• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Motor Help

BeefyT11

Silver $$ Contributor
I'm looking to make a couple of my pieces of reloading equipment motorized.
1. Wilson case trimmer
2. 21st century neck turner

I feel pretty confident in my ability to make a sliding track, bracket for the motor, and wire up speed controls and power supplies. But I'm having a tough time sizing an appropriate motor for both tasks. Wilson recommends around 100 rpm for the case trimmer and 21st says not to exceed 300 rpm.

I found a motor with a plate rating of 300 rpm and 24 in/lbs of torque. Can anyone talk to weither this would be enough motor for the job? If not could you recommend an appropriately sized motor? I like the option of going up to the 300 rpm to use with the neck turner and I can reduce the speed for the case trimmer.

Thank you
 
This may or may not help you. I made a setup out of a used Rcbs pro trimmer motor and sliding track system. The piece of wood that the turner is on slides out and I also made one that fits the Wilson trimmer that slides in and hook the motor up to the trimmer. I just had to add the drill attachment to the Wilson cutter. Hopefully this helps you get a few ideas. Trying to upload a video
 

Attachments

  • 41119351-3F31-4138-81A0-FFB6B362E842.png
    41119351-3F31-4138-81A0-FFB6B362E842.png
    812.6 KB · Views: 137
This may or may not help you. I made a setup out of a used Rcbs pro trimmer motor and sliding track system. The piece of wood that the turner is on slides out and I also made one that fits the Wilson trimmer that slides in and hook the motor up to the trimmer. I just had to add the drill attachment to the Wilson cutter. Hopefully this helps you get a few ideas. Trying to upload a video
That's pretty much exactly what in looking for, do you happen to have the specs on the motor? What did you use for the track? Thank you
 
You can adapt a speed controlled hand held drill to your trimmers this helped me a lot. you really want to control the speed.
 
That's pretty much exactly what in looking for, do you happen to have the specs on the motor? What did you use for the track? Thank you
I don’t know for sure. It’s a slow turning worm drive motor that comes with the Rcbs. I’ll try to get the video uploaded. I prefer it turns slow not to heat up my mandrel. I just preferred utilizing the Rcbs instead of spending all the money to try to make my own setup. The Rcbs comes with the motor, track, handle, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZZO4NW/?tag=accuratescom-20

I got one used for 150 and ripped off the motor and track and handle.
 
Last edited:
I made a bunch(more than 100) turners until my supply of used gearmotors dried up. I’ll post more pictures tomorrow when I get my other computer fired up. In a nutshell, it was thought that the hand held neck turner tracked better than a fully supported case. To that end, we used Don Neilson’s Pumpkin and K&M turners as the cutters. We handled the heat build up on the K&M turner with a larger hand piece using that as a heat sink. As I said, I’ll post more pictures tomorrow. We made two different means of case holder. One was a collet type and the other utilized shell holders. Both of these methods worked well. I’m sure you can find a new motor running at about 160-175 RPM. One hundred RPM is too slow and 300 is impossible to attain while accomplishing the required torque to turn the case. I found paying for a new expensive motor just priced the rig out of the reach of most people. E919A838-DB42-414C-B47D-198D245DE313.jpegBA6C78D4-8B91-4AF0-977A-BF7672779156.jpeg
 
I did this back in 2012 and it works perfect. I wouldn't do it any other way. It make turning necks a pleasure to do. After I did this I was talking to John at 21st Century and I showed him what I did and he said boy that's pretty slick. I think the motor is at 250rpms. but don't hold me to that. I purchased the motor for something like 225 at the time. Like I said it was back in 2012. IMG_1451.JPG IMG_1451.JPG
 
Last edited:
I just wonder what the public at large would be willing to pay for a turner with the cost of a spindle with case holder, a mounting platform, etc. included. We were selling our turners for way less than $200.00
 
That's pretty much exactly what in looking for, do you happen to have the specs on the motor? What did you use for the track? Thank you
I don't have spec's for the motor it was plenty of power for the RCBS , I just removed the RCBS trimmer and mounted the Wilson to the RCBS plate, had to raise the RCBS motor to match the center line of the Wilson trimmer, easy conversion.
 
I did this back in 2012 and it works perfect. I wouldn't do it any other way. It make turning necks a pleasure to do. After I did this I was talking to John at 21st Century and I showed him what I did and he said boy that's pretty slick. I think the motor is at 250rpms. but don't hold me to that. I purchased the motor for something like 225 at the time. Like I said it was back in 2012. View attachment 1163726 View attachment 1163726
That's real similar to how mine works, more than one way to get results, I made mine in 08 still works great.
 
I read somewhere where they (21st Century I believe) recommended 40 inch/lb of torque for neck turning. I found a 100rpm motor on a robot supply website that matched this. I am not an engineer (or welder, or fabricator haha), but but I successfully added a motor drive for my Hornady neck turner - for about $30 total. So far I have turned a hundred or so necks and it has survived. It does load some on tight cases. I might consider a lower rpm higher torque motor next time. I found a slower rpm is easier to watch and control. For trimming cases, I can see where higher RPM would be more advantageous.

It was an experiment with the lowest possible cost as the major factor.......
 
I read somewhere where they (21st Century I believe) recommended 40 inch/lb of torque for neck turning. I found a 100rpm motor on a robot supply website that matched this. I am not an engineer (or welder, or fabricator haha), but but I successfully added a motor drive for my Hornady neck turner - for about $30 total. So far I have turned a hundred or so necks and it has survived. It does load some on tight cases. I might consider a lower rpm higher torque motor next time. I found a slower rpm is easier to watch and control. For trimming cases, I can see where higher RPM would be more advantageous.

It was an experiment with the lowest possible cost as the major factor.......
Thank you for the input I figured as much torque as possible would be a big plus but am surprised to hear that youd prefer a slower rpm than 100
 
Have you looked at Ebay. I just did a search for gear motors and there are tons to chose from. Gear motors or gear reduction motors off greater torque and less strain on the motor itself. Most are pretty inexpensive. I saw some nice ones in the $50-$75 range.

When I build my case annealer I purchased both the drive motors off of Ebay. Prices and performance are excellent. I purchased one straight drive and a 90 degree drive, both had mounting that made the installation easy.
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
166,239
Messages
2,214,241
Members
79,464
Latest member
Big Fred
Back
Top