Tom S.

Indeed, carbide is extremely hard and therefore brittle.

If you are using a carbide sizing die, then I would be really surprised if it was worn. Carbide is harder than steel, and it would hundreds of thousands of rounds to wear it out. Dillon recommends setting the die until it touches the shell plate. I'd suspect something changing in the crimping stage or even in the bullets being out of spec, especially if you've changed brands or are using cast.

Err on the high side. That is to say, if you mount the press and it's too high, you can raise your chair or build a platform to stand on. But if you mount it too low, you'll have to saw off your legs.....

LOL, I can't believe we're arguing discussing sitting verses standing. Whatever floats your boat is what you should do. I'm new to reloading, only been doing it since the early 1960's and I've always sat. I have a tall stool that allows me to easily see what's going on, and it's comfortable. But if someone prefers to stand, that's fine. As far as the NFL, if I say what I think, Brian will spank me.

OK, excuse me while I go shoot myself in the other foot...

You will find going from a Lee Pro 1000 to a Dillon 550 like going from a Smart car to loaded Impala. Going to a 650 though would have been like going to a Cadillac. Nevertheless, you WILL like it!

Uh, he DID say 1# universal decapping die. That IS the first station...

Suspension is factory stock. There are kits out to raise the front up to 2" for leveling, but as far as going beyond that, I'm not sure. Although I like a raised truck, I have a handicapped daughter and she has a hard enough time getting in at the stock height. I'm considering removing the stock rock crawlers and putting some side steps on it. I wish the rock crawlers were a bit wider and could be used as a step, but that would kind of defeat their purpose. For more info on what others have done for mods, you might want to go to Colorado Fans BTW: This is the ZR2 model which does sit higher and have a wider wheel base than the standard model or the Z71.

Thanks guys! So far, I've no complaints and have found a few pleasant surprises, like it being capable of reading received texts to me via the radio.

Exactly.

Using logic to win an a argument discussion with your wife? Good luck with that!!

If you own an Amazon Alexa, ask it to tell you a Chuck Norris joke. Some of them are pretty funny.

Making a 20 year long story short. Years ago, I downsized to S10 trucks as they were more nimble and I just didn't need a 1/2 ton truck. Then in anticipation of my and my wife's retirement, and our plans to travel, I bought a one ton truck to pull our 5th wheel trailer. During the time my wife and I had together after retirement, we upsized both the trailer and the truck needed to pull it. Then my wife passed away. Since I had no desire to travel anymore, I sold the trailer last year, and just last week sold the truck. I loved the truck, but it was vast overkill for any thing I now need, so it was sold and I returned to the small truck scene. Although I've had it less than a week, I can say I made the right move. The 'sports car' handling (compared to a 1 ton, crew cab, long box dually) ease of parking, ability to warm up quick on sub zero days, are only a few of the reasons I like this truck. It also looks cool too!

Come to Michigan - we carry ice in our pockets to help keep us warm....

You will this and a wealth of other info here: 650 Tips and Tricks

Beneath the bench my 650 is bolted to is a 1/4" steel plate the press mounting bolts pass through. The plate is grounded via 12GA wire to the electrical ground about a foot away.

You know you're a Super Senior when.... A lady asks you if you'd like to have super sex........... and you answer: "What kind of soup?".

Lot of misconception in this thread. Smokeless powders like these contain 40% nitroglycerin along with diphenylamine and some other tasty chemicals that are not water soluble, so you would not be benefiting your garden/lawn in any noticeable way. There is at least one case of a man receiving bad burns when a lawn he had been doing this with for years accidentally caught fire. At least one powder company, Alliant, recommends burning as the only way to get rid of old powder. I believe the old "lawn" myth is a left over from black powder days, when the materials could be neutralized by spreading them out and getting them wet. The stuff used in modern gunpowder is NOT the same as that used in fertilizer.

Sounds right - mine measures between .550 and .553, depending on where you measure.

Here's my review on the tumbler: Since I recently wrote a review on the Frankford wet/dry case separator, I thought I should probably write on for their wet tumbler as well. I bought one of their tumblers two years ago and have learned some things that should come in handy for anyone just starting out, or considering going the wet tumbler route. When I got my tumbler, the first thing I found was the sample of washing solution they had included has leaked out inside the packing box. So much for using that! I read a lot of posts on various homemade formulas and came up with the following which has worked well for me: good squirt of Dawn dish soap, teaspoon of Lemi-Shine, a good squirt of Armor All Wash and Wax. Why two soaps? I’ve found that Dawn does a superior job of cleaning, while the Armor All leaves a coating on the cases that make resizing easier, especially without lube. Lemi-Shine is a citric based acid that aids in giving the brass that “like-new” shine. I also get the best results using distilled water, even though our water is triple filtered. Distilled water is cheap anyway. Using the above solution, I fill the tumbler with cases, add the solution along with the 5 pounds of stainless steel pins and tumble for 2 hours. I’ve seen people post they only tumble for an hour, and others who say 3. Your mileage may vary, just saying what has worked for me. Here’s a bit of an odd note: the first time I used the tumbler, it leaked. Not a lot, but I was concerned. I used a plastic hammer to tighten the end caps a tad more and the leak stopped. It hasn’t leaked since, so perhaps there was debris from manufacturing or the seal wasn’t seated, who knows? Before I go on with the rest of the process, I’ll take a minute to rate the tumbler itself. Like other products Frankford makes, this was well engineered. Unlike some of their other products though, this was also very well made. The drum is lined with rubber to quiet down the process, though you’ll still want to run this in another room if you’re trying to concentrate on something else. Not that the tumbler is that noisy, but combine its noise with that of the motor that spins it, you’ll most likely want to be elsewhere. Frankford includes two sets of end caps, one clear plastic set (so you can watch the brass like a washing machine window, though I’m not sure why you would want to) and a pair of strainers. More on the strainers when I get into my tumbling process. You can get a cheaper set up via Harbor Freight, but I’m not sure it’s worth it as I’ve not used the one they sell. The Frankford model should last a lifetime however, so in that respect I’m not sure it’s worth the few bucks you might save. Like the tumbling formula, you will see a lot of posts on how people tumble their brass. I tried a lot of different methods and this is what has worked best for me. As I stated, I add everything to the tumbler and let it run for 2 hours. After removing the tumbler from the base unit that spins it, I replace one of the end caps with one of the strainer caps and dump the water into a 5 gallon pail that had a paint strainer stretched over the opening. The strainer catches whatever pins get dumped out. Both the pail and strainer came from Lowes, though Home Depot or Menards can hook you up as well. Then it’s off to the Frankford wet/dry media separator. As I noted in my review of the separator, I fill it partially with clean water to help rinse the cases. It doesn’t seem to matter whether this water is distilled or tap, but of course that will depend on the state of your tap water. After rotating the drum several times (do NOT do this without putting the cover on), I pour that water and pins through the same paint strainer. Put the drum back in the separator without any rinse water and rotate it vigorously in both directions to remove the last of the pins. Then I take the drum out of the separator and head to the shower, where I put the drum inside the top half of the separator, which contains a large wire screen, open the drum and give the brass a thorough rinse, mixing the brass by hand to make sure each case gets rinsed and the last stubborn pins get washed away. Failure to properly rinse will result in case discoloration from the soap and Lemi-Shine residue. Like the rest of the process, you can read about a thousand ways of drying the brass afterward. During the winter, which is when I do most of my reloading, I simply leave the brass on a towel in front of the heater in my den. In the summer, I do basically the same, only using a portable fan instead of the heater. If you are in a hurry, you can use other methods. One is to use an food dehydrator, which circulates air (some also have heaters). I tried one and it was a PITA. Some put the brass in an oven, set on warm for a half hour or so. I’m not warm (pun intended) and fuzzy about this method. Ovens aren’t great at regulating low heat, and I’ve seen lots of posts about discolored brass, though this may have been caused by improper rinsing. Plus I’m not sure if doing this repeatedly will have any effect on the longevity of the brass. Here’s what I’ve found in using the various methods to clean brass: Dry Tumbling: The easiest method of cleaning, short of giving the brass to someone else and having them do it for you. That’s the good part. The not so good part is the contaminates, including lead if you are using lead bullets or older primers, stays in the dust that covers the shells, and can get in the air if you tumble without the lid. Nor will this process clean out the inside of the shell or the primer pocket. Another more sinister problem is people using this process have reported elevated levels of lead in their blood. I have no idea how many cases you would have to clean for this to become an issue, and perhaps it only effects those reloaders who process tons of brass. Still, I’ll err on the side of caution. Ultrasonic: The second easiest and by far the fastest method of cleaning brass. You make up your mixture (even store bought cleaner is a concentrate and requires mixing) pour it and the brass in the machine and let it run. Typical time is between 15 and 30 minutes. It does a good job cleaning inside and outside the case, including primer pockets if the primers have been removed ahead of time. Although ultrasound does clean well, it doesn’t polish well. Nor will it leave any coating on your cases to aid in resizing, but spray lube will take care of that problem. Ultrasonic cleaning will only do smaller batches of brass, unless you buy the Hornady behemoth at around $400. One plus for this process over the others is you can also use the cleaner to clean other things, such as gun parts and jewelry (helps sell the wife on the need to buy one). Wet Tumbling: This is the best method to get brass that looks as good as new. Period. That being said, it’s also the longest and most labor intensive. Add that it takes pretty much as long to do 200 cases as it does 2,000, and doing small batches will probably best be done ultrasonically, followed up by a quick run through a media tumbler with a bit of polish added to make the cases shine and help with resizing. But if you want super clean brass that takes little to no lubing to resize, wet tumbling is the best way to go. The actual time start to finish (minus the drying part) is probably under 2.5 hours, and for 2 of those, you can go do something else. Because of the added effort and time, wet tumbling isn’t for everyone, but then again, what is? Some guys claim to get equally good results wet tumbling without the stainless pins. I’m not sure I believe that, and certainly don’t believe it cleans out the primer pockets or case innards as well. I figure if you’re already doing the wet method, leaving out the pins is kind of dumb and defeats the purpose. In that case, I’d probably go the ultrasonic route instead. I’ve also read about people claiming to get pins stuck in the flash hole of the brass. So far, I’ve not had this happen, though I understand you can buy larger pins to mitigate this problem. I’ve seen several people state that wet tumbling cases with the primers left in can cause problems later on. One theory is if you let the cases set, the primers have a chance to corrode, making them more difficult to extract. Maybe this can be thwarted by fast drying and then reloading, I don’t know. For myself, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to deprime first, but again, that’s me. But the purpose for this write up was to review the Frankford wet tumbler and I can say without reservation, that I would recommend to anyone who doesn’t shoot 5,000 rounds a week. For those guys, use a Harbor Freight cement mixer (seriously!). One last note: Frankfort also sells a magnet for picking up runaway pins or transferring pins from the separator back to the tumbler. Yes, the stainless pins are magnetic and yes, you will have runaway pins. Take my word for it, the magnet is a must. Besides, it’s cheap in the grand scale of things, running well under $20.

Older post, but am I the only one who wonders how tarnished your insides must look from drinking all that water?

Well, I'm out of ideas. Maybe try Dillon again and hope Grumpy is in a better mood? Maybe try via email and send them the pictures you posted.

Any luck?

OK, you made me go dig out my .308 conversion and do some looking. The only thing I can come up with is the case feed arm (the part that holds the bushing) isn't returning all the way when the press is at the bottom stroke. I would try removing the clear case tube from the case feed and look through the black case feed adapter to see if the arm is returning all the way. You might have to cycle the press several times to see if it returns sometimes and not other times, since the problem is intermittent. Or, you might forego that and take the unit apart and give the arm a cleaning and light lube, looking for any signs of binding. If you happen to have the Dillon Spare Parts kit, try replacing the arm's spring.

You have the cam turned the correct way, but it's also adjustable in and out. Try playing with that, as I believe your problem lies with the inserter and not the bushing.