slavex

I dunno man, my Rockchucker just dumps them in the tray that attaches to the press. Where the primers go is of minor concern to me, I'm more concerned about the press's strength and durability when it comes to a single stage. I've seen far too many broken Lee presses, of a variety of styles, but never a RC.

For the 50, in my opinion, the best press is the RCBS RockChucker Supreme. Brownells has them for $129 right now. That's less than I paid for a used RockChucker years ago. MidSouth had them for $120 at the start of the summer I think too. They are a much much better press than the Lee.

I've been calling and asking inane question at RCBS and Dillon for years, both have always been great including multiple calls to Dillon in the last week. What really impresses me though is they maintain a presence here, and have done so for so long as well. I can only imagine the number of times they smack their head against the wall saying "use the search function" or "seriously?", seeing the same questions come up time and time again. Beyond buying their stuff whenever possible in wish there was a better way to say thanks.

I got the impression from Dillon's post that they don't sell the dowel pins, but I will phone and ask. If they do I'll have 3 orders in the mail, sigh, one should try to order everything at once to save on shipping. dumb me

you can't use magnets in uspsa production (or SS). Not sure your analogy works. and that's why I mention USPSA might do things differently than IPSC. So can we clear this up once and for all? In IPSC what is being asked is totally legal as the event (stuffing the mag in the pocket and then reusing it) takes place after the start signal. But I will admit to being confused on the USPSA answer.

Most excellent, and many thanks for the reply. All I can find online is stainless dowel pins at Ackland grainger and such, will those work or do I need hardened ones? None of the product descriptions list that they are hardened.

So, while waiting for my Mark7 to show up I decided to tear the 1050 down completely, it's been a long long time since I did that, and figured it was a good idea before automating it. I'm incredibly happy with how the casefeeder is working now that I modified the clutch (will install the new one when it arrives though). I think I might want to replace the bearing dowel pins though. This is an old machine, and there is a fair bit of slop in the bearing now that it's back together. I didn't lose any pins, but it sure looks like I could almost get one more in there. Angus Hobdell posted his old machine on FB last night and the bearing pins are in a sealed race with no locking rings on the main housing, unlike mine. Is this an older design, or a newer one? If it's newer where does one get the part numbers for it? Looking at the Dillon site I could find nothing on that, or a link to RL1050 parts even, I'm assuming a phone call will sort that out. Are the dowel pins an off the shelf part or are they Dillon specific?

Prior to getting my RF100 I used to use a Lee Autoprime I'd converted to be a tube filler. Some shimming of the area that the ram went up into so that a Dillon tube lined up with the hole (thin pieces of cardboard worked perfect), a small plastic shield over the gap between the cover and the body and away I went. Put a tray of primers in, shake to put them all right side up, put the cover on, insert a tube (or do that at the start) (oh, and the tubes all have their pick up ends removed) and then place against a vibrating tumbler lid. 12 seconds to fill the tube. A small amount of rotating the Autoprime during the process helps too. This was an old AutoPrime, the round tray style, not the new square style. The only reason I got an RF100 is because my buddy that used to load the tubes while I ran the press, stopped shooting as much and just buys factory now. I hate filling tubes, so the RF was the way to go.

If the timer has gone beep you can stuff mags anywhere you want, that's why we can use magnets for mags on tables. Hell you can even stuff one in your mouth, seen it done, after the start signal. However, for a competitor who has removed the mag, put in pocket, so that they can clear a jam, and then reinsert the same mag, it's fine. You guys are reading some rules and ignoring others. USPSA may of course run totally different.

bringing this to the top as I've been asked by a few people recently about how to do this. And I could not remember, and I want to clean mine again after the powder spill recently.

I don't know that the part is coming for free as I ordered a bunch of other stuff while I was on the line. My impression is that the adapter/clutch assembly was the wrong one, for rifle I think instead, and not for pistol. In which case, maybe, it is being sent for free as the machine was a pistol machine from the get go. If that's the case, cool, but at the same time, if I am being charged for it, I have zero issue with that, I do not expect them to warranty my case feeder given it's age, so I wouldn't go out and buy a used one hoping it will be covered.

I load up 22lbs of 9mm brass in my FA wet tumbler, run it for 45 minutes, then take 10 minutes to rinse it. Then it goes in the oven for 20 minutes, or sits in front of the fireplace in the winter, or gets put out in the sun if it's hot out. Much quicker than dry tumbling ever was, with significantly more brass done, in less time.

So did you actually read the solution that I posted or the fact that the case feeder is mounted solidly? Cases are also well lubed. It was the fact that the shellplate was too high, it wasn't running flush in the feeder, as it was supposed to. Milled the clutch/adapter thingy down, now it's flush, no upside down cases in 4200 rounds now. I'm happy.

yup the lead dust is enough of a reason for me to be happy with my change to wet tumbling

So I think this has been figured out. The drive/clutch in my case feeder is the wrong one, it was much thicker than it should be for the pistol plate apparently. So Dillon is sending me a new one, but in the interim I took the one I had and milled it down, now the plate sits flat in the hopper and I haven't had an upside down case in 1000 rounds. Also no jams up there either. Very happy.

yeah doing small amounts of brass it might be more of a PITA than it's worth. Buuuuutttt, in that case check around for used rock tumblers at your local pawn shops or flea markets. Toss in a pound or two of the stainless pins and you could probably do 2-300 brass at a time. Then just throw in the dryer if you have a shoe rack for it. what finally sold me on wet tumbling was a buddy cleaning some Lapua rifle brass of mine that had leached ink from the box on them (rag with solvent against the box caused it). Nothing I did would get the ink off, and it was more like tar really. But 30 minutes or something in his wet tumbler and even the head stamps were clean. I used a universal decapping die to deprime them so of course even the primer pockets were perfect.

I always found 231 and Tightgroup to be basically interchangeable, I've been on the TG bandwagon since 231 first became hard to find.

I too thought the extra steps in wet tumbling would be a hassle, however I think now it's not really a big deal at all. First off, I can do a lot more brass at once, the FA unit does about 2 and half times as much brass as my FA dry tumblers ( each of which did more than large Dillon could ever do, and did a better job too), sifting/rinsing, same amount of time spent here, no more dust, as in zero, zilch, nada, which is very important to me as I am slowly reducing my lead count, and finding toxic levels of it in my spare bedroom, 3 floors up, was a bit concerning, and lastly, drying, yeah it is a bit annoying, but if I am on a cleaning binge, I'm drying while cleaning anyhow. So it only adds maybe 30 minutes on to the end of a batch of cleaning. End result is totally clean brass, as good as or better than new, and that includes range brass that is really tarnished that dry tumbling simply won't touch unless you load it down with brass polish. 1 tablespoon of laundry detergent (waaay easier to rinse off than dish detergent) and 1/2 a teaspoon of Lemishine or JetDry per 30lbs of cleaning. I use the cheapest detergent I can get, and hot water.

casefeeder is rock steady, and doesn't move. I am running it on high speed, only because it doesn't run at slow speed, however comparing to other friends setups my high speed is about the same as their slow speed

Doug, I used 50,000 primers I had that went through a flood years back, not a single problem with them. However another 10,000 of them went through a second flood, a lot of them were duds. I just dried them out with a dehumidifier I had at the farm at the time (big room for drying pelts). I also deprime cases with upside down live primers, and reuse them as long as the anvil is in them. Never had an issue doing that, depriming or firing later on once loaded into a case the right way.

doh, just posted a similar question

Just looking for some ideas on how to stop upside down cases from getting into the tube on my presses. I have a solution for catching them on the 1050 to prevent them from feeding, but would like to find a way to eliminate them coming down at all as I look to automate the 1050. Deprimed cases are the worst as they don't weight as much at the casehead and don't fall out of the feeder plate as easily as ones with primers do. I have the little tab bent in as per the directions, but some still sneak by, even primed cases sometimes. Pics of solutions would be awesome.

I find neither of the two Dillon tumblers I have (large and small) work worth a damn. They get too hot, even with vent holes added, cook the media and dry it out. The two Frankford Arsenal ones I had were both smaller and did larger loads and cleaned much much better. However, all of them now sit gathering dust instead of generating it. I think wet tumbling is the best thing you can do, and that the Frankford Arsenal kit is the best value on the market. I can do just over 20lbs of brass at a time (32lbs total with water and stainless pins). 45 minutes and the brass is better than new shiny. In the oven or out in the sun or in front of the fire until dry, and they are ready to go. No more dust in the air, no more dirty fingers, and they go through my press so much nicer. If you insist on going dry, get the enclosed RCBS Media separator, it will help keep the dust down. I use it for rinsing my brass now, and it keeps the splashing down too.

sounds like the brass got wet and sat for an extended period. waaay back I tried washing brass before loading, ended up forgetting a buck for about 2 months, went to use it and ran into this exact problem. Tossed out 5 gallons of brass as a result

The stainless mag brake makes no difference, I use them, because they are shiny, but that's it. the factory ones work just as well. the only time I've seen the brakes be an issue is when they aren't put back in properly after someone takes them out, then they bind the mag, but other than that I've never seen them be an issue. It's always the mag catch. According to Angus, removing material from the catch can cause it to hang up on the frame, bending the spring leg is just so much simpler, and easily reversed too.