How have you determined that...have you used strips of paper to determine the pinch points? Has the point where the shell plate platform stops/touches the primer slide made an indentation mark in the primer slide?Shell plate platform meets the primer slide on my 550B.
YepShell plate platform meets the primer slide on my 550B.
If you have ever removed the ram for a cleaning, you will find the when the shell plate platform is removed, the ram will drop down lower than it does normally. So I don't see the linkage as being the positive stop on the priming stroke.On mine, it was either when the handle hit the bench top edge, or when the press shaft buttons-out at the top of the stroke.
How have you verified that...have you used strips of paper to find the contact point or have observed marks in the Aluminum (soft), of the primer slide?
How have you verified that...have you used strips of paper or some other method or observed a mark in the soft Aluminum primer slide where the hard steel of the shell plate platform contacts the primer slide?
dahermet said:How have you determined that...
Using a very bright LED bore light, on my 550b, I can see that the primer cup bottom does not make contact with the primer slide and there is no mark that indicates it does. I can see that it does not (with some difficulty) from both sides. As a matter of fact, I can see one coil of the primer cup spring between the primer slide and the bottom of the primer cup when all the way down.I simply looked, but the light wasn't great. I went back with a bright flashlight and looked more carefully. What actually happens is the shell plate platform depresses the spring-loaded primer-seating cup that surrounds the primer seating punch, and that cup is what actually makes contact against the primer slide, acting as the go-between for the shell plate platform and the primer slide. And yes, there is a round mark on the slide from that contact.
Examining the primer punch and the primer cup, in order for your (I assume supposition) to be correct, the primer punch would have to contact something to cause it to stop. As I examine my press with no case or primer in the priming station and press the handle back (as if priming), the handle stops. When I examine a primer cup and a primer punch, I see that the priming punch when sitting as it does in the primer cup actually will slide through the primer cup. So, it cannot be causing a positive stopping motion.It's the post on which the primer cup sits that acts as a stop.
So, in addition to the circular mark on my primer slide, I have proven the primer seating cup is, indeed, the stop. If I remove it, the handle still stops, but it is about 1/16 of and inch further back because what is stopping it has changed from being the primer seating cup sandwich to being the bottom of the casting's clearance recess.
If your primer seating cup is not what is stopping your press, look at the catch bin bracket casting and look for a wear mark on the handle of your press where it is touching down there. That isn't supposed to be happening, as it shortens the maximum primer punch reach up into a case primer pocket. Only stopping on the primer seating cup produces the correct full reach of the primer punch. You may have screwed the casting to the bench too far foward and need to move it back a little.
Nope...different animal.I realize this is no help, but a long time ago I had a 450, and if memory serves, it had a threaded screw and lock nut underneath the shellplate platform which allowed you to adjust where the ram "bottomed out" on the down stroke.
Does the 550 NOT have that feature???