New to me Dillon 450

[1bluehorse]

Picture of the Dillon 450 I purchased from Alvarez Kelly to replace my LCT press...before you ask why I didn't just buy a 550, this is what I wanted, the solid die head for the dies, manual indexing, and the manual primer and powder feed....I have automated progressive presses but I wanted something to replace the turret press with the same type "control" at each station. It does that, but also has the ability to progressively load if wanted....so far it has met these parameters very well. I did have an issue with the powder measure not wanting to dispense a fine powder (H110) the tolerances between the powder bar and housing are a bit large (maybe due to wear) and would "leak" the fine powder between the housing and powder bar then bind up the powder bar....a couple strips of scotch tape on top of the small powder bar "spacer" eliminated that and the measure has been spot on since...doesn't like extruded powders much though, but few measures do.....even as old as this thing is, it's a very nice setup....very basic, not much to go wrong and I don't think much will.....think it's a "keeper"...


97097 97096

[Alvarez Kelly]

Very nice old school progressive! :-)

[r1kk1]

I miss mine. I should have kept the frame.

Take care

r1kk1

[ph4570]

Nice, brings back memories of my 450 from the early 80's. It morphed into a 550.

[TNsailorman]

You just bought yourself the best loader Dillon has made in my opinion. The 550 has a better primer and powder system and you can add these features to your 450 if you so desire. The thing that makes the 450 better for me is the fact that the 450 has a solid head for the dies and the 550 has a removable head and has a little bit of movement in it. Now I know that the movement is slight and some would say makes no difference in the ammo quality and they may be right. But it does make a difference to me, I want things as solid as I can get them when it comes to my loading tools. Just my preference really. Enjoy your 450, treat it well, and it would be loading ammo for your grandchildren. james

[220swiftfn]

You just bought yourself the best loader Dillon has made in my opinion. The 550 has a better primer and powder system and you can add these features to your 450 if you so desire. The thing that makes the 450 better for me is the fact that the 450 has a solid head for the dies and the 550 has a removable head and has a little bit of movement in it. Now I know that the movement is slight and some would say makes no difference in the ammo quality and they may be right. But it does make a difference to me, I want things as solid as I can get them when it comes to my loading tools. Just my preference really. Enjoy your 450, treat it well, and it would be loading ammo for your grandchildren. james

If you want to remove the play from the toolhead, heli-coil the head and use bolts instead of the pins (Unique-tek sells a kit).....



Dan

[pistolshooter]

You got yourself a peach of a press. I got mine in the early 80's. I use it to load only 45ACP now, and it does it very well. I can't count the number of rounds I have loaded on it thru the years. Still works today just as well as it did when it was new. I like the fact that I am in complete control of all operations of the press.

[Mike Kerr]

450's are indeed very nice machines. They get very little respect considering that they work very well and can produce boo coos of ammo pretty durn quickly. Plus they are upgradeable in stages. Whats not to like?

[Iowa Fox]

Wish I had a dollar for every time I pulled the priming knob and pushed the powder drop knob on my 450. They are great presses you're going to enjoy it.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Good deal! I love mine and I wouldn't say the primer system is better on the 550. I like the primer set up on the 450 better as I've had both and the 550 primer was NEVER reliable for me and have heard of others with the same problem!

I too think the 450 was probably the best loader Dillon made, even though I enjoy my RL-300's better!

[MtGun44]

My old 450 slowly grew into a 550 wanna-be, but no die holders. Good old machine,
will make tons of good ammo, about 400-450 rounds per hour - probably where the name
came from.

Bill

[1bluehorse]

My old 450 slowly grew into a 550 wanna-be, but no die holders. Good old machine,
will make tons of good ammo, about 400-450 rounds per hour - probably where the name
came from.

Bill


It seems that most of the 450's were converted to 550s for the automation factor and was probably considered "upgrading" to a more "modern" system......and this makes sense as the 550 is probably the most popular press ever built.....for me though I WANTED the manual setup.....however I am debating whether or not to buy and install the auto-eject.....not sure....

[boltaction308]

There is an issue with the auto eject on the 450, I just went through this and Alverez helped me out.

In order to install the auto-eject on the 450, a different shell plate is required that is THINNER than the normal one. They are thinner than the the standard 550 shell plate. Dillon no longer has these in stock.

The reason is the distance from the top of the ram to the bottom of the dies is shorter on the 450 than on the 550. We are only talking about maybe 0.1 inch but its enough to not allow the rotating arm to be installed on top of the shell holder.

I tried to cut the bottom of a 450 shell holder on a lathe to make it thinner, but it is hardened, or at least case hardened. I would need to use a tool post grinder to do it properly.

[Alvarez Kelly]

There is an issue with the auto eject on the 450, I just went through this and Alverez helped me out.

In order to install the auto-eject on the 450, a different shell plate is required that is THINNER than the normal one. They are thinner than the the standard 550 shell plate. Dillon no longer has these in stock.

The reason is the distance from the top of the ram to the bottom of the dies is shorter on the 450 than on the 550. We are only talking about maybe 0.1 inch but its enough to not allow the rotating arm to be installed on top of the shell holder.

I tried to cut the bottom of a 450 shell holder on a lathe to make it thinner, but it is hardened, or at least case hardened. I would need to use a tool post grinder to do it properly.

It is the shellplate platform that is thinner for the auto-eject on the 450. Also, there are at least 3 different shellplate platform thicknesses. All RL300, RL450s, and RL550s use the same shellplates.

[mister gizmo]

I've shown this picture of my conversion before, so bear with me. The auto eject feature requires grinding the shell plate and also drilling for the kick-out wire. As Brian sez, there are different shell plate thicknesses. This comes into play for the overtravel setting.

As noted, my 450 was a very early model with the brass struts.

[MtGun44]

When I ran my 450, I grabbed the completed cartridge as the handle to rotate the shell holder,
this eliminated any benefit from the auto eject. I have run a 450 and 550 side by side on the
bench for more than a decade and if you do this, you will never miss the autoeject. NO difference
in speed due to that feature if you use the finished round as a handle and then just drop it in a container.

Bill