Ejector Wire
Quote from Reloader on January 7, 2010, 9:44 pmI tried the stuff Dillon said - polish the shell plate, add a bit of grease, check the bend on the ejector wire, file off the edges around the base of the shell, blah-blah - but nothing changed. I tried everything, including new ejector wires. Finally, I put the end of the ejector wire (the round end that 'shell holder bolt' goes through) in a vise and bent the rest of the wire down so that the ejector wire rides directly on top of the shell plate - acutally with a bit of down force on the shell plate. I also have a small washer below the head of the bolt and on top of the ejector wire that holds it down so that the ejector wire is flush with the top of the shell plate. I then ran a bunch of cases through the cycle. I haven't had one hang up since bending the wire. I have no gap between the shell plate and the ejector wire. This worked for me - now I don't use grease or lube on the ejector wire. I acutally went through 3 ejector wires before coming up with this method. In the past, Dillon has been good about giving me fixes on things - but nothing they told me on this one worked. I now have 3 shell plates - a .40, a.380 and a .45 that have been ground off around the edges by a Dremel tool and a file, plus several hours labor messing around with adjustments when a 30 second fix in a vise finally did the trick. Good luck.
I tried the stuff Dillon said - polish the shell plate, add a bit of grease, check the bend on the ejector wire, file off the edges around the base of the shell, blah-blah - but nothing changed. I tried everything, including new ejector wires. Finally, I put the end of the ejector wire (the round end that 'shell holder bolt' goes through) in a vise and bent the rest of the wire down so that the ejector wire rides directly on top of the shell plate - acutally with a bit of down force on the shell plate. I also have a small washer below the head of the bolt and on top of the ejector wire that holds it down so that the ejector wire is flush with the top of the shell plate. I then ran a bunch of cases through the cycle. I haven't had one hang up since bending the wire. I have no gap between the shell plate and the ejector wire. This worked for me - now I don't use grease or lube on the ejector wire. I acutally went through 3 ejector wires before coming up with this method. In the past, Dillon has been good about giving me fixes on things - but nothing they told me on this one worked. I now have 3 shell plates - a .40, a.380 and a .45 that have been ground off around the edges by a Dremel tool and a file, plus several hours labor messing around with adjustments when a 30 second fix in a vise finally did the trick. Good luck.
Quote from Reloader on May 21, 2010, 2:39 pmI don't know if you are still looking for an answer to your problem but here is what I have found which is very similar to bradjensen's response. Simple, it works and requires no modification to anything to test if it will fix your problem. Loosen the shellpplate training bolt and slip the ejector wire under the the bolt head and snug back up. That's it! This will bias the wire about a 1/16th of an inch but it is enough to soften the angle of the wire and will smoothly eject the case every time. I also added a washer with some small tabs bent into it to locate the wire consistently, but this is not necessary to test in you application.
This trick works for me on 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP which are all that I currently load.
I don't know if you are still looking for an answer to your problem but here is what I have found which is very similar to bradjensen's response. Simple, it works and requires no modification to anything to test if it will fix your problem. Loosen the shellpplate training bolt and slip the ejector wire under the the bolt head and snug back up. That's it! This will bias the wire about a 1/16th of an inch but it is enough to soften the angle of the wire and will smoothly eject the case every time. I also added a washer with some small tabs bent into it to locate the wire consistently, but this is not necessary to test in you application.
This trick works for me on 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP which are all that I currently load.