Tom S.

The obvious question is did you turn the inserter cam around from pistol to the rifle side? EDIT: Inserter cam looks like this:

People who know what they are doing can weld on a barrel with no ill effects. There are ways to draw off heat, nor does the weld have to be done continuously. As Toolguy rightly pointed out, a pressed in plug can be blown out - with disastrous results. Even if I tapped the holes and plugged them with screws, I'd weld them in place.

Fixed it for you.

For future reference, I put a Lee decapping in a 650 tool head by itself. When I get ready to reload a caliber, I set up the press with everything but that caliber's tool head, load up the hopper with brass and run them through the decapping die. It's lightning fast, literally about 1 sec for each, which equates to about 50 a minute. Then it's off to the wet tumbler, cleaned, dried and back in the hopper to get loaded.

Last year, I purchased a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. There’s no disputing the results of the wet tumbling process for cleaning brass, so long as you use proper soap, Lemi Shine and pins. Others have their pet formulas, but the ones I’ve listed are tried and true. How you proceed after the cleaning process is a bit more muddled. I tried several different methods of rinsing and collecting the pins, and decided that wet tumbling was pain in the butt. Not the tumbling process itself, after all, all you do is throw everything in the drum and let the machine whorl for a few hours. After that though, was a messy operation. Fast forward to this year. One of the things I got for Christmas was Frankford’s wet media separator. Short of having someone else do this task for you, this is the easiest way to perform the steps needed after the wet tumbling stops. The separator was well thought out. The basket should hold a full tumbler worth of brass. I didn’t have enough to fill my tumbler more than halfway, but it looked like there would be room for the entire tumbler had I mine been full. The basket would have been full, no doubt, but there should be enough room. The media separator body has a distinct top and bottom. The bottom has two sets of cut outs for the basket, one set that locks the basket in place for loading, and one for rotating the basket. After completing the wet tumbling, I made a deviation from Frankford’s directions: using one of the wet tumbler’s strainer end caps, I poured the dirty (filthy and disgusting is more applicable) water through a paint strainer into a 5 gallon pail. Back with Frankford’s directions: before transferring the tumbler’s contents to the basket, I filled the bottom of the media separator a little over half full of clean water. Then, using the cut outs for locking the basket, I dumped the brass, pins and remaining water into the basket. I put the top half of the separator in place and begin to spin. This is where you want to be a bit careful as spinning with too much gusto will cause water to slop out of the separator. A half dozen turns each way seemed to have cleaned all the pins out of the basket. Removing the top of the separator, I took it and the basket into my shower. The top has a screen in the middle, and turning the top upside down let me run more fresh water from my shower into the basket to better rinse off the brass. The screen in the top is to catch any run away pins, though I found none. With rinsing done, I emptied the basket onto a towel, rolled the brass around a bit and laid the towel in front of a heater to dry. Since it was -9 here this morning, the heater’s been running a lot, so drying the brass was quick too. I poured the rinse water I had put in the separator’s bottom half through the paint strainer, knocking out all the pins as well, then lifted the paint strainer out of the bucket and dumped the pins back into the wet tumbler. A few pins were left clinging to the strainer, but a few pins out the 5 pounds of them is insignificant. The pail was then dumped into the toilet. Did I mention it was nasty? Anyway, I rinsed out the pail, and that’s it, I was done. Here are my thoughts on the separator: Frankford did a really great job designing it, and it is priced very affordably. It is a bit on the flimsy side, but as long as you don’t try playing field hockey with it, it should last for several years. Would I pay more for one of stouter construction? Probably, but that’s just the way I am. After all, I chose Dillon products over Lee, even though they both get the job done. Regardless, if you are looking to get into wet tumbling or are already there and are looking for a better process to separate and rinse the brass, I highly recommend the product.

I'm not a Lee fan-boy, but I'd get their decapper instead. A lot cheaper!

Just one screw removes the primer advance cam, deactivating the priming system.

If you wet tumble, also consider having one with just a universal decapping die to run brass through before cleaning.

Now the fun begins! BTW: Your wife's a keeper.

Asked and answered: http://forums.brianenos.com/topic/256958-aftermarket-toolheads-for-dillon-xl650/

As a retired tool and die maker, I hope that reamer tolerance is .0004 not .004. Hell drills are closer than that!

http://www.joferusa.com/ He also advertises on eBay.

Well, I don't have everything, but I pretty much got everything I need. Nevertheless, here's something I didn't need, but sure like! No, they don't make the 650 run any faster or better for that matter, but I still like them!

Good process! You've got nailed.

Not as good as the other one I posted, but here's a new set of Dillon 223 dies (Standard, NOT the carbide set) and conversion kit for the 650 for $125 delivered. As with the other deal posted, I have no financial involvement in this! https://www.ar15.com/forums/Equipment-Exchange/WTS-Dillon-650-223-Conversion-and-Dies/114-1720912/

It's sold. Knew it wouldn't last.

Let me say that if I didn't already have this conversion, you would never be reading this post, nor do I have anything financially involved here in any way. I ran across this deal in the S&W forum, and thought I'd post it here as I'm sure someone here will snap this up. It's the complete 44 Mag/Special set up with Dillon dies, tool head, conversion kit and tool head stand for $125. It's listed on the S&W Forum in the Classified under Accessories for Sale. 650 44Mag/Special

Very interesting link. I just wish he could have recorded chamber pressures.

That is true, but the Speer manual doesn't contain any info for the heavier bullet, especially 160 grain. If the extra bullet weight is obtained by making the bullet longer, and you then seat that bullet to the OAL length shown in the Speer manual, you will in fact be seating the bullet deeper.

OK, you're relying on an VERY old memory, as I said it was in the 80's when I first started reloading 9mm, but back then I used Speer reloading manuals almost exclusively, so that would be my first guess. My second guess would be one of the Pet Load books. Since that book hasn't changed, I'll look at my latest copy and see if it was there. EDIT: The only mention in the Pet Loads book is on page 550 (newest version), which briefly states: "Seating bullets deeper than specified reduces the space in the case and increases pressure." This is not the statement I remember reading so I'm 99% sure it's not where I got the info from, however it does validate my point to a degree. Ken Waters, the author, was not using any bullets beyond 125 grains. Can you seat a 150 or 160 grain bullet in a case to the same depth he was seating a 125 grain bullet? If so, then there should be no problem. My concern is if the heavier/longer bullet needs to be seated deeper than the 90 through 125 grain bullets he was using, then wouldn't his warning about pressure increases be valid? In later tests, Waters ran up to 130 gr jacketed bullets, but reported nothing on seating depth/pressures.

Heavier bullets are longer, and in order to fit and feed in magazines and chambers, require deeper seating than a lighter bullet. It was the deeper seating I was referring to, especially now that I see some offering 160 gr bullets for 9mm. A I stated in my post, when I started loading 9mm, there were warnings about seating bullets too deep, which could cause pressure to skyrocket. My question remains: has anyone done any pressure tests on rounds loaded with these heavier bullets?

Not a question, but rather a concern. I read early on when I first started reloading 9mm (back in the late 1980's) that care had to be taken not to seat the bullet too deep as pressure in the small 9mm case would rapidly rise. Has anyone done any pressure tests to see how these heavier, and thus longer, seated deeper bullets affect the chamber pressure? I'm not comfortable with someone telling me "I did it and didn't have no problems" and would rather have some definitive numbers.

I think you nailed it.

I wish I had a basement, if that answers your question.