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Ok, so a Dillion 550B is too pricey for me...

E4 No More

By E4 No More
in Ammunition and Reloading

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E4 No More Postus Maximus

E4 No More

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Congrats, you now have a machine that will last a lifetime and load just about anything out there. Enjoy and feel free to pick our little pea brains. ;)

Thanks for both, Brett. I'll be assembling it this weekend. Unfortunately, I have no primers with which to use it. :stare:

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glockster157 Established Contributor

glockster157

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BTW, there is a gun show this weekend at the fairgrounds. They will have primers but the price may not be pretty. They usually have a table with reloading supplies also. If you come, I will be at the table directly in front of the big pull up door, 2 aisles over, sitting with a big guy that sells knives and ammo.

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E4 No More Postus Maximus

E4 No More

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BTW, there is a gun show this weekend at the fairgrounds. They will have primers but the price may not be pretty. They usually have a table with reloading supplies also. If you come, I will be at the table directly in front of the big pull up door, 2 aisles over, sitting with a big guy that sells knives and ammo.

I didn't see this post until this morning, but my wife had other plans for me this weekend anyway. Yeah, it's pretty depressing to set-up your press and have no primers with which to play with the press.

After setting up the press I now understand and appreciate more the things that you said to me that kept me from ordering more things than I needed. Setting it up was easy with the exception of being stronger than I realized and snapping the 1/4" bolt while securing the strong mount. My bench is 43" high because I'm tall, so I thought that I wouldn't need the strong mount. When I unpacked the press and installed the lever I realized that even the taller bench wasn't enough. I picked up a strong mount at the Reoader's Bench on Saturday when my wife dragged me up there.

Hopefully, my primers will be delivered this week so that I can try out the press.

Edited by SWJewellTN
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E4 No More Postus Maximus

E4 No More

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9mm and .45 dies. I took Glockster157's advice to go with them and get the .308 and .223 dies later. I started to set it up on Saturday and realized that, even with my 43" tall bench I still was too tall for the press, so I ran out to Reloader's Bench to get the strong mount.

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glockster157 Established Contributor

glockster157

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Nice Jewel, looks like your going to be crankin as soon as you get some primers. I just got a chance to fire mine up after I got it back from Dillon after the rebuild. Mine was a 1984 model. It has seen a lot of rounds over the years. Dillon completely rebuilt it to look just like yours for $44.95 after 25 years of use including a new powder measure. Great company.

AS to caliber conversions. A lot of cases use the same shell plate. Like to do 40 SW when you have a 9mm setup, you need 40SW buttons and a expander/drop tube and a set of 40SW dies of course. That is it...same shell plate. Same for the 308 Winchester and 45ACP. Same shell plate and buttons all you need is a different drop tube. 308 is the same as 30-06, 25-06, 257 roberts, 243, 270, 7-08, etc, etc. Though I never load those rifle rounds in the Dillon, I use a Rock Chucker. But as I was telling Jewel, until you get one, you can use the first station on the Dillon like a single stage to do all the same operations as a single stage.

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56FordGuy Prolific Contributor

56FordGuy

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AS to caliber conversions. A lot of cases use the same shell plate. Like to do 40 SW when you have a 9mm setup, you need 40SW buttons and a expander/drop tube and a set of 40SW dies of course. That is it...same shell plate. Same for the 308 Winchester and 45ACP. Same shell plate and buttons all you need is a different drop tube. 308 is the same as 30-06, 25-06, 257 roberts, 243, 270, 7-08, etc, etc. Though I never load those rifle rounds in the Dillon, I use a Rock Chucker. But as I was telling Jewel, until you get one, you can use the first station on the Dillon like a single stage to do all the same operations as a single stage.

What are they calling the shell plate? The shell holder? What're the caliber specific buttons and expander/ drop tube for? Does the expander replace the case expander die?

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glockster157 Established Contributor

glockster157

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What are they calling the shell plate? The shell holder? What're the caliber specific buttons and expander/ drop tube for? Does the expander replace the case expander die?

OK, a conversion kit comes in a little blue box and has 3 things in it. The shell plate is a round metal plate with 4 cutouts for each press station operation. To keep the brass case in each position but make it possible to remove the case if needed, 3 brass buttons/pins go into holes at the edge of the press plate the keep the cases in the proper position in the shellholder. I hope you can picture this, it is really simple. So, in the case of the 9mm, the 40SW is just a little larger in the rim so you can use the same shell plate but smaller brass buttons/pins to keep the case in place. Since the 45acp and any 06 based case are the same head size(same shell holder) you do not need to buy a complete conversion kit.

Drop tubes come in two types. For a straight walled case, it does replace the expander/bell die and does this as it lifts the powder measure to drop the powder charge. For bottle necked cases, it just lifts the powder measure by hitting a lip the same size as the case mouth and causes the powder measure to lift and drop the charge. I hope yo can see now, if you have a 308 winchester and a 6mm remington, 270, 45acp, all you need is a conversion kit and the 3 drop tubes/neck expanders(if needed) for the other 3.

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