Buzi

I didn't order a press but this may help someone: Back on the 18th of Feb I had to request via email to Dillon (using their web site email) a replacement of part of my 650 powder drop assembly. It just arrived today. Which surprised me. No other communications with Dillon other than that first request via email and I had thought I would be waiting another week or two at least before hearing anything, much less the part.

‘Berettas Don’t Bluff’: Major Gun Company Threatens to Leave Maryland Over New Gun Control Proposals That's the headline found this morning on The Blaze. Source article was from Washington Post. quote: Beretta USA is threatening to leave Maryland over new gun control proposals, the Washington Post reports, and they would take hundreds of jobs along with them. “Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?” Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta, asked. End quote. Since I like this, it fits the forum description. I hope they come to Tejas and that Magpul does the same. We welcome you. I used to say, just avoid Austin as it has become corrupted but todays Texas , sadly, is loaded with Low Information Voters in all three major metro areas, Houston, Dallas, Austin. Proof, the last presidential results. Note the color of the counties in question and compare with rest of state. /sigh. Wherever you go Berreta, do leave Maryland. Go where you are appreciated. We will like you more. I might even buy a Nano, despite being a Springfield fan. Springfield XDS/M's being aNother thing I like but I digress.

Well, given your planned situation I'd think about tossing in that 'new' primer tube loader I saw on Dillon's site. Maybe someone with experience with that can chime in. I'd think if it works it would make loading vast quantities much easier. Manually loading the primer tubes is time consuming. Fine for someone like me who is just doing this as a hobby and loading for personal reasons. But if I was planning on what it sounds like you may be doing, I'd spend to skip that step assuming that fancy auto primer loader doo-dad actually works. For a scale I settled on this as the bbest bang for buck for accuracy: My Weigh Gempro250 diamond scale http://balance.balances.com/scales/9/ I did some week long research on the web and after reading a number of sources I ended up picking that over the conventional electronic scales sold by various reloading vendors. Resolution was the reason. I determined that all the scales sold by typical reloading vendors were no more accurate or consistant than the typical 35 dollar max cost el cheapo electronic scale. My opinion is based purely on various web sources not personal confirmation or any great technical expertise on my part. IMO every bench should have a old-school mechanical beam balance. I still have the one I started with in mid-70's the then el-cheapo RCBS one. Still works and never needs battery's or electric socket and if not abused will outlast me. Electronic sensors in the electronic scales WILL DEGRADE over time. One can slow this by NOT keeping weights or unused PANS on the scale plate when the scale is not in use. Leaving scale pans on such devices will erode that delicate electronic sensor. Back to your list. Even though you may concentrate on just say 4 calibers to pump out in quantity (I presume that as you have only listed 4 tool heads) I'll re-emphasize you dont' want to mess up die settings once set to your satisfaction for a given load/caliber. Especially given what you seem to plan. As far as the mounts Dillon offers. They are fine if you are a loader who didnt' plan the bench to be at the proper height for the operator. I say proper height as I'm biased others of course have other opinions. If it is built high enough the mount would be undesirable. For a 6' tall person a 41 inch height of the bench is ideal. Maybe a inch higher even. Using the standard old school ball gear shift on my xl means no bending when standing at the bench. THe hopper is just low enough to clear the ceiling inside a standard house with standard ceiling height. I'm sure the nice roller handle would be the same. If it was me, I'd have a minimum of 4 powder drops. Get some of those cheap blue knobs on Ebay to fit the nuts. Get some. Get some masking tape to attach to the drops and mark how many turns OUT you have the powder drop bar screw turned away from full stop. I epoxy-ed an appropriate sized washer with graduated markings on the powder bars I use. Instant powder drop 'micrometer'. Works for me. Have Dillon send you the alignment kit for that press that you are ordering. IMO they should ship that damn kit with every press. You WILL need it. I dont' see a trimmer listed. I I dont' load 223 rifle yet but from all the vids of those doing so using Dillon gear most seem to use some sort of trimmer, and many do so using the press mounted version Dillon sells. yah, as someone else mentioned. Spare parts kit. Order it with the press and stash it. You might consider extra powder check adjustment rods. Either that or just take notes and measure with dial calipers the settings you use for each caliber. The drop comes with one small diameter rod and a large one. Given your list You'd want mroe of the small diameter ones. I think only the 45 and 44 would use the large one. Just checked to confirm that with mine. I think the powder check comes with one powder drop die. You will want powder drop dies for that device for each die toolhead plate. You do not want to be adjusting that (see a pattern here? grin.) every time you swap calibers. Unless you enjoy that sort of tinkering for 'fun'. Of course each powder drop comes with a powder drop die but then you'll want more (in addition to what I mentioned above) for those other toolheads that I think you should order for those 'off' calibers. Hehe. It never stops. If your really getting serious, one will want a XL650 set up for SMALL primer calibers and one for LARGE primer calibers. Once you get your 650 in you will see why. I'd then suggest having a spare primer stack around for the time you do manage to blow a stack. Then you'll have spare parts on hand. HOpefully that day would never come but it can happen. (I know I did it. I'll post pics some day).

650xl user here. THat sure is a wide spread of calibers you listed. Did you stop to consider the 550b? The 650 is great don't get me wrong. But it is such a pain to swap calibers and to set up again. I've determined I wont swap a caliber out unless I'm running 1k or more of a given caliber. In my case 45acp mostly with some runs of 38 special for heavy practice rounds. I dont' even plan to bother running 357 runs on my xl650. Don't plan to load up 1k plus of that at a time. My Lee Classic Turret alt press does that fine for me given the limited amounts I fool with. That and the 45 colt and 45 casul I load for as well. Sure I could rig up my XL to do those but IMO it just isn't worth the time and cursing to set it up for limited runs. Of course, if you plan to load boat loads of each of all those like 1k plus per run, sounds great. Enos has a great FAQ that every prospective Dillon buyer should read.. somewhere in there is 'which dillon?'. Whichever ya pick, enjoy your Blue and good luck getting components for all that. Oh, and if you do go with that 650. Id use a tool head for each caliber. that would be 10 of them. One does NOT want to be dicking around with toolhead adjustments very often.

You could repost on Ebay and make phat profits. Ferengi style. My eyes bled the other day when I saw a 550 with 223 conversion and a set of dies get bid up to 1450 dollars plus shipping. Watching ebay bids is almost as entertaining as a few episodes of 24.

Maybe someone that actually knows can chime in. Just figured I'd toss this out. http://gunwiki.net/a...rsion/index.asp (link I got from the FAQ from this very site, super link) I dont' see one listed for the 650 but if I read that right do see one for the 550. Somethign to mull until someone more knowlegeable than I shows up. Dur, just after I posted this I altered my google search and found this link. Haha. http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=147923 30 blackout dillon 650. Lord Google knows all.

The bench I built last year I crafted from 2x8"x and 2x4" pine. Four 2x8"x8' deep for the top of the bench. Rest is just 2x4 lumber . good yellow pine not that soft white stuff. Bench surface is right at 41" tall which works out perfect for me at 6' tall. The 650 mounted directly to the surface. The case hopper is just low enough to dump brass in, got to watch ceiling height!!! EDIT. I thought I'd mention the base of my bench is built with 2x4's boxed all around the legs so the base is very solid when done that way. I'd not want to try and pull it off with 2x4 verticals without boxing the base in either boxing from outside or inside whichever floats ones boat. The middle shelf is essentially another box of 2x4's . Very solid. I don't have to bend when cycling the press. THe bench is heavy enough with a middle shelf section and a lower shelf made of 1/2" plywood to not rock at all when in use. I added top shelfing a foot or so deep. I didn't bother with any lamination of the bench surface. Just good polyurathane finish. Corners were bolted with real bolts and nuts where appropiate. Rest of the bench I just used drywall type screws of variouis lengths. My press is in my living room , carpeted floor. Used to be in the garage but I grew weary of crappy WX here in Gulf Coast Texas. Reloading in A/C comfort is much nicer. I did find some rubber like black matting to lay down at the bench to highlight the occasional dropped primers. Haha. I can get away with it. No female XO in the house to bar me from doing stuff like that in the 'living room'. No kids to worry about so I dont' have to lock any room doors. If I had kids about I'd want to build a set up like that in a room I could lock up. I'd think that oak slab you are looking at would be fine. In my case I built as cheap as I could.

Yah IMO they should ship that alignment pin with every 650 sold. Dunno why they make ya ask for one. I realigned my old press the other day after running into some occasional primer seat issues. It took some serious tweaking to get that pin to align as it was supposed to. One tip, once you get that pin, you will find yourself wanting a spare Allen hex wrench that fits those two bolts affixing the platform to the ram. I took a Allen wrench and cut the short end of the L more than half off. That way I could just lower the ram enough so that the alignnment pin still engaged the primer discharge hole so I could tighten the two bolts. In my case the ram alignment was a bear and my press required the ram to be twisted all the way one direction before the pin would align properly. Once done all the primer issues I was having with occasional damn crushed sideways primers and some tricky seating went away. (however I also did some polishing 'mods' on the primer assembly that probably helped my situation) Just saying if yoiu manage to get the alingment working for what your doing with the case bushing situation you still may have issues with primers since ya don't have the alignment pin. I'm surprised that press had that much slop that the ram and top plate allowed that bushing to be so far off. I dont' think my press from 93 has that much "ram-plate twist" available.

I never tried that Nu-finish either. Lord Google came to the rescue with this handy search term: Nu-Finish case polishing Now there are dozens upon dozens of forum posts to weed thru. I currently use a Tumbler thumbler whatever and stainless steel rods as the medium. Water, dash o liquid soap (Ivory currently), and a dash of LemiShine. 2 hours and my 45 acp brass is silly shiney. If I deprime even the pockets are cleaned but I don't do that very often, found it a waste of time.

No bending for me. When I built my press bench a year ago I determined 41" at the top surface was the perfect height. Works well for me being just at six foot tall here and I usually stand at my bench, only occassionally use a nearby stool. What I've yet to determine is if I need a fancy roller handle. I seem to enjoy the ball version. It sort of reminds me of stick shift transmissions in a ancient 68 Camero. Zoom Zoom. Quadrajet roar, with glass pack. Eh. Maybe I'll upgrade one of these days.

use something like XNVIEW (freeware pic viewer) to convert and save that camera photo. You might be trying to post in some raw TIFF format and that would be insane huge file size. Convert to JPG and save at like 80 percent quality that will shrink it. Might have to reduce size of photo some. XNVIEW can do it all. While you are working on that I had a idea after looking at the photo that other fellow posted and then looking at my press (I dont' do rifles at all on my xl). I'm wondering if somehow that block of aluminum the bushing screws into is out of alignment? The way you describe the situation it sounds like the bushing is canted to one side causing blockage with the sliding block assembly. Just wild idea but make sure nothing is causing that block to be canted. Loosen up the screws and maybe find some washer or something that isint' supposed to be there. Myi press is a ancient 1993 model so I'm sure there is a difference.

What, you don't like the prices on Ebay? Hahahahahahahah. Good ruck. I dont' have any knowledge of where to find what ye seek at the price ye desire. Not during the current panic.

Say, does anyone know if Dillon exchanges the ancient old style for new? I bought my Dillon 45acp and 38/357 dies back around 1993. I'd like to get my mits on the new design but am not real excited about plunking down that much cash for the improvement. Of course I'd have to wait half a year before writing them about it. The madness must pass first.

I thought I might do just that. But do to the current insanity and crises mode I'll just wait. Might be much later this year and I'll write and ask them. I think for 50 bucks or so they do a factory refurb and I' imagine they'd update it alright. I've seen others post relating such experience.

Yesterday evening a screw decided to ruin my run by a unauthorized loosening. The screw that holds that body collar bushing on the connector body collar that is. Result, a broken tab on that body collar connector assembly. Sent a email requesting replacment of said body collar. Upon recepit of canned responce from a robot I decided it would be prudent to afford a repair using epoxy and hex the offending screw with some Locktite blue. Follows is the canned response to my email to Dillon: You're getting this message because we have received your email. Outgoing emails are currently two weeks behind. We are doing our best to catch up. Please be patient and keep emails to a minimum while we struggle through this extremely busy time. Thanks for helping out. Our phone system can accept up to thirty callers in the hold Que. After this the Que is full and a phone call gets a busy signal. This volume of incoming calls frequently prevents us from making outside calls. We apologize for the inconvenience. We're happy to help keep you loading. Dillon Precision Products, Inc. TeeHee. Two weeks. I'd have called but the Epoxy got me high.

I can't comment on mixing differ lots of the same powder as I never sat down to document any differences with a chrono. Might bother with that some day. I only load 45acp and 38/357 so I don't fuss over that much. What I do however that you might consider: Rather than dump more powder in my powder drop every time it gets below the half way mark, I put a follow weight on top of the powder to simulate a full bin. The follow weight is a empty garlic powdered spice bottle (Adams I think it was) that is just small enough to fit inside the powder drop bin tube. I filled said spice bottle half way with table salt, sodium enriched of course. I had to add a handy duct tape handle to the lid of said bottle as it just isn't tall enough for when the powder drops to the final 1/4th or so of the run. I have let my powder bin run till the bottom of the bottle just begins to rest on the baffle. In my case, 5 grain or so flake and ball powder measurements stay within my specs using this method. Of course, if I have spare powder I'll top off but I had to hit on this solution as there are times that extra powder taint laying around or I have HUGE lot differences. Say for example recently. I had 1970's era Unique and 2400 handy. Still had 5 dollar stickers on them. I didn't want to mix that with the new fancy pants 20 dollar versions of the same stuff. YMMV.

You kids today have it too easy. Back when I bought my XL650 in 1993 all I had was a poorly copied pre-manual as Dillon didn't have the published one out yet. Got my rig at a Houston Gun show. We dindt' have no stinking fancy internet thing other than a dial up 4800 baud modem connection to Stargate in Houston, using OS/2 and a TCP/IP SLIP modem connection to access a Unix host. No fancy pants YouTube for us back then. No, we had Telnet text clients and Netscape was just a smear on pappies dirty underwear. We had to stumble thru the poorly copied manual with foggy pictures and guess at what we was doing. We dint' even have no VHS tapes. Now you want DVD's . Yah, YouTube is chock full of stuff. Don't need no steenkin DVD. You kids got it too easy.

Just to chime in. Been using that thrust bearing kit on my xl650 (1993 purchase) for the past year or two. It helped my machine with the powder slop issue on the 45acp I load mostly. Found the kit on ebay. Thanks to the OP for posting his mods and set up. Good stuff.

Looks great but won't work on this 'old timers' 1993 era XL650. I think mods like this, and I've seen several, only work on late model versions. They made a change at some point, when I don't know. I'm stuck with the plastic cup till I bust my press I guess.