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Dillon 550B - Sideways primers


Cholla

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About one out of 50 primers gets inserted sideways which destroys the primer, jambs the machine, and is slightly worrisome. Any idea what could be causing this? I can clear the primer and immediately insert a new primer in its place so I don't think it is the brass.

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4 minutes ago, Cholla said:

About one out of 50 primers gets inserted sideways which destroys the primer, jambs the machine, and is slightly worrisome. Any idea what could be causing this? I can clear the primer and immediately insert a new primer in its place so I don't think it is the brass.

 

First disassemble the primer cup and clean it thoroughly.. Clean the primer tube as well. Make sure the plastic tip on the primer tube is not deformed and that it is fully seated on the tube.  I had to emery paper my tubes slightly so that the tips would fully seat.

 

While you have it apart verify everything is properly adjusted

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When I have had the same problem it usually seems to be misalignment of the primer ram with the hole in the shell plate.  the primer cup catches as it enters and gives the primer a flip.  It doesn’t take much misalignment to do it.

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If the above don't fix it, I've also found that this can happen with cases that take work to get through the sizing or belling dies.  The vibration/force required can bounce the primers about.  A friend of mine (shoots 45 colt) has particularly stiff cases and runs into this issue enough that we put the decapping/sizing die into another set and that runs by itself.  Then he resets the 650 for the rest of the operations once there are several hundred sized/decapped cases.

 

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Clean the slide, slide housing, and support plate thoroughly.    While the slide is out, check that the primer cup stud is perfectly straight in the slide arm.   And that the stud is inserted fully into arm so the groove in the stud catches the lock screw.  It is easy for the stud to go a little sideways, which leads to primers not being centered in the case, catching the wall of primer, and turning it sideways.

 

THEN reassemble the slide, support arm, etc.  Start the two screws that hold the primer assembly on the frame by coming up through the housing from the bottom.  But leave them about one turn loose of snug.  Now with no shells in shell plate,  run operating handle up so the primer cup/stud come through the frame.  If you feel ANY slight catch when doing this, adjust the housing to let things clear.   When centered perfectly in the frame, HOLD the operating handle there and tighten those stinking little housing screws until snug.   Check again that the cup clears the frame hole.  Then try priming a few cases, feeling again for any snag which tells you you still don't have things centered up.

 

Good luck, GJ

 

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I've had that problem before. G. Joe gives an excellent step-by-step for the primer feed mechanism troubleshooting and alignment. Keeping the slide, etc. clean and free from snags helps.

 

Make sure your press is solidly mounted -- a little jostle of the machine when you hit the end of the ram's travel can shake the primers.

 

Another part of the solution for me was to take a thin strip of metal (the spring steel strip out of an old wiper blade worked great), gluing a spent primer on the end, and sliding it down the primer feed tube on top of the stack of primers. The little bit of weight helped smooth out the feed and kept primers from flipping. Plus I marked the number of primers remaining on it (or spend the $$ and get a low primer alarm -- the weight of the LPA rod does the same thing).

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10 hours ago, Crisco said:

When I have had the same problem it usually seems to be misalignment of the primer ram with the hole in the shell plate.  the primer cup catches as it enters and gives the primer a flip.  It doesn’t take much misalignment to do it.

+1000

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There is also a tool to align the shell plate.I believe that Dillon will just ship U one at no charge.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Largo

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Do the cleaning described above. 

 

Another issue that bit bit me when I was having the same challenge was with the paper clip device that holds the case firmly in the shell holder. It had come loose and the case wasn’t firmly aligning, which caused the tipped primers. 

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A Dillon rep at Winter Range suggested I place a 45acp hull on the top of the plastic follower to give it a little weight, and, to clean the tube every now an then as primer powder residue will build up inside and can cause it not to feed as it should.  I did as he suggested and it works well.  

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Have had the same problem and tried some of the remedies with some success. But when it happens, its still frustrating.

I paid a lotta $$ for this, it shouldn't do that. I will go through the whole process again and see if it stops.

BTW, it happens a LOT more with CCIs than it does with Federals. Hmmmm

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4 hours ago, Pineywoods Jim,SASS#56822 said:

A Dillon rep at Winter Range suggested I place a 45acp hull on the top of the plastic follower to give it a little weight, and, to clean the tube every now an then as primer powder residue will build up inside and can cause it not to feed as it should.  I did as he suggested and it works well.  

Mine has a 45-70 case riding on it. 

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Sometimes slowing down just a bit helps. They really aren't designed toe be slamming the handle up and down trying to go as fast as you can. Also, make sure the slide is clean,otherwise it can start to stick and then "pop" on the inside direction and flip a primer.

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I think my issues was the not quite lined up problem. I have since done some adjustments and it seems smoother. I just cast a load of bullets so we will see what happens.

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I run an SDB and the primer feed tube has a plastic follower with what looks like abt. 158gr. .38 cast bullet on the end. Seems to work fine. I made second one a little longer to keep weight on those last couple primers in the tube. Although every once in a blue moon I get a side ways one or completely upside down. I've been assuming it was happening in the pick-up tube as even my brand new tubes seem to have one hang up as I fill the primer feed tube. Since the jammed one is usually towards the end, I just check those last 3 or so when finishing up 100. As the OP stated, it's a bit concerning dealing with crushed primers in your brass.

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Many, many good solutions above.

 

I have found that when doing a loading "marathon" 2000 to 4000 rounds (not bragging, just ammo for two shooters) very fine dust from the powder trickles down to the shell plate that is spread by the cartridges as they rotate. It is very, very fine dust, but if you run your finger around the bin where the loaded cartridges fall, you will pick it up.

 

I have a can of "dust off" that folks use to blast air onto areas, usually a keyboard, to remove dust. Every 500 or so rounds I blast the powder bars, shell plate/holder, primer bar/cup.

 

That has reduced many issues for me. YMMV.

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