Dillon 650's Don't Work!

[Just Duke]

Out of desperationI pulled the Dillon Polisher out of the box 3 weeks ago post recieving it's new motor to do some 223 brass.
2500 rounds of .223 and 2500 rounds of 308 the machine sounds like a cement mixer loaded with boulders running. I'm posting a You Tube video of it running. If no one belives me just ask Jon_K. He was on the phone with me while it was running.
I called Dillon and they said a new motor was $99.00................................. For a $180.00 brass poisher.

All the 650's were sold off after I fixed them...............

[Just Duke]

Per talking with Lloyd Smalle about his two Hornaday Lock and Load Presses he bought I purchased one.
I'm on like 8 months now and it works flawlessly.
Let me say that again,
THE HORNADAY LOCK AND LOADS WORK FLAWLESSLY!!!

[dromia]

Got to agree there.

I've had mine at least 3 years now and nary a problem.

[Iowa Fox]

I'm still using my old 450 here also, its a great press that has given me great service. About 10 years ago I really wanted to upgrade to a 550B but now I'm old enough that will not happen.

Dillon has no original replacement parts for the 450. Mine really hasn't needed much but the little things I had to find from someone that had leftovers. When they upgrade machines in their shop I wish they would save the old stuff to help us folks out that still have and use their old macines. This week I ordered about 50 bucks of stuff and asked about an infinitesmal replacement part #450-34A. Deaf ears.

Don't get me wrong they are a great American company. I just wish that every now and then they would feature ladies my own age on the cover of the Blue Press. They're still beautiful also.

[John Boy]

The large Dillon brass polisher is almost worthless. I have to run it two days to get my brass polished. The Lyman Turbo is twice the polisher at 1/3 the price. Brass polisher has been sent back once already.
I am going to buy a cement mixer from Harbor Freight. GRRRR!!!!!

Duke - not a bad idea!
* or a Harbor Freight - double rotary tumbler - 40 bucks
* Kramer Industries 2mm ceramic polishing media - my next buy will be the 4mm media
* Rio Grande Strat-O-Sheen, Burnishing Compound, 339-017/5 ... 3oz of powder concentrate to 1 gal of water
Fill the tumbler between a 1/8 to 1/4 full with the ceramic media - pour in the Strat-O-Sheen solution - and ...
Run the tumber for One and a Half Hours! That's all it took to clean a load of deprimed 45-90 blackpowder cases!
Here's an example ...


Primer pockets just as clean and inside the case - clean except for the 'dragon blood' streaks from ignited charcoal

[Lloyd Smale]

well duke as time passes i dont know about my statement. Ive got three of them and two seem to run fine but the third was just boxed up and sent back to hornady. the dogs that control timming constantly go out of ajustment on that press. About every 50 rounds it goes out of time. Another thing i dont like about the hornadys is the case feeder system. Dillons is hands down a better system for reliability. It seems like im constantly tweaking someing with either of the two case feeders i have. Ive used my buddys 650s and 1050 and cant ever remember the case feeder not working a 100 percent. One other small compaint i have with the hornadys is the primer feed needs to stay completely clean. Any powder residue at all and it will stop cold. Bottom line is both hornady and dillon have there good points and bad.

Per talking with Lloyd Smalle about his two Hornaday Lock and Load Presses he bought I purchased one.
I'm on like 8 months now and it works flawlessly.
Let me say that again,
THE HORNADAY LOCK AND LOADS WORK FLAWLESSLY!!!

[machinisttx]

The only issues I've had with my XL650 were cause by either defective user syndrome, or military brass. *shrug*

[ddeaton]

I have 2 650's, one of which was Dukes, one purchased new. I have had several issues with both, all being setup issues. All the tweaks and adjustments are not spelled out in the documentation or the video that comes with the machines. I only really learned how things work after a complete clean and teardown. Thats when I really got them running like a sewing machine. I have a oversize powder funnel I am currently using for my 45 acp setup and it works great. I am making a number of these for folks who have asked for them and will have them soon. They expand the neck a couple thous more than the stock unit and works great for seating cast boolits.

[testhop]

[QUOTE=Dale53;344343]I have had the large Dillon Vibratory Tumbler for many years and tens of thousands of clean cases. It cleans in a fraction of the time it took my Thumbler Tumbler. The only complaint I could possibly have is it is BIG (but holds a 1000 .45 ACP's) and polishes my cases until they look like new in a couple of hours. I use Dillon's polish (two caps full every 1000 cases).

Dale53[/QUOTE

#! on dillon tumbler had one for years have cleaned thousands of cases .
cleans faster and better that my lyman
the dillon also holds more .

[Lloyd Smale]

well if its tumblers you want to compare ill say this. After my fire i needed to replace my tumblers i had a big dillon and the largest lyman and a frankfort arsenal . The lyman agaitated much more but because of the capacity of the dillon i could actually clean more brass faster with the dillon. When i went to replace them i knew i needed a new dillon and bought one. I also wanted a second smaller tumbler and wanted a lyman as in my experience with mine and a few others ive used nothing agitates or is faster then a lyman tumbler. At the time i couldnt find one so i bought another cheap frankfort arsonal the old one i had was actually a pretty good tumbler that had many trouble free hours on it. It to agitates better then the dillon but again the dillon holds about 4 times the brass so its faster overal. I wish lyman would come out with a bigger unit. I about cant get along without my big dillon but sure wish it did agatate faster so brass cleaning times werent so long.

[mike in co]

I about cant get along without my big dillon but sure wish it did agatate faster so brass cleaning times werent so long.

i do not know what you are doing or using, but

i use 14/20 corn cob and nu finish car polish(optional) .
i run 10-14 lbs of brass with 5 lbs of corn cob.
run time one hour( the exception is winter 223 brass that gets 2 hrs)
alway done in one hour...always bright and shinny.
the machines work best when close to full.

i use a load of corn cob for about a month and throw it out.
it will have about a full bottle of nu finish in it by then...one cap full at a time.
i do polish a lot of brass....

the timer and full machines is the answer.

mike in co
THE COLORADO BRASS COMPANY

[Lloyd Smale]

i use corn cob and nu finish myself mike. I can clean cases in an hour if they were my own cases that were clean before they were loaded but range brass and boughten once fired can take much longer then that. Ive had brass that has taken all night to clean. You can just look in the dillon when its running and see its moving media about half as fast as the other tumblers. Like i said its a ballance. It may agitate less but it sure holds more brass and that makes its overall much faster for me when im cleaning something like 45acps or 223s that i do in big piles.

[mike in co]

i use corn cob and nu finish myself mike. I can clean cases in an hour if they were my own cases that were clean before they were loaded but range brass and boughten once fired can take much longer then that. Ive had brass that has taken all night to clean. You can just look in the dillon when its running and see its moving media about half as fast as the other tumblers. Like i said its a ballance. It may agitate less but it sure holds more brass and that makes its overall much faster for me when im cleaning something like 45acps or 223s that i do in big piles.

14 lbs of 223 at a time aprox 1000
13 lbs of 45acp at a time aprox 1000
with a timer, without a timer i burned up a dillon in 6 months.
i scrap stuff that has aged/tarnished to a dark color...
most of mine is for retail sales..
mike in co

[6bg6ga]

Ran across this thread when I was searching for something else and thought I would comment.Have had my 650 for several years now. Have had one bent decapping pin due to not watching things close enough and the pin came loose. Took the pin out and straighened it and I learned to watch this aspect of machine operation and zero problems since then. This machine is not for everyone and there is some setup involved in it for proper machine operation. If your not a good setup man then its not the machine for you and your better off sticking to a single stage press.With respect to tumblers.... They all burn up ....simple answer. It doesn't make any difference what make you purchase. To clarify I am speaking about the bowl type tumbler with the motor under the bowl. They are prone to failure simply because of their design. Anytime you mount a weight to the shaft in an attempt to make this imbalance work to setup a vibration you ask for excess wear in the bearings. Typically the bearing nearest to the weight will loosen up and sooner or later the bearing will turn inside the bearing housing. Shortly after this the motor will fail unless you are smart enough to catch this wear condition prior to the motor burning up.

[HATCH]

Did it take you a long time to dig the 6 foot hole that this thread was buried in??

[billt]

A 5 year old thread??? Really?

[jmorris]

Made me laugh, good use of the search function and thanks for not starting another LNL vs 650 thread. It must have took you a while to wade through all the others to find one this old.

[6bg6ga]

Made me laugh, good use of the search function and thanks for not starting another LNL vs 650 thread. It must have took you a while to wade through all the others to find one this old.

Actually it didn't Glad I made you laugh.

[jmorris]

It was actually the 6 ft hole comment but wouldn't have been possible without the rebirth.

[ReloaderFred]

Actually, it's a 7 year old thread............

Fred