Ha! Ha!  First RCBS now Hornady has been assimilated!  Hooray for inexpensive tools that work and please!  Only downside......the O.P. (inventer) more than likely hasn't made a dime for the idea!

The only thing that has surprised me is how long it took Hornady........their lawyers are slower than molasses.

I'll stick with the clear tubes. As a tribute to Allied and GWhis's ingenuity. Thanks.

Same here but im sticking with the clear tubes because they are higher capacity, work flawlessly and have 100% viewing of bullets

Agreed and to include dirt cheap.

RCBS at least kept the clear tubing.......and in keeping with their penchant for quality, the clear tubing is the thick more expensive kind of course.....and who knows where they found it.  Hornady....in keeping with the metallic innards of their dies felt the need to differentiate.  That's fine, but if I buy some I'll be drilling some holes like you find in gun magazines to see more bullets.  I do think they are too short......

I don't know where Alliedarmory is these days, but he ought to be amazed to see what he caused!

Edit. Sorry posted to wrong thread.

I wanted to say thanks to the OP, and everyone else that has contributed to this thread.

I finally got around to configuring my press with this setup.






I custom fabricated a holder for the bullet tubes. It's 3/4" aluminum square tubing cut to length, and attached via two small L brackets I made from scrap lying around. The L brackets attach to the 2 bolts holding the case feeder arm/riser together. While it does sit close to the case feeder's tub, it actually does not touch it in any way.

A very clean effective way to control the tubes!  Great job!  How's it work for you?

Thanks!

Working like a champ so far. I found that a 5/16" eyebolt works for the 3 tube sizes I use for reloading handgun calibers. (7/16", 1/2", and 9/16" tubes from pet mountain)

I gave up looking for a local option for the tubing and ordered it from Pet Mountain.  They have all sizes, best prices IMO and have paypal or amazon payment options in addition to credit/debit.

I've been using this setup for several years with no issues lately whenever I load 45acp, the bullets seem to just fall through my bullet feeder die.  I can get several in the feeder die and about 8 or 9 in the clear feeder tube, but any more and they just fall though.     With my 9mm feeder die I can load the tube up to the top with no issues at all.



I saw someone in a youtube video place pins in the tube every 9 bullets but that seems like a big pita.  



Any thoughts on how I can fix this?

What die on what setup?

From the beginning of the thread: ANY press, using Hornady's bullet feeder dies.

Uh yeah.. I quickly came to the conclusion the design is flawed and abandoned them.   Maybe I can get a bit of my money back on them.  Probably not.  

I have had great experiences with my Hornady bullet feeder dies.  I don't see them as in any way "flawed," though some people report the collets sometimes aren't as smooth as they need to be at the ends of their fingers.

CASE 1:  Several years could mean that Collet "A" (the lower one) has stretched a little.  Lets check it out:

1. Unscrew and completely remove the Adjustment Screw....screw the lock ring back on the adjustment screw and screw it towards the top....follow that with the O-ring....set the adjustment screw assembly aside.

2.  Left are the two collets and the die body.  The Collet "B" is the short one and is marked ".451 B".  Drop a bullet into it.  The bullet should drop through with zero resistance.  If not use a little emery paper wrapped on a drill bit shank and smooth is just enough so the bullet drops through without a catch.

3.  Collet "A" is similarly marked and longer.  If the bullet drops through it you have a problem!  The "fingers" on collet "A" should be tighter toward the fingers ends and stop the bullet.  In fact, it should squeeze the bullet stopped about 1/4" into the slits.  If it doesn't do read on.

4.  If it's stretched and falls through, mount the collet "carefully" into the chuck of a drill and finger tighten the chuck some then remove the collet and trying dropping a bullet in.  Repeat until you get it to stop a bullet positively.  Warning:  don't over do it....the slits should NOT be more than a couple of thousandths tighter at the end than at the beginning there the starting hole is.  Once it stops the bullets again, and I mean positively stops them, then you should be back in business.

This collet is the one you stick a flared case in to "widen" the fingers....over and over.  If this adjustment does the trick, but only temporary and doesn't "stay put", then Hornady needs to send you another collet that's better heat treated ....... or you can adjust it as above and heat harden it yourself to give it back it's spring.

CASE 2:  Okay what if collet "A" appears to hold a bullet just fine.  Well maybe, maybe not....greasy bullets, or the adjustment screw and lock ring is set too loose, or you have the weight of too many bullets above the collets and the collets can't hold the weight of that many bullets......maybe the collets need to be degreased again.

But do make sure the die is put together right.  Degrease/degunk first, then re-assemble the die as per Hornady Instructions:

1. Collet A drops in the die body slots down.
2. Collet B drops in the die body again slots down
3. You should already have the lock ring and O-ring in the right place from Case 1 above.
4. Screw the Adjustment Screw into the die.  Screw it down until the end of the Adjustment Screw is just touching Collet B.
5. Back off the Adjustment Screw 1/2 turn--then lock down the lock ring against the top of the die body.
6.  If done correctly, you should hear the two collets move up and down a little bit.  If you hear that movement it's adjusted correctly.

Another Thought:  Keep in mind that Collet "B" fingers has the opposite function.....it's fingers are open until the case and Collet "A" is pushed up into it, closing on the bullet above the one you are dropping on the case with the ram action.  So the bottom "collet A" fingers are closed until opened by a pressing case on the ram......the top collet fingers are open until bottom collet and case are pressed up into it closing on the next case in line........so........if there is some reason the bottom collet doesn't press and close the top collet you will get multiple cases dropped....too loose lock nut?  

For sure, don't use greasy bullets!

I got to bump this

You should , I have this one on my subscribed list and it fell to the bottom . I lose subscribed threads all the time . I know I need to get off my butt and build a case feeder . This and the MK262 thread are my favorites in here .

Definitely!

Just restarted pistol cartridge reloading last week.

I dusted off the LnL and had to relearn the processes, adjustments, loads, etc.

My tubes have been sitting all this time out where the sun can hit them, they’re getting opaque and brittle.

2 broke when they fell over (filled) onto a table leg, so now I have some shorties.

Time to order up some more tubes. BTW Linens n Things no longer carries them. I ordered some from Pet Mountain.

I was searching online a week or so ago for where I got my tubing, and couldn’t remember where I’d gotten it.  That was frustrating!  I remembered the Linens n Things source, but that’s been gone for years.  I just couldn’t remember what the other source was.  Your mentioning Pet Mountain was what I needed!

So HERE is the page on Pet Mountain’s site for the Lees Thinwall Rigid Tubing that works (really well) for this DIY bullet feeder.

Now I think it would be good to post the right sizes...
9mm & .357: 7/16” OD tubing
.40 & 10mm: 1/2” OD tubing
.44 & .45: 9/16 OD tubing

In my experience, it takes a little finesse to get the tubing to mate with the bullet feeder die with some sizes, but once you figure it out, it’s solid.

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