By Duane Thomas
For most serious handloaders, perfecting a particular handload, getting it EXACTLY the way we want it, can be a time-consuming, painstaking process of adjustment until everything is just-so. Okay, we’re not getting the velocity we want; we adjust the powder bar. The load is not feeding; we adjust the overall length to give rounds a more feed-friendly profile. Accuracy is not all we might like; we adjust the crimp to give the bullet a better “pull” as it exits the casing. And so forth. Changes accrue over time, until, one happy day, we have the perfect load. If you’re a load tinkerer – I am – that perfect load is always just a few changes away, but you have faith that one day it’ll happen.
But what then if you want to switch over the machine to load a different cartridge, or a completely different load for the same cartridge? Does that mean you have to remove the toolhead, and all your dies, then replace them, reset the powder measure to a new charge, and lose all your carefully crafted settings? It does not.
Enter the toolhead stand. Remove the toolhead from the machine, leaving the powder measure in place atop it, and the dies in it, still adjusted the way you want them, and place the entire unit on the toolhead stand. Pull the dies out of the top of the frame, keep them with that toolhead/toolhead stand. All your hard work is therefore preserved. Then just install a new toolhead/powder measure, and new dies, to the top of the machine and start the new project.
Depending on the machine, removing the toolhead may require unscrewing a few bolts, or it might be as simple as pulling a pin and sliding the toolhead off the machine; then you fish out any dies in the top of the frame. Installing the new toolhead/powder measure, just do all that in reverse.
Label each toolhead stand, therefore the toolhead/powder measure/dies combo it holds, so you know exactly what it is. There are people in the world who have multiple toolheads, set up on multiple toolhead stands, for different loads, for different cartridges. Should you want to go back to a previous load, simply remove the toolhead/powder measure/dies on the machine, grab one of your old set-ups, install it onto the machine, Boom! you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll, without having to go through the tedious process of reinventing the wheel. Pretty slick, I say.
