550b die & turret alignment

[czmon]

Fairly new to dillon 550b reloading, but being a retired machinist and used to working to close tolerances, I have a hard time accepting the less than accurate die to turret alignment. Is this the standard you need to accept for 'production' reloading presses??

[Sarge]

Loosen all dies then run a full shell plate up into them, then tighten. That will be about as good as it gets. I think a certain amount of slop is built in so the machines feed cases into the dies at progressive press speeds

[chuckstur]

CZMON: I made inserts from 7/8-14 threaded rod to go in all four stations. They had holes for pins made from drill rod. The pins floated so you could watch the alignment change as the ram was raised. This served to show both me and Dillon that the casting was twisted, or the linkage drilling misaligned, since you could only like up one at a time with the shell plate. Probably 100,000 rounds through it, Dillon owed me nothing but they replaced it. Great company.

C

[Youngeyes]

It's normal for a progressive press. There is a company that makes a tool head that you can lock in place with a screw in place of the pins. Remember that you set your dies with all stations full. The play allows wiggle room to help center the brass. With out that room, if the brass is not perfectly centered on the shell plate,the brass will get crushed..They all lock in place on the up stroke after the brass is started in the dies. FYI.. the tolerances are different for each Dillon press. You can't take an already set tool head with dies and run it on another Dillon press without resetting the dies. Don't ask me how I know.

[czmon]

The circumstances for me---I bought a slightly used 550b on armslist--all signs point to the light use, however, numerous calibers were setup and most not even used--my belief now is that the former owner tried to do some rifle reloading since I had --308, 3006,44mag, 357mag, & one or two other die plates and powder tube sets. His results might have been less than ideal, and he sold out. ---I did make ( slide fit ) locater pins for the die plate and the results were much worse. Guess I am not accustomed to such liberal tolerances just to make a 'machine ' function properly. Dillon dies also promote the large chamfer on the sizing die for easier feed. Bet that was an after thought--fix!

[Graham Smith]

Dillon dies also promote the large chamfer on the sizing die for easier feed. Bet that was an after thought--fix!

The toolhead doesn't exactly float, but there is a bit of latitude in it. However, I don't use Dillon dies and have no trouble with the case lining up correctly with the sizing die. Except on rare occasions where I haven't pushed it into place exactly right.

[pmt]

I think you need to forget that you're a retired machinist. Dillon presses are hobby machines, not precision equipment. OAL on finished rounds can vary by +/- .002" Powder dumps are accurate to within +/- 0.1gr. Just look at the number of threads about machine tweaks, or how to improve or troubleshoot primer feeding.

Liberal tolerances allow these things to run endlessly with minimal mtce. They do run properly.

[ES13Raven]

Fairly new to dillon 550b reloading, but being a retired machinist and used to working to close tolerances, I have a hard time accepting the less than accurate die to turret alignment. Is this the standard you need to accept for 'production' reloading presses??

My 550b came misaligned from the factory. With Dillon dies it might not have been as noticeable, but I use Lee dies which size down a little farther and have a tighter radius. I had to get an alignment tool from Dillon to correct this issue:

[czmon]

Just as the brief u-tube video showed-- was my same problem. I just fixed it yesterday by loosening the ram mount plate (I call it that) and moving radially with the clearance in the two countersunk hold-down screws--enough to realign all the stations. Next, realigning the primer slide was very necessary. Finally there. Thanks for your input.