Worthwhile Dillon upgrades

[6bg6ga]

Is McMaster-Carr the supplier for the thrust bearing and the 2 washers needed? If so are the part numbers as follows?

5909K44 Washers (2)

5909K31 Bearing (1)

[6bg6ga]

Cost on the above items were $3.11 for the bearing and $1.02 each for the washers for a total of $5.15 plus shipping and any taxes.

Shipping ended up to be $5.33 in addition to the parts cost. So, its still a savings. Instead of paying someone $20.00 for the parts you can save over $9.00 purchasing the parts yourself.

[garym1a2]

Has anyone tried this?

What about using a bullet feeding die/tube without the collater on a 550? Does that help any?


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[6bg6ga]

If your talking bullet dropping tube assemblies then Yes I use them.

I have a Mr. Bullet bullet dropper assembly at about $100 and I have two different RCBS bullet dropping assemblies and I believe they are around $46 or so and they work great.

I used the Mr.Bullet bullet dropper for 45acp and the RCBS for 380, 9mm, 38/357, and 40 cal. If I were to do it again they would all be RCBS units.

Oh, you can use 1/2" ID X 5/8" plumbing pipe for additional tubes for the 45acp and 40 cal droppers.

Sorry, didn't read your post all the way... mine is a 650. Not sure if the 550 has an open spot for a bullet dropper. I guess it depends maybe on if your die set is Dillon or other. I'm using some setups with RCBS dies ond others with Dillon dies. The RCBS setups leave me one spot open where the Dillon dies take up all spots.

[jmorris]

A bullet dropper on a 550 would have to go in station 3 and seat and crimp in #4.

I generally don't do both in the same station but have before just to have the bullet feed.



You might notice that on the above both the case and bullet feed are fed by collators. The speed feeders add is almost completely eliminated if you don't have a collator to keep them fed. Not a big speed difference between grabbing bullets and flipping them base down to drop in a tube vs dropping them into a case.

[jmorris]

If this is all you have to do every 100 rounds, your going to be loading many more per hour of your time.

[garym1a2]

I am mixed up, what I interest in is the 550B case feeder without the power loader. As a lefty I am ok with hand bullet placement as I can inspect for powder when placeing powder.

[anothernewb]

Geez.. These threads are both a godsend - and cruel Lol. I just got an XL 650, then come across things like this... well... some time and vanished money later. I've got a whole host of new things for the press. and I've never even used it yet!

got the roller for the indexing cam, primer catcher, ski jump bottle, and this nifty kit off fleabay.





as far as loading primers go. I bought 10 each large and small of the primer tubes. yeah, I spend a while loading them up. but that can be done anytime ahead of time.

[Rick45Colt]

I ordered mine from McMaster-Carr

[6bg6ga]

A bullet dropper on a 550 would have to go in station 3 and seat and crimp in #4.

I generally don't do both in the same station but have before just to have the bullet feed.



You might notice that on the above both the case and bullet feed are fed by collators. The speed feeders add is almost completely eliminated if you don't have a collator to keep them fed. Not a big speed difference between grabbing bullets and flipping them base down to drop in a tube vs dropping them into a case.

Its a time savings when your setup to automatically load the sized and lubes bullets from the Star sizer into dropper tubes ready to be used. I simply line up my already full tube that has the sized lubed bullets already put into the Star for me and load the bullet dropper tube. Takes less than 10 seconds to load the bullet dropper tube on the press doing it this way. Its a poor mans collator. Someday I will pop for one. Probably when I retire.

[engineer401]

I am mixed up, what I interest in is the 550B case feeder without the power loader. As a lefty I am ok with hand bullet placement as I can inspect for powder when placeing powder.

I have a case feeder and love it. The only problem is it can't feed rifle or cases 380 and smaller. It's no big deal to me as I load it idle on single stage.

[6bg6ga]

Cost on the above items were $3.11 for the bearing and $1.02 each for the washers for a total of $5.15 plus shipping and any taxes.

Shipping ended up to be $5.33 in addition to the parts cost. So, its still a savings. Instead of paying someone $20.00 for the parts you can save over $9.00 purchasing the parts yourself.

Update

Received my part today 8/11/2017 from McMaster Carr

[6bg6ga]

Received the rest of my Dillon upgrades from ebay today. Put them on the press got them adjusted up and I can say I wasted some money with some of them.

The ones that provided the most bang for the buck were the thrust bearing (for large center bolt going thru shell plate) and the Rotocam actuator.

The fancy ball and reduced pressure spring did nothing over the stock ball and cut back stock spring.

The case feed ram cam setup that is supposed to make the case movement into position did absolutely nothing for the case feed.

So, if I were to offer advice it would be as follows:

Cut back the stock Dillon spring under the shell plate and retain the stock ball.

Add the thrust bearing and the two washers for the shell plate bolt.

Add the rotocam setup ( left side of press) advances the shell plate.

The operation now is like butter. It was good with just adding the thrust washers and bearing but is far better with the rotocam actuator

[jmorris]

Its a time savings when your setup to automatically load the sized and lubes bullets from the Star sizer into dropper tubes ready to be used.

To save time you still need a collator for that operation too. I use the same collators for my sizing machines that I use on my presses.

[6bg6ga]

Just to be fair I had to re-try the "special ball and spring" again. Using the same procedure of a torque of 10 inch lbs and a back off of 15 degrees the ball and spring that were supposed to have a better feel than the stock cut back spring and stock metal ball produced more drag and not as smooth a feel. Tried the aftermarket ball and went back to the stock metal ball.

I would encourage people to bypass the fancy ball spring combo along with the roller assembly that is supposed to provide a smoother case drop. The thrust bearing for the case plate adds the most bang for the buck followed by the roller assembly at less than $20 that provides the case plate movement for the next cycle.