Alternative to the dillon RF-100 Automatic Primer Filler

[Kolten]

Hello All!

First of i would like to start of saying that i love dillon products... I have always been a VERY satisfied customer with Dillon equipment! BUT I purchased a RF-100 this thing so far has been a paper weight the primers turn side ways right before going down the tube and clog the red insert that's for large pistol primers. I can't get this fixed I've called dillon all they tell me is to adjust the insert it has to be just right or it won't work. It's like someone telling you to put a little oil in your car well how much is a little? I'm very disappointed and I'm waiting a call back from a dillon rep that's suppose to be able to fix my problem but i HIGHLY doubt that will happen so I'm posting this to ask you to help me find a similar product that works well because i plan to get a refund form dillon on this please do not tell me to get a vibra prime or something like that i wan't something like a RF-100 for high volume loaders i don't want a little cheapie product or home made product. Please send me some links/companies maybe a review or two on the product and if you have a solution to my RF-100 issue that would also work hahaha!

[LUBEDUDE]

The RF-100 takes some tinkering. Rather, most do, some don't. Try it without the shield. Or the shield with the bolts not so tight or even a hair loose. Try it setting on a rubber mouse pad or carpet vs hard wood.

Do you have new model or old/upgraded with rheostat? Play big time with guide, try it without guide. Are you positive that you have the right guide- A vs B?

Of course, make sure plate and ramps are free of residue an dust by cleaning with alcohol.

Are you standing on your left foot or right foot with your neck bent the opposite direction?:)

These are quite frustrating, but awesome when working.

Good Luck

Ps
Try to refrain from sanding the nubs on the side of the ramp. If you mess that up you are screwed.

[HATCH]

Great...
of course my RF-100 will arrive this week...

I own a vibraprime. For small primers its the BOMB. I can load up a tube in 30 secs or less.
On large primers I don't have such luck.
I purchased the RF100 off of ebay last week.

[HATCH]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEXB40qgMV0

[Kolten]

The RF-100 takes some tinkering. Rather, most do, some don't. Try it without the shield. Or the shield with the bolts not so tight or even a hair loose. Try it setting on a rubber mouse pad or carpet vs hard wood.

Do you have new model or old/upgraded with rheostat? Play big time with guide, try it without guide. Are you positive that you have the right guide- A vs B?

Of course, make sure plate and ramps are free of residue an dust by cleaning with alcohol.

Are you standing on your left foot or right foot with your neck bent the opposite direction?:)

These are quite frustrating, but awesome when working.

Good Luck

Ps
Try to refrain from sanding the nubs on the side of the ramp. If you mess that up you are screwed.


I have the newer model with the knob to turn vibration up and down... my issue is not the primer feeding up the ramp but the primers going in the red slot for large primers corrctly they go in and sometimes flip sideways clogging the whole operation... Dillon can told me today that "It just takes some time and fine tuning" I'm sorry but if i pay 400.00 for equipment i feel as if it should operate properly without all this hassle.... I'm using plate "A" I'm using Winchester primers... and almost everytime they flip sideways clogging the red plastic funnel.... any suggestions?

[LUBEDUDE]

Hatch- 50% chance the reason they sold it is they could not run it. Or- 50% chance they already tweaked it and bought a Vibraprime!

[Kolten]

Great...
of course my RF-100 will arrive this week...

I own a vibraprime. For small primers its the BOMB. I can load up a tube in 30 secs or less.
On large primers I don't have such luck.
I purchased the RF100 off of ebay last week.

You seem to have the same issue as me.... It worked with small primers.... large it doesn't operate at all hardly i could load them 2x faster by hand just because of how much time i spend unclogging my rf-100 funnel because a primer went in sideways and won't allow primers to fall down the funnel... for small primers i had 0 issue... large primers... no luck.

[LUBEDUDE]

I have the newer model with the knob to turn vibration up and down... my issue is not the primer feeding up the ramp but the primers going in the red slot for large primers corrctly they go in and sometimes flip sideways clogging the whole operation... Dillon can told me today that "It just takes some time and fine tuning" I'm sorry but if i pay 400.00 for equipment i feel as if it should operate properly without all this hassle.... I'm using plate "A" I'm using Winchester primers... and almost everytime they flip sideways clogging the red plastic funnel.... any suggestions?

Sounds like too much juice to me.

Turn it down. If no help, do what I said above- rubber, carpet, etc.

[Kolten]

Sounds like too much juice to me.

Turn it down. If no help, do what I said above- rubber, carpet, etc.
I've turned it down to so slow the primers barely climb the ramp..... yet again they get to the red funnel insert and turn sideways almost everytime i run the machine and they clog the whole process.... I'll try putting it on a mouse pad... You guys wouldn't happen to know of any other products like a RF-100?

[VHoward]

I haven't found any that are equivalent to the rf-100. I had tried the new vibraprime when they came out and I could not even get it to load small primers without flipping them.

On the rf-100, I found that different brands of primers sometimes feed differently and the rf-100 needs a little adjustment.

[Alvarez Kelly]

If the bolt holding the red plastic guide is tightened down, you will have problems. it must be snug, not tight. It is counter intuitive, but that is the suggestion that fixed mine. You may have already ruined the red plastic part.

[Kolten]

If the bolt holding the red plastic guide is tightened down, you will have problems. it must be snug, not tight. It is counter intuitive, but that is the suggestion that fixed mine. You may have already ruined the red plastic part.

I knew this seems as if It was an easily but not really a noticeable issue after an hour on the phone with Dillon troubleshooting he had me look at my red funnel and i noticed it was machined horribly looks like someone cut on it with a pocket knife... Dillon is sending it out 2 more for me now i will keep you all updated all your help will definitely help others!

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Dealing with primer fillers is one reason I like my RCBS Pro 2000 so much. The press is costly when bought, but comes with a strip filler and a decent bunch of strips. You can also buy primers pre-filled into the strips. If you set up the press correctly, you never have problems.

One of the reasons I gave up my Dillon 550 and then my Hornady LnL. Got tired of dealing with primer tubes and getting them filled.

[bbqncigars]

I followed an on line tutorial a while back and made my own primer tube fillers from Lee Auto Prime trays and Dillon tubes (to feed my AP). I can fill a tube in less than twenty seconds, with no flipped primers. I just got tired of dealing with loose primers, and didn't want to get locked into a proprietary primer feed.

[HATCH]

Well the RF100 I got in was a early model.
It did not have the adjustment.
I played around with doing small primers (remington) and had nothing but problems.

The primers go up the ramp no problem. Some will feed correctly in the chute and drop down, other will flip sideways and stop prior to go under the plastic align piece (marked A for small primers). While sometimes that will stop at the blue primer adapter like it can't get past the cut opening.

I have already contacted dillon and got 2 new adapters (a & b) and both colored adapters (red and blue). I also had them send out the upgrade kit as well.
This was done all free of charge by them.
Took me about 5 mins to do the upgrade. Its pretty easy.

I have spent the past 3 hours trying to get 100 remington small pistol primers to feed without issues. Basically have 100 feed with no stops.
No luck so far.
I have varied the speed, adjust the clear plastic feed piece and replaced the blue primer adapter.

I took my old clear feed piece and filed the little rectangle peice down some. I played around more with the adjustment of the clear piece.
Basically if you loosen the screw, put your finger on the end away from the screw and push down slightly as you rotate it towards the side. You will feel it hit the inside edge. Tighten the screw. not too tight. just snug really.
I was able to get 100 to load correctly and thought I had it adjusted right but when I tried to do them again it messed up.

In my opinion the RF100 is a piece of junk.

I am going to call Dillon tomorrow and see if I can send it back to be rebuilt as its useless to me.

[HATCH]

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12379

Just found out I am missing the metal rejection station.

[jmorris]

I had an old one and added the speed control when they came out. If I ever have any problems I swap out the plastic parts and go beck to loading. They send them to you for free.

I have read enough horror story's that I wouldn't sell mine for $600 but I would pay $100 for one of the "junk" ones that doesn't work.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive never pulled my hair out more with any peace of reloading equiptment then i did with my RF100. That even includes lee progressive presses!! I bought mine new and couldnt get it to load a whole primer tube right from the begging. Called dillon three times. Once they walked me through a few tuning tricks and told me to put it on a rubber mat. It then might load 1 out 3 tubes without problems. Next call they told me to get an ajustable reostat. All that id was slow down the mistakes! the third call was for a shipping lable to return it and get my money back. Anyone that knows me knows i love dillion equiptment but this is one case that they make a turd! For 50 bucks buy yourself a frankfort arsonal tube filler. They take a little learning curve and occasionaly youll get a upside down primer but when your cussing your know you only spent 50 bucks instead of 400!!

[HATCH]

Well since I now know that I am missing a crucial part l, I think it will work fine once I get it.
The problem I was having is the primers laying on their side. The first wiper will take care of that and that's what I am missing

[HATCH]

For anyone tracking this thread.....
I made a wiper using a paper clip and use the bolt that holds the colored primer adapter. I let the colored adapter just sit on the drop tube for now.
works 100%.
It does sometimes get stuck for a sec trying to enter the colored adapter but it clears itself.
It will load 100 primers in about a minute. I cycled it 5 times in a row and had no jams.

Also I thought the A adapter was for small and the B adapter was for large. That isn't the case. They can both be used for small or large and the difference is the amount of clearance between the bottom of the adapter and the top of the colored adapter. With the A adapter it would jam up every time right before the colored adapter.

This thread -> http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...howtopic=12379
really helped me locate what my problem was.
That and the fact that the RF100 has a JMorris stamp of approval meant that I should keep trying to figure it out.

It cost me $12 shipped for the wiper, bolt and washer. I wasn't going to have dillon give me those for free since IMHO they aren't a wearable part and the fact the unit was missing them. If they had been present but maladjusted then I would expect them for free.

[jeff423]

It sounds like you've got your problem resolved. Before I got one for Large PP and one for SPP's I would swap back and forth with the adapters. I didn't read the manual and tightened the screw that holds the colored primer adapter all the way in. It still worked but was very erratic. When (per the instructions) I backed the screw out .040" it ran fine. After that I decided to get a second unit so I wouldn't have to swap. I do find that my current batch of Wolf SPP's feed slower (older batches ran fine) than others and Magtech won't feed at all. I don't think that's Dillon's fault but rather that the batch of Magtech's were oval. CCI, Winchester, Federal, Remington and Wolf LPP are fine.

Jeff