Dillon 550C toolhead slop

[garandman]

Ohhhhh yes you are correct about the canted situation.... Dillon presses are set up so that all 4 stations should be used.... Sorry it's been awhile since I have done any serious loading on mine because of the current situation.... Yup even when setting it up your supposed to have the stations filled to help prevent cant.... Ok now I seriously would like to see what comes out of this thread since we are doing things the same way...

Been running some Berger 70 gr VLDs in batches of 5 rounds. Pretty consistently getting 4/5 with about 2-3 1000ths and 1/5 about 9 - 10 thousandths.

The SMK's were regularly all over the place.... no pattern or predictable variance.

In one sense, the "cant" should be fairly consistent... in another sense, anything is possible.

 

[F Class John]

Keep in mind that each position on the shell plate will have a different variance in overall seating depth and sizing. You can literally number each station and test a piece of brass or seating a bullet and you will see which stations are high and low and there are different ways to sand or hone those down so that they are all more consistent to each other.

 

[garandman]

Keep in mind that each position on the shell plate will have a different variance in overall seating depth and sizing. You can literally number each station and test a piece of brass or seating a bullet and you will see which stations are high and low and there are different ways to sand or hone those down so that they are all more consistent to each other.

Good info. Hadn't thought of that.

Right now, I've got a load running 0.60" at 100 yd out of a 14.5" bbl, so I also gotta wonder if it matters.

Of course, I got other loads running almsot 2 "

 

[wolfman]

Another option is to retrofit your existing factory heads using the Uniquetek Toolhead Clamp kit. Basically this is what the Whidden toolhead built off of - they just incorporated it all in a new CNC machined head. The retrofit kit works just fine with the old cast 550 heads as well. Or if you screw up and order a Whidden 'floating' tool head, it'll fix those too.

Between 'freezing' the toolhead, and 'floating' the die rings, I typically get base-to-ogive consistency from the 550B that is on par with what I get from my Forster Co-Ax.

Monte- could one get satisfactory results by locking the tool heads with teh clamp kit, and floating the dies with o rings under the die rings?

 

[garandman]

Its odd... and I can't explain it, but I did a 20 round run and all the rounds came out 0.001 to 0.004 in standard deviation ... from 2.256 to 2.260.... that's only a little worse than my Wilson chamber dies.

I got nuthin'....

 

[memilanuk]

Monte- could one get satisfactory results by locking the tool heads with teh clamp kit, and floating the dies with o rings under the die rings?

O-rings would be one way to do it. You can order new CNC machined tool heads with the float pins installed, and die rings with corresponding slots for the pins... or it's not too hard to do with a drill press at home. Might not be something I'd want to free-hand, but the right person could probably do it.

About the only thing I use with O-rings any more is the occasional Lee crimp die or decapping die.

 

[wolfman]

O-rings would be one way to do it. You can order new CNC machined tool heads with the float pins installed, and die rings with corresponding slots for the pins... or it's not too hard to do with a drill press at home. Might not be something I'd want to free-hand, but the right person could probably do it.

About the only thing I use with O-rings any more is the occasional Lee crimp die or decapping die.

I have an extra tool head and a drill press. I'm tempted to try drilling one.

 

[fatelvis]

Ok, all “reloading geekiness” aside, will bolting down the die plate, and free-floating the dies make a real world difference in accuracy?

 

[rwj]

Ok, all “reloading geekiness” aside, will bolting down the die plate, and free-floating the dies make a real world difference in accuracy?

Doubtful… but there’s a way to find out!

 

[243winxb]

free-floating the dies.

RCBS has said, have the shell holder in full contact with the bottom of the fl die when locking the die in the press. This is said to square the die to the shell holder. Was in an old RCBS news letter.

To control shoulder bump, the Redding competition shell holder set would be needed.

Needs testing.