Rf100 Worth The Money?

[randy01]

Ok I want to buy a primertube filler, used a vibraprime from a friend it although it is easy you still have to shake the flip tray to get the primers anvil up. So the RF100 looked more interesting but is it worth its price (8X more)?

Do they work OK with Federal primers, both small and large? I don"t use anything else becouse my 625 doesn't go BANG with anything else .

[Loves2Shoot]

Yes.

[rick t]

I don't know about the Fed. primers. But I can tell you from thousands and thousands of loaded rounds loaded without using a flip tray or those stupid pickup tubes it is worth every penny! rick t

[shred]

+100. RF-100. The RF-100 is the bees-knees if you crank out a ton of ammo. If you never do more than a hundred or two at a time, it's not quite as useful.

Changing primer sizes requires tools and a little tuning however.

[Chris Keen]

I crank out a ton of ammo .......... seems logical I could use one.

But is it just a stand alone tube-filler ?

Someone once told me it mounts to the top of the press, and continually fills your press (like a case feeder)

[TopGun]

Sorry to say I have to give two thumbs down. Got one late last year and had nothing but problems. Dillon worked with me on it but never could get to run. I was using Winchester primers and would get 2 to 5 turned the wrong way out of 100 primers. When you’re loading on a Super 1050 you don’t want a primer turned the wrong way. I now own 20 small & large primer tubes now. They never fail!

[AGYoung]

Once you get it to work right it is speedy. The operative word is work right. Dillon sent me replacement parts that have to be adjusted just so to keep the primers feeding into the tube correctly. Unless you are loading 500 - 1000 at a sitting, and plan to do that 2 - 5 times a month the flip tray and primer tubes are the better way.

I get 1 out of 400 that are flipped anvil up when I'm done loading. When I used the flip tray and tubes, 0 out of 10000 were flipped wrong.

If I had it to do over, I wouldn't buy one again. Not unless it was $50 or so.

I'd buy more primer tubes and sit infront of the TV and load 'em up.

Search this forum as I've heard of another vibe primer filler that is dirt cheap from Midway.

Edited June 6, 2006 by AGYoung

[michaels]

yes they are worth the money if your loading session is at least 400 to 500 rounds long...

not really in the time saved, but in the convience factor of not having to stop the press to load tubes. now I know that some folks will buy 20 tubes and load them up while watching the news....that's great if you have that much time, for me, just fill the rf100 tray up and start reloading.

Some hints if you get one, put it in a plastic container, mine is a cheap plastic container that I got from Costco, it had cookies in it, nice cookies at that...

take the clear plastic top off the rf100 and store it somewhere not to get lost, use a small plastic tupperware like containter to pour the primers into, a couple of hundered at a time, (i do 300) and without the top on the rf100, just pour them into the tray area, takes about 5 seconds. Insert your tube and hit the button, if they jam up just before going down into the pickup tube, just push the tube up against the bottom of the rf100 and the vibration will usually clear the jam.

The cookie container is really important, sometimes you will spill primers and they just fall into the cookie container to be retrieved later...

I like mine, but it is a pain to swap back and forth between large and small primers.

michaels

[Larry White]

About the only Dillon product that just dosent get it done. Vibra Prime.------Larry

[benos]

After testing one of the first 8 prototypes, my "reloading life" was complete. Although it:

Does take a bit of fiddling

Is quite pricey

w/Small Primers - Once you dial it in, you may end up with 1 primer in 500 upside down

... I couldn't imagine living any longer without it.

be

[standles]

The franklin Arsenal Vibratory filler and extra dillon tubes.

It takes me about 15 mins to load 1000 primers in the tubes and then I am off to the races.

Much more economical than the Dillon Solution.

I load 500-1000 at a time 2 times a month.

I use wincherster primers and they come out of the tray perfect ready for thier vibrator.

[straightshooter1]

I make no bones about being an unabashed Dillon fan. I like their products, I like their people, I like their warranty, etc.

However, my Rf100 never worked "right" for me, even after I sent it back to Dillon. I sold it at a significant loss and purchased the Vibra-Doodle from Midway and found it to work and work quickly. As others have said on this and other, similar threads, the Vibra-Prime is the way to go.

Rf100-Only Dillon product that I was ever disappointed in.

Bob

[DougCarden]

Vibra prime~! I load 1000 primers at a time, then I load. When I stop at 100 to reload the primer system I check a powder throw and mike the rounds to make sure nothing has changed on the ole' 1050. This way all my rounds are "match grade" rounds. Believe me I would love to have a VibraPrime if it worked, but I would rather spend the money on components right now...Having just loaded over 20K this last three weeks......

DougC

[EricW]

I think the RF100 is at it's best when you have one per primer size. I have the very occasional upside down primer but there are ways to tune the clear plastic A/B plate to really cut down on the flipping issues.

If you go into it understanding the vibe bowls need tuning, you'll be OK. If you buy it thinking that it's going to be a self-adjusting device, you'll be disappointed in the results.

FWIW...

E

[benos]

I think the RF100 is at it's best when you have one per primer size. I have the very occasional upside down primer but there are ways to tune the clear plastic A/B plate to really cut down on the flipping issues.

If you go into it understanding the vibe bowls need tuning, you'll be OK. If you buy it thinking that it's going to be a self-adjusting device, you'll be disappointed in the results.

FWIW...

E

That's pretty much what I tell customer's on the phone. First of all I never recommend or even endorse it until you're loading on a 650 or a 1050, for a while. Then, if you've got some cash to burn, AND, you're mechanically inclined (you can look at things and figure out how to tweak them to work better) - it's pretty cool. But, and I always say - it's not a plug-and-play device! (But I've only had one returned in all that I've sold.)

Once you dial it in, and especially if you're going to leave it set in one size - there is really nothing to compare it to. Because the time it takes to fill a tube is the time it takes to open the box of primers.

be

[johnespos]

I think it makes reloading much easier. You do have to tune it, but I think it was one of my better buys for reloading. I just could not stand filling primer tubes. It broke up the flow of reloading for me.

[mobocracy]

I'm surprised so many of you like the Frankford Vibraprime. If you read the reviews on Midway, it's about half the people giving it 1 star and half giving it 4/5 stars. I bought one on a lark because filling primer tubes was cutting into my loading efficiency, but I was pretty disappointed when I got it.

In terms of fit and finish, mine echoed many of the other reviewers. Mine had glue ooze, the two halves of the handle weren't even even mated properly, and the trigger was glued frozen, too. The small pistol opening in the tray (which I never used) wouldn't have been usable without some kind of reaming and chamfering.

In actual operation, it worked "OK" with Winchester primers, but I had to use such a specific technique that it was only nominally faster than me with a Dillon pickup tube, and slower if a primer got flipped and I had to start over. Mine has been unusable with Federal primers, I get flipped ones 100% of the time.

I just ended up buying 4 more pickup tubes and fill them manually. It's slower, but it's also much less headache. I still have to stop after 500 rounds and load them again, but after 500 rounds I need a soda and to walk around for a minute anyway.

[JFD]

The VibraPrime takes a technique that you either "get" or you don't. Small primers are almost foolproof on mine, but large primers require the "technique" or it's quicker to use the pick-up tubes. No big deal at all, but don't plan on watching TV while doing it unless you have a "super technique".

I have 15 tubes for small and large primers for my 650, so usually I just fill the ones I've used at the end of a session. Rarely do I load more than 1500 a day.

Anytime I consider the RF100, I end up thinking "I could buy 4000 bullets for that price".

[straightshooter1]

I guess I missed this "technique" for the VibraPrime. I just dump the primers in the bottom half of the tray, shake them till they are all same side up, put the top on, stick it in the handle, put a Dillon pick-up tube beneath the tray in the hole provided and pull the trigger holding the whole thing slightly tilted to the right so the primers slide into the hole in the tray, and down into the tube. Sometimes I just stick the bottom of the Dillon pick-up tube in the top of the primer chute on my 550 and let them fill directly.

Takes just a few seconds. I use mostly Federal or CCI large rifle match primers. I also use Federal or CCI small rifle primers.

Never a problem-if I just stumbled on the "technique", I think this is how the VibraPrime was designed to work. Only "modification" I make is using Dillon's pick-up tubes rather than the ones that come with the VibraPrime.

This is really easy and really fast.

Bob

Edited June 20, 2006 by straightshooter1

[mobocracy]

My gripe about the "technique" wasn't that I didn't get it to work (with WLP primers), but it wasn't that miraculously fast and effortless, at least the way I assumed it would be (and the way a 'tuned' RF100 must be...)

I guess it worked well enough that I was willing to waste 200 rounds of loading time (on an SDB!) trying to get it to work with Fedral 150s, which I never got right -- always a flipped primer within the first 20.

My other gripe was that the Vibraprime feed ends don't hold the primers in the way the Dillon pickup tubes do. You can set a full Dillon tube down horizontally and the primers won't come out (probably upside down even, too). The Vibraprime tubes would more easily spill if not kept vertical with the cotter pin end down.

For some idiotic reason it never dawned on me until after I bought the Vibraprime that I'd get most of the same benefit of "keeping going" loading if I just had extra filled Dillon tubes, even if there was extra time involved up front in loading them. It was the stopping loading, loading a primer tube and restarting that killed my pace. Now that I own a 650 instead of the SDB, I think I'll need another set of tubes filled as well as it looks like I will turning out ammo much faster.

I think the Vibraprime unit would probably work better if it had a little better quality control and some tighter tolerances on its plastic molding. It's not that it's a bad idea, it's just done kind of sloppy.

Edited June 20, 2006 by mobocracy

[EricW]

The RF-100 and large primers is a total slam dunk. Pay more. Get more.

[JFD]

I actually use the vibraprime adapters for the tubes. Did some chamfering to them when I first got them because it looked like it would help. Never had a flipped primer, large or small. My problems come from primers that don't want to drop down the tube because they're out of spec.

The last time I filled all tubes it took me 37 minutes to get 3000 primers in the tubes. Not bad and works for me. I didn't have to deal with a shoddy vibraprime either. I lucked up and got a good one that didn't require filing, sanding, or trimming.

My "technique" comment came from that mention of the Midway reviews. I've come to the conclusion that very few men have any mechanical ability anymore. From what I've been seeing this year at work, I am almost ready to believe that 90% of men can't change a light bulb without a step-by-step manual and they'd still do it wrong.

mobocracy: You better get the RF100 or a lot more tubes. I just switched from SDBs to a 650 and you WILL most definitely be spitting out ammo like never before

EricW's comment on large primers and the RF100 does tempt me though.....But only if I continue to fail at separating my wife from my/her Kimber .45 she's using for L-10. I'll likely have to give her my Para to be able to stop loading .45s.

[straightshooter1]

OK-I read the Midway reviews so now I understand what you meant by technique, guys. I was somewhat surprised at a few of the reviews talking about the quality-mine was perfect when I got it in '03. I'd be ticked at any product if it didn't work or was put together poorly.

I am kind of mechanically challenged. I can handle the light bulb and know my way around the 550, but the Dillon RF100 just never worked for me. I load both ways-fill primer tubes in advance when I plan to load a bunch and, other times I do a 100 rounds, take a few seconds and refill with a 100 more primers. I do the latter more often when loading rifle. I like to go a little slower with the bigger cases like 30'06 up to 45-70. But, either way, it is faster than the pickup tubes.

Bob

[mobocracy]

My "technique" comment came from that mention of the Midway reviews. I've come to the conclusion that very few men have any mechanical ability anymore. From what I've been seeing this year at work, I am almost ready to believe that 90% of men can't change a light bulb without a step-by-step manual and they'd still do it wrong.

I was musing on this very idea today. It seems like a lot of serious shooters (which excludes most of the droolers just emptying 100-packs through Glocks and making patterns worse than my shotgun at 25 yards with a skeet tube and #9 shot..) have mechancial-type jobs where they have to think and figure out a machine, even if its just a logical electronic machine.

As our society shoves all those kinds of jobs overseas, all we have left are do-nothing office workers who don't just lack mechnical ability, they look down on it as something they pay dirty people they don't respect to do.

Unfortunately I don't think this bodes well for the future of reloading.

mobocracy: You better get the RF100 or a lot more tubes. I just switched from SDBs to a 650 and you WILL most definitely be spitting out ammo like never before

I ain't spitting out anything until Midway ships me the .32 ACP seater plug that doesn't mangle my Gold Dots. Using someone else's dies makes appreciate the Dillon dies a lot more.

[shooterbenedetto]

it is very worth the money..you wont regret it. once you go Rf100 you'll

never go back! (to picking up primers) BE is 100% correct. i cant leave without it.