JGH4445

Had just changed from small primers to large. Didn't think of trying the small primer slide to see if the problem exists there also.Just removed it and replaced the primer tubes, slide, etc. with the large. Good idea..thanks. I'll check it Friday when I get back home.

Thanks Bill. Yeah, the little "shim" as I call it is in place and has been polished smooth. That's the one with the little "cut outs" for the screws in the bottom of the primer housing right? Wonder why the housing needs a shim in the first place? Couldn't it have been made to tolerance to start with? Methinks too many moving parts are at work here.

I've owned my 550 for about 2-3 years and am finally getting to the point that I have time to do some reloading. I guess I have about 500 ( yeah...hundred) rounds loaded in total the whole time I've owned it. Been working for 2 hours tonight trying to get the primer slide to go inside the primer housing and pick up a primer..it won't. Kinda hits on the side of the housing. . finally got that tightened down straight and it still wont go all the way in and pick up a primer. The spring won't return the slide all the way back out where ( if you COULD get a primer in the seater) it would seat one. Any Dillon 550 experts around Montgomery, Dothan, Auburn? I'd buy dinner if you'd help me get this thing up and running! I've read this forum for days...taken every piece apart and reassembled the primer mechanisim..cleaned everything that can be cleaned...there is just some little thing I'm overlooking. Gosh......can't wait to get to the powder measure,,,,wonder what new and exciting adventures await me there???? I'm really close to just going and buying a box of 45 ACPs LOL...

Is this to say that I can't set up my 550 with RCBS or Lyman or other dies where the first station sizes, deprimes and primes, the second would be powder the third seating and the fourth crimp? All in one tool head? Thats assuming I do the brass prep separately, ( clean, trim and lube) Is there something I'm missing here? Whats with multiple tool heads and this swaging stuff? Confused here.

I have the exact same problem. I'm gonna try some blue loc-tite!

Thanks for all the relies and advice. I tightened down all of the parts, made sure all the adjustments were correct and cleaned everything. No more problem. I'm amazed at the accuracy of this measure with the right powders.

AA5 didn't do to well as said. W231 was excellent!

Thanks so much guys. The fail safe rod appears to have been the problem.I'm coming from a Rock Chucker to a "red machine" that always needed some kind of fixing to this blue machine. This one is really smooth and I think I'll really like it once I can trust it.

Thanks guys..I tightened up the fail safe bar, ran the screw all the way in and out, have thrown 50 or more charges and it is getting better. They are now all within a tenth. I did notice it sometimes "rains" a little powder when the casing is about half way back down to the bottom. I think this is the fail safe bar not completely closing. I'll tighten up some more.

Thanks d..I'll give it a try. Since it is brand new, first thought is to run the adjustment screw on the powder bar all the way out then back in to zero. If there is some foreign material in the cavity it may be what causing this inconsistency. My 550 powder measure/bar are very consistent, have not had problem you describe.

Just got my new 550 put together today. Everything looks like its working fine except I can't get a consistent thrown charge. I'm using AA #5 which I thought was a fairly good powder for powder measures. I'm loading 45 Colt and wanting 9.5 gr. I'm getting charges like 9.5, 9.8, 9.4, 10.1, 10.6, 8.4. Those were 6 in a row that I threw. I'm using a terminator D digital scale that zeros and calibrates just fine. Any suggestions?

+1 My enclosed media separator came from Cabelas, $24.00. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...rset=ISO-8859-1

Thanks. Called 'em and they said yes, I would need a mag powder bar for just about any load over 52 to 57 grains, depending on powder.

I load a couple of calibers where I expect to have to load a good bit more than 50 grains of powder. One example would be 257 WBY. Will I have to have a magnum powder bar to do this?

Hello all. I'm Jim from South Alabama. Just bought my first Dillon, a 550B from BE. Brian was great helping me choose which model, as was this forum. I've lurked here for sometime and the information on this forum is awesome. I'm looking forward to loading on the new machine when it gets here. I actually think it shipped yesterday. Glad this forum is here and I'll continue to read and learn.