Automated neck turning setup

[ProneKing]

Do you like the benefits of neck turning, but don't actually like doing it? That is my case. I was over at John Whidden's shop a bit more than a month ago and saw his neck turning setup and had to copy it for myself.

I am not going to do this commercially. I did this project simply so I could avoid the tedium of doing it by hand. No switching out neck turners, having one in a bowl of ice water at all times. No shavings all stuck in my clothes. Just a great turned neck every time, concentric and within .0001" of my target size.

ProneKing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__wqH31PD6g&feature=youtu.be

 

[Erik Cortina]

Sweet!

CNC mill on order!... NOT!

I do mine in a mini lathe, it's fast and accurate but I have to stand there and work a little.

 

[Tzed250]

Automation at its finest. Nice work Eric (and John)!

 

[timeout]

Pretty nice! I use the poor man's way, 21st Century lathe. I'm not very smart, so what is the purpose of inserting each piece of brass into a shell holder and later shoving it into a catch basket?

 

[Erik Cortina]

Pretty nice! I use the poor man's way, 21st Century lathe. I'm not very smart, so what is the purpose of inserting each piece of brass into a shell holder and later shoving it into a catch basket?

He picks up the case with a mandrel, so the shell holder is needed to pull case out of mandrel.

 

[eric32]

That is a awesome, I wish i had the coin for that set up.

 

[spclark]

HA! $53,000 for a VF2 then you gotta feed it to make it pay its way.

Not on my christmas list but cool use of available (to some!) technology for a pretty tedious task.

$53 Large'd buy a lot of shootin'....

 

[M-61]

Impressive!

 

[jlow]

It looks cool but I worry about how concentric the turn is piece after piece. The reason I say this is assuming everything is lined up 100% perfect initially, the turner assumes that the piece of brass is sitting 100% concentric in that holder. However, if anything gets in between the grippers that comes in and hold that piece of brass (things like particulates in the coolant solution, and bits of brass from the turning, etc). The case will sit slightly off center and you will get an non-concentric cut. Remember we are trying to get necks that have around 0.0002" variance. Have you guys seen any problem like that?

 

[fdshuster]

I would not even ask what a setup like that would cost. But, If I hated to outside neck turn to that extreme, I'd just go with no turn necks and Lapua brass, if available for the cartridge in question.

 

[Shynloco]

HA! $53,000 for a VF2 then you gotta feed it to make it pay its way...

Very nice for sure. But I'm thinkin of the number of custom rigs I could build with that money.....hmm I wish!

Alex

 

[amlevin]

Impressive. I think however that I'll just keep doing mine by hand. They look and work great and if anyone asks how I turn them I'll just whip out my "Tablet" and play the video for them :_ 8) 8)

 

[Erik Cortina]

Why don't you make a shell holder that is open on both sides? That way you can simply slide the brass in from one side and it will push the other one out the other side.

 

[Lapua40X]

Rube Goldberg would be jealous .......
My method is a bit more labor intensive but I can turn out three in the time this expensive machine processes one.

 

[ProneKing]

I didn't buy the mill to neck turn brass...just a nice side benefit.

No concentricity issues yet. I cannot detect any variation around the necks with a .0001" Mitutoyo tubing mic.

This isn't really about how long it takes, it is the fact that I can do something else while it is turning necks that made it appealing to me. Have I mentioned that I hate neck turning?

I like the idea of the through case holder!

ProneKing

 

[abishai]

Should I win the lottery , I want one ---- maybe two ! Until then , its beer on the table , and brass on my lap . Arthritis is going to suck .........

 

[amlevin]

I didn't buy the mill to neck turn brass...just a nice side benefit.

No concentricity issues yet. I cannot detect any variation around the necks with a .0001" Mitutoyo tubing mic.

This isn't really about how long it takes, it is the fact that I can do something else while it is turning necks that made it appealing to me. Have I mentioned that I hate neck turning?

I like the idea of the through case holder!

ProneKing

Can't argue with your logic but it's still like playing the computer game Solitaire on a Cray Computer. 8) 8)


Hey wait, maybe there's a Government Grant we can apply for to fund our own setups. There seems to be "grant money" out there for just about everything else

 

[Hector]

You can buy an outside neck turner from Match Prep for $350.00 does 20 per minute.

 

[Shiraz]

Nice setup, and thanks for posting that video.

I have tried something similar on the CNC lathe, but ended up with up to .0003" variance, so now do them on the collet lathe with free hand-held turning holder with much more acceptable results. The fact that you can get all within .0001" variance is amazing! And, yes, it does not matter how long it takes as you can just walk away from a setup like yours.

 

[jfseaman]

Serious overkill use of CNC Way cool 8)

Great programming!