Setting Up My 550

[Guest qstick]

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of setting up my new 550 (damn work, gets in the way of everything) and had a few questions.

Is the tube that holds and feeds the primers supposed to be tilted a bit to the left? It seems to be functioning well (I've only made it through the powder station die so far though), but I can;t decide if i fastened it slightly crooked, or that is just the way it rests.

On the fail safe powder rod, how tight do you install the wingnut? No matter how tightly I install it, the brass pcs. that the rod go though seem to operate a little "roughly". Is that just the design of the rod? I currently have it set to compress the spring approximately 1/4 of the way.

Finally, the rod that the wingnut goes through has the be tilted....I hope

I am sure I will have a few more idiotic questions, but I must say that Dillon;s sevice has been outstanding so far. I was just thinking about this while at the office and decided to throw it out here. As always, this site continues to be a great source of all types of information.

Zach

[chp5]

Is the tube that holds and feeds the primers supposed to be tilted a bit to the left? It seems to be functioning well

There's a notch in the internal tube that fits in a slit in the external tube. If that's in place and functioning well, then leave it alone.

I don't use the fail safe powder rod (I just look at the powder level), but if it functions when the powder gets low, then it's fine. Test it for yourself.

[Nik Habicht]

Yes, If you've got the new style powder measure the operation is decidedly clunky! Somebody here (EricW, maybe) had a fix that was supposed to restore it to be more similar to the old style powder measure. The contention is that Dillon improved on the design to reduce potential liability.

[CSEMARTIN]

The primer tube should be straight up and down. It may appear a little crooked until you tighten down the knurled knob. That will line everything up.

When I'm setting up the powder station, I'll cycle the machine and turn the powder funnel assembly until the fail safe rod is lined up sufficiently enough so everything cycles smoothly. Yes, there will be some tilt to the fail safe rod- it will not line up straight.

As far as the wing nut on the fail safe rod goes, I tighten it enough so that when you are seating a primer, the powder bar cycles all the way to the left. It sounds as though you have tightened the wing nut enough, and as long as the powder bar cycles all the way to the left after you've seated a primer, you should be fine!

[Bronson7]

I modified my new clunky powder drop to operate as smoothly as my old 550. I cut off the the extra leg on the bellcrank and addd two springs to the powder bar.

Bronson7