Worriedman Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 (edited) Have been loading pistol rounds on the 550, rifle on the 650 for the last few years. I have run somehwere in the neighborhood of 10K .223 and at least 5 K .308 on the 650, always hummed like the fine machine it is. Son grey-mulled my S&W .357 4" for his wife to shoot, and wanted to load up some light .38 Specials for her to use. He had been loading a lot of .45 Auto on the 550, and had been having a problem with the Clays load he uses bridging and leaving him with no powder/ too little powder in several loads, so he wanted to move over to the 650 to take advantage of the powder check system. I picked up a caliber conversion in .38/.357 for the 650, new dies (Dillon carbide set) and a new toolhead. This thing is going to drive me to drink. I thought maybe the tool head I purchased for the conversion might be drilled off center so I pulled the head back a part, and used one of my older ones. No difference. The resize die or the powder station will eat brass like going out of style. You have to rotate the base portion to "catch the powder funnel, then stick a finger in and pull the brass into allingment for the resize die. Seems like two stations on the plate work semi OK, the rest are out of time. Could it be that the shell plate is off, or am I just coming apart with old age? Edited January 5, 2013 by Worriedman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Correct shell plate? Shell plate tight? Correct locator pins installed? Make sure they sent you the right stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngeyes Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Correct shell plate? Shell plate tight? Correct locator pins installed? Make sure they sent you the right stuff. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Correct locator pins installed? +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachLongShot Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 (edited) Have been loading pistol rounds on the 550, rifle on the 650 for the last few years. I have run somehwere in the neighborhood of 10K .223 and at least 5 K .308 on the 650, always hummed like the fine machine it is. Son grey-mulled my S&W .357 4" for his wife to shoot, and wanted to load up some light .38 Specials for her to use. He had been loading a lot of .45 Auto on the 550, and had been having a problem with the Clays load he uses bridging and leaving him with no powder/ too little powder in several loads, so he wanted to move over to the 650 to take advantage of the powder check system. I picked up a caliber conversion in .38/.357 for the 650, new dies (Dillon carbide set) and a new toolhead. This thing is going to drive me to drink. I thought maybe the tool head I purchased for the conversion might be drilled off center so I pulled the head back a part, and used one of my older ones. No difference. The resize die or the powder station will eat brass like going out of style. You have to rotate the base portion to "catch the powder funnel, then stick a finger in and pull the brass into allingment for the resize die. Seems like two stations on the plate work semi OK, the rest are out of time. Could it be that the shell plate is off, or am I just coming apart with old age? Don't have nearly the experience you do with the 650, but I had a similar problem with mine and 9mm's. Had to move the shell plate holder with my finger to get it to line up square with the resize/decapping and the powder funnel. Took it all apart and and found out that the base was loose/moving. Used a little loctite on the two bolts, aligened everything up and that solved the problem. Maybe your setup is doing the same thing? Coach. Edited January 6, 2013 by CoachLongShot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worriedman Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 Dug out my older (by 25 years) "D" powder funnel that sitting in the 550B set-up, vast difference in the configuration. One on the left is the older version, installed it and the system works far better. Smaller "throat" captures the cases at the powder drop station far better that the newer version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worriedman Posted March 6, 2013 Author Share Posted March 6, 2013 (edited) Talked with a Dillon rep., as even with changing out the powder funnels, I was still having alignment troubles. They sent out a different shell plate after discussion the fact that the cases seemed to "lean" on 3 of the 5. Put the new plate on and no further problems. Edited March 6, 2013 by Worriedman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzi Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 Thanks for posting that followup and solution. I may have a similar issue on my 1993 version xl650. I usually load 45acp. Recently decided to start loading 38 special on my 650 using a old 357 conversion and die set I had bought in 1994 but had never used (hah, i'm slow). So far loaded perhaps 500 or so rounds on the 650 in 38 special. On occasion I'm munching slightly a case edge on the powder feed station. Slight rips or tears not bad enough to cause me to chunk the round but enough to irritate me. I stuff a bullet in them and seat, its low pressure anyway , so I figure no great hazard. Brand new starline brass, brass brass. I have lots of copper 'dust' on the shell plate area after a 100 or so rounds. Not figured out where that is coming from yet. I'm thinking I may have a issue on one of the slots on the shell plate after reading your last post. Lucky for me not bad enough to call Dillon up for just yet. Maybe I can flatten it out with a trip to the anvil and a hammer........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzi Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Well, after investigating I just sent a letter off to Dillon. I may end up sending my 1993 machine to them. Short version: Bought machine in 1993. Loaded 45 acp. No real issue with that once I learned the foo of things Dillon. Picked up in 1994 a Dillon die and conversion kit for .357 pistol. Eventually got around to loading some. I recall having then some issues with crunching occasional case lips. Didn't fuss with it much as I loaded FAR MORE 45ACp. Dillon did at that time send me a replacment Die Plate and alignment kit . I had suspected at that time, falsely , that perhaps the die plate I was using was out of order machining wise. Moved from location . Got out of reloading for a long long time. (sad story). Flash to 2011. Got back into shooting. Again, I'm a 45acp nut so that is what I loaded. Flash to just past month. Loading 38 specials now , about 700 so far. Crunching some case lips, too many to make me happy. Read above posts. Decided to figure out why mine was acting stupid too. Found out station 2 was the culprit. Warning. Press porn follows in attachments. I had recently aligned this machine a couple months back to help address a primer issue that had arisen with 45acp. Decided something was out of wack since I had converted to 38.... Dissembled again. Re-aligned with alignment kit, checked bench level , check, swapped out a tool die head for the hell of it, found new die head index pins for the hell of it, made damn sure the shell index plate was indexing smoothly on detent ball. End result, same as in photos. I decided this machine has had a issue I had not had to worry about since farking 1993 since all I ever really loaded was 45acp. The short fat cases just dont care if something is not properly aligned. Switch to a long elegant 357/38 case and the delicate things care. Get all fussy. So I sent the pics to dillon just a bit ago and asked em what I should do. I really dont want to be without my machine given the crises and all . Who knows how long they will take to fix/redo if I do send it. I shudder to think. But, perhaps it is just as well as they might well send a entire press back. My 1993 I think was among the first run ones. The manual it came with was a fussy POS pre-production manual. The pictures were so fuzzy you could hardly make any thing out. It was not until that summer they had a real manual cranked out. Luckily, I'm flat out of lead boolits to load 45 acp with, and I do have a back up machine I can use tha tworks fine, but slowly. Lee Classic Turret. Now I have about 800 38 special ready to shoot. I might hold out for a month or two..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worriedman Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 You would not be able to "peen" the shell plate, it is heat treated, and will not bend. It will break if you put directed force on the machined "lips". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzi Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 You would not be able to "peen" the shell plate, it is heat treated, and will not bend. It will break if you put directed force on the machined "lips". I suppose I should have mentioned that was a cheeky comment not meant to be taken with great gravity. I only take hammers to my scopes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worriedman Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 I am in construction, I take hammers to a lot of things one really should not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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