My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

[Lockdown1243]

I just wanted to give my quick review of the 1050 as well as ask for some suggestions from the knowledge base here at SH about the priming issues im having.

So far I have processed approximately 1500 pieces of brass using the Dillon along with the case trimmer added to it. I really didn't have any issues to speak of on the processing end of it. I was impressed with how fast I was able to process the brass, also the consistency of both the headspacing and trim length I was seeing out of the machine.

Where I ran into HUGE problems was when I started loading. Due to using Varget powder (loading hunting rounds), I decided against using the powder measure on the machine and am using my Chargemaster. I am currently using CCI 400 primers. I loaded the primers into the machine per the instructions. The first case went through to be primed and I felt a crunch. I pulled the case out and noticed the primer was almost folded in half. Next case, same thing. Next case, machine jams and won't cycle.

I took the machine apart to clear the jam. Somehow two primers got dropped out of the tube at the same time, causing the jam. I cleared the jam and continued. For the next few cases, about 1 in 5 was either getting crunched in or put in upside down. Thinking my swage bar wasn't adjusted properly, I hand swaged 10 pieces of brass to see what would happen. Still the same ratio of mis-primes. I contacted Dillon customer care on the phone. The fact that someone just answers the phone without me having to press a bunch of numbers is a HUGE plus.

The rep first said I possibly got a bad run of primers and that CCI's QC is suspect due to increased demand and the factories running 24/7. He recommended I use Winchester primers due to better QC. The next step is, I disassembled the priming system while on the phone with him. I checked the magazine tube to see if it was seated correctly.

Per Dillon, the tube is supposed to sit approximately 1/1000" below the bottom of the priming system. Mine was easily a few thousandths above the bottom. The rep said this was probably the issue and would cause doublefeeds and the primers to flip causing upside down charges which I had a few of. The rep stated they are sending a few primer magazines in the mail as well as an extra pickup tube for my time.


Using American ingenuity, I gently tapped the magazine tube down into the primer assembly while I had it off the machine. It still wasn't flush with the bottom of it, but was much better then before. I put everything back together and loaded up some more primers.

Next case through BAM, primer goes off. It wasn't nearly as loud as I expected, but scared me anyways. Oddly enough, the primer was pushed into the case correctly. I ran another 100 cases through and only had one more issue with a double drop. I'm hoping everything will be fixed when the new tube gets here. You would think they would check to be sure it was a proper fit before sending it out. Sorry for the huge wall of text, but here are my questions.

1) Has anyone had bad experiences with QC from CCI?
2) Has anyone had issues with the priming system on the 1050?

 

[targaflorio]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

I suggest you call Dillon. 800-223-4570.

 

[pmclaine]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

Dillon is your friend with this one. On the Brian Enos Forum in The Dillon gear section there is along thread with one party having some priming issues and others chiming in.

I have not had any issues I would call chronic in 8,000 plus rounds on my S1050.

Dillon probably gave you better advice than I can. My trouble shoot would be

1. make sure the primer mag tube is inserted correctly in the armored tube holder. i.e. the little tab on the plastic primer holder/dropper is inserted in its slot in the armored tube. As you insert the magazine into the armore case rotate it and you will feel the magazine drop into its slot.

2. make sure you have the proper size primer tube and plastic holder/dropper

3. replace the plastic holder/dropper at the bottom of the primer feed tube. If it looks crushed tweaked open suspect in any way change it.

4. the cap that secures the primer feed tube should not be tight. snug it down than back it off slightly to allow some float

Good luck. Its a great machine.

 

[leadbullet]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

I have loaded on a 2 1050 for over 12 years now, loaded amost over 1 million rounds total and have had fits of rage with them once in a while but never to the extent of your troubles.
make sure the feed tube is in all the way dow and tighten the feed tube shield nut tight.
the little plastick "follower" that sits on top of the primers are way too light, I use a 230 gr bullet in a .50 AE case on top of it and that helps a lot with missing, upside down and even sideways primers.
make sure the little white plastic wedge is not too loos against the case or your case could become slightly off the hole the primer goes through.
when in doubt call dillon, be cool with those guys and they'll help you a lot.
cheers and good luck

PS: varget doesn't meter worth a crap in the dillon powder measures, use spherical or flake powders only in those, varget and other extruded powder are best measure off an RCBS chargemaster or some such.

 

[noylj]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

It really helps to work with a single case at a time when you are learning how to operate a new progressive press. Also, read the manual carefully and you may want to get the DVD.
If you tighten the metal "cap" on the blast shield, you will distort the plastic tip on the primer tube and it will drop primers erratically. The metal "cap" only needs to be very slightly finger tight, no more than that. Be sure the plastic tip of the primer tube is seating properly into the groove.
The primer system will feed single primers. To work out the problem, stop loading and simply try to prime some cases, dropping one primer at a time. You might want to take off the white plastic tab so you can watch the primer in the slide. Just be sure that the case is kept flush in the shell plate.
There needs to be a small rubber tube on the roll pin at the end of the primer slide. If this is damaged or missing, the primer slide will not be picking up primers properly.
Remove the primer slide and drop a primer into the hole and be sure the primers you have fit properly. Some batches of primers can be dimensionally off.

 

[hofhine1]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

I fight with mine sometimes, so I'll throw my pennies in, I only assume that since you are using 400's that we are running 223.

The double primer dropping issue tells me that you either didn't have the line up peg ( on the primer magazine tube)in the slot, or you are not running the blue tipped primer tube. I'm sure they made sure with you on the phone that you didn't have a large primer magazine tube in the machine, which would be the red tipped one. Although I cannot see Dillon sending the machine out incorrectly set up from Scottsdale, shit still does happen. It you look at the slide, there really is no way to double on that machine if the blue tip is correctly indexed, and the slide is running correctly in it's channel.

One of the best things I got for the money was the spare parts kit for mine, although I believe Brian threw it in, (I got mine through Enos), keeps you sane as you have everything that breaks in stock, I think if you end up on the phone with Dillon you may be able to tweak on them a bit and get a slight discount if you're having problems, but don't quote me on that.

When I finally got mine completely perfect, it all came down to the swaging station setup, and the little white line up thing that somewhat keeps the case in the right spot on station 3, ( the priming one), when I got the swaging right I went from about 2.5 to 3 percent reject rate( all in the priming) to<span style="font-style: italic"> way </span>under half percent. We had 2200 come off one morning that went 100 percent a couple weekend ago, that machine gets right and you<span style="font-style: italic"> will </span>be happy.

I also, although Dillion doesn't like it, I run a 45LC case on top of my black primer push tube, and inside that is a 155 grain 40 bullet I stuffed in there for a bit of weight. Again, this works for alot of people, but that isn't what's holding you back right now.

And in my opinion, if you seperately process your brass, you should try running your powder measure with Varget when you load, if you take out the huge shake ( that occurs when you upstroke through the newly sized case in station one)of the machine, varget actually meters better than most people think in the slide bar of the Dillon, we ran a group of chargemaster loaded 223 against some I loaded, (24.5 of Varget and a 69SMK), and there was no difference at the target, from 200 to 500. You just need to be gentle on the downstroke, or put your finger on the case to keep the powder from shaking out of the case from the powder drop as it heads to the bullet seating die.

I've run 4895(for 308) in my 550 for years and it keeps a tenth all day long, as long as I pour the lube to the cases, and pull consistent as I can.


HTH, and if you want to talk more PM and I'll call you .



sean

 

[Lockdown1243]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

So trying to rule some things out, I tried hand priming some of my brass using the RCBS hand primer. I'm running into the same problem with some primers not seating right even after hand swaging some of the brass. Some of the primers go in smooth as butter while others feel like you have to use a hammer to put them in. Dillon stated CCI has problems in some runs of their primers with uniformity in size. I am going to go pick up 100 winchester primers today to see if maybe I am in a bad run.

Also according to Dillon, the primer magazine tip that was sent with the machine is probably defective as well and a few are already on the way. So here is my plan as it stands now:

1) Get another brand of primers and try hand priming them to rule out a bad run of primers.

2) If it's not the primers, adjust the swage bar on the Dillon and run some brass through it.

I'm starting to lean toward bad primers after my experience last night. I'll have an epic meltdown on CCI if this is the case being that I have over 9k of their primers left.

 

[Lockdown1243]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: hofhine1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I fight with mine sometimes, so I'll throw my pennies in, I only assume that since you are using 400's that we are running 223.

The double primer dropping issue tells me that you either didn't have the line up peg ( on the primer magazine tube)in the slot, or you are not running the blue tipped primer tube. I'm sure they made sure with you on the phone that you didn't have a large primer magazine tube in the machine, which would be the red tipped one. Although I cannot see Dillon sending the machine out incorrectly set up from Scottsdale, shit still does happen. It you look at the slide, there really is no way to double on that machine if the blue tip is correctly indexed, and the slide is running correctly in it's channel.

One of the best things I got for the money was the spare parts kit for mine, although I believe Brian threw it in, (I got mine through Enos), keeps you sane as you have everything that breaks in stock, I think if you end up on the phone with Dillon you may be able to tweak on them a bit and get a slight discount if you're having problems, but don't quote me on that.

When I finally got mine completely perfect, it all came down to the swaging station setup, and the little white line up thing that somewhat keeps the case in the right spot on station 3, ( the priming one), when I got the swaging right I went from about 2.5 to 3 percent reject rate( all in the priming) to<span style="font-style: italic"> way </span>under half percent. We had 2200 come off one morning that went 100 percent a couple weekend ago, that machine gets right and you<span style="font-style: italic"> will </span>be happy.

I also, although Dillion doesn't like it, I run a 45LC case on top of my black primer push tube, and inside that is a 155 grain 40 bullet I stuffed in there for a bit of weight. Again, this works for alot of people, but that isn't what's holding you back right now.

And in my opinion, if you seperately process your brass, you should try running your powder measure with Varget when you load, if you take out the huge shake ( that occurs when you upstroke through the newly sized case in station one)of the machine, varget actually meters better than most people think in the slide bar of the Dillon, we ran a group of chargemaster loaded 223 against some I loaded, (24.5 of Varget and a 69SMK), and there was no difference at the target, from 200 to 500. You just need to be gentle on the downstroke, or put your finger on the case to keep the powder from shaking out of the case from the powder drop as it heads to the bullet seating die.

I've run 4895(for 308) in my 550 for years and it keeps a tenth all day long, as long as I pour the lube to the cases, and pull consistent as I can.


HTH, and if you want to talk more PM and I'll call you .



sean

</div></div>

I might very well take you up on the phone call if i can't get the problem solved. You are correct I am running .223 on the machine. All of the brass is Military/LE surplus stuff and I have a seperate toolhead for processing and loading. As to the Varget in the Dillon powder measure, I very well might try it. I would assume that I would have to use the large powder measure bar and not the small one that comes installed. I actually have noticed a difference with it feeding better when there is some weight on the follower as well.

 

[pmclaine]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

Setting the swage rod/backup rod never leaves me feeling confident it is correct. I should probably use a dremel to cut some brass as per the brass pictured in the Dillon directions than use it as a gauge when setting up the press. I fear going too much and damaging a shell plate or two little and exploding the primer mag. Somehow I get it done by insuring a nice shiny, chamfered, ring is produced by the swage rod in the primer pocket.

If you are leaving any of the crimp that could be your ass ache.

 

[Lockdown1243]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: pmclaine</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Setting the swage rod/backup rod never leaves me feeling confident it is correct. I should probably use a dremel to cut some brass as per the brass pictured in the Dillon directions than use it as a gauge when setting up the press. I fear going too much and damaging a shell plate or two little and exploding the primer mag. Somehow I get it done by insuring a nice shiny, chamfered, ring is produced by the swage rod in the primer pocket.

If you are leaving any of the crimp that could be your ass ache. </div></div>

I'll know for sure once I get home with the Winchester primers. Mind you I have gone back and swaged some of the brass by hand and had the same issues. How did you know my ass hurt?

 

[pmclaine]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

Win primers may do the trick. A month ago I finished a 4,000 round run of .38 spcl wadcutter. I'm guessing I had 4-5 primer issues and it usually came from AMERC or S&B brass. I was expecting S&B to be unreloadable but the win primers did okay.

 

[bronzepig]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

I know you are reloading 223. And if the 1050 came pre set up then the small primer should be in the machine. All the above recommendations should fix the 1050 I have is a little more finicky than my dillon 1000 but still best available.

 

[Helter]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Lockdown</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So trying to rule some things out, I tried hand priming some of my brass using the RCBS hand primer. I'm running into the same problem with some primers not seating right even after hand swaging some of the brass. Some of the primers go in smooth as butter while others feel like you have to use a hammer to put them in. Dillon stated CCI has problems in some runs of their primers with uniformity in size. I am going to go pick up 100 winchester primers today to see if maybe I am in a bad run.

Also according to Dillon, the primer magazine tip that was sent with the machine is probably defective as well and a few are already on the way. So here is my plan as it stands now:

1) Get another brand of primers and try hand priming them to rule out a bad run of primers.

2) If it's not the primers, adjust the swage bar on the Dillon and run some brass through it.

I'm starting to lean toward bad primers after my experience last night. I'll have an epic meltdown on CCI if this is the case being that I have over 9k of their primers left. </div></div>
It's probably not the same issue, but I had similiar problems with some .308 brass. It turned out that the primer pockets were a bit on the small side, and wouldn't work until I took a reamer to them.

 

[Lockdown1243]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

Sorry for bringing back a thread that is two weeks old, but I finally was able to find a solution to the problem and learned a couple of things along the way.

1) The magazine feed tube that came from the factory was junk and out of spec.

2) The swaging die was set waaaaaay too far back not allowing the primer pockets to be swaged correctly.

3) The primer seating depth was off by a few thousands causing the primers to seat too high in the cases.

4) Prior to solution #2/#3, I ran 100 Winchester primers through the machine with 0 misfeeds or improper priming.

5) After measuring the CCI primers vs. Winchester primers, it appears the CCIs are just a few ten thousandths bigger then the Winchesters which would explain some of the issues.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[pmclaine]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

When its running great, and it will just a matter of working out the kinks, you will love it.

Mine was running so good it caused me to break it. Between .38 and .45 loading I was probably up to about 5-6,000 rounds without a malf and than I came across one case that I couldnt get the handle to bottom out on. I figured to raise the tool head, clear the plate and find out what the issue was. I suspected just a tight piece of brass in the sizer. Well I forgot about the ratchet when I went to lift the handle and snapped the restriction tab.

Spare part is probably in the spares kit but I'll probably just run without the ratchet until I do a caliber change. Actually feels much smoother without it and Ive come to understand many dont use it. I run a powder check but I kind of like the ratchet extra failsafe that prevents me from double charging.

Anyway moral of the story dont force anything.

 

[Lockdown1243]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

Also, I just wanted to be sure to give a +1 to Dillon on customer care. I spoke with Eric on the phone and told him about my issues. They sent me new magazine tips, a spare parts kit and some lock rings for my troubles.

 

[Tangodown911]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Helter</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Lockdown</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So trying to rule some things out, I tried hand priming some of my brass using the RCBS hand primer. I'm running into the same problem with some primers not seating right even after hand swaging some of the brass. Some of the primers go in smooth as butter while others feel like you have to use a hammer to put them in. Dillon stated CCI has problems in some runs of their primers with uniformity in size. I am going to go pick up 100 winchester primers today to see if maybe I am in a bad run.

Also according to Dillon, the primer magazine tip that was sent with the machine is probably defective as well and a few are already on the way. So here is my plan as it stands now:

1) Get another brand of primers and try hand priming them to rule out a bad run of primers.

2) If it's not the primers, adjust the swage bar on the Dillon and run some brass through it.

I'm starting to lean toward bad primers after my experience last night. I'll have an epic meltdown on CCI if this is the case being that I have over 9k of their primers left. </div></div>
It's probably not the same issue, but I had similiar problems with some .308 brass. It turned out that the primer pockets were a bit on the small side, and wouldn't work until I took a reamer to them. </div></div>


This was this the primer issue and solution for lockdowns machine. It took me a few hours fixing all of dillons poor assembling. I'm certain nothing on I was actually set or calibrated but just more thrown together. Bluntly it appeared to me that someone who was clueless assembled it.

And yes I have a 1050 that has functioned flawlessly since I took it ou of the box with very little adjustment to anything. Sometimes things fall through the cracks.

 

[Lockdown1243]

Re: My First Week With My Dillon 1050/Priming Issues

Thanks to TD for all your help!! I would still be pulling my hair out!