Deitemeyer DL-300 Shotshell Loader

[seagiant]

Hi,
I was keeping my eyes open for a Pacific or DL-266 and not having any luck, then I came across a pic of a DL-300 semi-progressive that a member here had rebuilt. I sort of fell in love with the heavy duty build quality of the machine and found one on e-bay and bought it! It was sort of mis represented on the site as supposedly it belonged to an older gentleman that used it up until recently. When I got the machine I could see where someone had put a lot of the dies on a wire wheel to get rid of the rust before selling it! I didn't say anything and I'm keeping the machine. After 2 days of cleaning and reworking a few odds and ends I've got it running and have to say it makes excellent ammo! I might eventually do a complete tear down and rebuild I'm going to replace the tubes and probably mill another charge bar that will take Mec bushings and try to make it as smooth and tight as the design will allow.

[ReloaderFred]

I have that exact same press, but haven't used it in years. I need to sell it one of these days, just so I'll have more room for other stuff.

Fred

[W.R.Buchanan]

Seagiant: When I got my DL266 I bought it off a guy on Trapshooter.com. I also got a DL155. Got both for $100.

My DL266 was brand new! it had never been used but it was missing some parts. The charge bar was the big one. I talked to Hornaday and they said they had ceased production on the DL266 because somebody had dropped the pattern for the base and platten and broke it and they weren't going to spend $25K for a new one.

Howver many parts on the DL266 are the same as the 366. so I was able to buy everything I needed except for the charge bar. I had no choice but to either look forever or make one and when a call for help on TS.Com yeilded no parts. I asked Hornaday for some help. They came thru big time.

THEY SENT ME HOUSE DRAWINGS FOR THE CHARGE BAR!!! just for the asking.

I made my new charge bar from some Superduper UHMW material, and it works perfectly.

The only kicker on making the charge bar is getting the bevel on the sides of the bar the correct angle and width so that it fits the aluminum casting and doesn't leak powder or flop around. It needs to fit right but not be too tight or loose. strictly trial and error. The angle is not a problem as you go to MSC and buy an angled milling cutter for $7-8. The width of the part is the issue.

I made a fixture to hold the blank while I ran the angled endmill cutter down the side. Then I flipped it around and did it on the other side. You will have to have a fixture that allows you to remove and re-index the part several times as there is no way to predict the fit.

You have to creap up on it.

Here's some pics of what I did. Please to understand I had about 4 hours in this part.

As far as MEC bushing go I personally would forgo them as you should be able to make any bushing you need or want in about 10 minutes on your lathe. If you look at the Hornaday bushing chart you'll see that the number of the bushing is the decimal size of the hole. Most are common dril sizes and it is nothing to tweak a bushing by single point boring the hole to make a charge come out exactly what you want . Also once you get this press setup for your most used load , like a trap load you won't be changing it anyway. also if the MEC bushings aren't the same length as the Hornaday ones they won't work right anyway.

Both the powder and shot bushings are just made from common sized aluminum round stock. Nothing magic about them.

You can go to the Hornaday Website and find the complete instructions to your machine and down load them for use. Also you can get the plasitic tube material from McMaster-Carr for cheap. Use plexiglas material not the polycarbonite material, the poly stuff (lexan) is the stuff that stains when you leave powder in it. the other material doesn't.

Oh, if you decide you don't need that extra Metalic II press you beat me to, I'd be interested.

Randy

[Firebricker]

That looks like a very well made press good find ! FB

[seagiant]

Oh, if you decide you don't need that extra Metalic II press you beat me to, I'd be interested.

Hi Randy,
Uh-oh! I didn't think you noticed! Yea hopefully the big brown truck is showing up Wed, I'm going to dedicate that one to my 45 ACP pistols the first one is staying in 10MM. I was lucky enough to catch one of the Mihec 6 cav.H&G #68 clone molds for sale so I will be set for 45's. I'm actually looking for another Metallic II! I put my Brown Bair Press (like the CH 333) on E-bay if you know someone interested in those.

That charge bar you made looks very nice I like the end that you did for pushing and pulling. My charge bar has no angles it is just square with a slot milled in the back for a wheel or bearing to sit to ride on a cam in the back, it is actuated as the shell holder goes up and down. I cannot use Hornady or PW bushings they are to big but the MECS are smaller and work.

[seagiant]

Hi FB,
I cleaned it up some more. Someone, the sellers I guess put alot of the bright stuff on a wire wheel to make it look better for selling I guess and I'm trying to clean that up! The good news is this thing can throw the shells out and as long as you do your part and keep your mind on the job very little trouble and the shells come out like factory!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yeah,,, I noticed,,,, right after he told me you had first dibs.

But that's OK I didin't really need it. I did however, buy a like new 44 hollow point mould Saturday and I guess I beat someone else out by 2 minutes.

You gotta be quick here, because nothing worth having lasts for very long. :drinks:

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
I'm looking at the 2" boring heads I don't have one yet and need to get a few tools for my bridgeport. You are using a lot of CNC now I was wondering if you had a decent used boring head you wanted to get rid of. I guess I could pick up a used Criterion on E-bay but was wondering? Thanks!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Seagiant: I have 2 and they are both hooked to my quick change tooling for my mills. My CNC mill is only a 2 axis machine, the rest of it is manual. IN fact you could fit the CNC part of mine to your mill in one afternoon. It is a South West Industries MX2 retrofit.

I still have to single point bore a hole if the location is critical or it has to be round. So I use them both. And I could actually use a 3" boring head one from time to time.

On CNC mills interpolating a perfect circle is a pretty good trick. the slack in the gibbs is what kills you. Some machiens can compensate for gib loosness, however only the ones that have zero slop( ball bearing ways) can actually do it right. On My machine the hole is usually .001-..002 bigger in the y axis than on the x axis. If this actually matters, then I must bore the hole.

Definately get a Criterion boring head, this is a place where second hand is DEFINATELY better than second rate. You should be able to find something fairly quickly on Ebay.

I have a friend who got out of the business, and sold his entire machine shop piece by piece on Ebay, machines and all. It got down to where he was selling individual tee nuts from his clamping set! It took him about 2 1/2 months to sell everything and he netted well over a million.

I do have an Enco Boring and Facing Head I would sell. But it is 3". It has a function where you start the machine annd grip a ring on the head while it is turning and it faces the bottom of the hole. Kind of a trick doodad. I've used it a couple of times, and I got it with a bunch of other tooling I bought when a friend retired, and sold out.

If you are interested I take a pic of it.

Randy

[seagiant]

Randy,
PM inbound!