Dillon 650's Don't Work!

[mike in co]

for the ar10 full length sizing is not require.....he said what ???

size them 2-3 thou below the chamber...and all should be good.

full length sizing will minimize case life, less than full length will add significant life...i have seen 50 reloadings on a "correctly " sized case.


process rifle cases in two steps, clean, lube, deprime, size trim in one step, in step two polish then prime, load......no lube on the final case
mike in co

[billt]

Duke,

I hate to show up to close the barn door after the last horse leaves, but I know you and your wife do a lot of shooting. For trimming cases, (which is the most boring, thankless job in the reloading process), I finally bit the bullet and went with one of these:

http://www.giraudtool.com/prod02.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGYLmHvKVd0

It was without question the best money I ever spent! I trimmed over 2,300 .223 cases in under 3 hours start to finish. The beauty of the Giraud is it trims to length + -.002, and also puts a really nice chamfer on both the inside, as well as the outside of the case mouth at the same time. If you set up to minimize wasted motion, you can easily double the production rate shown to over 20 cases a minute. They aren't cheap, but good tooling seldom is. Doug is super to deal with, and my trimmer arrived promptly. It's one of those tools that once you get it, you'll wonder how in the hell you got along without it. Bill T.

[hedgehorn]

You are right they don't work. I am willing to donate a rockchucker in trade for one of those lousy machine's just so you can keep loading.

[Just Duke]

Duke,



http://www.giraudtool.com/prod02.htm

.

I talked to this guy about his .50 BMG setup for trimming and he was a jee----erk!

[crowbeaner]

I prefer the RL 450 and always will. It's the best press Dillon ever made IMHO. I won a 650 in a raffle and sold it because it was too costly to change calibers on. If I catch the effing burglars that took my 450 I'm gonna beat them half to death.

[Dale53]

I had a RL 450 and was happy to trade it in on a Dillon 550B. I am truly a fan of the 550B (I have two of them).

Just goes to show that we are not all alike.

Happy reloading, regardless!

Dale53

[Just Duke]

The brass polisher arrived back with a new motor and a meriad of new parts that have been replaced.

[Just Duke]

Elord told me once that at the height they were turning out 500 a year. Exactly when that started I don't know but it went on for decades.

For a considerable period Star had large standing orders for their machines. Thus they didn't have to advertise. If you found them, they would sell you a machine. All the rest went to a few very big customers.

Star help Mike Dillon get started. Mike's first product was the so-called Super Star kit which converted a Star Universal into a machine capable of reloading 223's. Elord helped Mike develop that.

Mike's first machine, the Dillon RL1050, was meant to be a Super Star kit built from the ground up. Financially it was a blop. That forced Mike into machine machines like his current line. When Mike became the leading progressive manufacturer, he specifically set out to destroy Star. I never understood why.

The Wilkinson family, two generations of which worked for Star, would probably know more. The elder Wilkinson retired to somewhere in the Phoenix area. God only know where. There are about a dozen towns down there. His son, Rob I think, might have gone there too. Might be worth a search to see if there is a Rob Wilkinson in the phone book somewhere.

One last thought. For a long time Star Universals sold for $450 I think. That was a lot more than they cost to make. Star was getting so many orders, however, that they raised the price to $950 to cut interest. It had just the opposite effect.

http://www.starreloaders.com/forum/i...opic,22.0.html

[Just Duke]

Star73,

I don't claim to be an expert on Star history, but the Super Star Conversions was Dillons first entry into the reloading business, and my understanding is that he was on friendly terms with Star at the time. The conversions was a group of parts that converted a Star Universal to load .223. According to Dillon's website, he sold less than 100 of them. I have a partial set of the parts. I keep looking for the rest, but haven't made much progress.

The following is from Dillon's website:

The Highly Irregular and Somewhat Improbable
History of Dillon Precision Products
By Mike Dillon

I got into the reloading equipment business purely by accident. It started when a friend of mine died in an airplane crash – MY airplane. A few other friends of his and I spent four or five months closing up his machine shop business and selling off all the tools for his widow. When we were finished, she said, “I guess I owe you an airplane.” I answered, “No you don’t. I didn’t lend it to you. I lent it to your husband. That was between him and me. But I WOULD like his Thompson submachine gun.” The Tommy gun came with a star loading tool, so I became a progressive reloader.

Shortly thereafter, I bought an M-16, and wanted to load .223 ammo progressively, but Star said it wasn’t possible to do it with their tool. They said, “If you want to try it, we’ll sell you a .380 shellplate and you can try to make it work.” So I went to a machinist and cut down an RCBS die, ground the hardcoat off of the outside and had him thread it to the weird thread size that Star dies used and I made the damn thing work. I changed the link-arms to give it a little more stroke and came up with a kit so my friends could convert their machines.

My friend Peter Kokalis was ridiculing me and sarcastically suggested marketing my kit as the “Superstar Conversion,” which I did. Maybe 100 or so kits were sold, but soon people started asking me for a conversion to load .30-06 rifle ammunition on the Star machine. That’s when I decided to make my own reloader. The RL-1000 was the first full-fledged Dillon Precision product. Manufacture started out in my garage, then we moved into a small shop. We started the company on a $30,000 loan against our house.

http://www.starreloaders.com/forum/i...pic,618.0.html

[billt]

I prefer the RL 450 and always will. It's the best press Dillon ever made IMHO.

I agree. I've been using my RL-450 since I first bought it in the early 80's. It has turned out tens of thousands of flawless rounds. I like the solidness of it, no slop with the sliding tool head. Another thing is I can use any of my powder measures with it very easily. Dillon's measures don't meter fine ball powder, or long grained stick powder very well. I like the precision of a rotating steel drum like my Redding 3-BR or my Lyman 55. The Dillon with it's die cast sliding bar arrangement isn't the best in regards to these powders. I wish Dillon still made the RL-450. I would buy another. Bill T.

[Just Duke]

I have been loading the heck out of 45 Long Colt on the machine to the far left in the pic. Seems to work OK now that I fixed the Dillon boo boo's.
45 ACp is the one on the right and 223 and 308 are in the middle. 500 and 45-70 are all single stage. The bench/benches are now setup in our party home and I have a much bigger reloading room.

[arclight]

One thing about the Dillons: Cleaning and lubing really help. I usually break down the 550B and blow all the dust and grime out after every major loading campaign or when I change calibers.

Also, clean the primer feed system with alcohol and try lubing it with graphite if you have problems with the primer dispenser sticking.


Arclight

[Baldy]

I think somebody needs to cool off and watch the 650-xl tape that comes with the new press. If things are set right it is impossible to double feed .223's. I have run thousands of rounds through mine from 9mm thur .223 and have had very little in the way of problems. If you want a progressive press there is none better. If the primer punch is breaking then the shells must be staked as that's all that can cause that.

[Just Duke]

I think somebody needs to cool off and watch the 650-xl tape that comes with the new press. If things are set right it is impossible to double feed .223's. I have run thousands of rounds through mine from 9mm thur .223 and have had very little in the way of problems. If you want a progressive press there is none better. If the primer punch is breaking then the shells must be staked as that's all that can cause that.

I think somebody needs to read the full thread because the problem was Dillons faulty parts and not by fault of my own. I bought 4 presses at the same time and they all had the same identical problem. The sent me the replacement parts and they were out of wack too. So bent them where they should be and installed them. They have worked flawlessly ever since. Afterwards I gave a call to Dillon and explained the problem and they thanked me for calling this to their attention.

[Just Duke]

One thing about the Dillons: Cleaning and lubing really help. I usually break down the 550B and blow all the dust and grime out after every major loading campaign or when I change calibers.

Also, clean the primer feed system with alcohol and try lubing it with graphite if you have problems with the primer dispenser sticking.


Arclight

The 550 I used to have was notorious for not feeding primers when dirty. Hence, I went with the 650's this time around.

[Tom W.]

I told you that you could send one to me.... It's almost Christmas anyway.....

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I am willing to pay you fifty-dollars, cash money, for that crappy Dillon. I only have a couple now, and it is an inconvenience to have to switch dieheads, etc. I looked in the shop this afternoon, and there are nine of thos *** blue machines cluttering up my reloading room.
The 9mm/40sw unit has reloaded just over 400,000 rounds between the two, and the 38 is closing in due to the crew that shoots peashooter CAS loads. Fooled me!

Rich

[Just Duke]

Tracking says they were delivered to you a week ago TW and IS. UPS confirmation say signed by Pam Andereson?

[Tom W.]

Musta been while I was at work... Second shift, you know....

[Meatco1]

Well, Crowbeaner, or billt:

I'm your man.

I have a Dillon RL450 with all the factory shipped parts sitting in storage. I haven't used it in 15 years or so, but anytime you're ready, let me know, and I'll be happy to trade for a RL550.

Richard