Frankford arsenal vibra prime

[Nick Quick]

I stopped today at Cabelas in Indiana and I've seen the vibra prime for 44$. I was almost to buy it but then I said I better ask first so I let it there.
There is any hands on feedback I can get about this gadget? Is is worth buying or I should stick with the manual method of catching primers in the tube. There is any major time gain using the thing over the one by one method?
Thanx

[cheese1566]

Good and bad. It can be hit and miss on getting one that works flawlessly. I bought one when MidwayUSA had them on sale for $25 two years ago. The small primer worked good, but the large side had problems. I emailed the company and they sent a new primer tray that cured the problem. Been working good so far.

mine at least isn't perfect. It takes some trial and error to find what angle to hold the unit and when to give a quick flick of the wrist to keep them from jamming the opening from the tray to the tube. I can load 100 primers in my progressive tubes in quick time though.

I know now there is some past talk on these and some tips out there on where to file, smooth, and tweak the tubes and primer tray to help make them run.

[OS OK]

At first glance It looked like a good idea and quick…but, after watching this review I'm not so sure. Could be that this guy is not doing it right...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs0d115HRMk

I thought at first they loaded into the tubes you used, not a separate one you have to load into another?
Then you have another little gizmo lying around with batteries inside just waiting to puke out and ruin the battery compartment too…I dunnoh?

[warf73]

I've got one from Midwayusa and it works great with Winchester small primers. Now with the Tula small primers not so much, still faster than picking them up one at a time via the tube.
It takes me less than 15 mins from start to end to load up 10 tubes using the vibra prime system.

[1_Ogre]

The primer tube loader from Dillon works extremely well on large and small primers, it's pricey but works. I personally don't need the speed, I load all my primer tubes the day before a session so I'm ready to go. I load them manually by the way

[Lloyd Smale]

ive used them for over 10 years and wouldn't be without one. When they came back out I bought 3 extras just to make sure. Sure there not flawless but for 40 bucks they are ten times more reliable then the Dillon unit at 300bucks. The Dillon tube feeder was the only thing ive ever had to return to Dillon. they tried 3 times to get it running right and it was nothing but a headache. A few sessions with a FA unit to get the feel for it and you will have very few problems. Ive wore two of them out already. It took many thousands of primers to do it. After a while they just don't seem to vibrate as well. Either the motor gets tired or the mechanism that causes the vibrations do. Never looked into it. At 40 bucks for the service life I got it wasn't worth it. Just toss it and buy another. Ive got two in service right now and two more on the shelf. Its right up there with a star sizer and a Dillon 550 on the list of things id NEVER be without.

[Shepherd2]

I have one that I only use for small primers. It works fairly well with the small primers but using it with large primers is nothing but aggravation. With the large I use the regular pickup tube. It's 10X faster.

[dragon813gt]

Bought one at Cabela's and took it back the next day. Could not get it to work at all. I don't have the time to sit around and find the perfect position to hold it in so it works. Great idea on paper but severely lacking in execution.

[OS OK]

ive used them for over 10 years and wouldn't be without one. When they came back out I bought 3 extras just to make sure. Sure there not flawless but for 40 bucks they are ten times more reliable then the Dillon unit at 300bucks. The Dillon tube feeder was the only thing ive ever had to return to Dillon. they tried 3 times to get it running right and it was nothing but a headache. A few sessions with a FA unit to get the feel for it and you will have very few problems. Ive wore two of them out already. It took many thousands of primers to do it. After a while they just don't seem to vibrate as well. Either the motor gets tired or the mechanism that causes the vibrations do. Never looked into it. At 40 bucks for the service life I got it wasn't worth it. Just toss it and buy another. Ive got two in service right now and two more on the shelf. Its right up there with a star sizer and a Dillon 550 on the list of things id NEVER be without.

You can't ask for a better recommendation than that…do you have one of the old trays left from one that went kapoot? Will you sell me one?

charlie

[VHoward]

I tried 2 different FA units. Neither one of them worked. I have a Dillon RF100 primer tube filler and it has worked for both large and small primers flawlessly.

[jmorris]

When they quit making them I sold the one I had to a guy that just had to have one. Took that $150 and added some of my own and bought the Dillon primer filler and I like it the best.

That said, when they started making them again and were selling them for $25 I bought a few more of them, to sell next time they quit making them.

This is how I use them, call it the tilt and rock method but it is how I have had the best luck with them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTZ-_v6Mks

[Nick Quick]

Thanx gents. I think I'll buy one and see for myself how it is.

[Lloyd Smale]

I'm sure I have some laying around. Send my a pm with your address and ill get one out to you in the next week.
You can't ask for a better recommendation than that…do you have one of the old trays left from one that went kapoot? Will you sell me one?

charlie

[Lloyd Smale]

don't know why so many have problems with it. Sure you have to tip it, sure you might have to give it a shake once in a while but I can still fill 3 tubes in the time it takes to use a pick up tube. Most of the problems Ive had with them are just a matter of the battery getting weak.

[Lloyd Smale]

they must have improved them. My buddy and I both bought one about 10 years ago and they both were sent back to Dillon a number of times and eventually were sent back for a refund. Back then I saw on the internet that we SURELY weren't the ONLY ones having trouble with that ***. I love Dillon stuff and this is the only thing they made that I ever had a complaint with. 3 times they tried adjusting it. They recommended and I tried putting it on a piece of rubber (did nothing) and told me to buy a rheostat (if it needed one why didn't they build it with one) I did buy one and it helped a little but it rarely filled a tube with all the primers right side up. If one was given to me today it would be in the classifieds tonight..
I tried 2 different FA units. Neither one of them worked. I have a Dillon RF100 primer tube filler and it has worked for both large and small primers flawlessly.

[OS OK]

Thanks Lloyd, how much can I send you for the postage and tray?

PM incoming…charlie

[Lloyd Smale]

my treat.

[VHoward]

I kept getting flipped primers with the FA units. Didn't matter how I tipped it or shook it. 2 different ones, same problem.

[EddieNFL]

I used one for several years before moving to the Dillon. Small primers flowed like water. I had to smooth out the large side and it still required the wrist flick on occasion. Well worth the $20.

[wordsmith]

Good and bad. It can be hit and miss on getting one that works flawlessly. I bought one when MidwayUSA had them on sale for $25 two years ago. The small primer worked good, but the large side had problems. I emailed the company and they sent a new primer tray that cured the problem. Been working good so far.

mine at least isn't perfect. It takes some trial and error to find what angle to hold the unit and when to give a quick flick of the wrist to keep them from jamming the opening from the tray to the tube. I can load 100 primers in my progressive tubes in quick time though.

I know now there is some past talk on these and some tips out there on where to file, smooth, and tweak the tubes and primer tray to help make them run.

This was my experience. I had to do some serious trimming / filing to get the tray to even fit in the body on the large primer side. After a good bit of tweaking, it runs well. I use it all the time, in a similar mode to the tilt and rock method demonstrated by jmorris. In short, you have to fiddle with it, but it definitely speeds up the process once tweaked.

[rototerrier]

Don't much care for the 2 I have. One is a replacement for the first one that doesn't work well. Same as others have stated. Inconsistent feeding and flipped primers. Ive switched back to hand priming.

[bgw45]

One thread on the VP a writer stated that you must be a putz if you can't make your VP function. Well, I must confess to being a Double putz. I called FA after failure with the first and they sent a complete new one. Couldn't get it to work either. Tried all the suggestions and still had feed and upsidedown primers. Put both back into their packaging, hanging from the end of my reloading bench.

FA customer service was great, I guess the customer was questionable. No problem loading tubes manually. Sticking to the original method. Never saved a minute after pulling loaded rounds with upsidedown primers.

[rototerrier]

Right there with ya. What's bad, is my first Vibra prime wouldn't work well with SPP and my second wouldn't work well with Large. So I eventually used one tray for SPP and the other for LPP. Apparently there's very little tolerance for error in the size of the holes. They make them so cheaply that they must vary beyond their own tolerances.

I really liked priming on the press, but find it way less time consuming to just hand prime separately. I originally thought I would be wasting more time since I'm adding a step, but I think it's worth it. I've eliminated several issues:

1) I never have a flipped primer
2) I never have a poorly seated primer
3) I never have crushed primers
4) I don't have to stop and reload the primers.

All of this just makes the flow of reloading better for me. I just feed the press brass and pull the handle.

I am using a bullet feeder though. That's where things really get easy. Feed brass, pull, repeat.

[VHoward]

It gets even easier when you also have a case feeder.

[jmorris]

Or a primer tube filler that works, with a case feeder that works and a bullet feeder that works.


kind of funny that it is somewhat easier to design a device that will feed any from a tube into something but not as easy to design something that can fill a tube with them facing the correct direction.

[Handloader109]

Well, I'll add my experiences with it. It worked great on a box of cci small pistol primers, but when I changed to Winchester, it would hang 5 to 10 per hundred. I really like cci, and will be using them with the vibra prime.

[retread]

Grafs has them on sale for 29.95 right now.