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I was recently made aware of what may be an ingenious improvement to loading on the Dillon 550: To wit, the addition of a section on the powder funnel. Available in six sizes for most pistol calibers,I am indeed, intrigued. I am curious if anyone on this site has tried these, and what the thoughts are? Seems a winner to me -- surely saving the M step.
Attachment 232974
geo
Edit PS: The URL of site is http://lousgunwork.com/M-Neck-Expander-Powder-Dies.html
Proud of them.
I have one made by the guy that used to make the primer pocket swager for the 650 on eBay and it works great but he quite making them and the others I have tried including the m die don't do as good a job.
If I recall correctly lathesmith on here will custom make one for you. I've not tried one of his but his sizer dies are top notch.
I have two of them made by Lathesmith, a member of this forum.
THEY ARE AWESOME ! HIS WORK IS EXCELLENT. I can highly recommend him.
The ones he made for me are set up for 38 Special and lead bullets. They have the Lyman "M" die "step" that really helps when seating cast bullets. The stem expands the casing a little bit farther into the casing and to a slightly larger diameter. They are game changers with cast bullets.
I hate to bad mouth Dillon because I really like Dillon equipment but Dillon is not receptive to suggestions. The Dillon powder funnels (powder through expander) are designed for jacketed bullets. The Dillon powder funnels will work with cast bullets but they run a bit small and the casing tends to swage the bullet down. The flare produced by the Dillon expander is more like a funnel as opposed to the parallel walls produced by the "M" type step. Dillon's attitude is their stuff is perfect and don't ask us to make changes.
UniqueTek also offers a similar Dillon powder funnel and I have one of thiers for 45 ACP.
http://www.uniquetek.com/product/T1582
Quote:
Originally Posted by georgerkahn
My favorite red headed step child (the 41 Mag) is once again left out.
I may have to see about making some of these?, I have a lathe at home and three at work, a piece of drill rod should make good stock?, one each for the 45 Colt and 45-70 would be welcome on my bench!
wrench man -- If you get adroit at machining these, another has already voiced disappointment at .41 mag not being listed; I, too, would love to have them for a few other calibers as well -- maybe a nifty income supplement for your day job in the future?
geo
Question for Dillon 550 bottle neck rifle reloaders as I haven't yet reloaded rifle rounds on my press: can we make these for say 223/556? Is it even possible to make it work? Would the opening in the powder through expander work with non stick powders like 748? Or is it better to deprime on a single stage, put the Lee universal expander with an NOE plug in the priming station to expand and prime, and use the funnel non expanding powder drop in station 2?
I use IMR4895 and Unique, 4227 along with 2400 for 6.5 and multiple 30 cal rifles and CFE223 for 223/556, all use Lyman M Die in station 1 on my Dillon 550s. All case prep consistsing of decap, neck or FL sizing on my Redding T-7.Quote:
Originally Posted by sigep1764
wrench man, I have made several of these cast boolit powder funnels, in years past, for two different Dillon presses. All of them were machined from oil hardening drill rod (O-1) and still perform perfectly even though I didn't ever harden them! Semper Fi, TreetopQuote:
Originally Posted by wrench man
Drill rod will work. Have you ever machined 12L14? It machines like butter and it's very easy to get a beautiful finish which is pretty important for this application.Quote:
Originally Posted by wrench man
My review: Having a large bucket of .44 S&W Special cast bullets to load, I purchased one of these. (Shipping, packing, etc. was wonderfully quick!) I have three notes after loading ~300 cases:
1/ It indeed works as I had hoped, doing a similar expansion as the Lyman M die, without this added step. Certainly a time/step save when using a Dillon 550b loader as I have.
2/ Every ten loads, I applied a smidgeon of Imperial wax to the "M" component of the funnel, now in my press, to complement a light application of same product on outside of each case. There *IS* a quite noticeable requirement of force to "M" the cases.
3/ While this may be MY setup requiring further adjustment with the new powder funnel, in order to get the neck belled sufficiently to set a bullet upon it for the next (bullet seat) station, the fail-safe part holding the white square bell-cube piece is pushed up so hard it either breaks the little cube and/or has the piece holding it jump out of track. Again, this may be *MY* incorrect adjustments; I plan on removing and reinstalling all later, and -- if necessary -- do a tad of filing on the arm if required to get it working OK.
The bottom line for me, so far, is I am happy I got it -- NOT jumping for joy, ecstatic, mind you ;) -- and will neither retire it nor send it back. However, the noticeable extra poundage of effort, 'specially to raise the handle after priming, and bell-cube breaking challenges are haunting me.
geo
Geo, is this new brass or brass that has been wet tumbled? If it might be "too clean", try adding some wax in the vibratory tumbler media to get the inside of the cases lubed a bit until you build up a beneficial layer of soot.Quote:
Originally Posted by georgerkahn
In the Reloading Equipment sub forum there is a sticky for M-die measurements. They give the first step and second step diameters as .427 and .431. Is your new expander close to those dimensions?
You may have the powder die adjusted down a little too much or there is too sharp of a step between the 2 diameters. I've found Lyman M-dies are a bit too much of a jump for me. I've spun several of them in the drill and used an abrasive (cratex) wheel in the dremel to change the slope of that transition. Smooths the operation up for me.
Regards - Slughammer
They say... everything old is new again... 30 years ago a U.K. company called NDFS (North Devon Firearms Suppiles) offered the very same thing... I was shooting what you’d call PPC, I had an expander for .38 HBWC and it did a superb job of expanding & prep’ing for those soft swagged bullets... definitely the way to go...
It would seem that this type of retrofit would be squarely in NOE's wheelhouse.
slughammer -- Thanks ever so much for the slope changing suggestion using Dremel. I used my Unimat lathe, accomplishing same thing, and yours is a WONDERFUL suggestion, affording quite the improvement. Re my brass's history, much is "mystery brass", bought from sellers on this site. I always decap on a separate, my "dirty press", across the room from my Dillon 550b, and all is wet ss pin tumbled, using LemiShine, distilled water, ArmorAll Wash n Wax, and a wee bit of Dawn detergent. To my eye and feel, the ArmorAll addition does make the cases waxy-feeling. To reiterate my comment, the amount of effort to lower the 550's handle seemed to significantly increase with the new die, which was my reason for the Imperial wax applications, which helped immensely. NOT a statistically significant number -- ;) -- I had but two empty .44 S&W Sp. cases I hadn't seen (?) -- so I loaded them after your suggested polish -- and, by gum and by golly, without my Imperial wax addition, the difference is unbelievably better!
Thank you again!
geo
From the reading I have done, when you use the wash & wax you don't use the dawn. You might want to try a batch that way.
Leo
Some words of caution on re-expanding case necks and/or straight cases. If the case neck grip, on a bottleneck rifle bullet, is not strong enough, the bullet can be pushed deeper in the case, during chambering, but won't raise pressures much. But, if the case grip on straight short cases, like semi-autos or revolvers, is not strong enough there can be some very serious consequences. If the bullet, on a semi-auto case, gets pushed deeper into the case during the chambering process, pressures can be increased 3X to 4X and blow-up a gun. Years ago, the NRA seated bullets to various depths, into a 38 Special case, and had each seating depth pressure tested. IIRC, the maximum tested pressures got up to about 45,000 psi to 50,000+ psi. Likewise, if the case grip on a magnum revolver round is not strong enough then during recoil the bullet can move out of the case and lock-up the cylinder from rotating. Not a good scenario if you need follow-up shots. Also, pressure variations, from loose case grips on bullets, gives inconsistent pressures and poor accuracy.
What I found out many years ago was that the re-expanding plug diameters varied greatly between the many different brands of dies of the same caliber. So, I modified all my dies so that the expanding plug diameter slipped into a sized case without resistance and only allowed the case-mouth to be flaired slightly to ease bullet insertion. The bullet then re-expanded the case, for the maximum case grip on the bullet, and followed that with a case mouth crimp. I did the same mod on the powder tubes on my Dillon 550B. When in doubt about case grip on the bullet I do the following; for semi-autos shoot all the rounds in a magazine but let the last round just chamber and then eject the last unfired round. Insert the unfired round first into the mag and repeat this about ten(10) times. Then examine that last unfired round to see if the 10 chamberings has pushed the bullet deeper into the case. For revolvers; shoot all the rounds except that last unfired round in the cylinder. Reload the cylinder and leave the unfired round in the cylinder. Again, repeat this about ten(10) and then examine the unfired round to see if the bullet has moved out of the case. Once you do this and determine the case grip is strong enough, you never have to do it again.
Best regards,
CJR
A follow-up to my post here on the thread. " Forrest r" just posted a chart entitled "Effects on Pressure" in the thread "Charter Arms 44 Special Bulldog.........." in the category " Wheelguns, Pistols & Handguns". I believe this chart, "Effects on Pressure", is the work I recalled as being done by the NRA to emphasize how pressure increases drastically with deeper bullet seating in the 38 Special. This NRA work also emphasizes how important "case-grip on a bullet" is for ammo used in an autoloading pistol.
Best regards,
CJR