Just got an RL550B - How do you use yours for size/deprime?

[kenn]

Here's how I do it now (single stage)

Size/deprime, soak in boiling citric acid water, then put in case polisher/cleaner until they look like 24K gold. Yes, I know, some people don't get it. Bugger off 'cause I'm not going to stop.

Then I flare, powder drop in a lynman 55, place a bullet, seat, then run through a factory crimp die.

With the RL550, if I want this to happen all in once step, what do I do? Do I do my citric acid bath plus polish with the primers still in then size/deprime (1), flare (2), powder (3), seat (4), and factory crimp die (5)?

Theoretically I could do the size/deprime and flare (at least I'll get a 2-for-1) then tumble and return them to the press again and go powder, seat, crimp. Basically it'd be two cycles but then I'd have shiny clean primer pockets that speaks well to my OCD.

What do you do?

[fred2892]

You bought the wrong press if you want to reload in 5 operations. A redding T7 turret would be ideal for you.

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[Nueces]

I also tumble my cases to museum level brightness and use a Dillon 550 in two stages. Handgun cases are loaded as follows.

Fired brass is decapped in a dedicated RCBS Partner press, clamped to the bench.

Cleaning, tumbling and drying follows.

Stage one in the 550 uses stations 1 and 2. In 1 is a carbide sizer/decapper (in case anything clogs the flash hole), in 2 is an M-die type neck expander. So, in station 1, I size and prime, then expand in station 2. I remove the brass pin from the third station, so I can remove the cases at station 3 and place them in 50 round loading blocks.

The cases are then charged, enbloc, using a Redding powder measure and inspected for powder level with a bright light. Bullets are snapped into the case necks and it's back to the 550. There, the brass pin in station 3 is replaced and the one in station 2 is removed.

Stage Two in the 550, charged and bulleted cases are inserted in station 2 and rotated to station 3 where they are seated with a Hornady type seater, then to station 4 for a crimp.

Note that the use of loading blocks provides an automatic round count, which is handy for watching the primer numbers.

With clean cases, 150 cowboy rounds takes an easy 45 minutes, with short breaks. If any of y'all reflexively gag at all this and deem it cumbersome without really looking into it, please gargle dirt without my having to advise you of your lack of imagination.

[kenn]

If any of y'all reflexively gag at all this and deem it cumbersome without really looking into it, please gargle dirt without my having to advise you of your lack of imagination.

LMAO. This is probably a little more work than I want to perform so I'll probably improvise and deprime/size on a single stage press and then run the rest of the steps through the 550. I just can't bring myself to put a new primer in a dirty primer pocket.

I must say I like the idea of it going back through the deprimer/sizer a second time to pop out any possible walnut media stuck in the flash hole.

[Nueces]

Kenn, I started out using the 550 as designed and backed off to this procedure after having some failures on the line. I'm retired and do not load many hundreds at a time. But do want reliable ammo. I got started by trying to integrate my wet tumbling as you are doing. After that, the biggest concern was powder charging. Looking into a deck of cases with an angled light quickly reveals any problems without generating any eye fatigue.

Really, If I had read of someone else doing things like this before I had tried it, I'd be dissing 'em myself. Thus the humor. A video would show how really quick it all is, if cases and blocks are placed right.

[LAH]

Most my loading on a 550 is just round & round. I will tumble after loading to remove the One Shot lube.

But you can grab a few extra tool heads, mount your sizing die in station one & leave the other stations open. You can size & deprime, turn the wheel insert another case, repeat & repeat. The sized & deprimed cases come out at station 4 for you to polish & go OCD on.

In the second tool head mount a universal decapping die in station one if you like & prime there. Then station 2, 3, & 4 are set up with expander/power drop, seater, & crimp die. The only mark on the case when done is perhaps a small crimp mark.

[kayala]

For pistol calibers I just wet tumble (with primer) then it goes to my 550. For rifle it's tumble, resize/deprime, trim (with Dillon trimmer), size neck (after trimmer) and back to tumble. Then back on press for prime/charge/seat/crimp. This is only for couple calibers I mass process for other rifle calibers it's just RC.

[MrWolf]

I deprime off my press with a Harvey Deprimer. Like to not put junk near my press. Tumble with SS pins then use the 550B. Good luck

[LAH]

What do you mean by junk Mr Wolf? You have my interest.

[Spruce]

I deprime everything with a universial deprime die in my Forster CoAx, which has a universial shell holder. Everything gets pin polished. 550 gets what ever it is set up for.

[scattershot]

I have a 550B, you made a good choice. I generally get my cases clean and polished before I start loading. That gets everything but the primer pocket, and I've never had a problem doing it that way. As you surmise, if you want to get the primer pockets clean, too, you'll have to do it as a seperate step.

[Mike Kerr]

" Sigh "
I am glad you recognize your OCD. Acknowledge then cure. Enjoy your 550 and eliminate the extra steps which are really not necessary.

[Green Frog]

Folks, what we have here is people who just "know" they ought to have a progressive press because that's what the big boys use, then they find ways to use it like a turret or single stage press. IMHO, these guys should choose one or the other and use it/them in the prescribed manner. Yes I've got a Dillon and a Star Progressive as well as a couple of turrets and a single stage or two on and around the bench, but I really can't understand trying to use any of them in ways for which they weren't intended. Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon, but that's my attitude and I'm stuck with it!

[Pipefitter]

Pistol rounds get deprimed on a single stage press, then cleaned before a trip round the 550. Primer residue tends to gum up the priming system on this press.
Rifle brass gets sized on a single stage press, then trimmed, cleaned and primed by hand (223 with mostly LC brass) then a trip around the press without a die in station one.

[dragon813gt]

Cases are tumbled in crushed walnut w/ primers intact. Then the cases are run through the whole process on the 550B and a loaded round comes out at the end. It's a progressive press. Performing any process off press defeats the purpose of it. Say what you will but this is a fact. The point of a progressive is to take an empty case at the beginning and produce a loaded round at the end.

[fred2892]

Cases are tumbled in crushed walnut w/ primers intact. Then the cases are run through the whole process on the 550B and a loaded round comes out at the end. It's a progressive press. Performing any process off press defeats the purpose of it. Say what you will but this is a fact. The point of a progressive is to take a fired case at the beginning and produce a loaded round at the end.

Spot on! Thats what its designed for and it works perfectly doing just that. My priming bar gets dusted down every few thousand rounds whether it needs it or not but priming residue has never caused it to hang up.
Its not called a 150 or a 200 or a 250, that 550 actually means something.

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[Nueces]

Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon!

You know yourself well, Grasshopper.

[Michael J. Spangler]

I do 2 stages too.
Size and deprime on single stage. Trim on single stage. Tumble.

Back to the 550 first station uses a universal recapping die just encase some media is stuck in the flash hole. Prime
Powder drop. Bullet seat. Crimp if needed.


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[HeavyMetal]

well here's my two cents, take it as needed, LOL!

your end result is pretty much what you want and how much effort you are willing to put into it, so how do you want your ammo to look when your done?

Simply isn't it!

I have a 550, actually two, and got them back in the 80's, in those days the dry vibrating brass cleaner was all the rage and fairly new the reloading scene. Many different models were out there and I started with a Lyman 600 and soon learned it wasn't big enough, about that time Dillon put their 2000 model on the market and I bought one of those and was a happy guy for years!

Then I realized that the outside of my case's were clean but the insides just didn't come up to snuff, after years of soaking and drying we suddenly had SS pin tumbling come to the mass's and what an improvement it was!

I now have a Frankford Arms wet system in use, the old Dillon 2000 got sold ( needed room a year later sorry I sold it) and I now need to re think cleaning before reloading, which brings us back to the OP's thread and this post.

I have acquired a couple Lee Pro 1000 and I mean cheap, first one was $7.00 bucks! Yes it needed help but in the end I repaired it for way less money than a new one.

This has become my de-capping press, set up with a case feed and a Lee Universal de-capping die I can run through several hundred case's before dinner after work, many more on the week ends.

Once decapped they hit the wet tumbler and SS pins and then into an old dehydrator to dry after a cold water rinse, when dry they go into a clean bucket with a screw on lid to seal the dust and other junk out until I am ready to load them.

Things I have learned over the years: tumble only specific calibers do not mix, a prime example is 9mm and 40 S&W this can be a mess!

Make sure to label storage containers as to condition of the enclosed brass, can't say how many times I've either resized brass I had already sized, or worse, thought the brass was sized and found out half way into the loading cycle I might have been wrong!

Sorting and cleaning brass before reloading gives me several opportunities to inspect the case's I'm working with, the obvious cracks and splits are not as much trouble as finding a 25 auto case stuck in a 9mm! that can raise heck with reloads particularly if Murphy actually lets it get through the reloading cycle as a live round!

Match brass, can require other case prep and again wet cleaning with SS pins lends itself to better more uniform reloads.

Again the answer is simply: what do you want and what are you willing to do to get it?

The range I shoot at these days has an inspection policy on ammo brought to the range, they have a lease from the Forest Service and have huge concerns over fire hazards do steel core ammo and, on rarer finds, tracer's, and every time I show up and flash my reloads I am complimented on the quality of my loads with many asking who I buy from!

Nice to be able to say I do it myself!

HM

[waco]

Cases are tumbled in crushed walnut w/ primers intact. Then the cases are run through the whole process on the 550B and a loaded round comes out at the end. It's a progressive press. Performing any process off press defeats the purpose of it. Say what you will but this is a fact. The point of a progressive is to take an empty case at the beginning and produce a loaded round at the end.

This!^^^^^^^^^^^^!!!!!!!!