Want2BS8ed

I’m with Woof, the speed upgrade was what swayed me. I haven’t tried a different expander, but see no reason why something else wouldn’t work. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m on a single 15-amp circuit with lighting and a PC as well with no problems. Was also fortunate to avoid the line noise issues others have experienced - did get a bad USB cable originally, but Mark VII was quick to send a new one out to take care of the problem. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the heads-up. 99% isopropyl alcohol is getting hard to find and pricey even on Amazon... M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I too use a ziplock bag and Hornady aerosol (tried the pump spray once and it was a messy disaster). My immediate assumption is you might be using to much lube... it only takes a tad - even on squeaky clean brass run through SS media. Here is what I do: 1) place 2 to 3 handfuls of brass in a 1-gallon ziplock bag 2) add 2 to 3 light spritzes of Hornady lube (just spritzes - not a squirt, coating, misting or blast) 3) seal the bag and roll it around in your hands a few times 4) open and give the brass a couple more light spritzes, then seal and roll around a few more times. At that point I either dump the brass directly into the casefeeder if I’m on a progressive or into an akrobin if I’m on a single stage. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have used the Hornady Powder Cop, RCBS Lockout and Dillon's and prefer Dillon's over them all, because IMO it is easier to adjust on the fly for varying powders and charge weights. I am a proponent of powder checks and use them on both my manual and automated presses. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

N350 N340 CFE Pistol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tightening the FBB plate down to far was my first introduction to the owner of FBB... he has an "interesting" bedside manner. I was having trouble getting 9mm cases to feed. The tolerances are so tight on the FBB plate that some vertical play is needed to feed cases. The benefits gained though are less horizontal play and less wiggle holding the case rim. Both of which should lead to more consistent reloading. You bring up another good point. Have you installed a roller bearing under the shell plate? The first kit I had reused the Dillon button head screws on the retainers. I loaded thousands of rounds that way. Read somewhere about the head bottoming out on the raised retaining ring and sure enough I was. Ordered a flat head screw kit and gained a bit more downstroke - not much, but enough that I had to readjust all of the dies (and primer seating). M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My bench came from the scrap bin. Cheap B/C plywood trimmed in mahogany. Bench itself is 2 layers of 3/4 plywood covered by a layer of 3/4" MDF. Very solid (and very very heavy). Ignore the LNL - it's long since been replaced by a Dillon 1050. M PS there is also a LOT more junk on those shelves now! LOL Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmmm... I have a Holland's Perfect Primer Seater (https://www.hollandguns.com/) that I use for precision rifle reloading. It came with a dial indicator and adapter for measuring primer seating depth. Use the indicator all of the time (more so than the primer seater!). It's a handy little tool. I'm over 20k rounds of 9mm on a MkVII driven 1050 and am always amazed at the consistency of primer seating depth. It's nuts on round after round at 0.003" below flush. I'm using the FFB plate as well. Just a thought, given the volume you mentioned and having fully cranked the depth adjustment down on the head, have you checked the rocker arm and plungers for wear? I could see after some extended use where those might get a bit sloppy. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Expensive? Yes. Difficult? Absolutely not, especially if you are not changing primer sizes. Other than a few occasional rounds, as a general rule my shooting buddies and I don't swap reloaded ammunition. None of us want to run the risk, no matter how remote. Agree, make sure both you and your gun like what you are loading before laying in a stock pile, and "Keep the 1050, automate it and bring new meaning to loading a crap full of 9mm", and buy a second 1050 to load other calibers on! It's what I did. First press is driven by MkVII and cranks out ~1,700 rounds an hour of 9mm - only need to feed it cases, primers, powder and bullets. Don't touch it otherwise. Second press is used to load a half dozen different rifle/pistol calibers (both large and small primers) where it makes sense to use a progressive. Everything else gets loaded on a Redding T-7. ^^^^this is sound advice. Progressive presses actually hold their value well (at least Hornady and Dillon). I sold a pair of Hornady LNL's and got a little over 80¢ on the $ (better than originally expected) when I purchased the first 1050. Understand Dillons do quite well on the used market too. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why? In the OP's case, why spend $810 for a 650 with case feeder, when he can have an $1,779 1050 for a meager investment of $350 for rebuilding the 1050 he already owns? And you are also making a pricing assumption based on volume alone. Volume and primer pocket swaging are not the only reasons to choose a 1050 over a 650. A 1050 inherently cranks out more consistent and more accurate ammunition than a 650 as well. - Adjustable primer seating depth eliminates seating primers by feel - priming on the down stroke requires less effort to cycle the machine - the swaging station expands the case mouth without belling the case providing more consistent neck tension - dies move to meet rounds rather than the other way around providing more concentric bullet seating and crimping, and - you pick-up an extra station for a bullet feeder or powder check. There's nothing wrong with a Dillon 650 - certainly miles ahead of any other 5-stage press out there, but it's not a 1050. Now the 1050 is hellishly more expensive upfront (as are spare tool heads and caliber changes), but here? In this instance? Geez it would actually cost the OP more money to get less capability. M Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks Sarge. Apologize, didn't mean to imply both were necessary. Question was really more geared towards the FCD being a substitute for a u-die, assuming you got the benefit of a factory crimp while also (re)sizing a little further down the case. Again, I've never run into a need before, but I'm not running any match chambers in 9mm either. FWIW, I am using a Redding resizing die which doesn't have quite the flair of the Dillon as mentioned earlier. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You do realize that automating the 650 voided your warranty? And you are absolutely correct, speed is not the "only" point... don't forget consistency, reduced processing steps and quality of the finished ammunition. Adjustable primer seating depth and priming on the down stroke are worth the price of admission of a 1050 over a 650 alone IMO. If you have a 1050 that can be rebuilt for $350, by all means your decision has been made - don't even think about buying a 650! Never understood all the drama about 1050's being more difficult to run either. Using and maintaining a 1050 isn't any harder than running a 650 - if anything it's less fiddly because you're not asking the press to do quite as much multi-tasking at each station (think priming here). Setting up spare tool heads is definitely more expensive, but your well ahead in that respect vs buying a new press. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What are opinions and experience in using a Lee Factory Crimp die with its carbide sizing ring vs a udie? I've never experienced a problem that required resizing, but then again most of my 9mm is shot THROUGH a Glock which tends to have a generous chamber. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

1" is about all you will get. If it's squishy (for lack of a better description) and not a bone jarring stop, then your die is not set correctly. If you are having trouble with the mechanical lock-out, In Line Fabrication sells an adaption of Dillon's audible powder check. I used one of their older versions and it worked well. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A lot of that is personal preference and you may want to try experimenting some before buying in bulk. The heavier the bullet and the slower the powder the longer the recoil impulse i.e. the less snappy. The downside in theory is it's slower to get back on target (or so I've heard - I'm slow to begin with :-) ). My preference is for VV N350 topped by a 147gr Precison Delta (PD) truncated cone, then a PD 147gr FMJ or a Hornady 147gr FMJ, in that order. When N350 got scarce, I went through a couple of jugs of N340 which was close. When that started emptying out, I tried some N320 and N330 and didn't care much for the recoil. Eventually settled on Hodgdon CFE Pistol - in large part because you could get it. Still have about 10#'s to work through, but will go back to N350 now that it's on the shelves again. Kinda thought the whole recoil impulse thing was hogwash until actually trying some different powders. If you can grab a copy of Nosler's powder burn table, it not only lists powder by burn rate vertically, it breaks the manufactures down horizontally and (to me at least) makes it easier to understand what's what. Ultimately, that's one of the great things about reloading- especially for pistol - you can tailor a load to what your gun likes, and how you like to shoot it. M PS Congrats on the 1050. A fine piece of kit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^this... I'm actually surprised Double Alpha hasn't come out with a permanent fix. It makes an appreciable difference especially when loading something like a 147 grain 9MM truncated cone that's prone to double feeding in the MBF. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It would be nice if you could, however the Giruad indexes off of the shoulder, unlike most reloading presses which index off the case rim. To the OP's original question; if you can afford the upfront investment, get the 1050. Priming on the down stroke and the ability to adjust primer seating depth is worth the price of admission alone and if you are reloading .223 (and 9mm for that matter), on press swagging will save an appreciable amount of your time. As for the Giruad, I don't think it's necessary for what you are doing. I own one, but don't find myself using it very much. Yes you can (and I do) load sub-MOA ammunition on a 1050, but if your reloading for precision rifle you will more than likely be using a more intensive process for preparing brass. For 3-gun, load 'em up and go shoot happy in the knowledge that your 1050 is not only faster, but cranks out more accurate ammunition by design. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Try using Armor All Wash and Wax instead of Dawn. It leaves a nice coating on the brass so it doesn't tarnish as quickly and provides some slight lubrication. FWIW, after my original post in this thread, I've loaded about 6K rounds of 9mm that were wet tumbled with primers with zero problems. Unless it's something special, I have eliminated decapping from my cleaning process. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had both and had to tinker with both. It was definitely worth it to to me even with the occasional flipped primers. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Retaining compound is a different beast from thread lock. It has gap filling properties designed specifically for press fit applications, but then again given Foxbat's suggestion vvvvv it's not needed. Brilliant. One of those slap your head, why didn't I think of that moments... Thanks for the suggestion Foxbat. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

...probably needed to ask on the non-existent forums run on their own servers. ;-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For piece of mind, I prefer the redundancy of using the powder check. You don't need one for every head though. Brian (Enos) set me on this path, but the powder check uses the same lower die as the Dillon Powder measure and the rods are available separately. A single screw and the housing/buzzer can moved. I have two powder checks that are shared between two presses and a half-dozen heads. Not a huge savings, but it helps. FWIW the RCBS die works well, but I always found it somewhat jarring when you were into a good rhythm and the press suddenly locked up. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Certainly the cheapest! When installing the Prairie Dog, you will need some retaining compound (Loctite #609 or #680). Not exactly something you can pick-up at your local Lowe's or Home Depot, so you may want to order it now so you don't have to wait (ahem, the way I did, LOL). M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome product. I've already replaced or added them to every 1050 head I own. Like the fact I was able to buy multi-packs without the power supplies. Smart. Customer service is outstanding as well. Purchased one of their low profile bearing kits. Before I could install it, received an email there were some issues with the material used for a 3D printed part and they would be sending replacements. Sure enough 2 days later I received an envelope with the new pieces. That is how you create customer loyalty and boy-howdy you better believe I'll be back as often as I can. M Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk