Twenty Cycles per Minute

I was resizing and depriming some brass yesterday.  I have gotten pretty good at it.

Different cartridges present different challenges.  Small, straight sided, rimless rounds do not offer enough tactile cues to allow sight-free orientation.  I was able to use some of the training I received in my pre-retirement profession to improve the throughput of my reloading station.

Once I got going I was averaging 15 resized shells a minute with some bursts of 20 shells per minute.  That is probably a bit better than average for a single stage press.

I took a few pictures to serve as thought starters for any newbies who want to speed up their production.

Having stations close together means small movements.  Small, smooth movements means shorter cycle times without having to rush.  The triangle formed by 1-2-3 is six inches on a side.

Grip un-sized brass out of the bin.  Grip between tips of thumb and forefinger.  Grip near mouth of brass.  This is the slowest part of the entire process.  Having a single layer of brass in the bin, all with their mouths up would speed this step.  The difference between 20/minute and 12/minute is in how much you must bobble the brass to pick it up properly.

Obviously, putting a single layer in each bin would require more bins.  I purchased my bins from Uline and have been happy with them.   The bins I use are 3 inches tall by 4 inches wide by 7 inches long.

Clamp the re-sized brass that is on the top of the ram between your forefinger and middle finger.

2.3.  Much of the magic for speed is in step 2.3   Crooking the middle finger rolls the resized piece off of the ram.

This step could be sped up by repositioning it closer to the press and placing a funnel over the chute to make it an easier, faster drop.  Then back to start-of-cycle.  There is an error in this picture.  The resized shell would still be between the forefinger and the middle finger when it is dropped into the chute.  I just ran out of hands trying to run the press and take the pictures.  I apologize for the error.

I hope some of you find this helpful.