Introducing the Spee-de-capper! High speed primer removal, decapping, depriming tool.
Mr. SPEE-DE-CAPPER
Hello fellow shooting sport enthusiasts! My name is Mark Heyboer, and I have been involved in the shooting sports for my entire adult life, that’s about 40 years worth! In my spare moments I am also an inventor that must improve on everything I do. I have many things to share, but my latest invention is designed for those of us reloaders that want to speed up the de-capping or de-priming process prior to cleaning our brass. Yes, I know that de-capping before any cleaning is not a must for everyone, but I personally like to start reloading with perfectly cleaned “like new” fired brass. Consistency is key in reloading, and putting a new primer in a dirty, carbon-crusted primer pocket is not for me. Sitting at a progressive press, single stage press or using a hand de-capper for hours just to de-cap before any cleaning is not much fun, and I decided there must be a faster, better way. After many hours of deliberating on a mechanical design aspect, I hit on a design concept that looked promising and would meet all my criteria. I could not wait to get started building it, and after several weeks and some set backs, I finally had a working model. I hooked it up to my Hornady bowl feeder, (but it can be fed with a tubular type magazine as well), mounted it to my press bench, and cranked out 2,000 cases in minutes, without a glitch, except for the occasional backwards case fed from the bowl feeder. This was easily cleared, with no damage to the de-capper itself. Off to the patent lawyers office I went. After taking more time to legally describe it than it did to actually make it, not to mention many hours worth of CAD drawings, and thousands of dollars later…. it is now registered with the patent office. I and my new partner (an owner of a major CNC machine shop in the mid west) have formed an LLC to sell the rights to manufacturer, or will manufacture it ourselves. We see this going on the market in the very near future and will fit in most any reloader’s budget.
SPEE-DE-CAPPER–AMMUNITION PRIMER REMOVAL MACHINE DESCRIPTION
OVERVIEW: This machine was designed and built to remove spent ammunition primers from brass ammunition cases at a high rate of speed. Commonly referred to as “de-capping”. In the ammunition reloading process it is desirable (to some of us) to remove the spent primer first to allow complete cleaning of the case, including the primer pocket, prior to any subsequent reloading operations. Spent brass ammunition cases are typically fed to the machine from an automatic bowl type feeder, stacked singly, in the correct orientation, through a flexible plastic tube. However, they could be fed through a vertical hand loaded tubular magazine as well. It is manually operated by rotating a crank handle. One complete rotation will advance one case to the primer removal punching station, punch out the primer and eject the punched case to a collection bin located below. The rate of de-capping is dependent on the rate of cases being fed to the machine. With a capable bowl type feeder it is estimated that 2,500 cases could be de-capped per hour, compared to de-capping (only) with a a progressive manual type reloading machine (with bowl feeder) at an estimated 500 per hour, and a single stage reloading press (no bowl feeder) at an estimated 150-200 per hour, or a hand de-primer that is…. well…way slow. The machine is typically mounted to a work bench in the same manner as any other reloading press and equipment would be, and the overall dimensions are 3″x 6″x 8″. It is a stand-alone device that requires no other apparatus other than an optional case bowl feeder. The final multi-caliber version will be for all common auto pistol calibers like .380-.45 ACP with no change overs. A rifle version is in the works also.
Here’s another view of the Spee-de-capper in action:
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Machinist and specialty machine builder by trade. Hunting, fishing and most all related activities. Married to my best friend Melissa, for more than 20 wonderful years! You will often see me with my faithful companion Sawyer the best dog ever!!