What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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  • bigmancrisler

    2A Preacher
    Jun 4, 2020
    1,263
    Martinsburg, WV
    Building a bench with shelves now with a prefab leg kit from Northern Tools, just cut and add the lumber, so you can make it to your needed size.. we'll see how it turns out in the end, nothing fancy, just need it to be solid. They have shelving kits only too...

    My bench has shelved built in, but needed more space….


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Reloaded ~450 9mm rounds the other day and gauged ~600 before marking them and putting them in boxes. Back in business with that caliber, at least. Need to set up the 45ACP dies on the other press still, but just haven't had time with the wife doing shift work this week.

    Also bought a PAL filler from Europe so that I'm not hunt-and-pecking large primers. Wish DAA make a Primer Pro in that size. :P
     

    Harrys

    Short Round
    Jul 12, 2014
    3,362
    SOMD
    I’ve redone this room at least 5 times and I haven’t even lived here a year yet


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I have lived in my house over 30 years and cannot count the times I have rearranged stuff. Earlier this year I bought a gun safe and had rearranged it 3 times.
     

    Sticky

    Beware of Dog
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 16, 2013
    4,501
    AA Co
    I had to expand into a new section of the basement for this one to fit and function. Hopefully it'll all work out in the end just fine. Still a work in progress, but we are making headway today!

    IMG_6817.JPG



    IMG_6818.JPG
     
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    FN509Fan

    Ultimate Member
    I had to expand into a new section of the basement for this one to fit and function. Hopefully it'll all work out in the end just fine. Still a work in progress, but we are making headway today!

    That puddle in front of me is not dog slobber, it's me drooling over your setup. Are you going to bolt that to the wall? Or just weigh it down with your stock of bullets? It seems like it might move around a bit when you are priming.

    I just received a Lyman Bass Smith powder measure and stand. I watched a ton of videos on powder measures and figured it would do the job without over spending. The matching stand was on sale, you could park a tank on the dang thing. Seems like overkill for holding up the powder measure. So far I've only clamped it to the bench and filled the hopper and threw a bunch of charges to see how accurate it measured. Seems to be +/- 0.075 gr. (for Unique) which is about what I expected. I'll be using it to load for 45 Colt and Auto Rim revolvers which can shoot better than I can.
     

    Sticky

    Beware of Dog
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 16, 2013
    4,501
    AA Co
    The bench is bolted to the wall, you just can't see it. I need to level the shelves and get a couple more installed below the ones in the pic, but the rain sent me scrambling to get my miter saw setup under cover as I was down in the basement assembling when it hit this afternoon. The storms caught me by surprise, so we are postponed til I have some more free time.

    I'm up in the air on priming.. I have primed untold thousands of rounds with an old lee autoprime and I may opt, at least at first, to prime that way separately. I know it's an extra step, but it's a minor inconvenience and I get very good consistency with the hand primer. I will see how the press prime works. I have never used it on my Rockchucker, always hand primed with the Autoprime.

    I typically decap and wet or dry tumble cases before priming, so it's not a big deal to remove the decap from the sizing die, remove the priming rod and do it old school in that sense. I'll give the Dillon priming mechanism a fair shake and see how it compares.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Did initial set up the 45 ACP dies on 650 #2. Gauged and marked ~350 9mm. Installed the Armanov decapped primers tube assembly on 650 #2. Sorted out the range pickup bucket, and cleaned a tumbler full of 9mm brass (currently drying).

    The next task I'd like to work on is fully dialing in 650 #2 for 45 ACP and doing some test loads, but the reality is that I will probably be cranking hard on 650 #1 to produce more 9mm. Our rate of expenditure has been astronomical over the past month (~1500 rounds), and while it's "productive" expenditure for matches, training, and classes, it's still time I need to spend pulling that handle. If my kid keeps shooting PCC, I wouldn't be surprised if I crossed the 10k 9mm mark this year.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Loaded and gauged another 250 rounds of 9mm from the brass I just cleaned. None of that FC NT garbage so far, it's been very smooth and pleasant. Switching to CCI SPMs for the next round of 9mm, which shouldn't be any different than the SRPs I previously used.

    Found a little quality time to dial in 650 #2 for 45 Auto. Current load is a 230gr FMJ with a 5.6gr Unique charge under it, running at ~1.25 OAL. I am a little leery of whether that load will make major, so I may hunt down a cheap chrono and check velocity.
     
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    Sticky

    Beware of Dog
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 16, 2013
    4,501
    AA Co
    Made my first warranty call to Dillon. Set up and ran a few rounds (about 14 loaded) and all of a sudden parts flew. Turns out it was the roller bolt that retains the primer slide roller to the index block. The bolt was drilled so deep for the forming of the hex that they drilled into the shank and there was virtually nothing there, I'm surprised it made it through the strokes I made just doing the press and die setups. It was 5 on Friday afternoon, about 10 mins on the phone with tech service and the parts are on the way to repair it.

    I added a few minor upgrades, some lockouts for the various stations, thrust bearing, light for the toolhead and an upgraded case flipper for the case feeder that was giving me issues with 9mm cases. Oh and I was loading 9mm when the bolt broke, not exactly taxing it in any way.. lol
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    I was buying lee pins ten at a time. My friend and I process nine and 308 by the bucket to feed his machine guns. What really tore it for me was the shitty norma 9 brass with smaller than BR flash holes. Really ruining production rates and costing money. Then lee decap pins were out of stock everywhere. The squirrel daddy pins were better but still not up to that job. Called wayne. He guaranteed me that his die would either decap the case or destroy it but the pin would be fine in either event. So far he has been right. I'm running his shorty bull decap die.

    And to my friend bigmancrisler, "cut twice, measure, say f@#$ three times, and go back to the lumber yard" is the way of the construction industry, ain't it?
    I feel that. I still measure twice, but usually I know it's the end of my workday when I get a couple of pieces where I measure twice, cut once and curse a bunch and grab a new piece of lumber and go measure a couple more times. It usually means I am getting too tired at the end of a long workday and F-ing up. Or its hours past when I should have stopped for lunch so I need to take an hour break to eat and rest. Just one piece, it is just a whoopsie. Two in a short period is me being tired.

    Really expensive lumber and laminate I'll measure a solid 4-5 times before I cut it.
     

    Sticky

    Beware of Dog
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 16, 2013
    4,501
    AA Co
    Back up and running after a brief delay for parts, (got them last Wednesday) and a little tweaking/learning curve on my end and this Dillon is cranking out 9's like crazy.
     

    85MikeTPI

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 19, 2014
    2,699
    Ceciltucky
    I finally finished the processing of the 4gal of NATO .223 into 300bo I started in the Spring. The Lee APP and shopvac jig attachment made it much more automated, but I did many steps out of order, getting in a rush, and had to duplicate a lot of work. I finished off the batch with a new Lyman case prep system to save my wrists from the torturous deburring..
     

    gungate

    NRA Patron Member
    Apr 5, 2012
    16,729
    Damascus. MD
    Finally got my Lee 4000 up on the bench. I deprimed, sized, and cleaned 300 rounds or so of 45 Colt. I ran them for around 3 hours in the vibration cleaner. They look pretty good. I guess this means I skip the first stage of my progressive which is size and deprime.

    I also found that the Lee priming plastic tab thingy is cloogy at best. I think I will set the primer on the priming tool myself. With the clooginess it's probably quicker to do that anyway.

    I still need to figure out the powder loader metering as that is probably the most critical part to get correct. I ordered a precision Hornady scale to do a bunch of tests before committing to a run.

    1661693437477.png
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Any Lee product involving the safety prime is an auto-no-go for me. They simply do not work well enough at speed. Unfortunately, their alternative with the Load Master was almost worse. And if the press isn't going to prime, I don't see the point of using it as a progressive. Been there, got the scars, etc.

    Anyways, tonight, I loaded up about 350 9mm and 300 45ACP. I'm LOVING the new 650 for doing 45 ACP, it's so much faster than my turret was. Once I add a bullet feeder, it's going to be awesome. :) I am going to hold off on loading more of it until I see how this initial batch works out... but cautiously optimistic based on the results of my test loads.
     

    Harrys

    Short Round
    Jul 12, 2014
    3,362
    SOMD
    Any Lee product involving the safety prime is an auto-no-go for me. They simply do not work well enough at speed. Unfortunately, their alternative with the Load Master was almost worse. And if the press isn't going to prime, I don't see the point of using it as a progressive. Been there, got the scars, etc.

    Anyways, tonight, I loaded up about 350 9mm and 300 45ACP. I'm LOVING the new 650 for doing 45 ACP, it's so much faster than my turret was. Once I add a bullet feeder, it's going to be awesome. :) I am going to hold off on loading more of it until I see how this initial batch works out... but cautiously optimistic based on the results of my test loads.

    650 Dillion is a killer press, but very $$
     

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