kalaur

What issues do you have with the powder measure?

You mean like this? http://brianenos.com/pages/dillon/pics.cal_conv.html#sparts 650 spare parts kit, commonly broken/worn out parts to give your 650 a minor overhaul.

I love my dillon :-)

Can we get a pic from the side of your 1050 that shows a piece of brass hitting? This may help diagnose if you have something else going on affecting the height of the toolhead.

Most factory ammo is using really slow burning powder as well, which is how they can hit these power factors without causing large pressure issues. Most of the time when people start reloading for a caliber, they start using powders with differences in burn rate from factory powders in search of that 'soft push' or 'short snap' they are looking for. This can generally lead to large spikes in pressure, which is where you'll get yourself into trouble with unsupported chambers in guns that are not designed for these types of loads. To the OP - Are you loading for a non-ramped barrel, or unsupported barrel? You mention both, but they can be very different. What pistol are you loading for? If you're loading for competition in an unsupported chamber, just be careful. Don't use the fast powders like clays, titegroup, VV N320, etc etc. Stick with the slower burning powders like WST, WSF, 231, Autocomp, VV 340/350, 700x/800x, Universal, etc. Work up your loads slowly, and keep an eye on your brass for bulges where the chamber is unsupported. Depending on your pistol, there may be an aftermarket barrel that would help support the chamber a little more.

Try removing the whole assembly from the platform, and clean the grit from the slide cam and the platform, and regrease. Its kind of a PITA to remove and put back in. For me after about 5-10k rounds loaded there is usually a bunch of tumbling media and such stuck up under the slide that causes it to not move around as smoothly as it could.

when my first switch from 9mm to .40 happened, after I got the press, I had to adjust the slide cam, because after adjusting the height of the camming pin, the .40 cases were still getting hung up in the case feeder tube (the next one out wouldn't always drop to station 1), so after adjusting the slide cam, .40 were fine along with 9mm. It's not in the book, I took a guess as to why the .40 cases were hanging, and I did everything in the book, and just guessed at adjusting the slide cam and it worked. Greg That is what the adjustment on the slide cam is for, but *not* for adjusting how far a case goes into station 1

You shouldn't be adjusting anything on the slide cam to push the case further into the shellplate. The rear of the cam should be even with the slide cam. You adjust how far the shell goes into the shellplate by adjusting the height of the camming pin. See page 37-38 of the May 2007 650 manual for photos. The slide cam should last a LONG time, should be over a hundred thousand rounds if not MANY more. The wear points on this are the camming surfaces that rub on the camming pin and the casefeed arm (be sure to grease these areas). Be sure to keep the station one locator and platform that the slide cam rubs on clean and lubricated. As this builds up with grit and tumbling media, it may hang up from time to time to let you know it needs to be cleaned.

Don't use the Lee Factory Crimp Die on the moly bullets, as you specified, it will size the bullet a bit too much. Using a regular taper crimp die, you should be fine to dial in crimp down to 419 or even a little less, without sizing the bullet too much. You could always pull a bullet from a crimped round and look at the ring on the bullet, too deep and you'll cut through the moly and lube, not enough and you won't gauge (as you found out).

Pretty much any straight walled pistol cartridge will be fine to start with.

Notice the connecting rod assembly at the bottom of the ram of the RL1050, this is the reason this can be done on a RL1050 and not a Super 1050. On the rear of the frame of a RL1050 there is a portion where the connecting rod assembly hits, which limits the up travel of the ram/toolhead. In this video, that portion has been milled off, to allow the connecting rod assembly to rotate completely around. The connecting rod assembly on the Super1050 is setup quite a bit different, and cannot rotate completely around like this.

Give Brian a call, he'll get you setup with all the stuff you need to start loading 233 on the 1050. As long as you have the toolhead for the 1050, sounds like you'll need a caliber conversion for 223, die set, and a powder measure. The powder measure between the 650 and 1050 is the same, however the powder die is different. The only difference on the die is the coating, so they are fully interchangeable. If you have spare powder measure and powder die from your 650, you can use that. However, I HIGHLY recommend that you have dedicated powder measures and dies per toolhead, since then you won't need to re-adjust when switching calibers. You can just leave it setup.

The casefeeders seem to take a while to feed the last few cases from each batch, so unless you're stopping loading for that caliber, try to keep refilling the casefeeder as you go. Also try between the different speeds on the casefeeder to see which one works better with your caliber.

For your first question, 9mm often feeds a few cases upside down. Since your brass is deprimed, this issue will be magnified since the case is lighter on the bottom. Try putting only 200 or so cases in the casefeeder and see if this helps. Also try running the casefeeder on 'low' instead of high speed. For the second question, residual cleaning/polishing media in cases is normal, using corn media won't really help this issue. When I get cases stuck in the feed tube, I just use the plastic low primer alert rod to push the cases down and it generally slips past the media and continues to feed. Just try to separate your media as best as you can in the future. This generally only happens to me once or twice every few thousand rounds, unless I do a poor job with media separation.

uhhh they are almost 1700 dollars NEW so I would say have price $800 would be a little too high on the price. Get em down to $500, now that would be a deal. Not quite. Dillon products retain value very well, even with some missing parts, $800 is a steal. More often than not used presses go for 5-15% off new price.

I have a ultrasonic from harbor freight (same as the LEE), which also heats your liquid while it runs. I run all my gun parts through the ultra sonic with a solution of water and simple green, including aluminum parts, as well as the plastic grip from my STI. I just run the grip first before the water gets too hot. When I pull the parts out, the water is hot enough to evaporate almost instantly. I've yet to see any corrosion on aluminum parts, or any adverse affects on the plastic grip on my STI. The one thing I notice using simple green, is it REALLY dries out the metal parts. After I run my parts through, I spray down with silicone spray and wipe excess off, then reassemble using my normal lubrication procedure.

Big 'ol +1 to whats been said here. You can get a *rough* adjustment with a single case around each station, but final tuning should be done with the shellplate full, and final tightening of lock nuts done with shellplate full and handle down as be said.

Bil 'ol vote for the 1050. I bought a 650 about a year ago, an upgrade from a single stage press and was AMAZED I had not gone progressive sooner. Then about 6 months ago, I bought a 1050, and was AMAZED I had not gone to a 1050 sooner. The 1050 is just that little bit faster, but the ammo I see come out of it is much more consistent too. Priming cases on the downstroke is a huge help in speed and consistency. Don't get me wrong, I love my 650, but if you have the choice between the 1050 and 650, go with the 1050. Caliber conversions and toolheads are certainly more expensive on the 1050, but since you already have a 550 you can just buy conversions and toolheads for the calibers you load most.

Dang, that is one very well used powder drop. Look how tarnished the aluminum is!

Pictures!

I don't think buying the upper assembly will really save you any time. You shouldn't even need to remove the upper assembly to change from large to small priming systems. Remove the toolhead and shell plate Use the bushing driver (or make your own from a flat bladed screwdriver) to remove priming punch bushing, then remove priming punch. Replace punch and bushing with new size Remove 13955 lower plate screw and 13108 primer slide stop Swap out primer slide Adjust 13226 rocker arm set screw so priming punch is *just* below flush from the priming bushing, so the primer slide is smooth and doesnt catch on the priming punch. Replace 13108 primer slide stop and 13955 lower plate screw Remove low primer sensor and magazine shield cap, swap out primer magazine tube Remove cotter pin and clevis pin from bottom of swage rod assembly Remove swage cover Fumble with swage connecting rod spinning it around and moving back and forth till you can get the swage rod out Replace swage rod, swage cover, swage connecting rod, clevis pin, and cotter pin Replace shellplate and toolhead RELOAD Profit. It seems like a lot of steps, but once you do it a few times you get the hang of it and its really not that big of a deal

40S&W can use either large or small pistol casefeeder plates.

The toolhead can actually twist a bit on the main shaft as you're tightening up the bolt which can cause it to twist back 'straight' when lowering the handle and the locator pins start to enter the frame. One thing I do when putting the toolhead back on the main shaft, is raise the shaft to the top of its stroke, put the toolhead on, and hand tighten the bolt. Then, lower the handle so the toolhead is all the way down, wiggle the toolhead a little bit, then tighten the bolt. This seems to get everything fairly straight and aligned while tightening. Also, be sure to lube the top of the main shaft where the toolhead sits, this prevents the toolhead from seizing on the shaft when you want to remove it. If you've done the above, and there is still a little rotation, it shouldn't be a big deal, this is why there is a locator pin/bushing setup on the toolhead and frame.

One thing you may want to try with the powder drop is measuring more than one drop at a time. When I adjust my Dillon powder measures, I drop 5 charges and measure all 5. Doing this can make your measurements a bit more accurate since the .1 gr the scale could be off is over 5 charges, not just a single one. I generally use WST powder, which is a small flake, and across 5 charges it generally only varies about .02gr or so.

What powder are you using? I generally leave powder in my drops all the time, and even after a week or two of sitting they are generally within .1 gr of where I left them set. I also do not use the powder baffle at this point, but if you're seeing this much variance with your powder you should really consider one. I generally use WST or TiteGroup (yeah yeah I know) powders. As for Dillon presses just wanting to crank out ammo, just wait 'till you buy a 1050 :-) It is again a little more tedious to setup than a 650, but when you load up 10 primer tubes and start cranking the handle, next thing you know you're filling the powder drop a few times, looking for more boxes of bullets, etc. Then it becomes an issue of where to put all this loaded ammo! For the snapping shellplate, the bearing and spring mods work well, but once you get the 'feel' for the press, you'll be grabbing a bullet as you pull the handle, and you 'catch' the case coming into the seating station with your fingers as you set the bullet on top. When you start to get in the groove and get the hang of this, your spilled powder will be reduced considerably. Sounds like you're really starting to like the 650. Each Dillon press has its quirks, but keep at it and you'll get the hang of it in no time.