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Precision Die Adjustment on XL650


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Greetings Gang,

I tried searching the key term, but nothing came up.  Anyway, I pose this question.

 

Has anyone come up with an easier way to make precision adjustments on their xl650's? It really sucks trying to tighten the bullet seat and crimp die down only to have it move a little bit more when you screw it down in place.  Frustrating as hell too.  At least station 1 and 2 are pretty forgiving.

 

Any advise?

Thanks in advance,

KG

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I've used Lee seating and crimping (debelling) dies with good results.  Course adjustment of the  Lee dies are with the die body, same as the Dillons, however the Lees (and others) have a 'micro' adjustment to all small adjustments to seating/crimping without adjusting the entire die body.

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I drilled and tapped some of my Dillon 650 toolheads.

 

Screw in die into toolhead.

 

Insert piece of lead birdshot into hole which will press against the die's thread.

 

Thread in set screw till it squishes lead shot into die.

 

Lots of trial and error and a lot of inserting the toolhead....checking...removing tool head

..

.

 

 

Loosening set screw, adjust die.

 

Tighten set screw.

 

Insert tool head back into press.

 

If the die is 7/8ths by 14 threads to the inch.... one full turn is 0.071 of an inch.

 

So an eighth (1/8th) of a turn is 0.0089....so almost 9 thousandths.

 

You could always put a black sharpie mark on the die body and onto toolhead... as like a witness mark.

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Always have a fired case in station 1 when you adjust the other dies. This ensures having the same upward pressure on the toolhead when adjusting dies as you will have when loading on the machine.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/28/2017 at 9:08 PM, BeerBaron said:

Easiest and cheapest solution for me was also lee dies. I love being able to adjust them without undoing the lock ring. :)

 

I know!!! i bought a set of lee dies for 9mm and it's super easy to adjust...  I wonder why dillon didn't use a similar design.   Thanks for the input guys!!  You guys gave me something to look into!!

 

kg

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On 3/28/2017 at 7:56 PM, KindredGhost said:

It really sucks trying to tighten the bullet seat and crimp die down only to have it move a little bit more when you screw it down in place.

Hold the die with one wrench and tighten the lock nut with another wrench.

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On 10/04/2017 at 6:37 AM, KindredGhost said:

 

I know!!! i bought a set of lee dies for 9mm and it's super easy to adjust...  I wonder why dillon didn't use a similar design.   Thanks for the input guys!!  You guys gave me something to look into!!

 

kg

 

Dillon chose a different path. Mainly I think to allow you to easily remove the seating stem without removing the die. 

 

However if you are changing bullet types you would almost certainly have to adjust the die anyway. 

 

The other thing ive found is that even though the lee die has just one seating stem it seems to deal well with everything from flat points, swc, jhp and round nose. Lead, plated and jacketed where as the Dillon will mark up certain bullet types (leave nipples on lead rn for example). 

 

The dillon design I guess would help if you got a stuck case but I've never had that happen. 

 

So I can see why Dillon do it the way they do but the lee design works much better for me. 

 

I do scribe a line on the top of the adjustment knobs on the lee seat die and the crimp die. It makes it super easy to make adjustments for a different bullet type etc as it gives me a index/reference point. 

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On Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 3:23 PM, Bigwarhog5 said:

Being a machinist there are times when I need to move something a very precise amount.  For those time one of these comes in handy.

1593.480.jpg

 

If you could make either an extended steel tool head to attach your mag base to, or a separate piece of steel plate that could be bolted to the toolhead, that would be great.

 

I haven't tried it myself, but I have to wonder how accurate that sliding tailpiece on digital calipers would work as like a height gauge or depth gauge.

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On 4/15/2017 at 10:24 PM, BeerBaron said:

 

Dillon chose a different path. Mainly I think to allow you to easily remove the seating stem without removing the die. 

 

However if you are changing bullet types you would almost certainly have to adjust the die anyway. 

 

The other thing ive found is that even though the lee die has just one seating stem it seems to deal well with everything from flat points, swc, jhp and round nose. Lead, plated and jacketed where as the Dillon will mark up certain bullet types (leave nipples on lead rn for example). 

 

The dillon design I guess would help if you got a stuck case but I've never had that happen. 

 

So I can see why Dillon do it the way they do but the lee design works much better for me. 

 

I do scribe a line on the top of the adjustment knobs on the lee seat die and the crimp die. It makes it super easy to make adjustments for a different bullet type etc as it gives me a index/reference point. 

The old style Dillon die had the more conventional seating stem and I prefer it to the new style they sell now

And I also prefer the old style powder measure

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10 hours ago, Mikelindsey said:

Wish I would have known about Lee dies 5 years ago when I bought everything Dillon 650.  I do too many calibers to buy all new dies.

I have a Redding microadjustable seating die I just put in my 650 because I'm using up lots of different types of bullets. But I have used Dillon dies for years and years without a problem. If you are just loading one load in large volume, you might have to dink around more to get them set up but then they are good to go. It became a lot easier to adjust them when Dillon went to 1" lock nuts.  Also, a decent 1" wrench helps a lot.

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