Frankfort Arsenal Vibra Prime Questions...

I have one and like it a lot. The one being currently sold is the second version; there were a lot of complaints about the older one. It's much cheaper than the one Hornady makes.

When you get it, it's set up to feed one metal tube that you then feed into the primer tube on your press. This forces you to fill and use 100 primers at a time. I bought some polycarbonate tubes and cut them to the correct size. I drilled holes cross wise in each end and used hitch pins to close the ends. I also dremmelled both ends a bit so they would make a tight fit in the Vibraprime tool. This is important because without a good fit the primers can get stuck. So now I fill 12 tubes at a time instead of fill one, use one, and then fill again.
 
From my experience you'll need to do a little clean up work on the flashing from manufacturing. I've got mine setup up so CCI SP primers load consistently with no issues and very quickly. Win SP, seem to be too inconsistent to work really well for me. I can get them to load but I have to stop and bang the plastic tray to get them to drop sometimes. sounds harsher than it is, but they aren't as smooth as the CCI.

Large pistol is really hit and miss, like the Win SP, they take a bit longer to get to work. It's still easier than trying to load my Dillon primer tubes by hand. I had an issue with one of the trays, and I wrote to Franklin Arsenal about it. They sent me a new one in a few days. Pretty much the same as the original, it needed a bit of clean up.
 
I love mine. It works quite well with small or large primers, except Winchester Large Pistol primers. They're of inconsistent size and and not as smooth as the plated CCI and Fed primers. It'll probably benefit from some cleanup as someone else here said, and I'll do that if a time comes when I can get only Winchester primers.

Saves me a ton of time and boring effort now that I don't have to snarf up the primers with the pecking tube.
 
I forgot to mention that when you use it, you have to adjust the angle you hold it so that the primers don't all cascade at once to the exit because they'll get stuck or at least slow down. Ideally you want to hold the exit opening downward a bit and also towards the side where the primers have accumulated. You may have to change the angle back and forth so it feeds properly. If you get two rows of primers near the exit, it will feed well. It didn't take me long to figure this out when I used it, so it's simpler than I made it sound.

It's a waste of money.
Click to expand...
Why do you say that? How did it behave for you and which version do you have?
 
Its got to be faster than hand pickup in those tubes.
I just can't see my way to paying $500 for a tube filler, so primers are my slowest part of loading.

In the 'Comments' section of some sites, the guys say Dillon tubes work better than the one furnished, and that's good since all but one of my progressive loaders use Dillon tubes...
 
I use the Dillon one most of the time. I bought it after they stopped making the VP and some guy paid me $120 for the one I had.

They had the VP on sale for $25 one day so I picked up a couple of them. No mods and they work, with the tubes they sent with them.

If you expecting them to be like the much more expensive Dillon, you will think they suck. If you want to load primers fast and can move your wrist around to get a single stream going into the hole and flick your wrist, as you would when fishing with a popper, when they bridge at the entrance, you will think they are a great bargain.

This is how I use them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTZ-_v6Mks
 
I placed a drill bit in my bench vise, pushed the primer tube on it then pulled it back off and now they work great, it removed just enough of the nylon to let the primer slide in much easier. I would not suggest putting the drill bit in a drill and spinning it as that would remove too much nylon.
 
Thanks guys!
Ordered one, just wanted to ask before I flipped $50 on one!
I have one on order...

I'm an endless 'Tinker', if it doesn't work well, it might spark an idea of how to make one that DOES work!
(Or it might spark an idea that costs me a bunch of money/time and DOESN'T work, you just never know! ;) )
 
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