Hello All,
After looking around for the past few weeks or so, I realized that there is not a lot of information out there for my Texan press. Because of that, I thought I would share my experience in hopes that someone will find it helpful in the future.
The story:
I actually found my press while cleaning out an empty repossessed house about 10 years ago. There was TONS of stuff left behind in a repo house and the bank hired me to take it all to the dump. Buried under all of this stuff was this beast of a reloading press and some other components (dies, brass, etc). At that time, I was not a heavy shooter but I did recognize that it was reloading stuff and decided to hang on to it. It sat in a closet for a number of years and with the recent spike in ammo prices, I decided to dig it out and try to get it running. There was no markings on it so I posted a thread on cast boolits and the friendly folks here let me know that it is a Texan Model 101-T-2. The company is not around any more so parts are pretty much nonexistent.
All in all the press was in fair shape after I cleaned it up.
There were a couple of problems, however....
Issue #1: Linkage
As the original thread discusses, the shell holder was not reaching high enough to reach the dies.
I took it apart many times and tried to figure out what the problem was, hoping it was out of alignment or something stupid. Finally, a member (FLTHC) posted some pictures of his press and it was realized that the linkage on mine was shortened by about 1". I am guessing the previous owner wanted to neck size as opposed to full length size the cases so s/he shortened the throw on the press. Other theories are that it was used for swaging at one point. Either way, I had to get new links.
Well, as mentioned, Texan presses have not been made for some time. Apparently they were made by Rotex Manufacturing for a while. I also read that CH4D was related to them but after discussing this with the owner of CH4D, that is not the case. This meant there was no chance that I would find replacement parts. So I took the old links to a local machine shop (Tri County Precision Machinery) and had new ones made that were the correct length. Here is a picture comparing the new to the old:
Here is one of it all back together (excuse the mess, I was still working on it ):
Continued below...