Finally Mounted RCBS press to reloading bench

There @Gimli, it is mounted!!! You can let off with the months of jabbing. :slight_smile:
@USprofessional, thanks for the help and doing the lifting where I couldn’t.

@thatguy, we need to talk about the progressive presses in the room. Russel and I where both eaten up with working on the progressive presses. BUT, we soon found out that they are a real pain to use when changing calibers as often as we do at DMS. These is especially true with the Dylan presses as they have particularly small parts that can be lost. We may need to look into returning the Dylan Presses that have been loaned so they are out of the way, then possibly sell the lock and load to purchase 1 or 2 more of the RCBS single stage presses. This will allow for much more hands on for classes and having three presses setup will kind of give a multi-stage setup. Do you agree? Your the boss supreme leader! :smile:

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Do these Dillons have the three ( or is it four ) die plates ? I had though the only change to switch caliber with one was to remove one plate and put in the other. Sounds ideal for DMS.

Well, the key with swapping the die plates is that you have to have them set up for your particular load… so a die plate that I set up for me likely won’t work for you, and vice versa.

Also, the die plates do make it faster, but there’s still a LOT of moving parts with a progressive press like a Dillon, and they’re not for the novice or the faint of heart.

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Sounds like a “Bring your own plate” sort of deal. Or at least agree on a few sets for common calibers and set them up to a mutually agreeable way. Powder load is independent of the dies on all the presses I’ve seen. Spacing of the bullet in the case would be the only variable, wouldn’t it ?

Also, are the plates something we could CAD up and make on the HAAS ?

The detent hardware for the shell plate, as well as the plate and screws are a bit fun to keep track of on the Dillon presses. Also fun to keep track of which shell plates work with which calibers.

Other adjustments include: How far the sizing die runs, sometimes neck expander has to be adjusted (depending on die set), crimp tension, and as mentioned, the bullet seater for OAL.

That’s the best way to do it.

Well, the problem with that is that there really isn’t a universal standard. How you set up your dies is 100% dependent on what you’re loading.

Let’s consider a nice, easy to load (and hard to screw up) round: .45 ACP

You’ve got 2 different common bullet weights (185gr and 220gr), about 173 different bullet lengths, different case flares, different crimps, different COAL, and that’s assuming that you’ve got your brass sorted into small primer and large primer…

It’s not an easy one-size-fits-all kinda thing.

Absolutely. The only challenging part is the threading.

The kickers on some of the progressives can be the stray crimped primer poket. I had all sorts of issues with my loadmaster until I went through & de-crimped with the Dillon super swage. Now my brass that has been de-crimped is marked on the case head.

The plate is an issue but not much different from the single stage. If you are making major changes in components, even with the same caliber, there are adjustments you need t make on either a Dillon or a progressive press,

My main dissatisfaction with the progressives are the little pieces that need to be changed on the progressives that don’t exist on the single stage presses. The pieces I’m talking about, usually plastic, are for guiding components into place. On a single stage you use your hand to guide the components.

If the progressive is setup for one caliber and load you can really crank out some ammunition. Think of the Haas compared to the Bridgeport. If you want 100 identical pieces the Haas is the way to go, for 5 or 10 pieces the Bridgeport will probably be quicker.

This is just my opinion your milage may vary.

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@Nick @Gimli

It would seem to me that the 650 and the lock n load dont get near the use as the rock chucker (as far as i know) so i do agree with nicks idea of returning the 650, selling the lock n load, and getting at least 2 more rock chuckers. Do we have everything we need to run 3 rock chuckers at one time shell plates, dies, etc etc etc?

The single stage presses all use the same accessories. The question is how many sets of a given caliber do we want to have. My discussion with Nick didn’t get into this. We thought that having three presses to use at one time would be good. It might not be a bad idea to have multiple sets of the most common die sets, .223, 308, 45ACP, 9MM etc. I’m not sure we should have more than two sets of dies until we have at least one of the less common dies, 38 special, 30-06, 243 and such.

@thatguy it is your call though, I’ll support you either way.

.40 S&W would be appreciated as well.

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If we had just one die set & 3 shell holders, we might be fine. Or however many shell holders we needed.

I think I have the hornady quick connects I’d be willing to donate to the cause.

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Buying the individual shell holders is fairly expensive and they get lost. We can buy a set with a storage case and most of the common shell holders at a nice savings. The die sets with the Hornady twist lock adapters don’t fit in the original cases and I would like to see something made that would hold the die sets together.

I really like the Hornady quick connects too. I have converted over to them at home.

Perhaps @nick can CAD up some new die set boxes that could incorporate the twisy lock adapters into the design? Or if his schedule does not permit the time to do so perhaps i can find someone else at the space more adept in the ways of the CAD than me to help us. I would just need die sets to measure and such. I would be willing to 3D print new boxes for Hatchers

The dies in Hatcher’s all have the quick connects on them. If you were going to 3D print them you would not be able to get more than 1 or 2 sets in each. I was thinking about laser cutting 5mm or 8mm plywood to make a holder to hold all of the dies. I don’t care which way we go. Done is better than “this is going to be fantastic”.

This is what I suggest we get for shell holders.

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Im fine with cutting plywood to make a rack for all the dies are we talking just a kind of drop in place kind of thing?

I was thinking of a box with a tray that holds the dies. With or without a lid. It could be mounted on the wall over the bench for easy access. Set the die through a hole in the tray.