Why though? for an extra bit of flat real estate?
I’d rather have a die bushing/housing made with battery powdered LED lighting
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New press announcement from Area 419
- Thread starter Olen_4504
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Why though? for an extra bit of flat real estate?
I’d rather have a die bushing/housing made with battery powdered LED lighting
I think the ram needs to be at the top of the stroke for the leverage to feel right with the arbor dies.
The feel is pretty bad with it blanked off and a Wilson die in there. Not enough room to really do much.
There were a flurry of guys in here that wanted them, so we figured we'd run a handful and play with them, see what happened. We may hate them and never make a large run, but may like them. Only one way to find out.
Zero arrived today, headed off to the lumber store, my bench is too short for my taste, my kids and pretty well reach everything so i’m adding 18” blocks under the legs.
I’ll be really set with the autotrickler comes around.
I’ll be really set with the autotrickler comes around.
Let there be light!
Attachments
EVISWIY Sewing Machine Light LED Lighting (30LEDs) 6 Watt Multifunctional Flexible Gooseneck Arm Work Lamp with Magnetic Mounting Base for Workbench Lathe Drill Press 2 Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZNR9JCT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_NFN6FbAQ7N2X3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
It's worth mentioning, the lights are bright and one is really all that is needed. Two were in the box though.
How do you like your General? I've got a S900 I was thinking about selling for a General XP.
I’m enjoying mine the more I use it. I generally run 3-500 pieces of brass through sizer and mandrel a week. Sometimes more and sometimes less. But that’s about average.
The biggest thing for me is how easy it is on my arm/elbow/shoulder. Much more pleasant to run than my co-ax. And while definitely robust, it’s not a very big footprint. I currently have it clamped down pretty securely. Waiting on a big dog mount, but might just run it clamped down like this.
The turret is very convenient
I honestly don’t expect anything to change on performance of my ammo. But I’m pretty happy with purchase so far.
The biggest thing for me is how easy it is on my arm/elbow/shoulder. Much more pleasant to run than my co-ax. And while definitely robust, it’s not a very big footprint. I currently have it clamped down pretty securely. Waiting on a big dog mount, but might just run it clamped down like this.
The turret is very convenient
I honestly don’t expect anything to change on performance of my ammo. But I’m pretty happy with purchase so far.
I like to open the box, look at it a bit, close the box. I even put the handle on once and pumped the ram, and turned the turret a few times, it’s quite pleasing.
Even have a big dawg mount, but I looked at my bench and said this needs an overhaul before I mount it.
Would be like framing the mona lisa with one of those plastic poster frames from a bit box store.
I’m going to add 14” in height to the table legs, sand blast and powder coat it black.
Even have a big dawg mount, but I looked at my bench and said this needs an overhaul before I mount it.
Would be like framing the mona lisa with one of those plastic poster frames from a bit box store.
I’m going to add 14” in height to the table legs, sand blast and powder coat it black.
I love this - it's like my wife buying a new piece of decor or furniture and deciding to go ahead and repaint a room so it goes together - only way more awesome. You should take some before/after photos. The ZERO out here making reloading benches better places around the world.
I’m going to stay with the black and silver theme, had my homemade wet tumbler powder coated in ripple black like a harley, thinking it will do good on the bench also.
The General has been good, it's got enough utility to use around the property and still does great on trail rides.
I was waiting on an email from A 419 to let me know when these presses came back in stock through their website. Never got one but was able to get one in the cart and check out. Still waiting on bunch of stuff from first week of Dec. as well. Guess it will be a surprise when it shows. So if your waiting on a notification maybe just keep checking.
Currently, anytime they are available to order and checkout, it’s a pre-order.
Our restock emails are commonly sorted into spam, but they definitely went out. Figured we would give the people that actively follow us a few days to get an order in, then next week push out an email to finish off this production round.
Fuck that. Who even loads on a single stage any more. Other than sizing cases I do everything on an arbor press with inline dies. Doesn’t everyone do it this way?
Lots of spare turrets have been shipping this week. If you haven't seen a notification, shoot an email with your name/order number to [email protected] and nudge the CS team.
Also, the March/April round is about 85% sold, so if you want one of those, I bet there's about a week left before those orders close for 2-3 months.
Also, the March/April round is about 85% sold, so if you want one of those, I bet there's about a week left before those orders close for 2-3 months.
OH - and Die Rings are available in limited quantities. More being made next week. I know some of you here already got your orders in and there are a pile in the mail stream, interested in your thoughts on them. https://www.area419.com/product/zero-die-ring-multi-packs/
Shooting a bunch of product videos next week, this is one of them. We won't push on this product until we have a lot more on the shelf, for obvious reasons, but we will have that content available soon.
Bought some to try them out. Curiosity got me. I’ll try and check runout before and after using the same dies, brass and bullets.
So, looking at the rings, they don’t lock into the die (unless I’m missing something).
While I understand part of the point of the turret head is not to move the dies.....what is the intended process when you want to clean a die or need to disassemble and may need to turn it upside down to drop something out?
Take the entire head off snd leave the die in? Or is the idea that having a completely consistent die ring is worth the slight inconvenience of resetting the die once every so many months or year?
Just wondering the philosophy and thought process behind non lock die rings.
While I understand part of the point of the turret head is not to move the dies.....what is the intended process when you want to clean a die or need to disassemble and may need to turn it upside down to drop something out?
Take the entire head off snd leave the die in? Or is the idea that having a completely consistent die ring is worth the slight inconvenience of resetting the die once every so many months or year?
Just wondering the philosophy and thought process behind non lock die rings.
The locking function of rings is typically where their inconsistencies come from. The grub screw pushing on threads, the split in the rings - those fight against the ring being true to the threads (and therefore, in theory, the chamber of the die). I'd rather the die be set up true than the reset be easy.
I think removing the turret to clean a die would be significantly more consistent for reset than any removal of the die from the turret. Even with a locking ring, taking out and replacing a die isn't consistent. I've replicated it several times. It can be close, but it isn't the same.
I'm curious what numbers you're getting for inconsistencies with replacing a die in a traditional lock ring on the Zero press. For a FL sizing op are you talking +/- 0.001" bump variation? +/- 0.0001"? Is it enough to matter?
FWIW I haven't experienced that with Forster lock rings on a Co-Ax, then again I do ensure the ring and die itself are "clocked" in the same orientation relative to the front of the press each time I use it.
@Dthomas3523 if you're interested, the Whidden click-adjust lock ring appears to eliminate the split ring design, although obviously something internal is pressing against the threads of the die body. At $53 each, it's 2x that of the 419 ring, and 4x that of the Forster ring, so the law of diminishing returns may be in full force.
That is the problem I had, I had to experiment spinning the split ring in the CoAx until I got close to zero runout and every single ring was different. When I began stoning the rings on a precision stone none of the rings were flat, they had high spots and low spots and none in the same place.
I was talking specifically about variations in bump, not runout. Especially because with a traditional threaded press like a Zero or RockChucker there isn't the ability to "clock" the die differently when it's set up like you can with a Co-Ax (unless you're talking about 1 or 2 degrees depending on how hard you tighten it down).
I used to measure runout, now I don't. If it's in the 0.001-0.003" region I haven't found it affects anything downrange for the type of PRS style matches I shoot.
Neither does .001" of extra shoulder bump or .001" of extra seating depth. My point is the CoAx relies on the flatness of the die rings and none of them are the same. I'm not convinced any of the various thread in presses need flatter die rings though since the axial alignment of the die doesn't necessarily depend on how true the lock rings are.
I get what you're saying. Arguing semantics, I would say 0.001" bump variation is the only one that could matter. If you target a FL bump of 0.003", then +/- 0.001" will not prevent a cartridge from chambering freely. Some people target only 0.001" or 0.0015" bump, and their die is minimally sizing the base, so it absolutely could result in a cartridge having difficulty chambering if you're on the + 0.001" side of the tolerance when you screw that die back into the press.
True. I could do all of that on a $70 Lee press with $25 RCBS basic dies too (and have). At this point we're so far down the rabbit hole we're agonizing over the minutia. What shouldn't matter, and probably doesn't, suddenly does.
One day I took a pile of dies and lock rings to a lathe, busted out some indicators, and was shocked by the amount of variance between the faces of the die ring and the chamber of the die. The runouts would also change meaningfully when rings were loosened/tightened/moved/etc.
On a Class 2A/2B 7/8x14 threads (which is the standard for dies/presses) there can be .030" of major diametric difference in the die and the hole. This means in that lock ring, which has around .300" of thread engagement you could have a HUGE misalignment (nearly 6*) and everything be in spec and tight. Spit rings and set screws make the likelihood of this misalignment very high.
How much does it really change the ammo? That's a deep rabbit hole. It's certainly, however, something that exists.
I also did the same with some die bushings - it was ugly - but more on that when we roll out our sizing die designs.
On a Class 2A/2B 7/8x14 threads (which is the standard for dies/presses) there can be .030" of major diametric difference in the die and the hole. This means in that lock ring, which has around .300" of thread engagement you could have a HUGE misalignment (nearly 6*) and everything be in spec and tight. Spit rings and set screws make the likelihood of this misalignment very high.
How much does it really change the ammo? That's a deep rabbit hole. It's certainly, however, something that exists.
I also did the same with some die bushings - it was ugly - but more on that when we roll out our sizing die designs.
I pin gaged my bushing sets, they're not even the sizes marked on the bushings. I'm not sure why anyone would expect them to be concentric when they're not even the size the manufacturer claims them to be.
Are they at least close to a thousandth apart if you measure a consecutive set from the same manufacturer?
No. Some are dead on, some are off .002". This is fairly well known, if you search Accurate Shooter there's a bunch of threads documenting the issue. Sort of makes you wonder if people incorrectly blame brass hardness for the error in bushing size.
I’m 1000% sure most of the issues people have are easily explainable if they took the time to properly measure things.
Most people have no real idea what their neck ID is and make statements like “I use .002 tension” when they are running .001, .003, .004 etc as they just assume with match and claimed bushing/mandrel size (and forget about spring back a lot of times) is what they are getting.
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