Phlier

Congrats! I got my 1050 a few months ago. It did take me quite a while to get it tuned and running right, but now that it is, it's a true race car. I don't measure my production by the hundreds now, but by the thousands. One of the best resources for the 1050 I found was this short, ten minute video on how to disassemble/reassemble and lube the 1050. Check it out: here Once you get to the point where you're really comfortable with the press, and start pushing your production up higher, you may run in to a problem where the case feed plunger doesn't correctly align the incoming shell with the shell plate. This is supposed to fix that problem, but I haven't installed it yet. I definitely recommend getting (at a minimum) the lower mass shell plate detent ball. You might also consider getting one of the shell plate roller bearing kits, too. Powder jumping out of cases can be a real hassle. The low mass ball and bearing kit will help a lot. Enjoy your new press! Edit: You'll also want to get at least four more primer tubes. The Frankford Arsenal Vibra Prime is a big help, too. It is a very fiddly little thing, but once you get the hang of it, it really makes filling primer tubes so much faster. I have to bend the primer tray on mine in juuuuust the right way in order to get mine to work right.

Gents, my Dad has a Dillon 550 that my Mom bought for my Dad for Father's Day, 1986. Dad has kept it in mint condition. He's accumulated a jaw dropping number of tool heads and dies for it, too. I'm currently visiting Dad (he's 86 now), and have spent the last couple of days reloading on his 550. Yesterday, he asked if I was interested in taking his press home with me. There's no way I'm going to just *take* the thing, I want to pay him full value (plus a few bucks )for his flawless old press. I'm also planning on buying all of his tool heads with their respective dies, too. I'm trying to find a fair value for this press. Any hep would be much appreciated. The press is in 99.99% condition. His powder measures (two of them) are the old spring style. He's replaced the springs on them a couple of times over the years, and still has two more brand new replacement springs. I can't wait to mount this press proudly along side my 1050. I plan on keeping it in the family for at least another 30 years.

Total shot in the dark, but could it be that the die hole in the tool head was mis-drilled for station one? Any chance you have another tool head you could pop your dies in and try out? Really surprised that the Dillon support guys weren't more helpful. Hopefully, one of the support guys that cruise this forum will come across this thread, take a look at the pictures, and offer some insight. Some of that outstanding customer support that Dillon is known for is sorely needed about now...

Hmmmm... Give up tub toast in order to use my case trimmer. The sacrifices we make for this hobby.

Sure fire fix: Get a 1050. I'm completely kidding... While I really do enjoy using a 9mm Lee U-die on my 1050 without issue, I really wish I would've bought a 650 instead. Watching this thread with interest... hope you guys get a good fix for this.

Yeah, as soon as I do that, the next time I'm taking a bath while making toast won't end well.

Every outlet in my home is on a GFI circuit. I haven't used my RT-1500 a lot, but have noticed that the rpm of it varies quite a bit. Have yet to trip a breaker. Yet. Any fix for those of us in new homes, where every stinkin' outlet is GFI?

Ok, so here's the results.. I put 50 .40 S&W cases (dirty.. bleh.. hate running dirty cases through the case feeder!) and timed how long it took to drop 25 of them on both low and high settings. Low: 48 seconds High: 42 seconds I emptied the case feeder between tests so that the high setting test wouldn't have the advantage of already having cases in the correct position on the feeder plate. Test then repeated for 9mm: Low: 27 seconds High: 25 seconds So yep, the small case feeder plate doesn't feed .40 S&W as fast as it does 9mm, but it did do so reliably; there wasn't one upside down case, feeder jam, or waterfall. It also fed them as fast as I'd feel comfortable reloading them on my 1050. Plus, I only had 50 cases in the case feeder. I'm sure that if you had a larger number of cases in it, it would feed much faster. When I start loading .40 S&W on the 1050, I won't be buying the large pistol plate. That'll have to wait until I start loading .44 and .45 on it, which is still a long way off. Totally off topic, but dang... I wish the 1050 caliber conversion kits weren't so damn expensive!

Hmm... After reading the thread you linked to, I'm unsure as well. I only have small pistol and small rifle case feeder plates, so I can't run upstairs and compare the small and large pistol plates. I did, however, throw 25 9mm and 25 .40 S&W cases in the case feeder (with the small pistol plate). It spit them all down the tube with no trouble, and at the same rate that it normally does. I haven't loaded .40 S&W on my 1050 yet, so other than the above little test, I can't tell you from experience. My vote, based on the above little test: small pistol plate. Edit: Dang it, you've triggered my OCD... now I'm going to redo the test with just .40 cases, and at both low and high speed settings.

I don't have any ideas, darn it. But here's some food for thought. The Dillon powder measure, with it's safety rod, is an amazingly reliable powder system. Now add to it the Low Powder Sensor, and suddenly the powder check seems a bit redundant. Just something to chew on. Edit: Yes, you do see a powder cop in my avatar picture. I ordered it at the same time that I ordered the press. I didn't buy the Low Powder alarm. I really wish I would have bought the Low Powder alarm instead of the powder cop. The Dillon powder measure with safety rod and low powder alarm is a very effective combination. Do you need a powder check/cop on top of that? That depends on who you talk to.

There are two versions of the Frankford Arsenal Media Separator. One that's meant to be used with dry media, one for wet media. The wet media version uses a rubber locker to hold the cage closed, the dry media version uses a metal pin. It's pretty important that you use the correct version. The wet media version comes with a square, two piece bucket. One of the bucket half shells has a drain in the bottom, covered by a screen. The other half shell does not. I've used the following process with the wet media separator, and have only found pins in shells if I try to separate too many cases at once, or am trying to separate multiple calibers.. Fill the bucket half shell that doesn't have the drain in the bottom (duh ) with water, up to about two inches from the top. It's important that there is enough water in the bucket so that the cage bottom will be sitting in water (I fill it so that the bottom half of the cage is just about completely submerged when the cage is placed in the bucket). Place the cage in the holders, and spin the cases for a solid minute, reversing spin direction frequently. Dump the water out of the half shell. Now take the half shell that has the drain in the bottom, and place it in the sink. Place the media separator in it, and spin the cage for about ten seconds to get the water out of the inside of the shells. Done. No pins, no water in the shells, and squeaky clean brass, inside and out. I can separate either 500 9mm cases or 250 .223 cases at once without having to worry about pins left in cases. Gents, it is very important that you don't use mixed calibers when doing this. You'll find that the larger calibers will "eat" the smaller ones, trapping metal pins and water in the process. Separate your brass into their respective calibers prior to wet tumbling/separating.

A lot of reloaders are doing this, creating exactly the situation they're trying to prepare for. Even Powder Valley is out of a lot of stuff. : / And as we move toward November, it's only going to get worse.

I haven't installed mine yet, but this is supposed to cure exactly that problem. I only bought one of them, but if it works, I'll be buying them for all of my tool heads, as I'm getting the same problem when I'm running my press at a fairly rapid pace. I don't have a Mark VII (yet), but I have watched quite a few videos. I believe that the correct answer to question 2 is however high is necessary to prevent the machine from stopping during normal operation. However, you'll still want to intentionally jam it to make sure it''ll still catch a true malfunction.

You most likely won't get that amount of head tilt when there is a shell at the swage station. You should make sure that the reading you get when your shell plate is fully populated with brass is the same as what you're getting now, with just the one station populated as you set your sizing die. I ended up having to back out my sizing die a full 1/4 turn to get the same shoulder bump with the shell plate populated as what I got with just the size/trim die station populated. As a general rule, it is best to set *all* your dies with a shell at every station

I'm not running a Mark VIII, but even so... You can run the M die in your pre-process pass. Doesn't have to be at the swage station. I just got my M die, and have put it at the last station in my prep tool head (after sizing/trimming with an rt-1500). Now the pre-process is: universal decap, primer pockets swage, size/trim, then M die for the neck. There are many ways to skin this cat... If you've already swaged the pocket in pre-processing, then you can use what you want at the swaging station during loading without having to worry about a swage backing rod. Correspondingly, if you've already taken care of the neck in pre-processing, then you can just use the dillon backing rod/expander at the swage station; it's not going to do much/anything to the neck since you've already done it. If you've done them both (pocket swage and neck expanding) during pre-processing, then the swage station becomes redundant.

I checked my 1050 for this issue yesterday and I have it, too. On my press, it's an intermittent problem; sometimes it indexes with a snug plate, other times it won't. I don't have a grinder, darn it. There is a guy who makes an upgraded index pawl for the 1050. Think I'll try one and see if it helps.

And most rifle size/decap dies (Dillon included) have a neck expander button on the decap rod.

Just be careful with the lube. Excessive amounts can cause it to get into the case body, where it can interact with powder. Most lubes will render powder inert. If you feel the need to use lube for case mouth belling, you may want to give Hornady One Shot Case Lube a try, as it is both powder and primer friendly.

Yup, really appreciate the heads up on that, Sarge.

Just checked a few different cases for setback. You were right, Sarge, the FC headstamp brass has a problem with setback when resized with a Dillon resize die (in 9mm). All the other headstamps I checked were fine, but the FC cases were right around 25 pounds or so. I'm fairly sure that 35 pounds is considered minimum. Guess I'll take all the FC cases out of my rotation and load them seperately with a different resizing die... Or just swap in my RCBS resize/decap die into the 1050, but then I lose the sweet Dillon decapping pin. What a PITA. Edit: These were 115gr RMR FMJ bullets, BTW.

Thank you very much! He seems to be about the only one that offers a lower powered spring for the ball. I've heard of people clipping their factory springs with varying results. I'd much rather just replace the whole spring. Edit: Actually, it appears that he only sells the spring/ball kits for the other Dillon presses; for the 1050, he only offers a replacement ball, not the spring.

You could use the Lee Auto-Disk or Auto-Drum powder measures on your 650, as long as you use a Lee die set that comes with their Powder Through Expander die. Just mount the Lee powder measure of your choice on top, and Bob's your uncle. I use both the Dillon powder measure (on my 1050) and the Lee Auto-Drum (on my Lee Classic Turret Press), and I like them both for different reasons. Really, either way you go will be just fine. I never thought I'd see the day that I'd agree with Sarge, but indeed, said day has come (Totally kidding, Sarge.. I've learned a lot from you)... I use RCBS, Dillon, Lee, and Lyman dies. Overall, I agree with Sarge...I like the Lee dies the best. I do like the Dillon Resize/decap dies for the sole reason that the decap pin pops the spent primer off the end of it, so it completely avoids sucking the spent primer back into the primer pocket. Dillon resize/decap dies also have stuck case removal engineered into the die itself. Pretty handy if you ever end up sticking a case. It's possible to start a thread flame war by talking about the Lee Factory Crimp Die (some swear by it, others swear at it), but I *love* them for for reloading mixed headstamp pistol brass. Just make sure you aren't using oversized bullets and they work great.

Yup, and God forbid you change calibers. Ugh.

I thought I had bookmarked snowshoe's ebay profile so I could buy his kit at a later time, but now can't find it. Any chance you have a link?

If I tighten my shellplate down tight enough that I don't have powder jumping out of cases, I have the same failure to index problem... exactly the same. The pawl doesn't come upward to engage the shellplate. Guess I'll check my machine for the same issue. Bit off topic, but I gotta say... my new 1050 has been so fiddly, that I'm about to throw everything back in a box and exercise the 30 day guarantee. Try out a 650 instead. Every time I think I have it adjusted, and am able to get through a successful 100 rounds, something else pops up that requires 15-20 minutes of tinkering to get right. Load another 100 rounds and the cycle repeats.