Spent Primer Handling for Dillion 550

[Tatume]

Can someone recommend an aftermarket system to collect spent primers please. Thank you, Tom

[Winger Ed.]

I don't have a Dillon, but after being frustrated with the primer catcher thingy that drops them out the bottom
of the sizing station on my Hornady- I keep a small bathroom size trash can under the bench to catch them
as they fall out and run down through a rubber hose.

I had a 5 gallon bucket under there for awhile, but it was more in the way than the smaller trash can.

[scattershot]

My 550 came with a container that holds them. Holds a bunch, just empty it once in awhile. How many do you need to collect?

[John Boy]

https://uniquetek.com/product/T1346-550

[Qeyes]

Look at this
https://www.uniquetek.com/product/T1346-550

[Tatume]

My 550 came with a container that holds them. Holds a bunch, just empty it once in awhile. How many do you need to collect?

About 20% don't go into the container.

[Tatume]

https://uniquetek.com/product/T1346-550

The Uniquetek depends on the trapdoor mechanism that came with the machine. It tends to hang in the open position, meaning I have to manually tap it to get it to close. Also, whether open or closed, primers frequently bounce away without ever going in the trapdoor gizmo. This is true of both of my machines.

My third machine is an XL-650. I installed a catcher on this one that goes snug against the spent-primer port. Primers cannot escape. They are routed to a catch bottle with a length of Tygon tubing. It works like a champ. They don't make one for the 450/550 family of machines, or I would have bought two ages ago.

[country gent]

I drilled a hole in the bottom of the spent primer cup and glued a piece of clear tubing in it then formed a funnel with epoxy on the top. the tube is long enough and sized to fit in a 8 lb powder can on the floor. Thats actually big as when full its very heavy and hard to lift. I believe I did mine with 1/2" id tygon tubing.

[C.F.Plinker]

About 20% don't go into the container.

I put a 3x5 card in the container to effectively raise the walls. Now it catches almost all of them.

[chumly2071]

Entirely Crimson has pretty good stuff from my experience with other parts I have ordered.

[jmorris]

The Uniquetek depends on the trapdoor mechanism that came with the machine. It tends to hang in the open position, meaning I have to manually tap it to get it to close.

Replace the cotter pin with a section of a paper clip or other one piece of wire that will allow it to pivot freely and not hang up.

[alamogunr]

I have yet to experience bouncing primers from the 550. If it gets about half full, I empty it. I admit most of my loading is with small primers. I've also never had the trap door hang up.

It may be that I don't race when loading. I don't keep track of how many rounds I load in an hour. Maybe that leads to not cycling the machine very fast. I have no idea what may cause primers to not catch in the cup.

[edp2k]

Replace the cotter pin with a section of a paper clip or other one piece of wire that will allow it to pivot freely and not hang up.

this +1

[samari46]

I do my depriming off the Dillon 550 and most of my other presses. Either a punch and base set or universal deprime die in an ancient CH press. The amount of crud I have cleaned off the Dillon and Rockchucker has to be seen to be believed. The Lee classic cast has a fitting on the bottom of the ram to which a piece of tubing goes. I save the jugs that iced tea comes in and the tubing end up in the jug. I'll completely disassemble my presses and clean and lube them. Then work the handle up and down to distribute the lube. My Rockchucker is close to 45 years old and the ram is in good shape. The Dillon only 20 years old and has loaded thousands of pistol rounds. And still runs well. Frank

[MrWolf]

I deprime off my Dillon also. I use the Harvey deprimer. Way to much crud for my liking on my press.

[ioon44]

I deprime off my Dillon also. I wet tumble all my brass and the primer assembly stays clean, no crud building up and I think it keeps the primer assembly from wearing out as fast.

[Gus Youmans]

Tatume,

Cut a piece from a plastic jug. You want the piece, when folded into a U-shape, to just barely fit into the spent primer cup. Leave the height of the plastic piece as long as possible without interfering with any other operations as the handle is raised and lowered.

Gus Youmans

[Walla2]

https://uniquetek.com/product/T1346-550

+++++

[rbuck351]

My 550 may not get 100% of the spent primers but it's pretty close.

[Tatume]

Thank you everyone. Replacing the cotter pin supplied by Dillon with a section of paper clip helped a lot. I still lose a few, but I don't have to manually close the chute, which speeds up my reloading by elimination of one operation. Again, thanks all.