RL100

[JThompson]

Well, I got my new RL100 Fed-Ex today. I was pretty excited to see it. Less so after I set it up. It seems no matter where I set the rheostat the speeds gets a mind of it own. If I set it low so it doesn't go "run-a-way" on me it leaves primers in the bowl and times out. Not a bunch, but enough that I find it unacceptable. I played with all sorts of speed and tweaks. If it run on high it will flip the primer upside down before entering the tube, not all the time, but enough that I'm ready to box it back up and ship it back to Dillon. I know some guys that have these and they run fine, so I guess I just got a bad one.

I'm pretty mechanically inclined, so I don't think it's an operator issue. My buddy says his fills in about 30 secs. The best I was able to get it to run was about 95 primers when it times out and the 5 or so left in there were not moving.

It always seems if there is a bad one in the bunch I'm the one that gets it.

Anyway, just thought I would bitch a little and it might make me feel better... it didn't, guess I'll have a drink.

JT

Edited July 3, 2010 by JThompson

[Loves2Shoot]

On mine, you need to adjust the plastic guide just right and it runs smoothly. Too tight, they get jammed and flip if it is too large a gap. Good luck!

[anm2_man]

The OP didn't say what type of primers he was running in the RF100. I have found, Large Primers are loaded with no tweaking necessary. Set it up per the instructions and in one cycle it will do them all. I just got mine back from a refurb and upgrade to the rheostat and was loading a bunch of 30-06. They all made it to the tube in one cycle. I then switched to .40 S&W. Small primers. I fiddled and fiddled and never was able to get it to load in one cycle. Always took 2 cycles and then there would be one or two that never would make it. I had to spoon feed those last two.

Edited July 4, 2010 by anm2_man

[JThompson]

Thanks guys... I decided to play with it some more and got it to run pretty well. I'm going to do some more testing.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: The RL-100 will give you fits if you use different types of primers and and even different lots. I converted mine over to the reostat and it did not help much. Of all the Dillon stuff I own it has given me the most grief I have tried almost everything on it to make the primers drop perfectly everytime. I still get one or two per 100 primers that is upside down or turns sideways and jams it up. I guess the final step will be to send it back if I get really frustrated with it again Thanks, Eric

[JThompson]

I got it working well enough to keep me from shipping it back. What I did was play with the orific in the vibratory bowl. Also, did some polishing work in the track of the bowl. It now fill the tubes in about 1 min with all primers getting into the tube. I ran 20 in a row and all went in and none flipped.

JT

[Neomet]

I had trouble initially but since turning the rheostat all the way down I have loaded 3K plus without one flipped primer. This is with WSR, WSP, and CCI primers. I think by slowing down the time it takes the primers cross the little drop notches it keeps upside down ones from just "hopping" across.

[gohuskers]

I was seriously considering buying one of these but the reviews appear mixed. Seems like a little of fiddling around; might just be quicker to load up 10 or 12 pickup tubes before loading. Would you guys buy the RL100 again if you had to do it over?

[ForrestB]

I was seriously considering buying one of these but the reviews appear mixed. Seems like a little of fiddling around; might just be quicker to load up 10 or 12 pickup tubes before loading. Would you guys buy the RL100 again if you had to do it over?

I have 2 of them and love them. 1 for large and 1 for small.

[smokshwn]

I got it working well enough to keep me from shipping it back. What I did was play with the orific in the vibratory bowl. Also, did some polishing work in the track of the bowl. It now fill the tubes in about 1 min with all primers getting into the tube. I ran 20 in a row and all went in and none flipped.

JT

Mine initially did not have the rheostat upgrade and it drove me nuts. Once I got the rheostat it was better but I still had to babysit it a little more than I wanted. After use it seems as if everything has polished itself up and it runs like butter, which makes me think polishing it up a little in the first place like you have done is a wise move.

[smokshwn]

I was seriously considering buying one of these but the reviews appear mixed. Seems like a little of fiddling around; might just be quicker to load up 10 or 12 pickup tubes before loading. Would you guys buy the RL100 again if you had to do it over?

As far as being any quicker than loading tubes while you sit and watch TV I would still argue it is a wash. However there have been a couple of folks with amazingly bad luck (or technique) who have had a primer detonate while loading the fill tubes. That makes the RL100 worth its weight in gold from a safety standpoint for me. With a little patience and tuning it runs just fine. I think most of the reviews come from those initial tuning frustrations.

[gohuskers]

I was seriously considering buying one of these but the reviews appear mixed. Seems like a little of fiddling around; might just be quicker to load up 10 or 12 pickup tubes before loading. Would you guys buy the RL100 again if you had to do it over?

As far as being any quicker than loading tubes while you sit and watch TV I would still argue it is a wash. However there have been a couple of folks with amazingly bad luck (or technique) who have had a primer detonate while loading the fill tubes. That makes the RL100 worth its weight in gold from a safety standpoint for me. With a little patience and tuning it runs just fine. I think most of the reviews come from those initial tuning frustrations.

that's kind of what i figured. in terms of their safety factor i agree completely. add this to the next toy in the reloading room. thanks for taking the time to respond.

[Loves2Shoot]

I was seriously considering buying one of these but the reviews appear mixed. Seems like a little of fiddling around; might just be quicker to load up 10 or 12 pickup tubes before loading. Would you guys buy the RL100 again if you had to do it over?

There is no way I would ever punch primers again, period.

[DougCarden]

I really like the RF100 and agree that there is a learning curve to it....the tunes are well documented here on the forum.

You do need a rheostat on the unit to "tune" it to different primers.

Primers vary by weight. I have found Wolf, Winchester, and CCI to be very close in weight, and when I set the rheostat for one it works for the others.

Doing that, I can pretty much let the tubes fill themselves. There will be a flipped primer in every couple hundred loaded...I can live with that.

The trick is if you are loading federal primers.

They are much lighter than the others, and you have to stand over and watch them even after you set the Rheostat down for them. I also grab the unit and move it around to keep the primers moving and keep the flipped ones falling off the line. Once you figure out your routine with it it works really well. Once again, if you are not mechanically inclined, it may frustrate you, but it is a good piece of equipment and a real time saver. You can load up all your primer tubes in minutes and then go to town loading!

Hope this is useful,

DougC

[dillon]

Be careful if you intend to polish the bowl on the RF-100. Our experience is that too much smoothness and primers don't feed around the track very fast. On well used units we've worked on in the shop, we have had to sandblast the bowl to rough it up a little, so the primers actually move. FWIW

[gohuskers]

Be careful if you intend to polish the bowl on the RF-100. Our experience is that too much smoothness and primers don't feed around the track very fast. On well used units we've worked on in the shop, we have had to sandblast the bowl to rough it up a little, so the primers actually move. FWIW

Good info to know.

[JThompson]

Be careful if you intend to polish the bowl on the RF-100. Our experience is that too much smoothness and primers don't feed around the track very fast. On well used units we've worked on in the shop, we have had to sandblast the bowl to rough it up a little, so the primers actually move. FWIW

Thanks,

There were some casting irregularities in two points that seemed to stop primers. I knocked those down and it seemed to help.

JT

[Fireant]

You can load up all your primer tubes in minutes and then go to town loading!

Hope this is useful,

DougC

I keep hearing people say you can load your tubes in minutes, but how? I have a couple of dozen primer tubes, but how can I fill them from the large tube that comes with the RL 100?

[Neomet]

I keep hearing people say you can load your tubes in minutes, but how? I have a couple of dozen primer tubes, but how can I fill them from the large tube that comes with the RL 100?

I'm not sure why you would want to do that even. After I run low on primers I pull the RF 100 tube out, dump it in the reloader, put the tube back and just empty the next 100 primers into the RF, hit the blue button and go back to reloading. The RF is done way before I reload another 100. To me it would take more time to transfer them to a multiple pickup tubes before starting to reload. Maybe I am missing something here??

[ExtremeShot]

Mine worked great out of the box (small pistol - Winchester, CCI maily). However, after loading several thousand I started getting some primers flipped upside down. I watched it run and found out that the primer was flipping upside down in the little plastic blue "c" shaped thingy that is right above the tube. Thinking that maybe it was hanging up on dirt or something, I ran a Q-tip up in there from below and twisted it around a little. I noticed brass coloring on the Q-tip. After doing this, the primers quit flipping (at least for a few more thousand rounds until I have to clean it again).

Darren

[DougCarden]

I made an adapter from an old vibraprime small primer tip. I dremeled out the tip so the primer assy. from the RF100 fits on the top and then it drops the primers into the primer tube. Pretty easy to make if you find some right diameter tubing. It is similar to the top of the primer tube assy on the machine.

DougC

[JThompson]

Mine worked great out of the box (small pistol - Winchester, CCI maily). However, after loading several thousand I started getting some primers flipped upside down. I watched it run and found out that the primer was flipping upside down in the little plastic blue "c" shaped thingy that is right above the tube. Thinking that maybe it was hanging up on dirt or something, I ran a Q-tip up in there from below and twisted it around a little. I noticed brass coloring on the Q-tip. After doing this, the primers quit flipping (at least for a few more thousand rounds until I have to clean it again).

Darren

That is where mine flip as well. Had my first "snap" instead of a bang with it too. For practice ammo I don't look at all the primers. I was cruizing along and got the Snap! with no light. Racked it into the air caught it () and looked... sure enough it was an upside down one. It's not perfect and I have some ideas on how to make it better. What happens is once in awhile they hand out at the top and don't drop right down. I'm thinking about getting a fish tank air pump and directing a light air jet downward at the top of the orifice. Also, the otehr issue I see is if they all get there and they are tight against one another. Some times this causes a bit of a jam. I think a little jet of air after the last place where they go under the guide would seperate them and allow the first one to fall in before the next one gets there. I did extensive work with these on a larger scale when I was a machinist.

If/When I get it working I'll shar pics and thoughts.

JT

[Sarge]

Mine worked great out of the box (small pistol - Winchester, CCI maily). However, after loading several thousand I started getting some primers flipped upside down. I watched it run and found out that the primer was flipping upside down in the little plastic blue "c" shaped thingy that is right above the tube. Thinking that maybe it was hanging up on dirt or something, I ran a Q-tip up in there from below and twisted it around a little. I noticed brass coloring on the Q-tip. After doing this, the primers quit flipping (at least for a few more thousand rounds until I have to clean it again).

Darren

It's not perfect and I have some ideas on how to make it better. What happens is once in awhile they hand out at the top and don't drop right down. I'm thinking about getting a fish tank air pump and directing a light air jet downward at the top of the orifice. Also, the otehr issue I see is if they all get there and they are tight against one another. Some times this causes a bit of a jam. I think a little jet of air after the last place where they go under the guide would seperate them and allow the first one to fall in before the next one gets there. I did extensive work with these on a larger scale when I was a machinist.

If/When I get it working I'll shar pics and thoughts.

JT

And to think, I was planning on buying one of these. Seems like alot of work to make something work the way it is supposed to.

Edited July 10, 2010 by Sarge

[RePete]

Mine worked great out of the box (small pistol - Winchester, CCI maily). However, after loading several thousand I started getting some primers flipped upside down. I watched it run and found out that the primer was flipping upside down in the little plastic blue "c" shaped thingy that is right above the tube. Thinking that maybe it was hanging up on dirt or something, I ran a Q-tip up in there from below and twisted it around a little. I noticed brass coloring on the Q-tip. After doing this, the primers quit flipping (at least for a few more thousand rounds until I have to clean it again).

Darren

That is where mine flip as well. Had my first "snap" instead of a bang with it too. For practice ammo I don't look at all the primers. I was cruizing along and got the Snap! with no light. Racked it into the air caught it () and looked... sure enough it was an upside down one. It's not perfect and I have some ideas on how to make it better. What happens is once in awhile they hand out at the top and don't drop right down. I'm thinking about getting a fish tank air pump and directing a light air jet downward at the top of the orifice. Also, the otehr issue I see is if they all get there and they are tight against one another. Some times this causes a bit of a jam. I think a little jet of air after the last place where they go under the guide would seperate them and allow the first one to fall in before the next one gets there. I did extensive work with these on a larger scale when I was a machinist.

If/When I get it working I'll shar pics and thoughts.

JT

After loading I box my ammo in factory boxes (upsidedown) and weed out the upsidedown/high primers. This is the final check before storage.