Mr Bullet Feeder/1050/9mm Powder Funnel issue

[Labanaktis]

Have a quick question. I was setting my BF up for the first time. I've watched the setup videos, and have watched others YouTube videos. On the upstroke of the 1050, when the funnel is exiting the case, the handle takes a good amount of effort to get the funnel to free from the case. It is not smooth. I've watched others running a BF on the 1050 in 9mm and it looks really smooth and effortless... Any ideas?

[Stonecrusher]

How clean is your brass? New, clean brass seems to stick to the expander more than used brass or used brass that has been tumbled with a little Nu-Finish. I use a little spray lube, Alcohol and lanolin mixed 12-1, and it makes a difference in the force required and there isn't enough residue to worry about cleaning it off. I just throw it in the ammo can.

[jmorris]

Lube your cases.

Also is the backup rod/expander set correctly at station #3?

[Labanaktis]

Got this from Rick on a Sunday! I'll start going thru it, but the #3 position is what probably needs adjustment. It was factory set so I'll look into it.

As you know, the case mouths must be slightly expanded to assure that the
projectiles stay in position
when the press is indexed.

There are a few factors that can aggravate the "tugging" when the
funnel/expander is removed from a case.

From my point of view, I think the first thing I would suggest is to use a
good case lube. Some folks don't like to
use a case lube on handgun cases, but I recommend it. It makes the whole
stroke more smooth and you'll need
less overall force to complete the stroke. I like Hornady One Shot in the
original aerosol can. I usually spread
out the cases so they lay down on an old cookie sheet and then spray one
side. When the brass is mixing in the
casefeeder, the lube will spread all over the cases. Some lube will migrate
into the case mouths and aid in reducing
tugging. I've attached a file that also shows how to make your own lube
that will work quite well.

When the funnel/expander is new... you may reduce some of the tugging
(during break-in) by occasionally wiping a
little lanolin on the expander area of the funnel with your fingertip.

It's also possible that your funnel was poorly machined / or slightly
oversize. The expander step should be something
around .3575" or .3580" maximum for the 9-38 funnel.

Here are a few considerations regarding your 1050 setup.

Make sure your swage back up rod is the proper size and correctly adjusted.
The swage back-up rod is designed
to provide some case mouth expansion. Many times, the expansion is adequate
to allow using the standard
Dillon tapered funnel instead of the funnel we ship. Keep in mind that many
people don't adjust their back-up rod correctly.
First, they disable the swage punch from below (as they should), and then
size a case and index it to position 2.
They lower the toolhead and then adjust the back-up rod. They screw the rod
down until they feel resistance
and think that the rod is in the correct position to hold the case down and
they secure the locknut for the rod.
In reality, the tip of the back-up rod is not touching the bottom of the
inside of the case. The resistance they actually
felt was the expander step on the back-up rod starting to enter the case
mouth.
Result: no case mouth expansion and incorrect support of the case when the
swage pin is reconnected and used.

Solution: Use an old case that you would probably throw away and cut it
shorter... cut it in half. Use the lower
piece of the case to set the correct depth of the back-up rod. Since the
case is shorter, the expander
step on the rod won't touch anything. When the rod is adjusted downward, it
will correctly touch the inside of
the case by the flash hole. Make sense?

Also... if you are not swaging your primer pockets... you should still use
the back-up rod -OR- you can obtain a
commercially available expander in that position (like a Lyman M-Die for
example).
The big advantage that an M-Die has over the Dillon rod is that the depth of
expansion is adjustable.
The Dillon back-up rod is a fixed length... and the only way to get any
deeper expansion would be to grind off a few
thousandths and then re-harden the end of the rod.
I always recommend using the least depth of expansion that will provide
reliable bullet placement.

Another area to look at would be the shellplate adjustment. The 1050
shellplate is quite a bit larger in diameter
than the 650 shellplate and because of this, there is greater leverage on
the edge of the plate when the expander
is removed from the case. If the shell plate is loosely adjusted, it will
have room to lift upwards as the expander is
pulling out of the case. This will aggravate the jolt you get when the
expander leaves the case. If you have a really full powder
charge, powder can start spilling. There is a company (don't have the name
but you can probably find it with Google)
that is making a roller bearing type mount for the 1050 shellplate. It
allows the shellplate to be tightened down fairly
securely, but still turn smoothly.

Finally, if you're just running one case through at a time while checking
out your setup, keep in mind that when you're
actually reloading and there are cases in all positions, there is upward
resistance occurring all around the shellplate and that
will spread out the forces somewhat and smooth out the upstroke.

[Labanaktis]

I went thru everything slowly, step by step after watching the setup videos. It's running a lot better. I still think if I could get the case mouth to expand more in station #3 things would feel smoother. I'll look into the Lyman M Die and the Redding Expander..... Plus everything is new and there is probably some break in required. The 1050 is so smooth that after adding something it took away from the smoothness.


Thanks, Matt