Exploding Primer Tube

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Pulp posted this topic in the Saloon a day or so ago. Not many responses so I thought maybe some pards on the Wire might have some ideas. I've never heard of static setting off a stack of primers in a tube.

 

http://sassnet.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=178651

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

The original poster included so LITTLE info as to make his post almost worthless. Obviously a small size primer for a Dillon press. Can't quite figure out a way from the pictures to spot whether it was SP or SR primers. Half a tube (50) being loaded at a time leads me to believe that he perhaps crushed a primer, then picked it back up into the pickup tube, along with a bunch of other primers. Tipped it up vertical and the loose priming compound dust exploded as the stack of primers fell down and impacted on some of the primer dust and the slightly warped primer.

 

Don't believe that static could have been the ignition trigger.

 

Good luck, GJ

[SlicLee SASS #16638 Life]

We all know or should know that the primer tube must be filled to the top or primers will turn inside the tube and may drop hard enough having too much primer dust inside the tube leading too.....

[Gold Canyon Kid #43974]

We all know or should know that the primer tube must be filled to the top or primers will turn inside the tube and may drop hard enough having too much primer dust inside the tube leading too.....

I have tested my small tubes and primers will not flip inside the tube. They will flip if the plastic tip is not FIRMLY seated on the end of the tube. A primer can easily turn over in the fatter part of the plastic tip unless the fatter portion is completely pushed down on the outside of the tube. These tests were run with the small primer tube and the yellow plastic tips.

[Rio Brazos Kid]

That's not the first time a primer tube has exploded and it certainly won't be the last.

 

There are several occurancess that can cause this, but primarily ONLY, if the primer tube cleaning has been neglected. The primer tubes need to be thoroughly cleaned of the dust from the priming compound, and this needs to be done on a very regular basis. Failing to do this is to severly elevate the possibility of a tube explosion. Priming compound dust accumulates at a much faster pace than most people realize, and it's imperative that it be removed on a regular and frequent basis.

 

If partially filled tubes are to be used, they should be handled with EXTRA care, so as to not allow the primers to slide down the tube and briskly collide with each other. That should be obvious.

 

RBK

[Keystone, SASS # 47578]

Well,

 

Which manufacture of primer was being used? Federals seem to be easier to ignite. Dillion used to suggest not using Federal primers.

 

Hasta Luego, Keystone

[Grizzly Dave]

RBK - How often are you taking about?

[Rio Brazos Kid]

RBK - How often are you taking about?

 

Griz,

I'm pretty anal about it having had several pards over the years experience the explosions, so I usually clean mine before every session, which is normally several hunderd rounds.

 

Really it's hard to put a drop dead number on it but I suspect you should clean at no more than 800 to 1000 rounds to be safe. I clean a bit more often than that, but that's just me.

 

RBK

[Grizzly Dave]

OK, just curious. Doesn't effect me right now anyway, I load on a rock chucker, maybe some day I'll move up to a 550 or 650.

 

Before each session sounds like a good routine, that way you never have to stop and think about when the last time you did it was.

 

Grizz

[Gold Canyon Kid #43974]

Griz,

I'm pretty anal about it having had several pards over the years experience the explosions, so I usually clean mine before every session, which is normally several hunderd rounds.

 

Really it's hard to put a drop dead number on it but I suspect you should clean at no more than 800 to 1000 rounds to be safe. I clean a bit more often than that, but that's just me.

 

RBK

 

What is it you are cleaning every 800 to 1000 rounds?

[Jefro, SASS#69420]

RBK - How often are you taking about?

I know of two, one was with a Dillon primer tube and one was with a Lee safety prime. Both were with Federal primers, Lee used to caution about no Federal primers in there system. This has been known about Federal for some time. DJ can explain the different compounds used in primers. From what I understand Federal uses a different compound than the others.

 

 

Jefro Relax-Enjoy

[Olen Rugged]

I spent quite a bit of time on the Dillon sitetoday and found no mention of cleaning primer pickup tubes.

 

I looked carefully at my primer tray, poked around the tubes with a swab and even took the primer system apart looking for primer dust...none to be found. I have loaded about 20,000 rounds in the last 12 months (.38 and 9mm). I have been reloading on this machine since the turn of the century without a primer dust problem and can't find any primer dust anywhere. Never cleaned a pickup tube.

 

I won't deny the photographic evidence of the OP. Something happened. I am very skeptical that static discharge was the cause.

 

Dillon is emphatic (in the manual and on the Dillon Forum) that IMPACT is the reason primer tubes explode.

 

They do not want you poking around in a pickup tube with a stick!

 

Olen

[klw]

That photograph just didn't look right. I've seen primer tubes that blew up and the tubes were very very seriously damaged. I don't doubt that something blew up but I doubt that it was all 50 primers.

 

This seems to have been a tube used to fill a primer tube rather than a primer tube itself. That would explain why the tube wasn't a lot stouter.

 

I've blown up a primer tube or two over the decades but each time it was clearly operator inattention. I've never heard of anyone blowing up a tube used to fill a primer tube. But, obviously, it happened here.

 

My best guess would not be static electricity. My best guess would be that he had an extremely sensitive primer and that something set that one primer off.

[Gold Canyon Kid #43974]

I know of 2 examples of 650 tubes igniting all or most of the primers in the machine. One was caused by a primer getting crushed in primer wheel and set off chain reaction launching plastic follower in ceiling. Second one was from dropping follower into almost empty tube, also launching follower. No personal damage except wet underwear.

[Church Key, SASS # 33713]

I'm guessing that the tube in question, a Dillon small primer pick up tube, which was loaded with 50 primers according to the post, was dropped on a concrete floor. That impact could set it off.

[Dutch Al #22045]

I have a hard time believing static could be the cause of a primer tube explosion. If you look at the way a primer is constructed, the bottom of the primer (the surface the firing pin strikes) forms a cup which contains the bottom and sides of the priming material. Them they insert an metal anvil into the top of the cup. So the priming material is almost completely surrounded by metal. And then those primers go inside a metal tube (either brass (Lyman) or aluminum (RCBS). So with the primers inside a metal tube, how can you build up a static charge to zap the primers. I would suspect some other cause, like an impact...

 

If primers were that sensitive to static electricity, why do we never heard stories about static electricity causing a loaded round to go off?

[Matthew Duncan]

Balderdash!

 

I don't believe it.

 

What fingers do you use to hold a primer reloading tube? Thumb and index? Guy's thumb and middle finger injured. Me thinks the tips of the finger would be injured not the pads.

 

Where do you hold a primer reloading tube? Towards the bottom for control? Picture show tune blown in the middle. Any "explosion" would go out the end of the tube.

 

Yankee carpet bagger smoke and mirrors trickery!