Help in setting up a Dillon Progressive
- Thread starter ghbucky
- Start date
Did my first real sit session after making sure the stuff I was making made my XDm happy. They did, so I managed to get in roughly 30 minutes on it.
I'm actually rather frustrated. The auto case feeder has a sharp edge that sometimes a shell will get caught on and jam the shell plate. I need to contact Dillon about that.
Other thing is the powder charge seemed to be very stable on test throws, but today it started lightening the throw enough to set off the powder check alarm. (Sorta have a love/hate going with that thing).
There was plenty of powder in the hopper, so.. not sure? It is power pistol, and it generally meters great.
Other minor gripe is I can't seem to get the powder completely out of the hopper when I return it to the container. No matter how many dryer sheets I wipe it down with there are still grains that won't turn loose.
I've seen people talk about treating powder hoppers to stop that. Any tips there?
I'm actually rather frustrated. The auto case feeder has a sharp edge that sometimes a shell will get caught on and jam the shell plate. I need to contact Dillon about that.
Other thing is the powder charge seemed to be very stable on test throws, but today it started lightening the throw enough to set off the powder check alarm. (Sorta have a love/hate going with that thing).
There was plenty of powder in the hopper, so.. not sure? It is power pistol, and it generally meters great.
Other minor gripe is I can't seem to get the powder completely out of the hopper when I return it to the container. No matter how many dryer sheets I wipe it down with there are still grains that won't turn loose.
I've seen people talk about treating powder hoppers to stop that. Any tips there?
jetinteriorguy
New member
I have an aerosol can of graphite that I spray inside all of my powder hoppers. Not sure where you can find it though, I snagged mine from work when it had timed out and was being tossed.
An internet search for "aerosol graphite spray" turns up many responses and names of products you could with local stores if internet shopping isn't wanted for some reason.
Never tried it myself, never had the problem (and I don't use that particular powder -which may have nothing to do with it, ) but I've been told that powder flakes, sticking to the hopper is usually due to static electricity, and the old timer's cure (before dryer sheets) was to wash it in soapy water and do not rinse it, just let it air dry,
The soap film prevents static, or so I was told. YMMV.
The soap film prevents static, or so I was told. YMMV.
Dillon got back to me and pointed out the issue with my case feeder was a simple adjustment.
I got another session on the press and it is (mostly) smooth sailing it seems. The powder check is puzzling to me at times. If it alarms once, I just reject that case and move on, but when it starts going off on every round I adjust it to the current charge, then weigh that.
The charge was right on the nose, so I'm starting to think the volume checker thing is moving. I had to do that once today and after that it was all good.
I have an open station that I'm pondering what to do with.
Station 1 is full length sizer
Station 2 is powder charge and expander
station 3 is powder charge check
station 4 is bullet seating and crimping
station 5 ------ any suggestions?
I got another session on the press and it is (mostly) smooth sailing it seems. The powder check is puzzling to me at times. If it alarms once, I just reject that case and move on, but when it starts going off on every round I adjust it to the current charge, then weigh that.
The charge was right on the nose, so I'm starting to think the volume checker thing is moving. I had to do that once today and after that it was all good.
I have an open station that I'm pondering what to do with.
Station 1 is full length sizer
Station 2 is powder charge and expander
station 3 is powder charge check
station 4 is bullet seating and crimping
station 5 ------ any suggestions?
jetinteriorguy
New member
I seat and crimp in two separate steps.
we used to buy cases of graphite lube at john deere tractor store. Make sure to really really shake the can before you use. I have used the powdered graphite to season components.
Jet is on point I would crimp on the last stage, especially if your doing .223… 9mm isnt as picky with crimping
Update
I've got pretty much every thing ironed out now and it is working quite well.
I have been seeing a recent issue with the auto-case feeder micro-swith starting to stay in the closed position even when there is no case holding the switch closed. I think I figured it out, the bowl seems to be creeping down with use to where the flipper is getting caught on the feed tube when a case passes by. I raised the bowl up a bit to where it can't get caught on the tube, but I suspect it will creep down over time. Any advice on this?
I've worked through my supply of clean and hand-prime 9mm cases. I know a lot of people have talked about de-priming and priming on press, and I have a question for you:
What do you do with cases that the powder check die alarms on? Right now I can just dump the charge back in the hopper and toss the case back into the feeder. But if you are decapping and priming, what do you do with your primed cases if the charge gets rejected?
I've got pretty much every thing ironed out now and it is working quite well.
I have been seeing a recent issue with the auto-case feeder micro-swith starting to stay in the closed position even when there is no case holding the switch closed. I think I figured it out, the bowl seems to be creeping down with use to where the flipper is getting caught on the feed tube when a case passes by. I raised the bowl up a bit to where it can't get caught on the tube, but I suspect it will creep down over time. Any advice on this?
I've worked through my supply of clean and hand-prime 9mm cases. I know a lot of people have talked about de-priming and priming on press, and I have a question for you:
What do you do with cases that the powder check die alarms on? Right now I can just dump the charge back in the hopper and toss the case back into the feeder. But if you are decapping and priming, what do you do with your primed cases if the charge gets rejected?
jetinteriorguy
New member
I’d just toss those cases in a separate bin and deal with them later. I carefully decap them and then just run them through again and reuse the primers.
First thing I'd want to know is what was the powder charge that set off the alarm??
Forgive me for not being familiar with the details of the system, I don't use a powder checker mechanism, but isn't it supposed to be checking the powder volume, not the case?
Why would you toss the case, or dump the powder, back into the hopper without stopping and investigating the cause of the alarm??
Are you doing that simply because it has the least impact on your production "flow"???
Alarms go off for a reason. It is vital to understand the reason, and if it is a valid alarm, or a spurious one. Is there an actual out of spec condition? OR is the alarm malfunctioning, out of calibration, misadjusted setpoint, or some other reason???
What I would do, on a "low powder" alarm is stop the press, remove the chaged case, and weigh the powder from it, to help me determine what happened, and why I got the alarm. After finding that out (and fixing any problems) I would then charge the "alarmed" case with the correct amount of powder (outside of the progressive press), then put it back into the shellplate where it came from and continue with the loading process.
Yes, you're not cranking out rounds while your press is stopped and you are investigating why you got a bad (reading) charge, but isn't that the whole point of having an alarm in the first place? So you don't just keep going, possibly producing a number of "bad" rounds...
That is the powder check die. You weight out your desired charge, then thread the notch on the top of the die until the tip on the right side of the plastic box sits in the middle of the notch when the box is moved against the notch.
During operation, the charge case is moved up into the die, and the box is pushed up against the notch. If the charge is too much or too little, then contact is made and the alarm sounds.
Yes, I always weigh out the charge to see what caused the alarm. I've never seen one vary by more then a few hundredths of a grain. I'm set up for 5.2gr of Power Pistol, and the biggest variant I saw alarm was 5.28.
So it keeps the charge in a narrow window.
I dump the charge and toss the case back into the auto-case feeder and just run it through again. It is 9mm, I'm not striving for rifle accuracy and case life.
[edit] If it alarms on 2 cases in a row, or starts getting frequent, then of course I stop and look at what is happening.
bucky,
Have you actually called Dillion? If it was me I would call them. I cannot comment in your alarm issue because I visually inspect all my charges in my cases, but im not running full blown progessive press either.
One suggestion, you may be running the press too fast , If your loading a rifle caliber it takes time for the powder to completely run from hopper into the case. It doesn’t get there instantly. The same could be said with pistol powder but its less prevalent.
Try going 50% slower and if you get zero alarms in 50 or so then increase speed .
But I remember you not sizing and priming in station 1 so that operation slows the press down a bit which usually helps with powder dispensing
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No, I'm sizing in station 1. What I'm skipping in station 1 is decapping/priming. My cases are already primed.
From what I'm seeing on weighing the charge on cases that alarm is that it has a very narrow range on acceptable charge before it will alarm. That is fine.
I'm trying to keep the dwell time on the up stroke a few seconds intentionally to let the charge clear the powder bar.
When a charge of only 8 100ths over can alarm, I'm not sure how I can expect it not to happen on occassion. I doubt the powder bar is that consistently accurate.
I was initially expecting to find charge differences in the tenths, but nope, it is in hundredths.
From what I'm seeing on weighing the charge on cases that alarm is that it has a very narrow range on acceptable charge before it will alarm. That is fine.
I'm trying to keep the dwell time on the up stroke a few seconds intentionally to let the charge clear the powder bar.
When a charge of only 8 100ths over can alarm, I'm not sure how I can expect it not to happen on occassion. I doubt the powder bar is that consistently accurate.
I was initially expecting to find charge differences in the tenths, but nope, it is in hundredths.
Since our standard for ever has been tenths of a grain, I'd say something that is alarming at less than a tenth grain is over sensitive for the application.
Congratulations on having a scale that reads out to the second decimal point. I don't have anything that will do better than to the nearest tenth, which has always been good enough for me.
Congratulations on having a scale that reads out to the second decimal point. I don't have anything that will do better than to the nearest tenth, which has always been good enough for me.
jetinteriorguy
New member
To me the most likely scenario is the differences in case capacity could easily trigger an alarm that sensitive, that is if using different brands of brass. Some are thicker in the bottom and if you set up the alarm using a thinner one then when a thicker case comes along the powder column will read like an over charged case or vice versa an under charged case.
That makes sense. The last case in my batch alarmed 3 times in a row, but the charges weren't out of line and I am using mixed headstamps. They all measured at my 5.2gr target.
(on a side note, I'm very impressed with the Dillon powder measure system consistency)
It also occurs to me that since the alarm is calibrated by my Mk1 eyeball, it could well be user error as well. I'll take a closer look at the alignments.
OTOH, I'm not really sweating it very much. I'm not even close to max charge, so a small overcharge is not going to put me anywhere close to overpressure, and every one I've shot goes bang and does a nice ejection.
I didn't miss the sarcasm
It reads out to the 2nd decimal, that doesn't mean I use that as anything more that somewhere in between the 10ths.