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Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:34 am

Can primers be bounced sideways in the pockets if the handle return stroke (ram up) is hung up sharply on a case stuck/jammed on the slide to station #1?

I've ended up with a number of sideways primers on my Dillon 650, in 9, .45, and .223. I'm trying to diagnose the cause.

I've had a number of cases that didn't slide forward along the case slide into station #1. When that happens when you're in a great rhythm, it tends to stop pretty hard as the case is caught on the top of the press frame or the case drop arm. Alternatively, the case may almost seat in station #1 but get caught on the edge of the sizing day, stopping sharply. Or finally, it stops sharply as the depriming rod meets a Berdan primed case.

During any of these hard stops, I wonder if the primer could bounce up and land sideways so that when the jam is cleared you have a sideways primer squished into the primer pocket?

Or does anyone have another alternative?

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Thu Sep 13, 2018 1:05 pm

Dillon would love to chime in on this and if you check their knowledge base most of the time the problem can be diagnosed and fixed quickly.

https://www.dillonprecision.com/kb/

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:53 pm

If you aren't using the correct size primer loading or magazine tube, i.e. Small primers in large tube, they will flip sideways, not feed and cause plenty of grief. Just sayin'.

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Fri Sep 14, 2018 12:36 pm

Call Dillon. They will walk you through your problem and send you free parts. USE THEIR CS!!!! My guess that it is the little plastic part inside the bottom of the primer tube is messed up, or the slider part down low in the primer feeder needs adjusting. My machine flipped primers over for a long time until I called customer service for help.

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:22 am

Thanks for the suggestions, guys (this is the non-gender-specific "guys" by the way!)

In the vast majority of the cases I know more than tech support
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and I tend to turn to the experts on forums.

But in this case, ya'll were absolutely correct-I called Dillon and they gave me three options. One was the correct one, and I never would've found it on my own.

Turns out the indexing activater that causes the shell plate to rotate as the ram comes back down can be adjusted to correct the timing. Mine was activating too late, which meant the shell plate wasn't rotating quite far enough to align the primer pocket with the new primer cup.

300 rounds later, not a single flipped primer, even in some military crimp brass that snuck in.

I'm cautiously calling this problem solved.

Thanks again for your help.
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Last edited by Rutilate on Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:55 am

Awesome gif. thumbsup

Thanks for the happy ending!

Wait. That didn’t sound right.

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:45 am

Image

Re: Sideways primers on Dillon 650

Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:11 pm

Right on. Dillon's CS has to be experienced to understand their usefulness. Congrats on that fix, I had a similar problem on a Dillon square D press that I would never have resolved on my own. :wagwoot: :thumbsup2:
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