lockmup68

This made my day, but was looking for Harlan, KY location.

^^^^this. you said you took it apart and put it back together. Get a surefire and shine it in and look down the tube. It has to line up perfectly. Get some metal shims and adjust it (the bolt that holds on the half moon thing on the primer slide stop). This is what causes smashed primers most of the time IMO. There is a huge thread on these issues http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=169411.

Scale, weight of completed round, zero on empty bin, weigh at end, divide by total round weight = number of completed rounds.

The single stack Spartan was $800 or so.

Dawson CRP STI.

Get the hardware pack from c4m3ron and swap easy. http://www.thec4m3ron.com/my-story/

And it is a 1/4 inch bolt there. Too long in the garage.

You are right. .01 is what I need I believe.

That's a good idea. Thanks. Btw, needed to order an index ball spring as mine is not popping up like it should. Dillon's line has been busy all day. Finally got through about 5 min ago. Was 18th in line. lot of folks must have been loading yesterday.

I have "made" shims/washers with biz cards, but they wear out. Just dealing with this yesterday. Called fastenal this morn and the thinnest washer they show is .015 fiber washer. I was hoping for a .001 shim, but no joy. Anyone have a source for a .001 shim for a 1/8 diameter hole ( or is it 3/16?)

Dawson CDP STI Spartan 9mm with Dawson mags. My 10 yo daughter shoots it for ZSA and IDPA matches. Pink Posey VZ grips and pink kydex holster and mag pouches. I love shooting this gun and will probably get a STI 2011 for my big mitts down the road. Converting me to 1911s they are so fun to shoot and accurate.

don't forget the shellplate change.

Forgot, glorious pic of my labors today. The best part is seeing a bin full of ammo. Good thing is I case gauged about 100 of them and all are gauging perfect.

Update 3 I think: walked away for a couple of days, got back on it on Sat. I took everything apart and cleaned again. Replaced the primer seating punch spring as suggested (old one "looked" to be same length as the replacement one, was still tight). Also got some stuff in the mail, so installed the plastic detent ball vs. the stock metal one. I also got the roller bearing kit from Hit Factor (along with the knobs and such). Directions said to grease the roller bearings, but I don't actually like a lot of grease on the shell plate, so I soaked the oring and bearing in Balistol over night, wiped off before installing and put it on. I do have to say the roller bearing and plastic detent ball are much overdue upgrades. Totally took the snappiness out of the stroke. I also like how you can snug down the shellplate tight and how tightening up the tabs on the ringnut doesn't totally screw up the action of the shellplate. Reinstalled everything and readjusted the primer tray with the surefire, dropped 10 primers down one at a time and they all came out of the plate flat and perfect. The new spring took the hang out of the primer slide as well. I now remember why I love the 1050. I actually was able to get a normal stroke and finally some production of actual rounds. Loaded 900 or so in an hour and a half. No powder spillage from snappy plate. Still getting 1-2 primers spit out per 100, but I hear them come out and I pull the brass from the powder drop station so I don't spill any powder. I kept those 8-10 pieces of brass and ran those through individually at the end and they all primed and loaded properly. I really love the upgraded swage rod my engineer buddy from John Deere fixed for me. That extra 1/4" of length, the extra width, and the longer threads really made that piece stronger and with a more "firm" feel when swaging. So, with mil-brass, is 1-2 per hundred the norm for smashed primers. Looking at the primers that come out, it clearly looks like they get caught on the edge of the primer pocket and the center of the primer is pushed up. What's the average for production with mil-brass? Thanks for all the help. Going to knock out the rest of the 124g's and then knock out the 147s. When I get all the 9mm done, then I'm going to figure out 223 processing and loading. I'm a virgin for rifle reloading, so I apologize in advance. I have all the brass tumbled and shiny to start, but it is all mil brass too, so expecting a big learning curve like the 9mm was. I'm also glad I started with 45 and 40 as I don't know if I would have kept with it so long if I had started on 9mm with mil brass. Question, where can I get some .001 shims for the primer slide tray adjustment? I have cut up business cards in there now, but all the taking apart has smashed the cards down and I had to add two new ones in there, so real shims would allow me to keep consistent adjustment. Thanks, Shannon

Southern Wake County, SW of Raleigh. Have good buddy in Travelers Rest...

here's a pic of non swaged and swaged now. Looks much better. I adjusted arm up and down, same snapping motion. I'm going to take entire thing apart again and clean it and see if I can figure out what it is hanging on now. Good news is I got through 800 rounds with the new modified swage rod. Working good. I've read about all the plate snapping and powder spilling, but I never had that problem with 40 and 45. However, with 9mm and Silhouette powder, the plate seems very snappy and I am going real slow. Spill powder if not very careful. I ordered the plastic ball and new roller bearing kit for it, see if that helps.

Update 2: loaded 3-400 rounds this aft. Still spitting out/smashing 1-2/100, but that is a huge improvement over what it was, so I can live with that if needed. Now another problem has creeped in, the primer tray is now really "snapping" back to the stop, whereas it went pretty smoothly previously. I took it apart and cleaned it, made sure it slides freely in the channel, etc. By hand it moves freely. However, when I lower the arm down into it, when the handle comes up and the rod flows into the channel of the arm that moves the tray, the spring is taking up the pressure and then suddenly it snaps back. Any ideas? I did a search for snap primer tray, just primer tray, etc., but nothing was showing up. Getting there. Thanks, Shannon

update: got the new swage rod in, installed, adjusted with cut in half case, ran some brass through, needed more to get the ring off, adjusted a bit more, ran a few more through, looked like another 1/4 turn up and it would be good, 1/4 turn more and slow pull on the handle and felt it give way and get real squishy on end of stroke. look down and swage rod broke in exactly same spot. It broke right above the threads of the bolt, not much material in there when you adjust it up. If I was really cranking down on it I could understand, but for a brand new part to fail in exactly the same place as the old one that I've run 20k rounds through (of 40 non mil brass granted, but shill used it). I'm thinking it is just a weak design. I ordered another new one from Dillon, and then took the two broken ones to my buddy who is an engineer over at that green tractor place, who also has a very nice machine shop in his garage, . I told him what was happening and measured the opening in the press where the swage rod fits into the cast base, which is 10.18mm wide opening. He cut the rod off just below the machined flat spot, turned a new piece for the bottom out to 10.1mm, and made it a 1/4" longer than the stock piece, welded it tup, tapped it deep and we found a new joint piece that has much longer threads, so the thread contact is very deep, more surface area on the threads and thicker material should be stronger. So it barely fits into the machined slot, but plenty of clearance to adjust up and down and cycle properly with the handle pull. I only had to adjust up a few turns to get it to swage properly, versus many turns up on the stock piece, and since it is a few mm thicker of material and much longer thread contact, should be good to go. I just ran 200 through with no problems and no cracking on the swage rod. So hope this fixes it. The new one I ordered from Dillon last week hasn't arrived yet (another $41 shipped) and he is going to fix my other broken one same way as a spare. Here's a pic of it in the press, you can see how it fills up the slot in the press versus the stock piece that has plenty of clearance on each side. It doesn't rub at all, but very little clearance.

Love the e-track. Do you have a writeup on the lights? or parts list you used?

Yes, I had the small primer tray in there. Was not the large primer tray. I was smashing primers until I realized I had left the large primer cup in the reloader instead of replacing it with a small primer cup. (Sorry if that's what you meant above - I'm not sure how to interpret what you said above). But, if you leave the large primer cup in, the primer gets lost in the cup, doesn't center properly, and smashes.

Guess I need to inspect my stuff better. Or sleep on it more. I'm pretty sure I looked at everything when I cleaned it and took it apart 3x this week--except the swage rod itself. Went to adust the swage rod even deeper as suggested, and it was all the way out. Looked at lot closer at rod and finally pulled out a flashlight, and noticed the rod was broken, not allowing any further adjustment. Here's a pic. Ordered a replacement this morn. $32 or so. One of the downsides of the 1050 in a non commercial use, paying for parts. But, when it is running good, I still love it. Tim was very helpful on the phone. I did not force it or anything, seems to have just failed. I don't force the last few inches of downstroke. Set off a primer once (smashed primer early on). and I am super careful to not force anything since. So dumb question, how much force is required for swaging properly? Is it kind of a "squishy" feel the last 1/2 inch or so of the stroke? Or is it a solid feel like normal without swaging? Ususally when I get that "squishy" feel last 1/2" of stroke, I know it is a GAP brass or small primer 45 shell, or something that needs exploring. Appreciate everyone's help and advice. Hope this fixes my issue. But to me the break is very clean and recent. I might not have had the swager adjusted deep enough previously, I was matching the pic in the manual as close as I could, but apparently that wasn't enough. For my understanding, I need to adjust it until the entire ring showing is gone? Thanks, Shannon

the blue plastic tip? replaced that with a spare. Explosion cover?

Primers are federal match, small pistol.

here's a pic with the case cut in half I used to set the swaging depth. Is that not in enough? It is all the way to the shoulder on the swaging rod. When I go up any higher, it really forces the shellplate up. Appreciate everyone's help. Shannon