daboone

I came up with this solution. Just drilled holes for the pins in rack in front of the toolheads.

How do you store Dillon 550 locator pins on your bench. I built a long wall mounted rack for 10 toolheads. But have been keeping the locator pins in a small tupperware container. Sorting thru that container for 3 outta the 30 is a PIA. I made labeled tabs for the pins from brass flashing which helps but I'm sure you folks have better ideas.

Mine slides right out when emptying powder. I gotta admit I haven't notice any improvement in consistency for the ball or flake powders I use.

Yesterday my son just informed me he broke the Primer Follower Rod on my 550. He had just got off the phone with Dillon to purchase a replacement. He told them he had broke it while using my press while I'm outta town. They said no problem and will send a replacement, no charge! I'm glad I got no BS from my son (like excuses) and Dillon proved it means NO BS! That's why going straight to the source is the way to go.

He states he's using Lee dies. If so it sound like the Lee powder thru expanding die is the problem. I'm guessing he is also using a Lee PM. Getting the correct amount "flare" and activating their PM's can require a lot of fiddling around. I think the problem maybe the wrong expander plug.

I have a 550B and a CO-AX. I do use the single stage conversion tool head on my 550B. The reason is cast bullet sizing. Bullet sizing with push thru sizers can't be done on the CO-AX. I tried to size bullets with a spare 4 hole tool head but noticed a small concentricity error occurring. The single stage tool head eliminated this out of roundness error. I've never used that single stage tool head for any other purpose. The only bottlenecked rounds I do load on the 550 are 7.62x39 and 223R because of the volume required. Never found any reason that they weren't as good as those loaded on my CO-AX.

I assure you I'm not a salesperson or in anyway associated with the Press Monitor III company other than owning the monitor. I agree it's not necessary for operating the 550B correctly. I thought I made that clear. It is just an oversight safety gadget with a lot of statistic information and reminder prompts. It is a toy? Yes but a useful, helpful and interesting toy as well as a screw up monitor. As I mentioned my grandsons do quite a bit of reloading for their dads. For that safety monitoring alone it was worth it for me.

I'm retired. I love gadgets and gizmos. My most recent purchase was the SA Development's Press Monitor III. I knew before I bought this electronic gizmo that it was a tool that would tell me a lot about the process, statistic, and add a layer of awareness to the progressive reloading. So what does it do? This electronic box reminds me what action is next and has LED messages, alerts and beeps. These alerts warn me when any operation is out of sequence. It catches mistakes such as short stroking, forgetting to rotate the shell plate, not priming or any other out of sequence error. These issues can be avoided by just paying attention of course but serve as a nice reminders when interrupted to answer the phone, the door, bathroom call of duty, etc. Can safety oversight be faulted? The other aspect that initially caught my attention was the statistics. The statistics includes Round Counter, Press Time for each session, Rounds Per Hour (Current and Total), Remaining Rounds before a session is completed/time required to complete those rounds you set prior to the session, and the powder measure and primer tube status for refilling. There are three long term statistics maintained in the memory of this device: Total Rounds, Total Press Time, and Total Rounds Per Hour. All three of these statistics are saved over ALL reloading sessions or can be reset, your choice. That's the stuff I like about having this electronic oversight gadget. Here are the CONS (?): 1- I've never soldered a wire or dabbled in color coded wiring and switches. It may be my age, but putting the right wire on the correct part of the switch then mounting the switches on the press was daunting for me. It took me about 3-4 hours to understand mentally how to go about doing this and another 2 hours to complete the process. Its not that the directions weren't clear or precise I was just intimidated by a process I've never done. Allen, the inventor, was very prompt and helpful in getting me past my self inflicted issues. 2- After getting my Press Monitor III setup and functioning it was able to walk me through it's process and tell you what to do next. This however slowed me down tremendously. I was behaving like a complete reloading newbe. I was waiting for the monitor to tell me what to do next instead of just completing the process in a normal cadence. Once I stopped waiting to be told what to do and just did it, it became the oversight tool I knew it to be. 3- So these "cons" were really my issues and not the product's. I'm very happy with all it features, bells and whistles. When my grandsons come over they know exactly when to stop reloading because a buzzer sounds, a light flashes and the error message appears. I love hearing them read the prompts as they reload the ammo they will be shooting.

I use the Lee die set and have never stuck a case or seen any reason to need to upgrade. I reload for 2 of my sons and SIL. So these Lee dies have seen serious use.

Anyone using this press monitor? It looks interesting but there is almost no info about it other than the seller's site.

Take a look at this retrograde: http://www.ericwesselman.com/DillonPowderMeasure/

This picture explains it. The stand offs make it easier and faster to swap out the primer system. I find finger tightening is adequate.

Give Dillon a call and I bet they will help compile a list of the parts your discussion with them reveals. They sure have been helpful to me.

I can only comment about the 550B. I had an assorted collection of dies and powder measures prior to getting the 550B. All of the die sets and several of the PMs work very well on this extraordinary press.

Thanks everyone for your responses. ChuckS in #6 above help me figure out what to do. I was able to add the parts name by the schematic part number and then print it out. Now I won't need a larger copy because I won't need to hand print the names to the numbers. Again THANKS for all your ideas and suggestion. daboone

I have the 550B manual so yes I do have a smaller one. I should have been more specific. I was hoping someone had made a poster size schematic with the parts numbers and the parts names side by side by the specific parts on that large poster. Going back and forth between the parts list and the schematic isn't easy for my old eyes. I wish I was smarter and had better eye but for now I'd like convenance of such a larger print of the 550B schematic. I may have to go to a copy store and have them make a poster and do the labeling myself.

Does anyone sell a larger print of the 550B schematic?

On the other hand if you want to use a Lee Auto Disk or their new Auto Drum you can't use the Dillon Powder Funnel but must use the Lee powder die.

No decision possible on my retirement budget. Besides the 550B is more than capable and I have the time and enjoy spending it in my shop. I'm fortunate that my family supports the time spent by supplying all the components necessary to keep me out of mischief. It certainly isn't difficult to produce 400 to 500 rounds in a day with time for naps and a movie in between. Actually more time is spent in case prep in preparation for a session. The satisfaction of meeting my sons and SIL as well as my requirements continues to be just plain FUN and fulfilling. I've even helped introduce a neighbors and some Boy Scouts to reloading. The Boy Scouts have done a LOT of case prep for me and they think it fun. In my spare time I'm building a Pecatonica River 1803 Harpers Ferry flintlock kit. Now that is a seriously daunting project.

Had her for a year now. I've loaded more for my 3 sons and a SIL than for me. But having manufactured 4000 223R for them, and 800 45ACP, 1800 M1 Carbine, 900 38Spl as well as 200 7.62x39 for me without a machine hiccup ( there was a couple of learning curve mistakes for which I'm solely responsible ) I'm glad I took the step up to Dillon. For years I heard and read about the wonders of the BIG Blue but never felt it could be as good as I've learned it really is. Today is my first day of total full time retirement. In 4 days I'll be 70 and I can't think of a single thing I'd want (other than more primers, powder and bullets) than to be in my shop loading more on this fantastic 550B. Well I must admit going out shooting the results with my 5 kids and 6 grandkids on my bday will be the BEST of those 70 birthdays! Thank You Dillon for producing last years Bday present.

Here's a photo of it as I described it above

No duck tape. There is a hole in the side of the 550B frame near station 3. The wood dowel was sanded to tightly fit in that hole. A hole was drilled into the protruding end of that dowel and the inspection mirror's arm was friction fit into that hole. The mirror itself come with range of motion already added. Simple and easy.

I made one with a $5 auto parts store inspection mirror, a wood dowel and 5 minutes of time.