mikamarj

Once you start actually reloading automatically you will notice in no time that ALL the sensors are required for smooth operation. And you will also notice that you don't really need that many calibers. I would recommend the swage sense. Accidentally igniting primers is not fun and it can be dangerous. s#!t happens. Last week friend of mine had his Evolution powder measure jam and that caused the machine to stop at powder check. Would not have been nice to notice that you have 500 rounds with potentially no powder in them... I don't currently have bullet sense but that is coming. I have had multiple times the Mr Bulletfeeder bullet drop die somehow jam and while running automated press, it doesn't take long to have 50 "rounds" with no bullets in them... Mixed up with your lubed rounds... Primers don't flip in the machine. Primer orientation sensor also stop the machine in case of indexing issues. Would recommend getting that also. Depends on your brass. I have had problems with e.g. Geco brass not being decapped right and clearing a decapping jam is much faster and safer than clearing swage sense jam.

@tanks: Why new toolheads? I have Evolution Pro, generation 1. I have replaced case feeder and powder measure with Dillon ones since the Mk7 ones didn't work. Powder measure had a lot of variance, Hornady case feeder gave a lot of upside down cases or cases stuck in the feeder. Now I am waiting for some primer system parts since I am getting crushed primers all the time. Quite a lot of these problems come from the fact that parts have been made out of aluminum, which clearly isn't good material for this kind of machine. Dillon uses steel for a good reason... When the machine works, it is awesome. But having all these issues, owning a generation 1 machine practically means that we have been beta-testing a product. My machine is used by others also and having the primer issues just recently caused that a European top 10 -shooter had to revert to factory ammo in training right a month before European championships.

I had similar issues, needed to polish/round the edges of the primer pocket in the primer slide... If you decide to do that, go carefully with fine sandpaper.

You cannot beat roll sizer with ANY dies. My experience is that Mighty Armory decapping and swage backup dies are excellent. Sizing die is accurate, but too soft material -- I scratched mine very fast. Now I'm using Redding titanium sizing die.

I would say that you are gonna have hard time actually making quality ammo with ANY press vendor from day 1. All the machines seem to have some break-in period and learning curve. So don't plan your business on the assumption that you will be selling good stuff for a profit from day one. My Mark 7 Evolution Pro has been quite reliable, now almost 150k loaded during less than a year. But I did also change the powder measure to a Dillon one since the original measure had too much variation, even dependent on the speed I ran it. For a commercial operation I believe Mark 7 is the only cheap option since it has the onboard primer collator. That is a huge benefit as your press will just run and run, not stop and wait for you to fill the primers. For just brass processing I would probably get Dillon and Ammobot.

When automating, you need one extra to have room for powder sensor. And one more is nice to have separate flare die. In 1050 the priming station is doing just priming, on Mark 7 you can do something else with it. I am using it for sizing. My setup on Mark 7 Evolution Pro: 1. Case feed 2. Decapping (Mighty Armory decapping die -- very strong, goes even through berdans...) 3. Swage 4. Resize & prime 5. Flare 6. Powder measure 7. Powder check 8. Bullet feed 9. Bullet seat 10. Crimp

I now have more than 100k rounds loaded on my Evolution Pro. Running okay with Dillon casefeeder and Dillon powder measure. Now just thinking of getting the 3500rph motor upgrade as mine is the older 2500rph generation. On the older motor it's not possible to run >1600rph without using case lube..

Because it is actually being used. And now everyone using the machine clean their brass to my standards... Lähetetty minun SM-G965F laitteesta Tapatalkilla

I have a Dillon case feeder (newish model with the blue case deflector) that I have added Immortobot upgrade motor ( https://immortobot.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=315 ) into to keep up with my roll sizer ( http://www.ipscteam.ch/shop/case-roller/ ). When running the case feeder at faster speeds I was having trouble with cases jamming to the deflector. Friend of mine designed a 3D-part that fixed the jamming with a piece of iron wire. Available at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3667370 Please remember to support our local producers of cheap beer by clicking "Tip the designer" in Thingiverse in case you decide to 3D print this and it helps solve issue on your casefeeder. Also note that this has been tested with 9mm brass on "small pistol" casefeeder plate only.

Stay away from Alpha-X. The dovetail mount doesn't work.

I have the new style case feeder. Cases that come not fully seated to the slots in shell plate hit the corner of the deflector and jam. I believe others have had the same issue since in another motor upgrade there is a different design case deflector: https://www.extremereloadingnv.com/product/dillon-casefeeder-motor-upgrade-2/

Luckily our local Hacklab has a decent laser cutter and mill etc... If anyone else wants to cut one from plastic, I can share the DXF file, just PM me with your email address...

I think they are 10-32 screws, about 1/2 inch long. I was thinking of machining this out of aluminum after verifying with the plastic one that hole locations are good but the plastic one has worked for the last 70k rounds so... maybe another time...

I laser cut a piece of POM plastic (and milled some clearance for the primer slide) and shortened the failsafe rod. My powder measure is a Dillon 1050 -model. Probably this wouldn't work with the primer collator... But works for me. Also replaced the Hornady case feeder with a Dillon casefeeder. Now I feel my Evo Pro is finally reliable. Next I need to get my new style Dillon case feeder to work reliably as I need it to feed 4000+ rounds per hour for my case roller (http://www.ipscteam.ch/shop/case-roller/). It worked fine with normal speed but when trying to run it faster (with Immortobot motor upgrade) I get constant jams...

If you're going to stay pulling the handle, then stay with the presses you already have. You will not be gaining much by switching from 1050 to a manual Evolution. And yes, you can upgrade Evo to the Pro, but usually you get a better deal if you buy it all at once. Get all the sensors available, there is a real reason each and every of them exist. I have Evo Pro and there is no going back to manual presses...

On my Evolution, I have had 3-4 causes for indexing issues: 1. Sometimes primers get stuck and that causes indexing issues 2. The index pawl adjustment screw on the left side of machine 3. Sometimes I had my shell plate too tight and that caused indexing issues. Loosening it up a bit helped. 4. The internal guide rod, screws were getting loose... added some loctite and now it works. There should be guides for all this on the Mark 7 community.

Mark 7 sold to Lyman. https://youtu.be/5O0n3R0Qph8

I have had issues with primers on some brass sticking to the decapping pin, pulling back and the machine then stopping at swagesense. Nicer if it stops at decapsense, since then you don't have to empty the case under powder station.

I have the upgraded version, but it still doesn't work -- the ball joint attachment to dovetail is a bad design. I would recommend skipping these. I went back to CR Speed...

How have you tried to get out from "bottom"? "End cycle" or "run"?

The sensors don't need lights.

How are they "better"?

I'm still waiting for the improved springs/linkage, if that does not fix drop variances I'll start looking into installing Dillon powder measure... Mount is as strong as the Dillon/Mark 7 mounts usually are. Bolted to the Mark 7 body in the same way as Mark 7 original was. So it is as good as it gets, if more stability is needed then only option is to mount them separately from the machine and each other. Don't think that is necessary.

I finally gave up with the Hornady case feeder, just couldn't get it to work... Got about 28.5 inches of 1x1 inch square tube, drilled couple of holes and it fits perfectly.

Maybe something like this could be used with Raspberry Pi to get more power into image recognition? https://software.intel.com/en-us/movidius-ncs https://software.intel.com/en-us/neural-compute-stick I've been thinking of a simple solution with Dillon casefeeder, raspberry with a servo motor and simple 3D-printable parts. Would do sorting into two piles: the brass we want and the rest. If that would be done fast enough, it wouldn't matter if multiple passes would be required...