Loading spindle collet with ejector stop

Loading a running spindle collet is something I have done since I was wet behind the ears. Never tried it with an ejector collet stop before. Hardly ever used an ejector stop anyway as precision was usually more important than speed.
A customer asked me to rework his mistake 7000 to 10000 pcs that are .015 tool long. Loading and unloading plus hitting cycle start on the Omniturn, I could do 6 a minute. Tried it with the ejector stop and could see it would be difficult and possible dangerous. I needed a way to load the parts straight in and bottom them every time against the stop. With the quick and dirty loader I can do 12 a minute and have gotten into a rhythm where I actually wait for it to finish before hitting collet close and cycle start. If they had 50k of these things I would think about adding a cylinder to automatically load plus a magazine.

ShortenPins - YouTube

Got a great start there Fred on solving your problem. My only suggestions are changing that plunger rod to a small single acting air cylinder operated by an M code. (Do you have one set up for mist or air blast?) Could be as simple as removing that plunger and threading the loader body for a nose mounted cylinder. Second to that would be to lengthen your loader to accept more pieces. Say 6-10 or so. Ideally where you're loading them towards the rear in an area opened up when the cylinder plunger retracts. Your only job after that would be to operate the collet clamp with one hand and drop parts into the loader with the other. That or use a helper on one of those operations. Just thinking out loud. Good luck.

Dave

Yeah, I thought of stuff like a magazine track for mounting on the brass guide. 24 pieces would only give me a couple of minutes to do anything else. I have dozens of small cylinders that I could pull off the old assemblies but making a mount for the Omniturn slide would take as many hours to make as running the job as is now. Probably take a coupled of days to get the parts and tubing then install the hardware.
Like I said 50,000 would have a different solution. A friend that saw the video and has a Hardinge turret lathe and I told him the quick and dirty ideas here could be applied to his manual lathe. Would not quite be as fast but it would save a couple of steps if he ever got a similar job.
Posted this so others could see possibilities.

I attached photos of the setup on the machine and dismantled. The loader was made with 2 housings held by the 3 set screws in the Hardinge drill holder, this saved a lot of math and threading the 2 parts together. The ball was changed to a 7/8 shop made from the original 1/2 commercial ball. Easier on the hand that way. The Hardinge stops were too short so a longer one was made. the original spring was replaced with a shorter lighter tension one. We changed from one length to another for a different part. Made a new shaft and glued the same 7/8 ball on that new shaft. My secretary and I ran almost 9000 pcs in a few days with this set up. The customer said that was enough for a year so we may run it again as we have almost that many parts left. I could have filed the ball smooth but the secretary said the lines would give a better grip, she was right as usual. The shaft was assembled with 242 Loctite for the cross pin and ball. Quick and dirty and it worked.

On the photo of the assembled loader the shaft is intruding into the chamber, this is because it was set up on the shorter of the 2 parts, on the first part the shorter shaft cleared for the longer part.