ZackJones Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Got my RL550B on Saturday and spent Saturday evening setting it up and doing some loading on it. Showed it to Mrs. Jones last night and her comment was "That is cool - why didn't you buy it sooner?!" (I guess because I'm an idiot?? Questions: 1 - While setting it up I got confused about setting up station 3. The manual says the following "Put a case into the shellplate at Station Three. Raise the platform up and screw the die down until it just touches the shellplate and back it out two turns. Now back your seating stem out." When I did this, using a freshly resized 9mm case, I could not get the die (Lee) to screw down to touch the shellpate as instructed in the manual. I could get it to go down over most of the case but not completely down to touch the shellplate. What I ended up doing was screwing the backing the die out until it touched the case and then set the seating stem. I ran some rounds through (without primers or powder) and then ran them through the crimp die. Afterwards I pulled them and there weren't any cuts in the coating so I'm pretty sure I'm good to go but just wanted to check because the station was not setup exactly per the manual. I did take 25 of the rounds I loaded to the range yesterday and they all went bang so I think I'm good to go. 2 - I currently have my press loaded on a Workmate with extra wood on top to serve as a strong mount. I'm planning to build a shelf to attach to the wall. I have an area that's 24" wide which should find for the width. What I'd like to how is how deep should I make the shelf so that I could mount a casefeeder at some point in the future. 3 - Speaking of casefeeders are you required to use a strong mount with one? I don't think you are but I don't want to mount my shelf and then have to move it when I get the casefeeder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aug1911 Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 No, you can mount directly to your bench and add casefeeder later. On mine it's 16 inches front to rear and 45 inches tall with strong mount. Just be sure it is mounted solid, casefeeders don't like a lot vibration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngeyes Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Station three is for seating. The die you have is a combo seating/crimp die. If you are using a separate crimp die you want to make sure the seating die is set to seat the bullet only. With the ram up and a case in place, screw in the die til it touches the case and back out 1/2 turn. Lock the die. Use the center stem to set the bullet depth. Station 4 is your crimping satation now. Forget that touching the shellplate stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Avoid seating and crimping in the same station for ultimate seating and crimp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Always set up dies with a case in every station. The shell plate will allow some movement - although very slight - and if the pressure isn't what it will be when loading all around there will be some difference between the set up and actually loading rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted July 28, 2014 Author Share Posted July 28, 2014 No, you can mount directly to your bench and add casefeeder later. On mine it's 16 inches front to rear and 45 inches tall with strong mount. Just be sure it is mounted solid, casefeeders don't like a lot vibration. Thank you. I plan to make the shelf very sturdy so that there will be as little movement as possible. Station three is for seating. The die you have is a combo seating/crimp die. If you are using a separate crimp die you want to make sure the seating die is set to seat the bullet only. With the ram up and a case in place, screw in the die til it touches the case and back out 1/2 turn. Lock the die. Use the center stem to set the bullet depth. Station 4 is your crimping satation now. Forget that touching the shellplate stuff. For once I was following directions . I did set it up as you described. Backed the die out and then adjusted seating depth. Station 4 has the factory crimp die in it. Avoid seating and crimping in the same station for ultimate seating and crimp. Now that I have a progressive that's what I'm doing. With my single stage press I did both in one operation to save pulls on the handle. Always set up dies with a case in every station. The shell plate will allow some movement - although very slight - and if the pressure isn't what it will be when loading all around there will be some difference between the set up and actually loading rounds. That's what I did. I had some clean 9mm brass and used that to set things up. I think my brother taught me that trick some time ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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