DAA primer pro collator

[mmahoney]

I was really looking forward to this product because the alternatives from primer collators have been a royal PITA for me (including the rf100 which jams for me all the time and typically has > 1 flipped primers per hundred). I received the DAA Primer Pro unit a couple of weeks ago but didn't get around to using it until recently. I have to admit that I was disappointed when it didn't work very well out of the box. I had flipped primers, primers were getting stuck on the ramp ,etc. I was prepared to send the thing back for a refund.However,...

 

I went searching online and found this thread in the forum and I'm glad that I did. I can now load my primer tube without any flipped primers and without having to watch the unit.This is a huge time saver for me (even if it takes up to a few minutes to load a tube since it takes me more than a few minutes to make 100 rounds on my autodrive press). So far I have processed more than 6000 new primers (both cci and federal primers with 0 flipped primers).

 

My recommendation: follow the suggestions found in this thread and it will work fine.

1. make sure you have 200-400 primers in the bowl at all times

2. polish the ramp and disk channels with pledge. you will probably have to polish again after 1500 primers or so but after the second application the polish seems to last longer

3. if you want it to fill the tube faster then shim the plates as suggested (or just backing out the screws a bit might help too).

 

All in all, I have gone from being extremely frustrated to being a happy customer with only 15 minutes of effort.

[OneEyedSam]

Instead of Pledge can you use Carnuba car wax?

[doublealpha]

Guys,

 

For those experiencing slower than desired output rates with primers like the Winchester or some Eastern European brands, indeed polishing/cleaning the ramp and collator with Pledge, or another plastic cleaner or dry lube does work very well.

 

however – I’d like to make another suggestion that I found worked great for me with very tacky Winchester primers we are testing with now: Without cleaning or lubing the Primer-Pro parts, I sprayed some Silicone spray into a cardboard box, and then shook the primers around in the box for a few seconds before placing them into the Primer Pro. This was hugely affective. I went from an output pace that looked like it would take 5 minutes, to a good rate of about 90 seconds… and I don’t think I would need to clean the Primer Pro at all.

 

You can use a flat cardboard box, spray the silicon into it until the cardboard is a little saturated, and then shake even 1000 primers or more at once in the box, lightly coating them with some silicone. Then feed them into the primer pro as needed. It takes just a couple of seconds, and seem to really solve that tackiness issue many have been facing with some primer types.

I expect it will also improve the way these primers feed through the reloading press’s primer mechanism and cut down on primer seating issues too.

I will try to upload a video shortly.

 

Have a good weekend all,

Saul

[RePete]

A big concern there would be primer degradation.

 

The ammo once loaded and NOT fired but stored for a month or so, may or may not fire.

[Intheshaw1]

Anyone ever try using something like Glidecote?

 

It's a spray on and wipe off protectant/coating for table saws and woodworking machines to reduce resistance of wood sliding over a table saw top as well as protecting the top from rust.

 

 

 

 

[ltdmstr]

4 hours ago, RePete said:

A big concern there would be primer degradation.

 

The ammo once loaded and NOT fired but stored for a month or so, may or may not fire.

 

What?

[chevrofreak]

I would have to see proof that the primers aren't being damaged before I took such a risky step. 

[Stymie12000]

1 hour ago, chevrofreak said:

I would have to see proof that the primers aren't being damaged before I took such a risky step. 

+1

[jcwallace84]

Fascinating.  We lube brass.  Some people lube bullets.  Now to lube primers?  Doing it in the manner described (not spraying primers directly) shouldn't get much if any "lube" inside the primer compound I would think.  And who's to say that the primer manufacturers don't also lube the metal cups at some point?  It seems like this sort of thing would help primers move along their journey through a progressive press and into the case.  I'm interested to see how this method develops.  

[doublealpha]

Indeed, very little silicone gets onto the primers in this manner. It seems just enough to overcome the tackiness of the “production lube” that is already on some primers.

the nice things is that it foregoes the need to clean the unit or take it apart. The primers themselves run some silicone into the tracks as they go through.

 

I shot 500 rounds this weekend which were loaded this way, and all the primers went BANG as expected. I don’t think there is any issue at all. I’d like to hear what other’s find after giving this a try. I think it works great!

Saul

[RePete]

Not surprised about that Saul, but the main concern is after storage for a month or more.

[DD78]

Quick update on my primer pro.  

 

I've run 2300 primers through mine so far.  

 

At around the 1500-1600 mark, I noticed that they began going down the ramp more slowly.  

 

At the 1800 primer mark, they began reaching the hammer mechanism and stopped until another primer came down the ramp to push it past the hammer/arm mechanism to be pushed into the pickup tube.  

 

I did have a couple of primers kind of get jammed in the disk, but it wasn't so much that they jammed because when I looked at them in the disk, they were sort of canted on an angle and after tapping they went back into the bowl and fed.  

 

I haven't had very many issues running the last 100 primers out of the bowl and onto the ramp.  It obviously takes a long time, but not very surprising given the lack of primers being knocked around by other primers.  

 

The one thing that has surprised me due to the number of reports in this thread, is that I didn't have a single primer reach the ramp upside down.  Perhaps my unit was set up properly, with the screws attaching the V1 plate to the bowl being properly tensioned, but zero upside down primers.  

 

I think it's getting close to the time where I need to, at the very least, clean up the ramp with some rubbing alcohol.  I may pick up some silicone spray and lightly lube the ramp, but aside from that, I'll keep running primers through this thing and continue testing it.  

 

For reference, the only primers I'm using are CCI 500's.  

 

For one additional data point, the surface I have the primer pro on is perfectly level.  I'd recommend that everyone throw a level on the surface of where you have the primer pro situated and make sure it's level front to back and left to right.  While I don't know if this would even affect how the primer pro works, it's worth checking.....if nothing else, you're eliminating a single variable.  

 

I don't have a whole lot of free time so the most I can do on my 650 is about 500 rounds in a session, and sometimes 1000 rounds on a weekend if I have time and the desire to spend time loading an extra 500 rounds.  I did 1K yesterday, and just did 500 today.  I think I have another 3K pistol to load, and I'll be switching to 223 so I'll see if there's any change going to small rifle CCI's.  

 

 

[doublealpha]

as promised, here is the video showing the treatment I did to the Tacky primers to get them to feed well through the Primer Pro:

 

 

Saul

[Cliveb]

Until now I've been running magtech - after giving the "pledge treatment" to the machine, it fills up a tube very quickly...but Magtech have run out.
Next I'll be trying Fiocchi (which apparently have no issues) and Winchester - in the case of the latter, I'll give this treatment a try - my loaded rounds never last more than 1 month in stock anyway.
Will report back in due course.

[Rich406]

So I went through and loaded 2500 rounds of  winchester spp yesterday. Previously I had to stop and clean the PP every 1500ish rounds. I tried lubing the primers lightly with silicon spray as suggested by Saul. I made it though the entire 2500 without having to clean anything. The speed of the PP was still on the slow side, but it kept up with my press at 2000 RPH on every tube but 1. I don't recall seeing any upside down primers.

 

I'm going to load another 2500 later today without cleaning and see how it goes.

[CHA-LEE]

Potentially contaminating the priming compound within the primers with silicone spray to make a auto primer filler gadget work doesn't sound like a viable long term solution.

[Bmans45]

Seems like to me for 200 bucks and so much trouble I can save myself a lot of worry about working ammo with by sticking to my flip tray and 10 tubes to fill.  Really you could load a lot of tubes while you are working on this thing and who knows if in 6 months your ammo is going to be contaminated . Sorry but I really wanted one but will have to pass . 

[kineteks]

Saul, is the expected availability date of mid-February for the next production run still looking good?

[jcwallace84]

I was initially going to get one but decided to wait. I may have to get one eventually.  But the silicone idea doesn't worry me too much.  Silicone is quite inert, right?  Whatever they use to lube primers in the factory probably wouldn't be any less reactive I would think.  Once the propellant evaporates there probably isn't much reactive stuff in these silicone spray lubes.  But 6 months to a year is all I'd store my reloads for.  If I want to stash away ammo I just typically keep it factory.

[hurley326]

Mine worked fine out of the box but seemed to slow down significantly after using 500 CCI primers. I then scratched the output chute as described in the one video and put a little pledge on it with a Q tip and it’s ran smoothly for about 1,000 additional CCI and 1,500 Federal.

I’d be hesitant to the use silicon spray method when the pledge method works and is way easier. I think the silicon method may be more so if your experiencing build up in the collator itself more so than just the output chute, but even then I would consider just spraying the collator with the silicon or running doe pledge on that before applying to the primers themselves.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[doublealpha]

22 hours ago, CHA-LEE said:

Potentially contaminating the priming compound within the primers....

I’m not sure why anyone would assume this tiny amount of silicon could contaminate the priming compound?! This is unfounded. We all use case lube in much larger amounts, and don’t worry about that at all, since it is not an issue. Lubed cases loaded years ago function just fine. I know many reloaders that use silicon to lube cases too.
I am not proposing we submerge the primers in silicon, although I don’t know if even that would stop them from going off. But certainly the technique that I showed, rolling them around in a cardboard box which has some silicon on it would not contaminate them, IMHO. And it does make a world of difference to function with sticky primers, as some here have already tested and attest to.

Give it a try!

Saul

[doublealpha]

15 hours ago, kineteks said:

Saul, is the expected availability date of mid-February for the next production run still looking good?

We are starting assembly work on the next run now, and will commence shipping again in Europe around 3rd week of Feb.

stock will be sent to the USA later in February, probably last week of the month.

thanks

saul

[doublealpha]

21 hours ago, Bmans45 said:

Seems like to me for 200 bucks and so much trouble I can save myself a lot of worry about working ammo with by sticking to my flip tray and 10 tubes to fill.  Really you could load a lot of tubes while you are working on this thing and who knows if in 6 months your ammo is going to be contaminated . Sorry but I really wanted one but will have to pass . 

I fully understand.

I have learnt long ago that you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

Not every product can be right for everyone.

Saul

[RePete]

9 minutes ago, doublealpha said:

I’m not sure why anyone would assume this tiny amount of silicon could contaminate the priming compound?! This is unfounded. We all use case lube in much larger amounts, and don’t worry about that at all, since it is not an issue. Lubed cases loaded years ago function just fine. I know many reloaders that use silicon to lube cases too.
I am not proposing we submerge the primers in silicon, although I don’t know if even that would stop them from going off. But certainly the technique that I showed, rolling them around in a cardboard box which has some silicon on it would not contaminate them, IMHO. And it does make a world of difference to function with sticky primers, as some here have already tested and attest to.

 

Give it a try!

 

Saul

 

 

.Since I'm the one that initiated the possibility of contamination, how do you know that it's unfounded, you haven't tested longer term storage and use, only immediate.

 

I wish you luck with the product.

Edited February 5, 2020 by RePete

[doublealpha]

1 hour ago, RePete said:

 

.Since I'm the one that initiated the possibility of contamination, how do you know that it's unfounded, you haven't tested longer term storage and use, only immediate.

 

I wish you luck with the product.

Because silicon spray has been used on brass for years during reloading (and other lubes), and I have never heard of a situation of “primer contamination” that prevents primers from functioning.

it is unfounded, because no evidence has been presented to support it is even a theoretical real issue. Have you ever heard of a case in which a primer failed to work because it was treated in the way I proposed? I have not.