I Drank the Blue Kool-aid and it is sooooo goooood

[TXGunNut]

Just got into a new cartridge and decided to load it on my very early 550. I like to think of myself as a Dillon beta tester since as soon as I ran into a problem they had just run into it themselves. I don't recall the comp shooter they sponsored but I am glad he got their bugs worked out. Thanks to his efforts and Dillon's peerless customer service I never missed a match due to loader issues; I was shooting 2-3 matches per month plus practice.
My new cartridge is the 380. Got new Dillon dies & shellplate and had it up and running in about an hour. Auto prime mechanism changeover was a bit troublesome and I got brain gas adjusting the powder measure so it took me awhile to get everything just right. Been awhile! My 550 went into retirement for over ten years and came out a couple of years ago when I couldn't stand the price of factory ammo any more. Pulled the cover off and it was set up for 45acp so away I went. Today it took a little over 20 minutes to load 100 rds. Those little 380's are a bit small for my clumsy fingers.

[GLShooter]

I feel like the Blue is the way to go. I got a NEW 550 and the big Dillon tumbler for $100 plus another $800 worth of components, ammunition and change over set ups. I took it in to Dillon and they swapped in a newer powder bar and a couple other little things like the safety rod on the powder measure .

I found out old does good with new. I used my original Dillon 300 that I got in 1982 and loaded a ton of 458 SOCOM on it last month. I used a 30 Carbine powder funnel as I don't have the die to hold that huge expander funnel used on the 458.

Greg

[shoot-n-lead]

Don't you let the Lee guy's hear you....

How dare you tell the truth about that BLUE press...you are just a HATER...

But, I know what you're talking about...NEVER go back...

[Budzilla 19]

Must...... Have..... More...... Blue Press! I have 1 550B, 2 SDB's, and am saving for another 550B,so, yeah, I'm hooked! Lol just love these presses, never had one fail yet, and that big blue vibratory polisher is the cats meow! I guess if it ever wears out, I'll probably have to get another one.their lifetime no bs warranty policy can't be beaten. Just my .02 cents. Haha too bad cars aren't this dependable!!

[kryogen]

Im buying a 650 this weekend.

[shotstring]

There can be a downside if you enjoy reloading ammunition. I bought a 1050 twenty years ago for doing 45 long colt as I had several lever guns and many single actions in that caliber. Set it up, loaded a bunch of primer tubes and went at it at the rate of 1200 to 1300 rounds an hour. I loaded so many rounds in one day that I haven't needed to use that press in 20 years. Still have several hundred rounds left from that day. The press sits in my storage shed. I load everything else on my 550 or single stage RCBS. 1050 is just too darn efficient to even use.

[USMC87]

I was a turret press user then moved to a load master and that was a disaster from start to finish. I bought a 550b and have never looked back, I have to agree with ease of use and the excellent customer service.

[hunter64]

The weakest link on the 550b is the priming system or morecorrectly the primer track bearing 14015 is designed wrong. They will not admitthat it is a poor design but one that can be easily fixed. I have two 550bmachines and they would work great until that track bearing starts to wear and itgets grooves in it. I talked to Dillon help about 15 years ago about theproblem and the guy on the phone acted like I was the first person in historyto ever have this problem. I was at our monthly gun club meeting and asked ifanyone else had primer issues on their 550's and I had 4 people put their handsup that had the exact same problem. So fast forward 15 years to last week andfor fun I called them and asked for a new track bearing because one of mymachines was doing the old Dillon missed primer jig dance again. I designed thebearing the way it should have been all those years ago but I just wanted tosee if anything at changed since then and nope the same old denial of facts wasgiven.

If you haven't run into the problem yet you will and it willdrive you nuts until you change that bearing or better yet make a proper one.You will notice that you will start to get missed primers in your cases. Youwatch as you pull the handle down and the primer slide moves back to get afresh primer it works correctly and primes as it is supposed to. Then once in awhile it will move back as normal and then all of a sudden notice that it stopsabout 1/4" from picking up the primer and just sits there. If you help itor just touch it the slide will move back and pick up a primer as normal. Youfigure that the primer slide is dirty and you take it all apart and cleaneverything and put it back together and get about 40 more rounds out of it andthen it starts doing it again. You pull it apart again and check for roughedges on the slide and get out the 400 grit sand paper and shin it up. You evenpolish the inside housing for good measure and reinstall everything and itlasts another 30-40 rounds and then the same thing happens, missed primers.Well you think the only thing left is to give a bit more pressure on the slideso you bend the operating rod just slightly to give more pressure. This willusually work good for about 100 rounds and then again it starts to miss primersonce in a while. If you look at that track bearing you will notice that thereis two slight wear marks on it where the slide is catching and binding up, youchange the bearing and you are good for another 5 years or so depending on yourvolume. If you make a longer bearing the way it should have been designed thenyou solve the problem. There is a good YouTube video on the problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI7HpdHvlco where he describes the problem andthe cure. I basically made the same thing that he did in 2000 after hours ofpulling my hair out trying to get the primer to not miss feed. Some guy on eBayis also selling his version with a ball bearing to help guide it better, it isa good idea and might add that to mine but it has worked fine for 15 years andthousands of rounds so I am not sure it is necessary.

If Dillon would just admit the problem and start sendingmachines with the correct bearing design it would make life a lot easier.

[AllanD]

The weakest link on the 550b is the priming system or morecorrectly the primer track bearing 14015 is designed wrong. They will not admitthat it is a poor design but one that can be easily fixed. I have two 550bmachines and they would work great until that track bearing starts to wear and itgets grooves in it. I talked to Dillon help about 15 years ago about theproblem and the guy on the phone acted like I was the first person in historyto ever have this problem. I was at our monthly gun club meeting and asked ifanyone else had primer issues on their 550's and I had 4 people put their handsup that had the exact same problem. So fast forward 15 years to last week andfor fun I called them and asked for a new track bearing because one of mymachines was doing the old Dillon missed primer jig dance again. I designed thebearing the way it should have been all those years ago but I just wanted tosee if anything at changed since then and nope the same old denial of facts wasgiven.

If you haven't run into the problem yet you will and it willdrive you nuts until you change that bearing or better yet make a proper one.You will notice that you will start to get missed primers in your cases. Youwatch as you pull the handle down and the primer slide moves back to get afresh primer it works correctly and primes as it is supposed to. Then once in awhile it will move back as normal and then all of a sudden notice that it stopsabout 1/4" from picking up the primer and just sits there. If you help itor just touch it the slide will move back and pick up a primer as normal. Youfigure that the primer slide is dirty and you take it all apart and cleaneverything and put it back together and get about 40 more rounds out of it andthen it starts doing it again. You pull it apart again and check for roughedges on the slide and get out the 400 grit sand paper and shin it up. You evenpolish the inside housing for good measure and reinstall everything and itlasts another 30-40 rounds and then the same thing happens, missed primers.Well you think the only thing left is to give a bit more pressure on the slideso you bend the operating rod just slightly to give more pressure. This willusually work good for about 100 rounds and then again it starts to miss primersonce in a while. If you look at that track bearing you will notice that thereis two slight wear marks on it where the slide is catching and binding up, youchange the bearing and you are good for another 5 years or so depending on yourvolume. If you make a longer bearing the way it should have been designed thenyou solve the problem. There is a good YouTube video on the problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI7HpdHvlco where he describes the problem andthe cure. I basically made the same thing that he did in 2000 after hours ofpulling my hair out trying to get the primer to not miss feed. Some guy on eBayis also selling his version with a ball bearing to help guide it better, it isa good idea and might add that to mine but it has worked fine for 15 years andthousands of rounds so I am not sure it is necessary.

If Dillon would just admit the problem and start sendingmachines with the correct bearing design it would make life a lot easier.

I never had that problem, but I always saw that area as a potential problem and keep that area
well coated with molybdenum camshaft break-in grease...

that MIGHT be why I never had trouble..

[GLShooter]

I've only loaded about 30,000 on my 550 and so far haven't had a priming issue. If I do I'll drive on over to their shop and get the replacement parts. Thanks for the heads up.

Greg

[shoot-n-lead]

Loaded a PILE of ammo on mine and never the the bearing issue, either.

[osteodoc08]

I love blue kool aide. Reds almost as good too.

[dudel]

1050 is just too darn efficient to even use.

1050's were responsible for the component shortage. Wouldn't have happened if we all used Lee!

[jmorris]

I have never seen a "Why did I wait so long to get rid of my 1050" thread.

[HATCH]

At one time I had 2 550s setup and 3 square deal Bs.
Sold the 3 SDB and bought a 650

Buying a new house with NO shop out back. So I am gonna go back to just a single 550 and a 650

40 cal is gonna be the round I seem to load the most in the future.
Its gonna be the first round I load at the new place.

Something to keep in mind is that each 550/650 is different.
A toolhead setup on one 550 will not (in my experience) swap between machines and keep the same adjustments.
Problem I had is that I got a 40/10mm adjustable toolhead. 40 is SPP and 10mm is LPP

[Petrol & Powder]

That extended bearing plate for the primer assembly on a 550 looks like a well thought out mod.
I keep the primer assembly on my 550 clean and the sliding surfaces lightly lubed which seems to be key for trouble free operation. One issue with the 550 priming system is the aluminum base. The primer assembly is held to the press body via two cap screws. If you get those screws too tight you will distort the base of the primer assembly and if you don't get it tight enough you will have problems with alignment. I can say from experience that you want to err on the side of less torque when tightening those screws.
Swapping from large to small primer or vise versa isn't difficult but every time you do that you upset that relationship. Once I get my 550 set up for a particular primer size it runs perfectly but I prefer to leave it in one configuration as long as possible to reduce that need to re-adjust that assembly.
Considering the number of rounds my machine has loaded, I cannot say that it is a design flaw. If you keep the machine set up for one primer size it will hum along for tens of thousands of rounds with little attention.
Having two 550's one set up for small primer and one set up for large primers would eliminate the need to play with the primer system during caliber changes.

[dudel]

If Dillon would just admit the problem and start sendingmachines with the correct bearing design it would make life a lot easier.

Well, no problems here either. My 550b has been in use over 10 years, and I don't know how many thousands of rounds it's loaded. I do however keep it clean, and usually deprime on a different press prior to cleaning.

The one issue I did have, which Dillon quickly fixed at no cost to me, was the primer seater (the part with the cup and spring), had worn the primer bar so that it developed some wiggle and wouldn't pick up a primer reliably. A quick call to Dillon, and new parts were on their way. It's been flawless since then. That's the only call I've had to make to Dillon support.

[alamogunr]

Has anyone used the new RCBS progressive? I keep hoping there will be a thread on them similar to this one in that problems will be discussed. I have nothing against Dillon but I also like RCBS equipment. The presses I looked at and saw demonstrated at the NRA convention looked nice.

[LUBEDUDE]

While I have a good investment in Dillion and love them, it would not hurt my feelings to see advancements made by other companies and followed up by appropriate sales.


A sampling

[beeser]

I'm all for advancement but I enjoy he old stuff as well, quirks and all. I have 2 Dillon 650s and an older Dillon 300. One of the 650s works so well for .45 ACP that it's actually boring to use. That's when I try to load .32 ACP on the other 650 or try to load a shotshell on one of my Hollywoods to liven things up.