I wanna speed up production . . .

P

Prof Young

New member
Loaders:

I've been reloading with a single stage press for many years. Retired now, shooing a lot more, so it's time to speed up production.

I'm guessing I need some kind of turret press, or multiple stage press. I don't want the most fancy most expensive.

I'd like it to take a primed case that has power already in it, expand the case, seat the bullet and crimp it without having to remove the case from the press. I'm happy to place the bullet in the case by hand.

I'm starting my research . . .

Please talk to me.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I was in your situation about two years ago. Long story short, I ended up with a Redding T-7. Which allows me to do exactly what you're looking to do. And it performs on the level several steps above what either of my two single stages are capable of.

That said, I'm not saying you have to get the same press as I did. The Redding is expensive, about $300, and the extra turrets are about $70/each. I'm just relating to your situation. But in case the T-7 is on your radar, my two cents is that it's a really good press. A buddy has the RCBS turret and it's also very good.

And a bit less expensive.
 
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I have never found a quicker way to reload than with single stage. Process it in batches of several hundred, one step st a time. Resize, expand, prime, all at one stage, practice speed for each step.

Charge in blocks of twenty, verify each block of charged cases, then bullets with crimp at the same time.

Use a bulky, fluffy powder. If you follow these steps, it's going to be almost impossible to make a major mistake e, since you don't deviate from the process.
 
While not in the least expensive category, the Dillon 550 progressive should be on the list for consideration. Current price for the 550C is $460 with caliber conversions from $47 to $57. If you don't have a Dillon Blue Press catalog, call 800-223-4570 for one.
 
Prof Young wrote:
I've been reloading with a single stage press for many years. Retired now, shooing a lot more, so it's time to speed up production.
Click to expand...

Before anyone can really effectively advise you on what your options are we really need to know:
  • What caliber(s) are you currently loading for?
  • Do you want to speed up production of just one, or all of them?
  • What volume are you currently reloading and over what time period?
  • How much were you shooting over a given period of time prior to retirement?
  • How much are you shooting now and over what period of time?
  • How much are you looking to spend, or is "price no object"?
 
A turret isn't going to be leaps and bounds faster than a single stage except for going from one die to another.

You still have to pull the handle once for everytime the ram moves up X the number of operations/dies you have. You can only do one operation at a time because there is only one case in the shell holder at a time. So if you are running 3 dies 100 rounds is 300 strokes.

A progressive press can preform multiple operations all at the same time from 3 to 8 stations. Once the shell plate is full on a progressive, you get a completed round for every pull of the handle. So 100 rounds is 100 strokes plus the number of locations in the shell plate.
 
I believe several of the progressive presses will do what you want. In some instances, it may be as simple as leaving out the sizing die and primer tubes. Some stations may not be doing anything, but you'll still get a finished round with each handle cycle.
 
Why? Why not let the press do it all, that's the idea. After 30 years on a single stage I bought a Dillon square deal in 9mm since that is about 90% of what I shoot. I love it. Just have to remount the SS occasionally for the others.
 
Assuming it's not going to cause you to miss a mortgage payment next month I'd just bite the bullet and get the Hornady LNL progressive or a Dillion.
 
The Dillon 550c is popular for a reason. You can go inexpensive with the BL 550. The BL550 is a strip down version of the 550c that has a manual primer loader and a powder funnel powder drop instead of the auto prime and auto powder the 550c has.
 
I have used a Dillon for some time (I have an early one without all the bells and whistles, but it has served well.) I keep the Dillon set up for .38 Special WC, which I shoot the most, and a single stage C-H for lower volume rounds.

But I don't understand wanting to start with a primed and charged case rather than an empty fired case. While starting with a primed and charged case is possible, it could be dangerous and I see no advantage. (What are you using to prime the case and drop the charge? Normally those are two of the functions of a progressive press.)

Jim
 
I have a Redding T-7, a Lyman T-Mag II (turret), and used to have a Dillon 550B.

I miss the 550, but it is only useful for smaller production runs if you have plenty of tool heads, powder measures, and dies to have complete quick-change units ready to go. By the time you have enough quick change units set up for half a dozen cartridges, you've got $1,000+ into the machine.
Otherwise, it's just a production machine for a limited number of cartridges. Die setup and adjustment takes too long for smaller runs.

The T-Mag II irritates me. Don't like it. Don't use it. I'd rather use a Lee Reloader press than the T-Mag.

But I do love the Redding T-7. I don't use extra turrets. I just swap all the dies out for a cartridge at one time. ...Or leave them set up for months at a time. (A few months, going on 6 years for some .327 Federal dies. :D)

When I'm in 'production mode' with the T-7, my process is generally something along the lines of:
Start with clean brass.
Size/decap.
Hand prime.
Throw charges with a powder measure mounted to the bench (not the press).
Spin turret.
Seat bullet.
Spin turret.
Crimp.
--Repeat Spin, Seat, Spin, Crimp, until I run out of components.

But, if I'm loading a small batch (a box or two) of rifle ammo, I usually just use the T-7 like a single stage: One step at a time, processing all cases before moving on to the next step.



However, with the Dillon 550B, it was:
Start with clean brass.
Insert case.
Pull handle.
Push forward to prime.
Rotate shell plate.
-
Repeat once.
-
Insert case.
Place bullet on top of charged case in position #3.
Pull handle.
Push forward to prime.
Rotate shell plate.
-
Repeat once.
-
From the fifth case on, using the same process, a loaded round pops out with every turn of the shell plate. In one side as clean brass, and out the other as a loaded round.
 
And so . . .

James makes a good point. I don't know much about turret or progressive presses so was assuming some things that I didn't need to assume.

After some reading and Youtube videos I can see that it's fairly simple to start with spend brass that still has the used primer in it and go from there.

At this moment I'm leaning toward a turret press as it would speed up things a bit, but clearly not as much as a progressive.

I need to read and research a bit more.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
The presses I have used were a lee classic cast turret, a pair of lee pro 1000's, a dillon square deal b, a lyman all american, and a pair of phelps,

I started with the lee turret first, loading pistol first, then rifle,
Then breifly used the phelps, then the lyman, then I got the lee progressives.

What is on the bench now is the dillon square deal b, and the lee classic cast turret.
Both of these will load pistol ammo, by putting a case in and a bullet on the top.

The diffrence is the amount of repetive motion required.
With a full shell plate on the dillon 1 pull gives 1 loaded round, then feed brass with one hand and a bullet with the other and pull the handle again for another loaded round.

The lee turret works on top of the ram, insert a case and 2 pulls later place a bullet on the case,
Third pull seats it, then 4th brings you back to put aa new case in to do it again.

Before the dillon, I loaded a lot of pistol ammo on the lee turret.

After the dillon, the lee turret is used for rifle.

If I didn't get the square deal b in a trade like I did, I would have got a 550 or 650 instead.
As it can use standard dies, where square deal dies are proprietary.

So after a normal loading session of filling up a 30 cal ammo can, my arm and shoulder has had less motion with the dillon, but speedwise the lee turret can easily run 200/hr but that is 800 pulls on the lever to get there, vs 200 on the dillon.

Both the lee turret and the square deal are small footprint presses and don't take up much bench space.

The square deal is for pistol calibers, but for my uses I did not see that as a limitation as I can load rifle on the lee turret. For a single press only it is a limitation.
But the trade for it in 3 calibers with 3 toolheads was a good one for me, so that's why I went that route.
 
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In my humble opinion, dont waste your time or money on a turret, just go straight to a progressive. I went with the dillon 650xl, no case collator yet, just a little tin funnel on the end end of the case feed tube. CRANKS out good ammo. I loaded 300 roumds of 223 in one episode of deadwood last night. Yeah its another $100 over the 550 bit has a few advantages over it as well, namely auto indexing. And caliber changes are a breeze. Just my $.02. Let us know what you decide.
 
Good luck & happy retirement!
I'm headed that way myself...
Going to auction off all the machine tools, haul everything else to the scrap yard and buy me a $100 fishing pole and $20,000 worth of .22LR or .17HMR rounds ...

I'm going to be the crazy old bastard that is mean enough to shoot a fish!!!

APPLICATION, APPLICATION, APPLICATION !!!

*IF* You shoot a crap load of ONE pistol caliber (or I hear there is a .223 version),
AND,
You don't mind loading cases & setting bullets by hand...
The Dillon Square Deal B is VERY hard to beat!

Set a case, set a bullet & pull the handle, self indexing so it spits a loaded round out with every pull of the handle.
No provision for case feeder, which didn't bother me much loading speed gun ammo, but I do wish there was a provision for powder check without looking down into every case.

First die knocks out primer & sizes the case,
-- auto index, next die installs primer (from 100 count tube feeder) and Flair's case neck, drops powder charge,
-- auto index, next die seats a manually set bullet,
-- auto index, last of 4 dies removes case flair, and if you wish taper crimps the round.

Set case on one side, set bullet on the other side, pull handle and live round spits out after the first 4 pulls, takes another 4 pulls to clear the last round from the machine.

https://www.dillonprecision.com/dillon-square-deal-b_8_1_25237.html?pkg_cust=1

I've had my SDB for about 20 years, zero trouble with it other than proprietary die sets.
Order with your favorite caliber, carbide dies if available and you are off to the races!
This is by far the most simple of the progressive machines to tune, it comes set up so only minor assembly (like putting the powder dropper on the tool head) is required, and some very minor die adjustments to get your rounds EXACTLY the way you want them is required.

Caliber changes are fairly easy, but not quick, while switching from small to large primers is a pain in the butt!

Just a buying tip, Dillon presses show up on places like eBay much cheaper than Dillon retails the presses for, so don't get locked into the suggested retail price.
----

Something like the Lee 'Classic Turret' is a time saver if you do several different calibers.
Keep in mind this IS NOT an actual Turret' press, it simply has a rotating tool head with 3 or 4 stations.
Tool heads are cheap, so you can get extras & leave your dies set in them, in caliber, or even firearm specific sets.

With extra tool heads, caliber changes take about 5 seconds!

This has the extra advantage of leaving universal decapping dies, bullet puller, swaging dies, etc set up in a tool head, you can switch in 5 seconds to anything in a tool head, on the spot when it's needed.

A BIG plus is this press doesn't use any propritary parts other than the tool heads.
About all common dies & press tools will work with it.

In no stretch of the imagination is this self indexing, but a flick of the wrist let's you seat a bullet, then switch to a taper/crimp die.
Real handy for those of us that won't use a roll crimp die, but perfer a factory crimp style die.

Without some Lee add-ons it doesn't supply primers, and Lee auto feed primer systems are twichy/glitchy at best (and useless at worst).

Outside of my Dillons, the Lee classic 3 hole turret press gets the biggest work out on my bench.

----

I would skip the Dillon 550 series entirely.
If you want self feeding (case feeder) and to use common dies,
AND DO VOLUME of several calibers, then skip directly to the XL650.

The extra die station gives you the capacity to run factory crimp die & have a powder check at the same time.
With case feeder & bullet feeder, this is a manually powered ammo plant with a lifetime warranty.
($1,350 makes most people run for cover, but a solid 500 rounds an hour without squibs is possible with an average man operating it, the propaganda says 600/hr, and some claim 1,000/hr...)

If you aren't changing primer size & you have more than one powder dropper, then caliber changes are about 15 minutes, add another 10 for primer size change for the average guy that's done it a few times.

Tool heads aren't cheap, but not stupid expensive either... Caliber change kits aren't cheap by any means, but worth the expense if you change calibers very often at all.

Machine runs about $550, case feeder is wonderful to have, runs about $250 the last time I looked,
Bullet feeder will make you cry! Runs about as much as the press! (For a hunk of plastic without a lifetime warranty!)
 
I have never found a quicker way to reload than with single stage.
Click to expand...
Does that mean that it has just been an illusion that I can crank out more rounds with my Dillon 550b than my RCBS jr. all these years? I feel like such a fool. :)
 
If I were to suggest a press it would be a Forster Co-Ax. For many years I used a Lee turret but I hand indexed it and I didn't want a "semi-progressive" press. I batch load so I would do a couple operations at a time (size/deprime and flare for handgun brass [size, lower lever, index to next die, flare, lower handle and index back to size die]. Next I would prime off press, or if reloading rifle, I'd measure/trim if necessary then prime. Next I would charge, seat and crimp.) I keep a lot of processed, primed and ready to charge brass for every cartridge I reload and charging and seating a bullet makes for quick reloads.

My newer press, the Co-Ax, is well suited to batch reloading and an excellent all around press. Strong, well designed, quick die changes (even faster than a Lee turret), very good on press priming system, and good used primer disposal. Had I not had a yen for the Co-Ax I would have considered the Redding turret press (I came close a couple times) and hand indexing works quite well for me...

I'm retired and while I do have more time to shoot today, I have waaaay more time to reload and not being into "speed" a progressive press just doesn't fit my life style. Yesterday I sized/deprimed about 200 9mm cases on my Co-Ax and trimmed the primer pockets. Don't know how long it took because my "feel good time" is way more important than round count...:cool:
 
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