All kinds of problems with my SL900
Quote from Reloader on July 13, 2014, 1:49 amI had a problem with crushing hulls on the sizing/de-priming station. Every hull was not lining up with the bottom of the collet unless I pushed it in toward the center pivot with my thumb. Called Dillon, they sent a new shellplate and case slide. That seemed to help, now I only have to push about 80% of them in with my thumb....AND now a new problem has started. About half of the hulls that manage to survive being de-primed get crushed when seating a wad, dumping shot everywhere like a worn out MEC.
Using Fed plastic hulls with paper basewad, claybuster WAA12 replacement wads
Right now I have destroyed enough hulls and wads that I would probably be better off buying factory loads than wasting money on components.
I'm about ready to send this one back to Dillon
I had a problem with crushing hulls on the sizing/de-priming station. Every hull was not lining up with the bottom of the collet unless I pushed it in toward the center pivot with my thumb. Called Dillon, they sent a new shellplate and case slide. That seemed to help, now I only have to push about 80% of them in with my thumb....AND now a new problem has started. About half of the hulls that manage to survive being de-primed get crushed when seating a wad, dumping shot everywhere like a worn out MEC.
Using Fed plastic hulls with paper basewad, claybuster WAA12 replacement wads
Right now I have destroyed enough hulls and wads that I would probably be better off buying factory loads than wasting money on components.
I'm about ready to send this one back to Dillon
Quote from Reloader on July 13, 2014, 2:59 amOk, a few things to look at. First, watch these two videos:
http://youtu.be/ND38ReGshy0
http://youtu.be/gLfeduj8gMc
Regarding hulls not getting pushed into position correctly look for the following
1) shell plate loose
2) piece of shot under the lip of the shell plate
3) the case insert ramp (16697) could be dirty and the hull is wobbling across it.Now regarding inserting wads, the mouth of the hull has to be properly flared at station 2. You do this by raising/ lowering the powder hopper. See the section Powder Die/Funnel Adjustments on page 30 of the manual for more information. The SL900 comes from the factory set up to reload Win AA hulls. It may take some tweaking to get the Federals to work.
Ok, a few things to look at. First, watch these two videos:
Regarding hulls not getting pushed into position correctly look for the following
1) shell plate loose
2) piece of shot under the lip of the shell plate
3) the case insert ramp (16697) could be dirty and the hull is wobbling across it.
Now regarding inserting wads, the mouth of the hull has to be properly flared at station 2. You do this by raising/ lowering the powder hopper. See the section Powder Die/Funnel Adjustments on page 30 of the manual for more information. The SL900 comes from the factory set up to reload Win AA hulls. It may take some tweaking to get the Federals to work.
Quote from Reloader on July 13, 2014, 2:08 pmWatched the videos. I like the primer drop tube mod. If I start having issues there I'll do that one.
None of my problems were covered in the videos though.
Already looked at those 3 places you mentioned Nope, nope and nope.
1. Shellplate tight, old one and new one.
2. No shot under lip, again old or new.
3. Case insert ramp clean. Old one wiped down didn't help. Old one did show some wear. New one helped the issue a little.
It seems like the cases are tilted or leaning toward the casefeed drop more than they are not directly under the collet.
I'm going to "flare" the case mouths a little more like you said to see if that helps with the wad seating issue.
The thing with all this that gets me is I've loaded probably 20k-30k rounds of various hulls on this press with very few issues and now it seems like I'm spending more time fixing and adjusting and re-adjusting than I am loading
Watched the videos. I like the primer drop tube mod. If I start having issues there I'll do that one.
None of my problems were covered in the videos though.
Already looked at those 3 places you mentioned Nope, nope and nope.
1. Shellplate tight, old one and new one.
2. No shot under lip, again old or new.
3. Case insert ramp clean. Old one wiped down didn't help. Old one did show some wear. New one helped the issue a little.
It seems like the cases are tilted or leaning toward the casefeed drop more than they are not directly under the collet.
I'm going to "flare" the case mouths a little more like you said to see if that helps with the wad seating issue.
The thing with all this that gets me is I've loaded probably 20k-30k rounds of various hulls on this press with very few issues and now it seems like I'm spending more time fixing and adjusting and re-adjusting than I am loading
Quote from Reloader on July 13, 2014, 8:49 pmIf the case is pushed all the way into the shell plate and it is still jamming into the bottom of the collet than either the shell plate is cocked/tilted, the collet isn't straight or the tool head has an issue such that the sizing die at station 1 isn't perfectly aligned directly over the shell plate, or the shell plate has slightly turned such that the hull is no longer directly under the sizing die.
If you can make sure the shell is fully inserted into the shell plate carrier, then it has to be either an alignment problem or the shell plate has over rotated. I'd look at one of those two possibilities.
The press can take a bit of time to sort out and it does take some patience but once it's up and running, you will find you have very few issues with it. Every once in a while, I'll have a hull that didn't get pushed all the way into position at station 1 typically because of a stray piece of shot. My primer drop issues are a thing of the past and once the case mouth is properly flared, no wad insertion problem (unless you're using a shell WELL past it's prime and the crimp peddles are split). Just make sure you don't over flare it or your crimps will begin to suffer. The precrimp has a hard time trying to fold the peddles if the case mouth has been flared to the point it's round.
If the case is pushed all the way into the shell plate and it is still jamming into the bottom of the collet than either the shell plate is cocked/tilted, the collet isn't straight or the tool head has an issue such that the sizing die at station 1 isn't perfectly aligned directly over the shell plate, or the shell plate has slightly turned such that the hull is no longer directly under the sizing die.
If you can make sure the shell is fully inserted into the shell plate carrier, then it has to be either an alignment problem or the shell plate has over rotated. I'd look at one of those two possibilities.
The press can take a bit of time to sort out and it does take some patience but once it's up and running, you will find you have very few issues with it. Every once in a while, I'll have a hull that didn't get pushed all the way into position at station 1 typically because of a stray piece of shot. My primer drop issues are a thing of the past and once the case mouth is properly flared, no wad insertion problem (unless you're using a shell WELL past it's prime and the crimp peddles are split). Just make sure you don't over flare it or your crimps will begin to suffer. The precrimp has a hard time trying to fold the peddles if the case mouth has been flared to the point it's round.
Quote from Reloader on July 13, 2014, 11:32 pmIf the case is pushed all the way into the shell plate and it is still jamming into the bottom of the collet than either the shell plate is cocked/tilted, the collet isn't straight or the tool head has an issue such that the sizing die at station 1 isn't perfectly aligned directly over the shell plate, or the shell plate has slightly turned such that the hull is no longer directly under the sizing die.
If you can make sure the shell is fully inserted into the shell plate carrier, then it has to be either an alignment problem or the shell plate has over rotated. I'd look at one of those two possibilities.
The press can take a bit of time to sort out and it does take some patience but once it's up and running, you will find you have very few issues with it. Every once in a while, I'll have a hull that didn't get pushed all the way into position at station 1 typically because of a stray piece of shot. My primer drop issues are a thing of the past and once the case mouth is properly flared, no wad insertion problem (unless you're using a shell WELL past it's prime and the crimp peddles are split). Just make sure you don't over flare it or your crimps will begin to suffer. The precrimp has a hard time trying to fold the peddles if the case mouth has been flared to the point it's round.
If the case is pushed all the way into the shell plate and it is still jamming into the bottom of the collet than either the shell plate is cocked/tilted, the collet isn't straight or the tool head has an issue such that the sizing die at station 1 isn't perfectly aligned directly over the shell plate, or the shell plate has slightly turned such that the hull is no longer directly under the sizing die.
If you can make sure the shell is fully inserted into the shell plate carrier, then it has to be either an alignment problem or the shell plate has over rotated. I'd look at one of those two possibilities.
The press can take a bit of time to sort out and it does take some patience but once it's up and running, you will find you have very few issues with it. Every once in a while, I'll have a hull that didn't get pushed all the way into position at station 1 typically because of a stray piece of shot. My primer drop issues are a thing of the past and once the case mouth is properly flared, no wad insertion problem (unless you're using a shell WELL past it's prime and the crimp peddles are split). Just make sure you don't over flare it or your crimps will begin to suffer. The precrimp has a hard time trying to fold the peddles if the case mouth has been flared to the point it's round.
Quote from Reloader on July 14, 2014, 12:04 pmFlaring the hull mouths a bit more has seemed to fix the shot drop problem.
The problem at station 1 is still no better. I spent most of yesterday afternoon taking apart the bottom half of the press, cleaned out some crud and re assembled. I thought maybe crud buildup had caused the platform to tilt on top of the ram. Was like nothing had changed. Hulls still not going into the collet.
On a whim I grabbed a couple different brands to see if the problem was consistent with them, Winchester, Remington and even some eurotrash hulls that I keep around for .22 targets. All have the same non-aligning issue.
The shellplate is not over or under rotating. the best way I can describe the problem is that the hulls are leaning out away from the center pivot toward the 1-2 o'clock position. With almost 20 years of mechanical engineering experience the only thing I can come up with is either the ram is bent (not likely) or the platform is somehow tilted bent or worn out of spec.
When Dillon opens this morning I'm going to close my office door and have a discussion with a tech there
Flaring the hull mouths a bit more has seemed to fix the shot drop problem.
The problem at station 1 is still no better. I spent most of yesterday afternoon taking apart the bottom half of the press, cleaned out some crud and re assembled. I thought maybe crud buildup had caused the platform to tilt on top of the ram. Was like nothing had changed. Hulls still not going into the collet.
On a whim I grabbed a couple different brands to see if the problem was consistent with them, Winchester, Remington and even some eurotrash hulls that I keep around for .22 targets. All have the same non-aligning issue.
The shellplate is not over or under rotating. the best way I can describe the problem is that the hulls are leaning out away from the center pivot toward the 1-2 o'clock position. With almost 20 years of mechanical engineering experience the only thing I can come up with is either the ram is bent (not likely) or the platform is somehow tilted bent or worn out of spec.
When Dillon opens this morning I'm going to close my office door and have a discussion with a tech there
Quote from Reloader on July 14, 2014, 2:24 pm"When Dillon opens this morning I'm going to close my office door and have a discussion with a tech there"
sounds like a good idea. I'm out of ideas. Sounds like something is not properly aligned. Please let us all know what the final outcome is.
"When Dillon opens this morning I'm going to close my office door and have a discussion with a tech there"
sounds like a good idea. I'm out of ideas. Sounds like something is not properly aligned. Please let us all know what the final outcome is.
Quote from Reloader on July 14, 2014, 2:46 pmYou're probably going to have to send it back to Dillon so they can look at it because it sounds like you've done everything you can. The good news is that they pay for shipping in both directions.
You're probably going to have to send it back to Dillon so they can look at it because it sounds like you've done everything you can. The good news is that they pay for shipping in both directions.
Quote from Reloader on July 31, 2014, 12:30 pmSorry for the delayed update. Had to go to Camp Perry.
After the discussion with the tech at Dillon, the press is on its way back to them.
Sorry for the delayed update. Had to go to Camp Perry.
After the discussion with the tech at Dillon, the press is on its way back to them.
Quote from Reloader on August 15, 2014, 10:25 amPress back from Dlllon. Invoice says they machined the platform and replaced the collet. Works like new.
This is why my loading bench has lots of blue stuff on it.
Big thank you to the guys at Dillon.
Press back from Dlllon. Invoice says they machined the platform and replaced the collet. Works like new.
This is why my loading bench has lots of blue stuff on it.
Big thank you to the guys at Dillon.