. That would be a good product to sell.
Very much Jerry rigged at the moment. Wanted to get it together to see if it would work. Some pictures of the unit.
Stepper motor. Nema 17 with 300mm 8mm lead screw. Two skate board bearings for pivots. Few 3D printed pieces.
Next two pictures show the attachment I made to the handle of the press. The brass nut that came with the Nema 17, couple more skateboard bearings, 3D pieces to hold the brass nut and to attach the laser cut wood to the handle.
40 kg Load cell bolted to a piece of 2020 aluminum extrusion. Couple 3D printed pieces to hold the cup for the seating die.
Finally my "arbor press". A beer bottle capper that I repurposed. Another 3D printed piece to hold the top piece of the seating die.
Right now I am using an Arduino Mega to send the load cell data to the computer for graphing. I'd like to incorporate the stepper motor into the Arduino, but I am having a hard time with that. Asking the Arduino to do multiple things really slows down the serial data delivery. So, in the meantime I am using an old mother board from a 3D printer to control the stepper motor. I think I might end up with a joy stick to control the stepper. But, I am waiting for some Arduino Nanos to show up. I'll delegate one of them for the load cell, use the mega to figure out the stepper control and go from there. Might end up with two Nanos for the finished setup, but they are dirt cheap!
Stepper motor. Nema 17 with 300mm 8mm lead screw. Two skate board bearings for pivots. Few 3D printed pieces.
Next two pictures show the attachment I made to the handle of the press. The brass nut that came with the Nema 17, couple more skateboard bearings, 3D pieces to hold the brass nut and to attach the laser cut wood to the handle.
40 kg Load cell bolted to a piece of 2020 aluminum extrusion. Couple 3D printed pieces to hold the cup for the seating die.
Finally my "arbor press". A beer bottle capper that I repurposed. Another 3D printed piece to hold the top piece of the seating die.
Right now I am using an Arduino Mega to send the load cell data to the computer for graphing. I'd like to incorporate the stepper motor into the Arduino, but I am having a hard time with that. Asking the Arduino to do multiple things really slows down the serial data delivery. So, in the meantime I am using an old mother board from a 3D printer to control the stepper motor. I think I might end up with a joy stick to control the stepper. But, I am waiting for some Arduino Nanos to show up. I'll delegate one of them for the load cell, use the mega to figure out the stepper control and go from there. Might end up with two Nanos for the finished setup, but they are dirt cheap!
I'm impressed. Quality guys use Wilson dies.
Hmm....not sure what to think of your crooked eye
guy. But, this isn't about the die, just the contraption I made.Great idea I take my hat of to guys like you as I have no idea what you blokes are on about when talking all this electro gizmo stuff I think its the ducks guts but I hope redding sell bottle capping dies.Very much Jerry rigged at the moment. Wanted to get it together to see if it would work. Some pictures of the unit.
Stepper motor. Nema 17 with 300mm 8mm lead screw. Two skate board bearings for pivots. Few 3D printed pieces.
Next two pictures show the attachment I made to the handle of the press. The brass nut that came with the Nema 17, couple more skateboard bearings, 3D pieces to hold the brass nut and to attach the laser cut wood to the handle.
40 kg Load cell bolted to a piece of 2020 aluminum extrusion. Couple 3D printed pieces to hold the cup for the seating die.
Finally my "arbor press". A beer bottle capper that I repurposed. Another 3D printed piece to hold the top piece of the seating die.
Right now I am using an Arduino Mega to send the load cell data to the computer for graphing. I'd like to incorporate the stepper motor into the Arduino, but I am having a hard time with that. Asking the Arduino to do multiple things really slows down the serial data delivery. So, in the meantime I am using an old mother board from a 3D printer to control the stepper motor. I think I might end up with a joy stick to control the stepper. But, I am waiting for some Arduino Nanos to show up. I'll delegate one of them for the load cell, use the mega to figure out the stepper control and go from there. Might end up with two Nanos for the finished setup, but they are dirt cheap!
Cheers Trev.
My pack of Arduino Nanos showed up today. I now have the press working with an up and down button while having the load cell plotted on the computer screen. Took two Nanos to do it, but it works flawlessly. The Nema 17 is able to pull about 65 lbs. before it starts skipping steps, but that should be more than enough.
Right now everything is hooked together with jumper leads and a breadboard. I'll get it all squared away tomorrow or Monday and post another video.
Right now everything is hooked together with jumper leads and a breadboard. I'll get it all squared away tomorrow or Monday and post another video.
Very cool nothing to make fun of there...
That's always a bit of a problem. I have been wanting to do what you have done. While I love retired life something I really miss is access to what was a great machine shop. While I was never a machinist or ME type I had some of the very best to help me with my pet projects and on the side make me any part I could want. I miss that proto-type machine shop.
I have a few load cells and pretty much the electronics. I have a few decent size stepper motors laying around and drivers for them. I just need to make a decent plan. I really like what you have put together. Thanks again for sharing that.
Ron
Sorry, the flash over powered the picture. It is an attempt at making a homemade PCB board. A poor one at that.
It might have all been for nothing though. Digging online, I either found a cheap Chinese company to make me 5 boards for $10, or I just gave them my information for my paypal account.
I'll keep hammering away at the PCB board I made that turned out somewhat decent to hopefully get another video put together. If you watch the video I linked too in the first post, I am really curious what the two small spikes are. First one at 0:26 and the second at 0:32. Is the first when the bullet finally enters the mouth and the second when the bearing surface of the bullet passes the neck? My plan is to start seating a bullet until the first spike and back everything off and compare the seating depth to another bullet. Do the same with the second spike.
Another idea I have is to see what the difference will be between brass that has been sized weeks ago versus some that has been sized within a day. I have some brass that I cleaned, annealed and sized two to three weeks ago and I also have some pieces of brass that have been fired and still sitting in the ammo box.
If anyone has any other ideas that I might be able to try in the next video, I'd be more than willing to hear them. I'd hate to leave people thinking, "What if you had done this?".
It might have all been for nothing though. Digging online, I either found a cheap Chinese company to make me 5 boards for $10, or I just gave them my information for my paypal account.
I'll keep hammering away at the PCB board I made that turned out somewhat decent to hopefully get another video put together. If you watch the video I linked too in the first post, I am really curious what the two small spikes are. First one at 0:26 and the second at 0:32. Is the first when the bullet finally enters the mouth and the second when the bearing surface of the bullet passes the neck? My plan is to start seating a bullet until the first spike and back everything off and compare the seating depth to another bullet. Do the same with the second spike.
Another idea I have is to see what the difference will be between brass that has been sized weeks ago versus some that has been sized within a day. I have some brass that I cleaned, annealed and sized two to three weeks ago and I also have some pieces of brass that have been fired and still sitting in the ammo box.
If anyone has any other ideas that I might be able to try in the next video, I'd be more than willing to hear them. I'd hate to leave people thinking, "What if you had done this?".
Alright, WTF?
.243 AI, .270" neck. 110 SMK moly coated. Clean brass sized two or three weeks ago, clean brass sized today, dirty brass sized today. At 60+ lbs. on the load cell, it wouldn't seat the bullets all the way in on any of the 5 cases/date/clean or not. This is with .002" neck tension! Other than the brass being dirty, all prep work had been done to the cases!
Again, I have to ask, WTF? Maybe it just takes more than what I thought. My first trial run was three scrap pieces that I had previously ran a bullet into and then pulled. I honestly can't remember if I resized them prior to that test.
I'm gonna have a beer or twelve and think about it.
For reference, I was shooting for 2.212". First 5 cases were the cleaned two to three weeks ago. Seating measurement follows.
2.219"
2.271"
2.223"
2.274"
2.275"
Cleaned today.
2.274"
2.362"
2.369"
2.330"
2.361"
Not cleaned.
2.333"
2.350"
2.279"
2.280"
2.278"
.243 AI, .270" neck. 110 SMK moly coated. Clean brass sized two or three weeks ago, clean brass sized today, dirty brass sized today. At 60+ lbs. on the load cell, it wouldn't seat the bullets all the way in on any of the 5 cases/date/clean or not. This is with .002" neck tension! Other than the brass being dirty, all prep work had been done to the cases!
Again, I have to ask, WTF? Maybe it just takes more than what I thought. My first trial run was three scrap pieces that I had previously ran a bullet into and then pulled. I honestly can't remember if I resized them prior to that test.
I'm gonna have a beer or twelve and think about it.
For reference, I was shooting for 2.212". First 5 cases were the cleaned two to three weeks ago. Seating measurement follows.
2.219"
2.271"
2.223"
2.274"
2.275"
Cleaned today.
2.274"
2.362"
2.369"
2.330"
2.361"
Not cleaned.
2.333"
2.350"
2.279"
2.280"
2.278"
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