dillon 650 indexing problems

[greyling22]

so I have a fairly new to me dillon 650, and I've been experiencing a few teething problems (most of them are all my fault, but I don't think this one is)

I bought the press set up for 357. I loaded about a thousand of them with virtually no problems, then switched to 9mm. My cases aren't directly under the dies. Now, it's close, and usually works, but I get about 1:50 the lee powder through die catches the rim of the case and crumples it. So I started lookign closer at the rest of the stations, and they don't quite line up. The primer doesn't come up through the center of the hole in the plate, the seating die is slightly off, it's all just slightly off. Like 1 or maybe 2 degrees off if you were looking down at the shellplate from above. it's like it is not quite rotating far enough, thought the shellplate is sitting solidly in the detent. Is the carrier adjustable like it was on the loadmaster?

 

[chipman]

Likely that your shell plate base assembly has shifted (rotated) relative to the ram. Happened on my 550 and Dillon sent an alignment tool to me (with instructions). Ten minutes of work and everything was perfect. Although the 550 and 650 shell plate assembly's are different they both attach to the ram with two cap screws allowing for a small amount of adjustment. Call Dillon customer support and explain your problem, they will likely forward the tool to you free of charge.

 

[X-Ring]

The indexing ring broke on my XL 650 and Dillon sent the alignment gauge with 2 new rings free of charge. Contact Dillon, they will take care of it.

 

[greyling22]

All right. Just wish it want the weekend and I could go ahead and do it. Patience is not my strong suit. ☺

 

[CatManDo]

The carrier is adjustable. There's a couple of screws under the shell plate that after everything is loosened you can try and rotate the carrier a degree or two, but you really need the alignment tool.

 

[AR-Bossman]

Huh.. listening to Dillon people talk I woulda thought a Dillon never needed any help of any kind.... EVER.

 

[SwaneeSR]

Huh.. listening to Dillon people talk I woulda thought a Dillon never needed any help of any kind.... EVER.

I own three different colors of presses. You should try a blue one sometime.... see what all the fuss is about.

Swanee

 

[Nature Boy]

My Dillon 650 has a major design flaw. It makes a lousy cup of coffee

 

[THEWELSHM]

lol aint that the truth

thewelshm

 

[greyling22]

well, I looked at the alignment tool, and since I'm using lee dies and have no dillon powder die that won't work for me. so I just did it by hand. loosened the 2 bolts under the shellplate and turned the plate as far as it would go in the direction I needed it to and put it all back together. It's a little better, but still not lining up with the dies quite right. And it's not just 1 station or just 1 notch in the shell plate, i'ts all of them. I even put my 357 toolhead back into place with the 9mm shellplate just to see if it was the dies or toolhead or something, and the alignment was still off by the same small amount. Looks like the problem is either in the carrier or the 9mm shellplate.

And, personal pet peeve, could dillion have used more different sized allen bolts?

 

[MikeInOr]

If you had one station that was off and all the other stations lined up you would be in bad shape! In another 12 hours you will be able to call Dillon and get the issue resolved... just hold on, you are almost there!

P.S. Coffee???? What???? My press makes Koolaid... Blue Koolaid.... that is all I drink!

 

[joem1945]

Check the indexer ring. It's that plastic piece that fits around the ram and has a little spring attached to it. They do break and are a PIA to replace and get the spring attached. If it breaks it's always the thin area around the ram.

 

[greyling22]

well I called dillon, and they just said adjust the indexing block to center the primer in the shell plate opening when priming. I asked them how that would fix all the dies being slightly off and he was like "this will totall fix it" so I did as they asked and asjusted the indexer block. So now the shell plate rotates slightly past the ball detent, is perfectly centered when priming, and as soon as you raise the ram the shellplate revereses and clicks back into the ball detent and the shells are still out of whack when they go into the dies. I just feel that they dillon guy didn't understand what is going wrong.

 

[bgw45]

Don't give up. Call em back and explain what the issue is, what you were told to do and what is still happening/or what changed. They will follow through till it's right. Treat em right and they will do the same.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

well I called dillon, and they just said adjust the indexing block to center the primer in the shell plate opening when priming. I asked them how that would fix all the dies being slightly off and he was like "this will totall fix it" so I did as they asked and asjusted the indexer block. So now the shell plate rotates slightly past the ball detent, is perfectly centered when priming, and as soon as you raise the ram the shellplate revereses and clicks back into the ball detent and the shells are still out of whack when they go into the dies. I just feel that they dillon guy didn't understand what is going wrong.

Yes there was a miscommunication, well he didn't understand anyway. Because i follow you fine.

Yes call them back and don't hang up until they give you an answer that makes since.

 

[greyling22]

ok, I think I got it. The dillon guy told me how to get a little more rotation out of the carrier than I thought I was able to get. Then I readjusted the indexing block and I think I'm good now.

 

[Nature Boy]

Awesome!

 

[jmorris]

As your problems were at station 2 at first, I will add that changing from 357 to 9mm would require adjustment of the station 2 locator. Might take a look at page 41 figure 194 of the manual and see where you adjust it and how. After you set it correctly you should be good to go. If it is not set correctly (at the 357 case diameter setting) it will only be around 65% better than your loadmaster was seating primers.

 

[Sky King]

You could try loosening the locking nuts on all dies then with a case in all stations raise the cases into the dies and then tighten the lock nuts.