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auto drive 1050, experiences wanted


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I have a Forcht on one of my 1050s and I think I am the only person with mixed reviews of it. When it works, it works great. But I always have to fiddle with it.

If you go with an autodrive, make sure you order TONS of pawls.

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Oriental motor BHF62AT-50 works well. It's a drop in on Craig's converstion but requires some milling to put on a PW drive. Minimum speed zero maximum speed around 2900-3000 cycles/hour on the motor itself.

Obviously if you have sprockets you can extend that range, though it may run hotter if you put a high ratio after it and run it at high load on slow speeds.

Getting any Dillon press to operate above 1500 cycles/hour requires a lot of work and tweaking. Everything has to be perfect.

Craig wouldn't sell me his conversion in kit form. This was about 2 years ago. Maybe he's changed his policy now that sales are slower.

To be honest I prefer the PW once you set it up with a bigger motor and speed control. It's very nice to be able to control the stroke length and offset.

Craig's setup is good for decap/swaging because it can develop a lot of pressure without risking link arm breakage, but that's about all I use it for these days.

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Craig will sell you his conversion the way you want it. Just bought my last 1050 conversion from him with no electronics, no sprockets, no motor mount, and no chain. Basically, just the converted press, base plate, and motor plate gussets.

A 1700 RPM motor gear reduced 50:1, using 1:1 sprockets will get you to 2040 rounds per hour. Easily adjusted downward from there with the VFD until you tune your press to get all the kinks worked out.

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Sorry to thread jack but maybe one of you guys can help me with mine.

I have no idea what it is, but mine doesn't always index all the way. I had Craig make me a oversized index roller and it works most of the time, but there are still instances where it doesn't engage the ball detent.

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Sorry to thread jack but maybe one of you guys can help me with mine.

I have no idea what it is, but mine doesn't always index all the way. I had Craig make me a oversized index roller and it works most of the time, but there are still instances where it doesn't engage the ball detent.

Check the index pawl. Remove the index lever (shoulder bolt) and check the pawl on the end of the lever. The pin that holds it in is tapered. Take the pin out and inspect the pin hole in the pawl. If it's oval, there's your issue. Sometimes she'll index, sometimes she wont.

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My index problem was solved by filing a HAIR off the top of the pawl where it rides the bottom of the shell plate, problem with mine was it wasnt indexing at all because the pawl wouldnt snap into the hole on the shell plate, it would hang up just before popping into the hole. I dont know what it is about my machine, but changing over 100 dollars worth of parts didnt fix what a 3 second file job does.

Not engaging the ball detent would mean its not indexing quite far enough. Dirty ball detent, worn out spring could be two culprits. Also having the limiting screw(on left back side of machine, not talked about in any Dillon diagram AT ALL) to far out(in???) would keep it from indexing far enough.

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My index problem was solved by filing a HAIR off the top of the pawl where it rides the bottom of the shell plate, problem with mine was it wasnt indexing at all because the pawl wouldnt snap into the hole on the shell plate, it would hang up just before popping into the hole. I dont know what it is about my machine, but changing over 100 dollars worth of parts didnt fix what a 3 second file job does.

Not engaging the ball detent would mean its not indexing quite far enough. Dirty ball detent, worn out spring could be two culprits. Also having the limiting screw(on left back side of machine, not talked about in any Dillon diagram AT ALL) to far out(in???) would keep it from indexing far enough.

If it did that on every new pawl you put in, then either the pawl hole is ovaled, or the arm isn't at the correct pivot point, or the hole that the index dog uses isn't in the right place, or you have bent one of the shoulder bolts holding above mentioned parts.

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I had the same issue as rjacobs. Once in a while the pawl wouldn't fully reset and it just rode the bottom of the shell plate. I filed a tiny bit off the top and it indexes all the way now.

Here is a list of things I tried....

Dillon Factory Parts

Limiting Screw backed out a lot, so it is not stopping the index arms progress.

New Index Arm + Pawl + Spring + Bolt. Same problem.

Cleaned and oiled index detent ball and spring

Tried new index ball spring

Forcht Parts

New Index Dog

Oversized index roller

It works most of the time, but I still do not trust this machine while processing 223. It processes pistol just fine, but I don't trust any machine to do the priming.

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My index problem was solved by filing a HAIR off the top of the pawl where it rides the bottom of the shell plate, problem with mine was it wasnt indexing at all because the pawl wouldnt snap into the hole on the shell plate, it would hang up just before popping into the hole. I dont know what it is about my machine, but changing over 100 dollars worth of parts didnt fix what a 3 second file job does.

Not engaging the ball detent would mean its not indexing quite far enough. Dirty ball detent, worn out spring could be two culprits. Also having the limiting screw(on left back side of machine, not talked about in any Dillon diagram AT ALL) to far out(in???) would keep it from indexing far enough.

If it did that on every new pawl you put in, then either the pawl hole is ovaled, or the arm isn't at the correct pivot point, or the hole that the index dog uses isn't in the right place, or you have bent one of the shoulder bolts holding above mentioned parts.

every part, but the frame of the press was replaced, the damn rocker arm thing was like 60 or 70 bucks. New bolts, new roller, new pawls, new springs(both coil and the dog leg spring). I cant imagine that every hole of the shell plate would be off either since its not just 1 hole that does it. And its kind of random when it does it too so hard to really nail down. If taking 5 passes with a file on the pawl makes it run 100%, im ok with that. If the frame is messed up, I cant replace it so it is what it is.

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I'd bet they drilled the hole in the wrong location. That's the only other thing that would affect the pawl height.

The problem is it didnt do it from day 1. It didnt start until maybe 20k rounds through the press. And with all the Forcht machining its not like I can just get a new frame.

It is what it is, and I got it running and it runs great. I guess when you get to running stuff like this you make it work when you have no recourse to have a huge piece of the machine replaced.

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Good to know we can get just the conversion kit without motor/electronics. I got 4x 3ph lung tang motor in stock!!

I experienced the very same problem with my 1050 converted to Forcht auto drive. It was driving me crazy.....I figured that keeping the detent ball clean and light light under the shell plate fixed it 90% .

Edited by Kaskillo
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Still haven't gone with an autodrive, but I got bulletfeeders on my 1050s now, I've learned that with the rate you go with bulletfeeders the brass needs to be good, some 357 sig and 10mm auto mixed in with the .40S&W definetly doesnt make me happy. also pulling the primer back in which happens say every 1000.. not cool.

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  • 4 months later...

While I remain very happy with my Forcht 1050, I finally had a chance to see the Mark 7 autodrive (shown at WorldShot) set-up at A6. While I certainly can't justify it, I am a gadget guy and am going to have to put one on my list....maybe for next year. I like the fact that your 1050 remains unaltered...anyway, it was pretty high on the cool factor and unfortunately price as well. The guy said they have sold 180 units so far this year and they are backlogged 4-6 weeks.

www.markvii-loading.com

Edited by blueeyedme
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That Mark7 looks pretty nice.. But that price!! Will they sell it without the pretty computer screen? LoL

I've been looking at the ammobot since it also doesn't really modify the press and it appears I will still be able to load all rifle cases since the stroke isn't shortened like it seems with the forcht setup. So far my biggest con with the ammobot is the noise. The handle moving around could be dealt with by either cutting it down or somehow modifing it if I needed to. But I also like the ability to use the press without the motor on.

Biggest problem now is I need to gain 6" of space by either cutting the legs off my bench or making a shorter bench just for the press since I am limited with overhead space.. Already cut down the press a few inches to fit the bulletfeeder.

Anyone else have any experience with the ammobot? Ammobot MK1 Or see possible problems with that setup? Noise was another thing I noticed about it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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