Dillon down the tubes

John from MD · Dec 21, 2019

He wasn't lying to you about the lead part. The last time I was at the shop show I spoke to the Hornady folks and they told me that the brass alloy is changing as part of the "lead is bad movement." He said the only cases that would still have lead are the rimfire cases. I don't recall the reason but a friend who runs a recycling plant said they give less money for rimfire brass because of the lead makeup.

I use a homemade spray of 91% alcohol and cable lubricant and I am getting more and more sticking cases on the expander in my Dillon reloaders. I have polished them to max and it doesn't matter, the straight cases all seem to stick more. :sad20:

atblis · Dec 21, 2019

OP, what exactly were you asking for? A new part?

tdt91 · Dec 21, 2019

Okay, I know one thing and that is that lead does have a natural lubricating effect. That's why it has been used in so many products over the years.

John from MD · Dec 21, 2019

tdt91 said:
Okay, I know one thing and that is that lead does have a natural lubricating effect. That's why it has been used in so many products over the years.

Yup, like bushings and bearings.

mbtech · Dec 22, 2019

There use to be lead in gasoline, and it lubed the valves in the cylinder heads.

John from MD · Dec 22, 2019

mbtech said:
There use to be lead in gasoline, and it lubed the valves in the cylinder heads.

Yup, Tetraethel lead. You can still get it in Low Lead 100 AvGas.

erwos · Dec 22, 2019

I will say that I also wasn't impressed with their response to my "sticky funnel" problem, and I wound up solving it by simply blasting the 9mm brass with One Shot before I dumped it in the case feeder. Not the world's greatest solution, but damned if it doesn't work well. It's hard to get on their case too badly given how well my 650XL works otherwise, though.

Postell · Dec 22, 2019

erwos said:
I will say that I also wasn't impressed with their response to my "sticky funnel" problem, and I wound up solving it by simply blasting the 9mm brass with One Shot before I dumped it in the case feeder. Not the world's greatest solution, but damned if it doesn't work well. It's hard to get on their case too badly given how well my 650XL works otherwise, though.

Should they have shipped you a free bottle of Dillon lube?

atblis · Dec 22, 2019

What I've found that helps with case sticking is to not use the Dillon powder funnel to flare cases. Move the powder to station 3, and put a dedicated flaring die in station two. You can rotate the powder measure over to get the reset linkage to work without having to modify anything. This also eliminates powder spillage because what you then do is drop the bullet on the case while it's halfway between stations 2 and 4. It's a natural spot to pause the handle upstroke and put the bullet in place. This is all assuming we're talking XL650.

bpm32 · Dec 22, 2019

atblis said:
What I've found that helps with case sticking is to not use the Dillon powder funnel to flare cases. Move the powder to station 3, and put a dedicated flaring die in station two. You can rotate the powder measure over to get the reset linkage to work without having to modify anything. This also eliminates powder spillage because what you then do is drop the bullet on the case while it's halfway between stations 2 and 4. It's a natural spot to pause the handle upstroke and put the bullet in place. This is all assuming we're talking XL650.

My 650 won’t dispense powder consistently unless it’s belling the case mouth. If I run previously resized and belled cases though again to throw charges it’s plus or minus 0.2 grains.

Pinecone · Dec 24, 2019

BTW, One Shot lube is known as One Stuck lube to many people.

paperwork351 · Dec 24, 2019

Wasn't there an old fix to use mica and brush every 4-5 rounds to address scoring and dragging on the expander ball?

erwos · Dec 24, 2019

paperwork351 said:
Wasn't there an old fix to use mica and brush every 4-5 rounds to address scoring and dragging on the expander ball?

That's not a viable solution on a progressive press.

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GolfR · Dec 24, 2019

I’ve found that using car wash with carnuba wax when SS tumbling has several positive effects. Of course the brass stays shinny for a long time but it also leaves just enough lubrication on the pistol cases to eliminate most stuck case issues. It does not provide enough lubrication for rifle cases, they still need to have case lube even with carbide dies.

One downside to the car wax method is that when cutting to trimming cases the wax will cause some of the shavings to stick inside the case so I retumble after trimming to get the shavings out. The positive on this is that I find the SS tumble eliminates almost all burrs so I don’t have to chamfer each case for things like blackout. I do chamfer before the last SS cleaning for precision rounds.

fxk · Dec 25, 2019

Why am I seeing the use of SS pins only for rotary tumblers?
Industry uses many different media in vibratory machines, so why not SS pins in an existing vibratory cleaner?

GunBum · Dec 25, 2019

fxk said:
Why am I seeing the use of SS pins only for rotary tumblers?
Industry uses many different media in vibratory machines, so why not SS pins in an existing vibratory cleaner?

Too much weight for most hobby sized vibratory cleaners.

atblis · Dec 26, 2019

I'd quit tumbling with SS pins. 20 minutes in walnut, spritz the sides with some One-Shot, and load.

driver8M3 · Dec 26, 2019

You've loaded 15k rounds. Can you imagine how many rounds have been loaded through Dillon presses? I think they might have a tad bit more experience with reloading than you do. It's possible they might know what they're talking about.

I'll tell you what, if you don't have a tumbler, bring me a few hundred pieces of dirty brass and I'll tumble them in walnut with some Nu Finish for you so you can see if that helps.

atblis · Dec 27, 2019

Also, if you're expanding with the Dillon funnel, using a separate expander helps. The Lyman M die is my preference for pistol

John from MD · Dec 27, 2019

I have switched to using Lou's gun works 'M' style funnels in my Dillons. They work just like the Lyman 'M' die and give more consistent neck tension than the Dillon funnel.

https://lousgunwork.com/M-Neck-Expander-Powder-Dies.html

Dillon down the tubes

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