Old Dillon RF100 Primer filler upgrade ?

[Venti30]

Hi all,

I bought a used RF100 from a guy, and cleaned up the dust/crud that had accumulated in all the user serviceable areas. Plastic see through cover, metal surface of the vibratory surface and ramps, and inner tube of primer magazine with cleaner, patches and finally dry patches. Surprisingly dirty in there, by the way. I should mention that I have the "A Plate" installed at the top, near the exit ramp.

I did all that because I had a really tough session this weekend where in 200 rounds loaded while I was dialing in my 1050, I had 12 upside down primers.

I tested the RF100 yesterday, and found that:

It takes as many as 4 cycles of the machine to finish loading 100 primers.

6 out of every 12 go into the magazine upside down (average of 6 100 primer tests)

So I called Dillon today as they apparently don't answer emails very well, and explained that my unit is old enough that it predates the variable speed that they currently offer. It's just on, or off.

My question for you is, has anyone here ordered and installed what I'm told is an upgrade kit for this style unit? It's another $50 to dillon to get it to the door. It's apparently a circuit board and a knob, don't know much else about it.

Curious if anyone has applied this fix to an older RF100, and what your result was.

https://www.dillonprecision.com/rf-1...8_9_25570.html

[Walter Laich]

did it on both my large and small primer versions

easy to do

what size and brand of primers are you using? A while back I found that LP primers wouldn't go down into the tube. They aren't as round as they should be. Back to filling the tube one by one on the flip tray.

Dillon and I have been back and forth on this--much easier now than messing with the machine.

small primer machine works without a hitch

good luck with yours

[Venti30]

did it on both my large and small primer versions

easy to do

what size and brand of primers are you using? A while back I found that LP primers wouldn't go down into the tube. They aren't as round as they should be. Back to filling the tube one by one on the flip tray.

Dillon and I have been back and forth on this--much easier now than messing with the machine.

small primer machine works without a hitch

good luck with yours

Hi Walter,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I use CCI 500 primers. I've tried others in the past. Winchester primers gave me headaches for some reason on my 650, S&B were okay, but CCI seem to generally work the most reliably for me.

I went ahead and ordered the darn upgrade. Im a slave to Dillon it would seem.

I also ordered a primer flipper tray and extra tubes.

I'm reminded of the story about sending astronauts to the moon.

NASA spent truckloads of money trying to figure out how to make a zero gravity pen.

The Russians sent a pencil with their crews.

Sometimes simpler is just better and I suspect that if this doesnt work out, I'll just be back to pecking them out of a dish.

[Newboy]

I did the upgrade. The pcb failed after a month or two. No returns on electrical!

In the time it worked, it was a little helpful. But not worth the cost. Adjusting the tension on the spring on the filler tube works as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[kayala]

Hope it works for you Venti. I've bought mine already "upgraded" but mostly it's just collecting dust. I just couldn't make it reliably fill a tube. There were always at least 1-2 upside down primers per box. On a batch of 1000 I've had to pull over dozen rounds and all time "saving" would be gone. Oh and btw "space pen" is a myth

[Lloyd Smale]

only piece of junk I ever bought from Dillon. I bought mine new. An old one like yours. Nothing but problems. I contacted Dillon and they suggested a rheostat so I bought one and tried it everywhere on the dial and still had problmes but fewer. God ahold of them again and they said to sit it on a rubber pad. Tried that and it still didn't help. they told me to send it back and theyd check it. Did that still no joy. they said send it back again and I said JUST GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY. the did and I bought a 3o dollar Frankfort arsenal primer tube filler. Its not perfect and doesn't work while your loading but then that can be a good thing because you have to pay attentions and can stop upside down ones before they go in the tube. I bought 4 more and have wore out two of them. Bottom is they work better then that 400 dollar Dillon does. My buddy has a loading room anyone would die to have. He has two of them he bought one for small and one for large cause he figured he didn't want to fool with changing them over. Go to his house today and youll see them both covered with dust. sorry but Dillon failed us with that piece of junk.

[JimB..]

I have only ever heard horror stories about these, so I’ll never buy even the current version new. But, I do like to tinker, so if someone wants to clear some space and knows that they aren’t going to recoup what they paid, please reach out to me. Assembled, disassembled, clean, dirty, doesn’t really matter.

[Lloyd Smale]

maybe you can get them to throw some sedatives in with it. Youll need them or youll be beating wife and children.

I have only ever heard horror stories about these, so I’ll never buy even the current version new. But, I do like to tinker, so if someone wants to clear some space and knows that they aren’t going to recoup what they paid, please reach out to me. Assembled, disassembled, clean, dirty, doesn’t really matter.

[JimB..]

maybe you can get them to throw some sedatives in with it. Youll need them or youll be beating wife and children.

A valid concern, but since not a single unhappy person has offered to resolve their angst at my expense I think that the wife, children and dog will be safe for the foreseeable future.