Phlier

Very cool. So nice to have a case feeder!

Yup, you're right. Over indexing only.

it limits the amount that the plate indexes. It's used to control over/under indexing. As long as your plate is indexing the correct distance, you won't need to bother with it.

There are definitely guys that swear by it, and others that swear at it. I just went and examined 20 of my pre-processed cases under a magnifying glass, and didn't see one with an uneven case mouth. I'm not saying that it is as good as a proper chamfering, but for mass produced plinking rounds, I just don't see the down side. There must be some difference between how you and I wet tumble.

The expander/hold down die at the swage station on the 1050 is not meant to bell the case. It's only a case mouth expander. The powder drop station on the 1050 is just a "powder through die" unlike the 550 and 650's "powder through expander die", the powder through die on the 1050 only bells case mouths; it is not an expander. So a quick recap.... case mouths are *expanded* on a 1050 at the swaging station, and they are *belled* at the powder drop station.

You'll really like the RT-1500. Just make sure you lock the die down good and hard, and lock the trimmer in place good and snug, too. I don't know if you're currently wet tumbling or not, but if you're not, it's one of the best things you can do for .223 loading. I don't bother using pins for the initial cleaning (before running the brass through the pre-processing pass), but afterward, wet tumbling with pins will do a great job of removing your case lube and getting rid of the sharp edges left by the RT-1500.

Yes, clean and very straight. You will end up with a sharp edge on the outside and inside of the case. After pre-processing brass, I wet tumble it with stainless steel pins. This peens the case mouths enough so that you don't end up with sharp edges. Some guys say you need to chamfer after wet tumbling with pins, but I've pulled several bullets and have yet to see a damaged projectile, and I don't chamfer after wet tumbling with pins. Yes and no. The resizing die you'll use with the RT-1500 will leave your neck diameter too small. You'll need to take care of the neck afterward. There are several ways to accomplish this. I initially went with placing a Dillon resize/deprime die after the RT-1500, adjusting the die so that I was just passing the neck expander through the case neck, without doing any actual resizing. It works, but I decided to get a Lyman M-die instead. The RT-1500 resizing die can't do anything to the neck other than squeeze it, as it's impossible to run a neck expander ball through the case because the die has the trimmer installed on top of it. Yes. It's actually trimming at the end of the resizing and headspace bumping.

Great to hear you're enjoying the new press.

Thanks for the suggestions, gents. I'll follow up with them tomorrow, as the wife kept me away from the press this evening.

So I have around 12,000 rounds through my 1050 now, and am quite happy with how it's finally running... That is, until last night. I only load .223 and 9mm on it, and this concerns 9mm... My favorite 9mm recipe is a 115gr fmj loaded to 1.125 OAL. Until last night, I was getting 1.22 on the low side, and 1.127 on the high side. But those are the outliers. Most all of them fell within 1.123 to 1.126. "Most" as in 90%. This is using mixed head stamp range brass, which is what I always load... I don't bother to sort 9mm by head stamp. Last night, I ran out of my 115gr fmj's, and had to switch to a 115gr plated. I measured the first five off the press. First one was 1.120, then 1.119, 1.120, 1.118, 1.120. This length is acceptable for this load, so I proceeded to load up the shell plate so I could measure the next five "production" rounds with a full shell plate. Results were very similar. I never had to touch the bullet seating die to get these results. So I ran off a hundred. At the end of each 100 loaded, I check the OAL of the last five cases produced (as well as run other sanity/safety checks that aren't relevant to this discussion). I noticed that the variance from shortest to longest loaded round had increased a bit, but was certainly still acceptable. Trying to shorten a long story... By the end of the night's production (1.2k loaded rounds) I had tried everything I could think of to solve a rather large variance (which continued to increase as the night went on) in OAL. I was now getting a low of 1.110 and a high of 1.120. So overall, the cases average OAL shortened quite a bit. (1.10 is the bare minimum acceptable length, so I'm still ok as far as that's concerned). I now had a variance of one hundredth of an inch! I've never seen such extreme variation in loaded round length from this press! What in the world is causing my previously tight OAL tolerances to go so out of whack? I've tightened the tool head. It was already as tight as I could get it. I've tightened the shell plate. It's now as tight as I can get it and still get the thing to auto advance. I've checked, double checked, then checked again the tightness of the bullet seating die. OK, so the one tidbit of information I've saved for last... Until recently, I had my own little private collection of 9mm brass. All of the military cases had their primer pockets swaged by me on my rock chucker using an RCBS swaging die prior to me getting my Dillon press. So I've never bothered to really set up the primer pocket swager on the ten fiddly until last night, as I was recently given a rather large supply of mixed range brass in 9mm. This included a nice assortment of military once fired brass. So, using the instructions from DIllon (along with my primer pocket go-no go gauge), I adjusted the swaging station so that military cases would accept a primer, but no head stamps had their pockets swaged to the point that they wouldn't pass the go/nogo gauge. Now I can see how setting up this station can cause variance in OAL, as different head stamps (and the condition of their primer pockets) would produce varying degrees of pressure at the swaging station, which is straight across from the seating die. So that's not really a concern. My concern is how the variance *grew* over the course of the night. I also did check to make sure that the case expander/backing die didn't move, nor did the swaging rod adjustments, either. The variance grew from a few thousandths all the way up to 1/100 of an inch. A variance of 1/100 inch in OAL just isn't acceptable. I have some more experiments in mind to try and figure out exactly what is causing this, but thought I'd ask for help from you guys, too. Tonight's experiment will be to sort out 100 non military cases of the same head stamp and load them up without making any changes to the swaging station. Or any other changes to the press, for that matter. Edit: In addition to any suggestions you guys might have, I'm also interested in hearing how much OAL variance you guys are seeing in 9mm on the various Dillon Presses? On my Father's 550, I was only seeing a few thousandths.

I ordered mine in the middle of the night (while the wife was asleep ) and it shipped about 14 hours later (August 19). It was a very large order, too. Not just a press, but all the trimmings and knick knacks. I've also ordered quite a few bits and pieces from them since then, and as long as I place an order early in the day, they've all shipped same day.

Dry tumbled cases come out slightly slippery (at least mine do). Wet tumbled cases (with Dawn and Lemishine) come out squeaky clean. Squeaky, as in not slippery at all. That's why some guys are using the Armor All Wash n Wax car wash liquid now.

Here's the original Eric Wessleman modification. Here's an update to the modification done by a BE forum member. I used the shell plate bearing, along with a low mass detent ball, on my 1050 for a while. Now that it's really well broken in, I was able to remove the shell plate bearing and just use the low mass detent ball now. A good, tight shell plate and a low mass detent ball have solved the problem of powder jumping out of cases on my press. I'm quite certain that there are a few sellers on Ebay that sell a combination reduced force spring and low mass detent ball for the 650. Might want to check it out. And these are much easier solutions to install than a powder measure retrograde, too.

Yup, and i'll continue to bitch about the cost of parts for my non lifetime warranty 1050. I'm all about supporting Dillon; I love their presses, their company, and with what little experience I've had with them so far, their people. But when it comes to price gouging on parts that do *not* come with a Lifetime warranty, yup, I'm gonna "bitch". I would have no problem forking over big money for pieces that come with a lifetime warranty. Maybe they forgot that they weren't giving a lifetime warranty on 1050 tool heads when they decided on a price for them. My budget was $3.5k for my new reloading setup, as mandated by the wife. I had two options: a 1050 setup for 9mm with a Mr. Bulletfeeder, or a 1050 setup for both 9mm and .223 without the MBF. I went with the two calibers and no MBF. So yes, after spending $3,440.00 (all to Dillon), I am a bit miffed at still having to shell out rather high dollar figures for something as mundane as a tool head (complex as it may be ).

I'm familiar with how complex they are; I have three of them. Sure, they're more complex than the other tool heads, but $200 each? You could buy 1.9 Lee Classic Turret presses for the cost of 1 1050 tool head! More complex? yup. So much so to justify 200 bucks each? IMO, nope.

Yeah, caliber change overs are a bit of a pain. On the 1050 (as on all the other presses), having additional tool heads that stay setup for individual calibers makes it easier, but 1050 tool heads are soooooooooo expensive, it's just not cost effective to do so. I have three total 1050 tool heads. Two of them stay permanently set for pre-processing and then loading .223. The other head I've been using exclusively for 9mm, but that is going to change. I'm putting Hornady locking rings on my 9mm dies, so I can take them out of the tool head, then drop them back in and have them immediately setup without having to adjust them again. I'll be doing this with other dies, too, so the one tool head will be used to rapidly change over to other dies that have Hornady die lock rings on them. Once you get the hang of it, changing calibers on the 1050 is about a ten minute task if you have dedicated tool heads, and that's if you take a five minute coffee break in the middle. The 1050 is really geared for having a tool head for each caliber, as you do have to take the tool head off every time (well, most every time) you switch calibers, as it needs to come off to change out the shell plate. Now there's a niche that's just begging to be filled...If some company could come along and sell 1050 after market tool heads at an affordable price, I'd tell them to shut up and take my money. Dillon1050 tool heads are $200 bucks a pop. Seriously.

A permanent 50% price drop on caliber conversion kits and tool heads.

It's fantastic. The primer is seated on the down stroke. *Everything* is completed on the down stroke on the 1050. The primer seating depth is very easily adjusted, too. One very important tip: DO NOT thread the Magazine Shield Cap (part number 13957. See the 1050 diagram) on tight! If you do, you will put too much pressure on the blue plastic part on the end of the magazine tube, and you'll have primer feeding problems like crazy. The manual warns you about this, and it's very important. That's pretty much the only real gotcha on the primer system. There are a few other primer adjustment things to mess with on the 1050, but that's the only real gotcha. All the other primer related stuff is cake. The 1050 (or as I call it, the ten fiddly) is.... fiddly. It takes some time to get to know and get set up/tuned correctly. But once you do, it runs like a dream. Another very important difference between the 650 and 1050 is how case necks are handled. On the 650, case necks are sized (and belled, if needed) on a powder through expander die at the powder drop station. On the 1050, case necks are expanded at the primer pocket swaging station. If belling is needed, it's done at the powder station, but the powder station *only* bells; it doesn't do any case neck expanding. The 1050 is very much a commercial grade piece of equipment. So much so, that Dillon doesn't offer it's unlimited Lifetime warranty on the 1050 like it does on the other presses. And one other thing that comes to mind... It only ships with either a small primer system *or* a large primer system. It doesn't come with both, so plan on spending the cash on another primer system.

Check out this thread for some ideas. There's a few other threads around here with other great ideas, too.

Yup, that's exactly what he wants to do. The problem is, at 86 years old, he's outlived his retirement funds. So I'm insisting that he allow me to pay full market value for the press. Having some ammunition (excuse the pun) for my side of the argument is what I'm trying to do here. He about came to tears when he said that he wanted to be able to give all of his guns, reloading stuff, etc. to his sons and daughter as his legacy. He never wanted us to pay for them. I told him that he took care of us for decades, and that it's our turn to help him for a change. He's a genuinely soft hearted guy, and we're trying to make this a happy experience for him... us buying his stuff with smiles on our faces, and gratitude in our hearts for all he has done for his family for many, many years. I wouldn't be successful in my profession if it weren't for him. He's one of those guys that I wish everyone had a chance to know; you guys are missing out on knowing one amazing human being. He doesn't want us to pay a penny more than what his stuff is worth. We're sneaking in extra every chance we get.

Really odd that a Dillon rep hasn't posted here yet. Since we know that Dillon guys do hang out here, maybe you could email them a link to this thread. You have certainly done your part to document everything. Now it's their turn. Really hope you're able to get this resolved. RDA, I'm not sure how this could be a shell plate problem.. wouldn't a problematic shell plate cause problems at *all* stations, and not just station one? I'm not at all familiar with the 650 (only the 550 and 1050), so I'm asking this to learn something new... Edit: BTW... I'd stick with the U-die if at all possible. One guy here on the forums (you know who you are) brought it to my attention that using the Dillon resize die in 9mm can lead to setback problems with certain brass head stamps and FMJ bullets. The U-die completely solved that problem for me.

Yup, Dad doesn't want to sell it to me, he wants to give it to me. That's just how Dads are. But I told him there was no way I would take it without paying him for it. So I'm trying to establish fair market value so I can talk him into taking at least that much.

Just thought of another... Primer pocket go/no go gauges are very useful for setting up your swaging station. There is a very fine line between over swaging (which will leave your pockets too loose to hold a primer) and under swaging (which will result in, at a minimum, smeared primers in unswaged military cases). Setting your swaging station so that the go gauge fits nice and snug into a military case takes out all of the guess work. Don't have a link to one handy, but they're widely available. Edit: and yet another! I don't have a link to it right now (I'm on my laptop), but someone makes a nice little mirror, mounted on a fully articulating arm, that attaches to the top of the case feeder. Really handy way to see how many cases are left in your feeder hopper.

Excellent, thanks gents.

+1! Very nice addition for the 1050.