RCBS Partner press. Im not sure about it.

[BigAlofPa.]

The linkage is awful sloppy. Its just pined on. I was planning on using the press for primer pocket swaging. And use with my universal flaring dies. And some rifle loading. 243 and 6.5 Creedmoor. Think i'll just order another 8 station turret for my Lyman. Or am i not giving the little press enough credit?

[Mk42gunner]

I had one back when they first came out. For a small press, I liked it. I never did anything heavy duty with it, but I did load rifle rounds up to .270 Weatherby on it.

I don't remember a lot of slop in the linkage, but that was close to thirty years ago too.

Yet another thing that disappeared in one of the many moves in a naval career...

Robert

[lightload]

Sloppy linkage is not uncommon is some presses. Your press will serve you well for what you describe.

[Harter66]

I still have the one that was in my first kit of my tools 25 yr ago . The ram has a little slop in it now but it's loaded probably 20-25,000 rounds . Per RCBS it has a design life of 50,000 rounds .
It's always had a little bit of pivot on the center link movement . I loaded a lot of 06' on it some of which required a hard cam over and hold to get in their rifle .
I will fully admit that the desert dust and hard carbon wasn't good for it and I didn't do nearly enough to keep it clean . It's not a RockChucker and doesn't pretend to be .
For use as an etc press it should easily go it's 250,000 + design strokes . In addition to the loaded ammo I spent a winter sizing and flairing every case I had on hand so they would be ready to load . Ive done 6,000 or so 38/357, 9,40 &45 ACP and 1000 223 since then and sized 10k plus bullets it's now reduced to ram prime duty doing 200 or so a month . I'm pretty sure it's reached it's design life . An inquiry to RCBS resulted in the usual send it in we'll take a look and repair or replace . So after 26 yr , 10 of which it was the only horse , for about $16 I can get a new replacement . I don't see a loss or failure there .

[BigAlofPa.]

Thanks for the replies. Glad i will have no worries with it.

[Joel Chavez]

I use mine for decapping, but it does have some slop in the linkage no doubt. It’s done a great job of decapping thousands upon thousands of brass in the 10+ years I’ve had it.

[doulos]

I might be misunderstanding the OP. But I dont think slop in the linkage is as important as other aspects. It can usually be tightened up. How much the ram moves when at the top of the stroke is more important I would think. The tightness of the linkage is more of a feel thing IMO. If I take all slop out of the linkage of my Redding Big Boss 2 or my Rockchucker they dont feel that smooth.

[Alferd Packer]

Try it out before you order a new one.
Seeming to be very loose, it is still accurate in the ram alignment where it counts.

[BigAlofPa.]

Yeah the ram has no slop. Im going to load some .223 on it and see how it does.

[1hole]

Your little Partner is a good tool even with it's alum alloy body but it's obviously not some 30 pounds of cast iron. (Many people love to pee on Lee's supposed "pot metal" presses but don't bat an eye at the Partner; I guess because it has green paint. ??) Like anything else, it's a great tool when used as the maker intended.

Having a "tight ram" is greatly over rated. I know that some serious BR competitors have used Partners with lathe turned rams specifically so there would be enough slop in the ram for their cases to easily and precisely self-center into custom made FL dies.

Keep your Partner's mounting bolts tight and don't get too heavy on the lever when swaging primer pockets and you'll be fine for a very long time.

And, yeah, RCBS will usually replace anything that breaks but it sure ain't for free, the "free one" was fully paid for in the original price.

[Multra]

I used mine with the rcbs primer swager and it worked fine, I beat on the thing and it never broke.

[Minerat]

I got mine in 1984 and used it for everything until 2000 when I bought a partner at a garage sale and realized it would not work on the Partner so got a Rock Chucker for that. I finally replaced it with a RcCS when I found one here for a good price. I loaded 300 Weatherby and used it to resize up to 50 cal with push thru dies till then. It was replaced because I wanted a Rock Chucker it still has a place on the bench.

[BigAlofPa.]

My neighbor is going to give me a washer from a trailer hitch. To put on the base of the ram for when im swaging. If i need to give it a sharp bump to remove the casing. He's going to cut a slot for the priming ram assy. He has a body shop and the equipment to do a nice job. I was going to cut it with a sawzall lol. He goes ''no no i'll make it nice for you''.

And i loaded some .243 ammo in it for my son. It did a nice job.

[Soundguy]

If the ram is true inn the bore..linkage slop can be solved by re pinning or bushing.

[BigAlofPa.]

It did come with 2 extra linkage washers. Maybe their for taking up some of the slop? Loading the 243's it didn't bother me. One trick i learned was to flip the priming arm back for bullet seating.

[jetinteriorguy]

The sloppy linkage has no affect once your dies are properly adjusted so the slop is eliminated. This is pretty much true of any press. I just use mine for bullet seating, I leave the heavy lifting to my Lyman Orange Crusher.

[BigAlofPa.]

Im with you on the Lyman. I have the brass smith 8 station turret press. It's a beast.

[Bwana John]

I broke one, they are not very heavy duty.

RCBS replaced it for free, and I do not use the replacement for anything that requires any real pressure on the lever.

[David2011]

A friend tried to use his for .500 S&W. It wasn’t nearly enough press.

[BigAlofPa.]

I can imagine some struggle with it for 500 sw. Im going to stick with utility work with it. When i was sizing the 243. I had to use a lot of lube.

[Murphy]

I can't remember how long I've had my Partner Press. I'm leaning towards 20 years at least. I never bench mounted it as I had Rock Chucker and a Dillon already on the bench. I never intended to use it for rifle loading, or even that much handgun loading to be honest. I did buy it for, was the various reasons others have mentioned already. Decapping brass, expanding case mouths, etc. I mounted it to a board I could countersink the bolt/nuts to. I carried it where ever I wanted that way and used a pair of C clamps to mount it to a desktop, etc. It'll be staying with me, just like a good partner should.

Murphy

[BigAlofPa.]

Awesome Murphy. Portability is a handy feature.

[kmw1954]

Keep chugging along.

I have an old RCBS JR3 press that I use with a Universal de-capping die, a Lee 223 sizing die and a Lee Quick trim and it works wonderfully with it's shorter stroke on the short cases. Hard to wear these little old presses out.