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550B confusion
- Thread starter crazymjb
- Start date
Well I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on a 550b tonight.
What I plan on ordering:
1. 550b with .223 conversion kit
2. 40S&W shell plate with pins for .40 and 9mm
3. 38+357 shell plate (uses the same pins as the 40 I guess)
4. 3 extra tool heads
With a mil discount I am looking at about 550 for all this shipped. How does that sound? I currently only have dies for .40, .38, .223, and 30-06 (going to continue to use the single stage for). The reason I am not getting the powder dies for the other rounds is that I want to continue to use my lee auto-disk for handgun rounds because it works awesome, and I can just leave it topped off with unique, and I want to set up the dillon powder measure with the WC844 I have. Is there anything I'm forgetting, or anything I should absolutely throw on the order?
Mike
What I plan on ordering:
1. 550b with .223 conversion kit
2. 40S&W shell plate with pins for .40 and 9mm
3. 38+357 shell plate (uses the same pins as the 40 I guess)
4. 3 extra tool heads
With a mil discount I am looking at about 550 for all this shipped. How does that sound? I currently only have dies for .40, .38, .223, and 30-06 (going to continue to use the single stage for). The reason I am not getting the powder dies for the other rounds is that I want to continue to use my lee auto-disk for handgun rounds because it works awesome, and I can just leave it topped off with unique, and I want to set up the dillon powder measure with the WC844 I have. Is there anything I'm forgetting, or anything I should absolutely throw on the order?
Mike
I've got all the dies I need for now based off what I shoot. I have an agreement with some friends that if they buy the dies and raw materials for whatever calibers they want, I'll "work off" the first XX rounds (in exchange for the dies).
So should I be getting one extra primer pick-up tube, 4, 10? How many primers does each one hold?
Thanks,
Mike
So should I be getting one extra primer pick-up tube, 4, 10? How many primers does each one hold?
Thanks,
Mike
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Each one holds about 100 primers. Once you get into a good rhythm you'll burn through those faster than you might think, and stopping to refill a primer tube is annoying. I ordered a 3-pack of large and a 3-pack of small and that seems to be enough for me.
What are you doing for case a head expander if you're not using the Dillon measure with the powder through expander thing?
EDIT: The toolhead stands are nice to have but not really necessary.
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I've never heard of someone using a Lee powder drop on a Dillon, but I'm sure you can make it work.
The primer tubes hold 100 each. Decide how many you want to load before you want to take a break. I have 7 tubes, I fill the machine first then have 7 spares, so I do 800 rounds in a sitting.
The primer tubes hold 100 each. Decide how many you want to load before you want to take a break. I have 7 tubes, I fill the machine first then have 7 spares, so I do 800 rounds in a sitting.
I have lee carbide pistol dies. I can't see why they wouldn't work. I am just going to use my flare/powder drop die as I do do on the single stage with the auto-disk. I don't have any brand loyalty, but I can't say anything bad about any of the mainly Lee stuff I started out with. I also have the deluxe rifle sets. I am thinking of just forgoing the neck sizing die (I guess you can either use one or the other, I had been doing both). I also figured the average the case seems to grow about 5 thousandths of an inch after sizing, so I am going to set my trimmer 5 thousandths smaller than I want the cases before running them through.
I MAY need the adapter to raise the autodisk a little higher if I have issues with it interfering with the other dies. I see NO reason why it wouldn't work.
Mike
I MAY need the adapter to raise the autodisk a little higher if I have issues with it interfering with the other dies. I see NO reason why it wouldn't work.
Mike
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Yeah, as long as you're expanding the case necks before the seating stage you should be fine. When I had a 550 I sized in stage 1, dropped powder and expanded the necks in stage 2, seated in stage 3 and crimped in stage 4. These days I have a Lock and Load so I have an extra stage for a powder check die between powder and seating.
No brand loyalty here either. I used to use a Hornady measure on my 550, now I use a L-n-L with a ton of Dillon parts on it (dies, powder check, primer sensor.) Use what works.
Now I guess I'm just waiting for the new toy. Hopefully it shows up this week. I figured best to just bite the bullet and pull the trigger on this thing rather than keep burning my time.
Mike
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Mike
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I'm not talking about getting into it as a business, I have some friends who help me out with it now, I said if they want to buy the stuff for their calibers and sit in on it with me, they are welcome to... I'm not just going to sell reloads to acquaintances, I don't want to deal with that.
How do you determine a primer feed problem, you just have un-primed rounds coming out?
Mike
How do you determine a primer feed problem, you just have un-primed rounds coming out?
Mike
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crazymjb said:
On a 550 usually the primer bar starts to stick and it stops picking up new primers. I never had many problems with mine - I just kept it clean and occasionally used some light lithium grease to keep it slick. Usually if it was sticking it was because it was dirty.
Is the primer bar that reciprocating bar I keep seeing in the videos underneath the tube?
On a separate note, I did some googling and it seems I should be all set using my lee powder measure for the pistol rounds.
Mike
On a separate note, I did some googling and it seems I should be all set using my lee powder measure for the pistol rounds.
Mike
Because I already have charges figured out on the Lee and I can keep the lee loaded with unique and use my WC844 on the dillon. One less thing to have to change over. I don't have a single bad thing to say about the Lee either. What makes the dillon superior if the lee dumps consistent charges and has run perfectly?
Mike
Mike
My Dillon will throw within .1 of a grain with all the powders I use for reloading. And since it's designed to work with the 550/650 presses there's no need to jury rig something to work.
Thats cool, and so will my auto disk. And I'm not jerry-rigging anything, it just sits on top of my powder through expanding die. Do you work for dillon? You sound like the rep who told me I can use my dies but they wont be as good as theirs. I don't see how dies could work any better. Same with the powder measure... I've probably thrown thousands of charges by now and its never had a problem, its also wicked easy to get back to a previous loading. Did I mention this way I can keep my dillon measure full of the powder for .223 and keep the other measure loaded with unique?
Mike
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I don't work for Dillon, but have heard and know people that have nothing but grief trying to get Lee powder measures to dispense powder with a reasonable consistency. In the 40+ years I've been reloading I've had one Lee product and that was the basic Lee Loader that used a mallet/hammer to resize and prime cases. Of the equipment I have now it's either RCBS,Redding or Dillon.
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To be fair, Dillon dies (especially sizing dies) do work REALLY well in progressive presses. They have a huge lead-in to help guide the cases into the die body, and you can remove the seaters for cleaning without taking the body itself off of the toolhead. For pistol calibers I use Dillon dies on my Hornady L-N-L. (I like Forester for the rifle stuff because they seem to be a bit more consistent.)
I'm not a huge fan of the Dillon powder measures. They work OK will ball powders but I had a hard time with stick powders. (I use Reloader-15 in my .223 stuff and it would bridge like crazy.) When I had a 550 I used a Hornady measure for rifle stuff.
There are tons of different brands and combos that you can put together. I've had blue presses with red parts and red presses with blue parts. I say use the best of everything, load lots of ammo, and go shooting.
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Bob J
NES Member
That's interesting..... Did you mount the Hornady on or off the press? I am loading H1000 in the 338 and it's a pain to get to meter well on my dillon..... If on the press were there any issues that I should be aware of with setup or use if I go with the Hornady?
