Setup For Lazy Reloader

#1 · January 25, 2010, 1:20 am

I looked through a bunch of post but didn't find anything addressing this question.

Is it possible to do every step of reloading, except tumbling, on a XL-650/1050 with either a single toolhead or multi-toolhead?

I shoot Glocks 9mm and soon .40/.357 sig and .223 .270. So I believe, since I shoot Glocks, I should consider a different sizer/deprimer die or perhaps two seperate dies?

If this is doable can you look this over and comment and if you don't mind me asking what's your setup?

First tumble brass... then place in casefeeder on 650

Toolhead #1
Station #1 RCBS Lube Die and deprimer,
Station #2 Resizer die EGW for Glock brass, or something similar GRX, CasePro?
Station #3 Swager tool, is there a swage tool that will go on the XL-650?
Station #4 Dillon 1200B Case Trimmer, I understand you don't need to chamfer if you use this tool?
Station #5 Almost out of Stations, anything else? Case gauge, debur primer hole tool, bristle cleaner or something else before we get to the actual reloading or should I get a 1050?

Retumble brass to clean off lube,

Toolhead #2

Station #1 Empty?
Station #2 Insert primer, bell pistol brass and drop powder
Station #3 Powder check/Bullet feeder?
Station #4 Seater die or/Bullet feeder if crimp is not necessary?
Station #5 Crimp die or Seater die.

So hows that look or am I irredeemably lazy?

#2 · January 25, 2010, 2:53 pm

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but here's how I do 308 and 223:
Step #1 -- Tumble Clean Brass, Lube in large baking tray, into case-feeder.
Step #2 -- Full Length Size: Head #1: Station #1 FL sizer, Stations 2 through 5 Empty
Step #3 -- If military first-time, run through dillon swage to remove primer crimp.
Step #4 -- If needed, Trim on Gracey trimmer. (This indexes on case shoulder so must be done after FL Size) You could do this on the press with dillon tool.
Step#5 -- If first time, debur case primer pocket (inside burr)
Step#6 -- Clean or Uniform Primer pocket (Sinclair Primer Pocket Reamer tool)
Step#7 -- Tumble for final polish. You can skip this but this also cleans lube
Step#8 -- Using air compressor, blow clean. Only needed if you do Step#7. This makes sure there is no media in primer pocket hole.
Step#9 -- Final load: Station #1 Empty, 2=powder,3=powder-check,4=seat,5=crimp.
May sound like a lot of steps but it produces match-grade ammo.
I consider this as two steps or phases. At the end of step 8 you have brass which is like new unprimed brass ready to load. I store this away until ready to load in the final step #9.

For 45ACP I do Step#1 above, followed by a full reload, all stations normal.

#3 · February 5, 2010, 10:49 pm

I like to tumble brass without primers so I took and extra toolhead and dedicated universal decapping die to make very short work of the process. You don't have to set bullets, check powder and I even take the primer seater and primer advance cam off completely.

I can have a buddy or one of the kids help without fear of someone getting hurt.

JUST MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE PRESS CLEAN. Dirt sticking to greased/oiled parts is a recipe for bad things. (Broken index rings for example)

#4 · February 22, 2010, 7:07 pm

Quote from Reloader on February 22, 2010, 7:07 pm
Straight wall cases can be reloaded in one easy process with the 650. It is the best machine out there IMHO.

How I work bottle necked cases:

First thing I do is inspect the cases for incipient case separation and length. Remember that the case will get longer after sizing so you have to test to see how long the cases grow after resizing. This varies from gun to gun too because no two chambers are the same size, and this will impact how much the length changes after resizing.

If I have to trim, I do the following:

I have trim heads for bottle neck cases set up as follows. Decap on station 1. Resize and trim, with rapid trim, on Station 3. Expand the neck with a lyman M die on station 5. I've found that a size die with a smaller than needed expander on station 1 works better than a simple decapper. The size die helps to center the case to the decapping pin. I've bent a few decapping pins because the case wasn't all the way on the shell plate using just a decapper.

I've also primed my cases on station 2 while doing the above. 20 minutes in the tumbler and given a real good tumble thru the media seperator and what you have left is sized, primed, and trimed cases. If I'm in the mood I will blast some compressed air into the case to blow out any left over media. If I'm working up loads, I will drop measured powder charges in the cases just as if I was working with a single stage. Then seat the bullet on station 4 and taper crimp to remove any burrs left during timing outside of the case mouth.

If I have a load that can be satisfactorly run using the dillon powder drops, I'll take the cases from the first paragraph above, and I'll do nothing on station 1, seat the primer and drop powder on station 2, station 3, 4, and 5 are business as usual.

If the cases don't need trimed, are not seperating, and the load can be dropped within specs with the dillon powder drops, I perform the process as the dillon 650 is designed to do which is all in one step. I put some red lock tight on the size die jam nut so it doesn't have to be readjusted everytime it is removed. Same for the dillon trim motor jam nut.

The dillon 650 does not have a swager. You will have to get the commercial super 1050 machine to get that feature. The 1050 has a one year guarantee because it is considered a commercial machine and takes a whole lot longer to change over from one caliber to the next. Dillon does make the best stand alone swaging tool I've found. I tried two others that I was unhappy with before purchasing the dillon.

Straight wall cases can be reloaded in one easy process with the 650. It is the best machine out there IMHO.

How I work bottle necked cases:

First thing I do is inspect the cases for incipient case separation and length. Remember that the case will get longer after sizing so you have to test to see how long the cases grow after resizing. This varies from gun to gun too because no two chambers are the same size, and this will impact how much the length changes after resizing.

If I have to trim, I do the following:

I have trim heads for bottle neck cases set up as follows. Decap on station 1. Resize and trim, with rapid trim, on Station 3. Expand the neck with a lyman M die on station 5. I've found that a size die with a smaller than needed expander on station 1 works better than a simple decapper. The size die helps to center the case to the decapping pin. I've bent a few decapping pins because the case wasn't all the way on the shell plate using just a decapper.

I've also primed my cases on station 2 while doing the above. 20 minutes in the tumbler and given a real good tumble thru the media seperator and what you have left is sized, primed, and trimed cases. If I'm in the mood I will blast some compressed air into the case to blow out any left over media. If I'm working up loads, I will drop measured powder charges in the cases just as if I was working with a single stage. Then seat the bullet on station 4 and taper crimp to remove any burrs left during timing outside of the case mouth.

If I have a load that can be satisfactorly run using the dillon powder drops, I'll take the cases from the first paragraph above, and I'll do nothing on station 1, seat the primer and drop powder on station 2, station 3, 4, and 5 are business as usual.

If the cases don't need trimed, are not seperating, and the load can be dropped within specs with the dillon powder drops, I perform the process as the dillon 650 is designed to do which is all in one step. I put some red lock tight on the size die jam nut so it doesn't have to be readjusted everytime it is removed. Same for the dillon trim motor jam nut.

The dillon 650 does not have a swager. You will have to get the commercial super 1050 machine to get that feature. The 1050 has a one year guarantee because it is considered a commercial machine and takes a whole lot longer to change over from one caliber to the next. Dillon does make the best stand alone swaging tool I've found. I tried two others that I was unhappy with before purchasing the dillon.

#5 · February 23, 2010, 4:07 pm

If you elect to tumble your brass after depriming, please be sure push a depriming pin through the flash hole before loading. I have seen instances at shooting matches where media blocking the flash hole caused failures to fire. Not pretty!