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INFO: Dillon RF 100 Primer Filler


Davidp1911

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To add;

I reloaded this afternoon. Using my new Mr Bulletfeeder, on my 1050, I reloaded several hundred rounds. I clocked myeself on one batch - 6 minutes to load 100 38 super rounds. And that was a good steady pace to avoid spillage.

I would fill the RF 100, crank away, hear the primer alarm, and repeat. Imagine if I was filling those tubes by hand.

Edited by Bigpops
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Worth every penny.

Two things though....I watch the primers as they flow into the primer tube because sometimes one will get in there upside down. The other this is I had a lot of problems with the small primers and couldn't ever get it working right.

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Worth their weight......Here are some tips.....You need to have the reostat on it to control how much it vibrates. I made up a box with a dimmer switch to control it. It takes a little bit to adjust the plastic tabs but once you get it adjusted it will feed the primers like butter.

If you dont mind having a couple primers flipped upside down, then don't watch it fill the tube. Wolf, Remington, and Winchester primers work really well and don't flip much. Federals are lighter, and you just have to stand there and watch it and catch the flippers....no way around it.

There are some really good tips for it in the FAQ section as well!

DougC

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I have the RF-100 and love it, you have to adjust the plastic stabilizer plate for small primers somewhat and change the primer size adapter...it's simple to change sizes really and you control the feed rate with the potentiometer adjustment located next to the on/off button. Safety wise this thing is engineered to high standards, it is a stout piece of machinery and the polycarbonate shroud is 1/4" thick, it is built very well. I usually have a tube full of primers waiting in the filler and the tray filled with 100ct of primers, when my low primer alarm goes off I grab the tube, dump the primers in the 650 and turn the primer filler on again and fill up the empty tube again, then dump more primers in the tray...rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat....

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Worth their weight......Here are some tips.....You need to have the reostat on it to control how much it vibrates. I made up a box with a dimmer switch to control it. It takes a little bit to adjust the plastic tabs but once you get it adjusted it will feed the primers like butter.

If you dont mind having a couple primers flipped upside down, then don't watch it fill the tube. Wolf, Remington, and Winchester primers work really well and don't flip much. Federals are lighter, and you just have to stand there and watch it and catch the flippers....no way around it.

There are some really good tips for it in the FAQ section as well!

DougC

Awesome info and thanks! Is a dimmer switch necessary for the primers you mentioned, especially Federals?

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Hello: Anyone have problems with large pistol primers not going up the ramp? It seems like it does not have enough horsepower to make the primers climb the hill :roflol: I was thinking of polishing the ramp to help the primers slide up there better. Mine is the old style with no reostat. Thanks, Eric

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Eric,

You may want to try cleaning the inside with a patch and gun scrubber. After a while priming compound dust builds up and causes trouble.

I have the old one and I too built a box with a rheostat. Haven't had any trouble at all and I use nothing but Federals. I loaded 9k rounds this past week and had one upside down primer. I pull the tube, load the 1050, put primers in the top of the RF-100, push the button and start loading. I never look at it.

It was a real pain before the rheostat as it would flip primers all the time and jam up. What surprised me was that I had to turn the rheostat almost all the way up to get it to run right. I guess the rheostat itself slowed it down just enough.

Of course, most of this doesn't apply to the new ones since they started installing the rheostat.

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When I got my RF100 about 18 months ago, it was working "ok" with a rate of 1-3/100 upside-down primers. It took over 2 minutes to get all the 100 primers into the tube.

A month later, the blue timer push-button stopped working.

Then I got a then-new Dillon Rheostat. It must have been a prototype or a 110 volts unit (I live in a 220V country), but it barely started the machine, even at max setting... I got it free of charge locally, but rapidly sent it back.

Then I started trying to adjust and tune the RFF100, making things much worse. I looks to me that I tried all what is possible, but I might not be creative or clever enough.

Today, when I try to use it again, I have a rate of 20-30 upside-down primers. So I'm back at the pick-up tubes. And it still takes forever to get all the primers in the tube (sometimes 1 or 2 primers never want to go in...)

This is the first Dillon product that I'm disappointed with (and I do have a LOT of them...).

I know I shouldn't have tried to tinckle with it, but the initial failure rate was very deceptive. And all other Dillon products have been easy to adjust.

Should I order a new Rheostat? Should I throw the unit away? (I can not sell it with that kind of failure rate).

I know many people who are satisfied with their unit, and accept a small upside-down primers rate. But what's the point buying a RF100 to gain time, and then have to check (or box) all your ammo and pull the bullets off the upside-down rounds ? In my case, the whole process is faster with the primer pick-up tubes.

(For the record, I load CCI and Fiocchi small primers, use the machine as instructed in the user manual, on a rock-solid bench)

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Jerome, do a search on the RF threads and make yourself a box with a dimmer switch to adjust the flow of the primers. It DOES work, and you will be much happier. I still have to stand there and watch the federals go into the tube if I dont want a flipper, and sometimes have to stop the machine and drop out the flipped one. Just the way it is....can't have everything perfect, but it is a damn site better than using a flip tray....

DougC

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  • 8 years later...

Sorry for the 8 yr old bump. I didnt see any newer threads on the subject. I wanted to ask; how many small primers can you put in the machine at a time? I realize the tube will only hold 100 but wondering if ya can fill the station itself with multiple boxes of primers at once.

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Just to be the dissenting voice here, and I know I am going to take some flak here, but I have been using the $50 Frankford Arsenal Vibra-Prime for a few months now, and love it.

 

It works perfectly for SPP, but with the LPP, I get the occasional stuck primer and have to remove the cover and fix the offending crooked primer.

 

Some people have reported problems with excess flash that they had to cut off, and when I got mine, I had my Xacto knife set and Dremmel tool at the ready to clean up any issues, but there was nothing to clean! Maybe I got a good one, or maybe they fixed the excess flashing, but I did not have to modify mine at all.

 

One difference is that you do need to shake the primer tray after you add the primers to get them all oriented anvil side up just you would when using the standard primer pickup tubes, but this one takes a few seconds.

 

I tend to load up 5 tubes at once (500 primers), and seriously, it only takes me just a few minutes and I am done.

 

There are a few little tricks that you learn as you use it to make it more efficient, such as don't let all the primers bunch up at the drop hole, and try to angle the unit so they flow in a single file.

 

I seriously recommend this thing to anyone I know, and I have showed this to friends who can't believe how easy it is.

 

This is one of those $50 investments that I now wonder how I ever lived without.

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