She lives again (kinda)- Dillon 550B

[mjwcaster]

So I have meant to get back into reloading, and reading so much good info on Cast Boolits has given me the urge.
I have had a Dillon 550B in storage for over 10 years.
I got it out last year and knocked off the major rust, oil the heck out of her and made sure things moved. Most die sets were rusted.
I just got it mounted on a bench again last week and started playing with it more.
I have a new Dillon die set for .45 acp and old rusted sets for 9mm, 38, 44 and more.
Also have bullets and boolits and brass in these calibers.
Setting my goals low I just wanted to make some dummy rounds for educational displays and function testing.
Well today I have a handful of 9mm dummy rounds (no primer or powder), fairly consistent in OAL, nice tension on boolits, just a kiss of crimp. Not ready for powder yet, but better than I expected.
Old mixed range brass and a mix of cast boolits (store bought) and J-word bullets.
Checked that they chambered in my wifes' Ruger P-89, loaded up a mag with 10 rds and manually ran them through just fine.

Mounted up another dummy round in a vise and drilled 2 sets of hole 90 degrees apart from each other, no way to keep powder in it any more and even the blind can figure it out. Just need to find a file to clean the holes up.
Then set up the other calibers I have and make some dummies up in them.
And make up a little board to mount the dummy rounds too, label them and then I will have a nice display for my classes.
But I think before a caliber conversion I will try to work on the primer feed.
I want to hear a bang, even if it is a little one.

I just had to share, no one else around here will really care.
But I bet they will shoot some ammo if I get this girl purring again.

Thanks for the inspiration,
Matt

[mjwcaster]

So I tried to prime some 9mm brass. Had a pick up tube still full of small primers (oops, thought I had gotten rid of all primer and power 5 years ago), also had a couple of pick up tubes with a lone primer in the snout.
I only wanted a couple of primers to test with, so I dump a few out of the full tube and pick them up in an empty one. Invert pick up tube over primer magazine, pull out retaining pin and they all go in. Great I actually remember how this works.
Pull handle and no new primer. Look and there are no primers coming out, Hmm where did all my primers go. Oh there are a few of them, laying on the floor and stuck to the base of the 550. Ok, even I know that's not right. Try again for giggles and same result, except this time I watch them fall out. Seems I am missing something to hold them in the tube.
Well I just want to hear a bang (controlled of course :-). So I just pull the handle, pause and drop a single primer in the primer cup and then return. Run through the rest of the stages with no powder or bullet and there I have a nice piece of sized and primed brass. Even fits in the chamber of the P-89. And it goes bang, woo-hoo.
Quick net search and and 'Oh yeah' moment. I need a primer magazine tube. Explains those other colored caps that I have in a baggie, did I mention that I have a nice collection of parts for this thing also.
So install primer magazine tube with correct cap and try the primer pickup thing again. Now this time the primers aren't coming out of the pickup tube, empty it out and there is a primer jammed sideways in there. Oh well put it aside and try another one. Success. Run a few pieces of brass through and I now have 3 primed cases that went bang in the P-89.
Good enough for today, I may play around tonight with some more dummy rounds and tweaking my settings, then tighten them down.
And then try to get the 45 dies setup.
I only need 45 and 9mm set up right now for loading ammo, the others I don't have anything to fire them in , I just want the dummy rounds for display.
I also want to play with this things some more before I think about adding powder to the mix.
And for those who care, as I get setup I do plan on running this more like a single stage press, checking each stage and then pulling apart the first loaded rounds to check them.
Then if everything is looking good I will load up some rounds for testing, probably 15-50, depending on how good I am feeling about things. I can't shoot in the backyard here and have to drive a ways to get to a range, other wise I would load up 1 good one and walk out back to test, load a few more etc.
I will also pull down some percentage of these final rounds before firing, just to check again.
I want to save money and have fun, not blow things up.
I can't believe that it is almost running again, it's been so long.
Matt

[Alvarez Kelly]

If you need technical help, Dillon is only a toll free call away... It does help to know the correct terms and/or part numbers. Do you have a manual? You can download one from the Dillon website.

Enjoy! :-)

[mjwcaster]

Thanks, I do have the manual downloaded, just printed a copy the other day, so it's getting covered in oil and junk on the workbench.
This girl did run before, I used it before I bought it from a friend years ago.
I haven't used Dillons support, but have heard nothing but good things about them.
If I couldn't get this thing up and running quickly I had thought about just sending it in to them.
As it looks now, even years of abuse and yes rust aren't going to be able to stop her.
Matt

[LUBEDUDE]

Welcome back to reloading MJ!

Enjoy

[mjwcaster]

Thanks for the welcome.
My next task is to get the primer tubes and feed system cleaned up.
I had some denting on the primers I seated yesterday and while searching for info on it I found tales of primer explosions. Now I had heard of things going bang in the primer magazine / seating area, but the primer pickup tube explosion (link below) was a new one.

Primer pickup tube explosion, possibly caused by static electricity-
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=495909

Had never given static much thought before, guess I will now.

Reading about these primer kabooms also has me rethinking my current press mount.
I have it mounted to a piece of 2x10 clamped to a bench for testing now. Problem is the bench is too low and I am standing over the press while working on it.
And in the event of a Kaboom where is all the energy directed? Out the top of the powder and primer magazine.
I don't think that I want to have my head over the press while running it.
Plus I can't see what is going on as easy.
My bench back home is much taller, actually need to cut the legs down a bit, built it tall and figured I would cut to fit. So on that bench it won't be a problem.
I had thought about throwing another 2x4 bench together for here (my folks house) just to get it taller and more comfortable for me, might have to do that today. I need to make some more target stands any way.

Matt

[rayv]

Hi, Matt.
Welcome back to 550-land.
Sounds like you're having fun doing it yourself, getting the 550 back in operation. Another option, which I just used on my 550 (had been in storage for 10-12 years) ---Dillon will refurb the press for a very reasonable fee. They put it in a solvent bath, check everything out, replace any parts that they think need it (and I found them to be very generous in what they replaced), lube it --- it's like a new press. Not positive about the cost; it's around $75, and includes return shipping to you. Took about three weeks, including shipping back and forth. I thought it was a great deal.

[dauntlessdave]

Yup, welcome back! The 'ol 550 is such a time tested machine that she'll again purr I'm sure. As mentioned, Dillon support is second to none. I recently (6-8 months ago) sent back my oldest 550 to Dillon for refurbushing. They sent it back with a ton of new parts included powder assembly for no charge. My only cost was to ship it which was close to $40 if I remember correctly. Dillon is great and they'll take care of you. Another source and probably one of Dillon's biggest dealers is a great guy named Brian Enos who will take care of any of your needs. He or his daughter generally answer the phone and provide you with anything you might need Dillon-wise and won't over sell. His website is (I believe) www.brianenos.com. Best wishes to you.

[HangFireW8]

Matt,

Welcome back. I had to walk away from reloading during a busy year some years back- I never took down my press, but I remember it took 3 days of moving boxes and furniture to get to it! Hope that never happens again.

One thing I like about my old Pro-Jector is there is a steel blast tube sheild that goes around the brass primer tube. I always use the sheild while picking up primers. There's less than an inch of primer tube exposed at any moment. I treat the primer tube (in sheild) like a double-barrelled gun - one barrel pointing in each direction. That is tough to do, so I simply don't charge primer tubes with anyone else present.

I can't believe this guy on calguns was handling primers without eye protection- that's simply mandatory. At least he learned his lesson without loosing an eye.

HF

[bigbore50]

"I had some denting on the primers I seated yesterday and while searching for info on it I found tales of primer explosions"

Look at the top of your primer seating punch to see if it is clean, you may have some dirt on it that will put indentations on the primers when you seat them.

In your owners manual it shows the part on page 5 and part number 13967 which is the large punch, and 13757 is the part number for the small punch, so you know what I am talking about.

[mjwcaster]

Thanks for all the welcomes, I knew I could find someone on here who would at least understand.
The wife has no problems with guns and reloading, but doesn't get excited about it like we do.
For those that mentioned it, sending the press back to dillon is still a possibility, I just wanted to see what I could get running again, and learn what makes this thing tick. That is why I just set my goal at loading up dummy ammo and checking things out. Now that seems to be working I will keep progressing.
I haven't worked on it in a few days now, life got back in the way.
My next step will be to clean out the priming area / tubes / and seating punch. Then testing it again with 9mm. Then I have to decide if I want to mess with powder or just finish making up dummy rounds (45acp, 38spl, 44mag).
I'm leaning for making more dummy rounds and keep checking out the press for now, powder can wait.
I also think it is time to clean off some of the excess oil on the press and maybe knock off some more rust. The thing is still dripping oil in places, since the first step I did after getting it out and set on the bench was to oil the heck out of it.
You will be hearing more from me as this progresses.
As for someone messing with primers without eye protection I would guess that this happens more than it should. Back when this thing was running the safety rules I remember running by were-
Smoking lamp extinguished.
No getting loaded before reloading, drinks served afterwords.

Unless I was wearing my glasses I never used special eye wear.
Now I need to rethink my eyewear choices. I wear prescription glasses so safety goggles are a pain.
Regular glasses don't provide full protection. I might pick up a face shield, wanted one any ways, but I could still see blast debris getting under the shield if I was over the press or had my head at the wrong angle.
I think goggles with full protection would be the best, just not sure where to find a comfortable set that will fit over my glasses and not fog up.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Matt

[mjwcaster]

Well my daughter just woke up, time to get ready for school (and work).
I just took the primer seating cup / punch out to clean it. Wow, it's a wonder that the thing moved at all, it is rough. Doesn't look horrible, but definitely needs some cleaning/polishing, like all this stuff.
And I can't find any sand paper / emory cloth or any thing here. Pops must have moved his stash to florida. Or just hidden it. I'm house sitting until my folks get back, now waiting for the results of Pops bioposy, hoping for good results, then they can hit the road and I can move back home.
For anyone else in my situation just send the press back to Dillon. I should do this, but I'm stubborn, I let it get this bad and now I have to fix it. But it may still go back, eventually.
Oh and how it got this bad, I blame it on living in S. IL. Completely different Humidity environment.
I lost a bunch of powder / primers because of humidity / condensation. All in rubbermaid container in a dry shed. Open it up one day and there was water dripping from the top of the container, everything was soaked. Who knows how long that had been going on. Just from condensation.
When I first moved down there everything started rusting, I really had to keep up with the oiling.
Here in N. IL if I may think about oiling stuff every once in a while. I haven't even wiped down my guns in I don't know how long and they still look great. S. IL if I touched them and then didn't oil them they would show rusted finger prints by the next day.
So when people talk about caring for metal make sure to take into consideration environmental factors, they play a huge difference, just like stop reloading on a really dry static filled day.

Matt

[mjwcaster]

Hate to keep replying to my own thread, but I just realized that I hadn't replied to the BrianEnos suggestion.
I bought my 45 dies and chamber gauge from him last year, haven't read any thing bad about him or his site (at least that I would take seriously).
If I hadn't been lurking here for the last year drinking in knowledge (more letting it flow over me, but who's counting), and getting inspired to start again, I would probably be posting on the BrianEnos forums. But after lurking here for so long and spending probably hundreds of hours reading posts I just feel more comfortable here. It's now time to get to know some of you, I've read so many of your posts.
I've been on too many forums that have fallen apart over the years, I really appreciate a forum that is mostly cordial and definitely full of knowledgeable people willing to share.
Even cooler is all the tinkerers who are advancing our hobby that hand out here.
I love watching people design and build things, even my 6 year old like to watch 'How it's built', I've caught here with it on even when I wasn't in the room. How cool is that?

Matt

[Moonman]

mjwcaster,

When writing longer posts, hit the ENTER KEY to space paragraphs apart. That makes it much easier to read.

[mjwcaster]

So better punctuation or smaller stories, got it.

Just happy that people are actually reading this.

Matt

[tadeus]

The Dillon 550 is an outstanding piece of engineering. Hope you are now reloading with it.

[Dan Cash]

Every one knows that the Lee Load Master or 1000 is a better press. Sell me that old blue thing and get yourself something you can really tinker with.

[Kicker96fs]

Yep, True Blue never goes out of style and always works!

[Buckeye509]

Hoping to get a 550 soon.

[3006guns]

Just got my 550 up and running after a five year hiatus.....forgot what a joy it is to use. Biggest problem is figuring out where to put all the ammunition I've loaded so far..........:bigsmyl2:

[Lance Boyle]

I know this is an old post but if you're having primers stick in the tube Dillon replaces those for free. They do most things free anyhow but they especially don't want you to mess around poking at primers in a tube with a coat hanger or cleaning rod lest you set off a 100 primers at once.

I know what it's like to have all your tools sitting in storage while you're living arangemets get sorted out.