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MidwestPX

Took the big blue plunge

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My moving present to myself is a Dillon 1050 with all the trimmings.  I'm setting up a brass prep toolhead with a RT1500 trimmer and a separate loading toolhead with a Mr. Bullet Feeder.  Everything showed up today so I was excited to get it all rolling, starting with building a new bench.  My plan was to build a 2x8 box around two 4x12x82 planks which would serve as the surface of the bench and brace the 4x4 legs with a 2x6 box which would also serve as a surface to store stuff.  The 4x12s are to be reinforced on the underside with four one foot strips of 1/8" steel secured by lag bolts.  The press and vice would have an additional 1" backing of Garolite on the underside of the bench surface.  Yeah, I kind of overbuild my benches...it's like my signature thing in the house and shop.  But of course, something has to rear its ugly head and stop me dead in the water...  One of the 2x8s was delivered split.  Argh!  I'll snap some pics once it's all set up.

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Sounds like you are building a base for a tank turret. I use 2 stacked pieces of 1" x 20" x 24" plywood on three heavy duty angled shelf supports .

My LNL ammo plant loves the $50 bench.

More power to you. It's all in whatever gives you satisfaction.

I don't know why but I get some sense of satisfaction from overbuilding benches.  This thing weighs in excess of 100lbs already but I'll still bolt it to the floor.  Once I add the 1050 and my Wilton vise, it should be close to 200lbs.  Then I'll toss components on the bottom shelf which will add a substantial amount of weight as I buy bullets 5-10k at a time.  I'd put my .223 brass down there but I've got a 16x16x16 box full of spent brass which weighs a little over 300lbs and, well, that's just too heavy to pick up :rofl:

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Ugh I wish I had a few thousand burning a hole in my pocket right now ha

I've got a couple open bolt projects on the burner right now which I'm trying to get wrapped up for Knob Creek.  I figured I could put the press to good use and actually save money longer term as I need to load 17k rounds of .223 to break even but I also load 9mm, .45, .308, and 10mm.  IIRC, my plinking .223 costs about $0.10/rd while I can buy it for $300/k (I only run brass cased ammo).  So based on that, I'll be more than halfway there on .223 alone when I go to Knob Creek.  I didn't really spend money, I invested it.  Or so I tell myself :rofl:

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I've got a couple open bolt projects on the burner right now which I'm trying to get wrapped up for Knob Creek.  I figured I could put the press to good use and actually save money longer term as I need to load 17k rounds of .223 to break even but I also load 9mm, .45, .308, and 10mm.  IIRC, my plinking .223 costs about $0.10/rd while I can buy it for $300/k (I only run brass cased ammo).  So based on that, I'll be more than halfway there on .223 alone when I go to Knob Creek.  I didn't really spend money, I invested it.  Or so I tell myself :rofl:

 

Yeahhhh thats significantly more then my 1k 9mm and 223 a month....

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All I can say is, it's a damn good thing my wife isn't here this weekend.  She'd murder me for taking over her kitchen like this.

 

2je30xs.jpg

This could arguably be the greatest gun related picture on the interweb...   We should all strive to have your courage in the face of (wife) adversary.  Well done Sir.    :paladin:

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I was a few beers in last night and thought it was a good idea to send that picture to my wife.  "Oh hell no, that better be gone by the time I move in!" was her response.  In my alcohol-fueled brilliance, I responded with, "Bolted it down already, you can cook around it."  She was not amused :rofl:

 

The working surface of the bench was too heavy to lift on my own.  I'm waiting for my FIL to arrive so we can zip up the bench.  In hindsight, I wish I would have gotten thicker and wider steel bracing.  Lesson learned for the next bench I build.

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So I finally got around to getting this running. The brass prep toolhead is sweet. Case feed, universal decap, swage, size/trim, expander mandrel. The RT1500 trimmer is amazing. No more manually checking cases, trimming, deburring, and chamfering. I need to figure out why the casefeeder is jamming intermittently though. Otherwise, I have no complaints and should have done this years ago.

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It's my own personal "ATF" room.  Humidor not pictured but it's on a higher shelf.  Most of the reloading components are on a shelf under the bench to help weigh it down.  Even with close to 20k .22 and .30ccal bullets, the bench still moves a little when the press is running.  The solution is to get more, right?

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Efffffing amazing!  Do you mind listing out the parts that went into this beautiful creation?

Super 1050 w/ .223 steel dies

RT1500 trimmer w/ RT-specific trim/size die

Lee universal decapping die

21st Century Shooting TiN expander mandrel

 

The way it's setup:

 

Station 1: Casefeed

Station 2: Decap

Station 3: Swage

Station 4: Empty

Station 5: Empty

Station 6: Trim/size

Station 7: Empty

Station 8: Expander mandrel

 

Cleaned, lubed brass goes in, ready to load (after a tumble) brass comes out.

 

The extra .223 toolhead is setup as follows:

 

Station 1: Casefeed

Station 2: Decap (poke out anything the flash hole)

Station 3: Empty

Station 4: Prime

Station 5: Powder drop

Station 6: Mr. Bullet Feeder

Station 7: Bullet seat

Station 8: Crimp

 

I knocked out about 3500 pieces of brass in under three hours. I would expect loading would be faster as the handle will be much easier to work since I won't have to overcome the resistance of the sizing die and the expander mandrel. The bullet feeder is rated for something like 3K+ rounds per hour which is certainly faster than I can work the handle. Once those 3500 are loaded, I'm 20% of the way to breaking even on the press and all associated parts. Each caliber conversion will run another $450ish for two toolheads and a caliber conversion kit plus another $500 for a bullet feeder and $300 for another trimmer (I'll get one for .308 and one for 300BLK). It sounds like a lot of money but if you shoot any decent volume, it pays for itself pretty quickly.

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On Friday, I found 2500 155gr AMAX bullets that I had purchased a year ago and stashed away. So I ordered the parts to convert my .223 setup to .308:

 

2x toolhead (one w/ powder measure)

Large priming system

21st Century Shooting TiN .30cal expander mandrel w/ die body

.30cal powder funnel

.30cal casefeed adapter

.30cal casefeed plunger

.308 conversion kit

Swage die body w/ lock nut

 

Totaled out to just under $800 for all the parts. My component cost to load 155gr AMAX rounds will be under $0.35/rd. Purchasing the same round would be at least $1ea or a savings of over $1600 on 2500 rounds. I didn't buy a case trimmer as all of my .308 cases have already been sized and trimmed nor did I pick up a bullet feeder but I see both in my near future.

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Loaded my first 100 rounds today.  10 of them had crushed primers.  Some people say to sort by headstamp and adjust the swager as necessary.  I might take the lazy way out and just adjust it to swage a little more and hope I don't destroy primer pockets...  Anyhow, of them, two were missing primers and one was missing powder.  I'm chalking it up to operator error.  I'll shoot these, load another 100, check all of them, and if they're good, I'll set up the bullet feeder and go into high volume production.

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Just remember, as you crank up the production volume on ammo:

 

YOU ARE THE QUALITY CONTROL PERSON.

YOUR LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS.

 

Happy New Year!

And good luck - you've got a nice setup there

Certainly. I've loaded countless rounds on a single stage Rockchucker to learn the process of reloading. However, this 1050 is my first progressive press and I now understand why most people don't recommend starting here but rather upgrading to a 1050 from a 550 or 650. I still have issues trusting the powder measure. I probably threw 200 charges before I loaded the first round due to that.

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I've got a couple open bolt projects on the burner right now which I'm trying to get wrapped up for Knob Creek.  I figured I could put the press to good use and actually save money longer term as I need to load 17k rounds of .223 to break even but I also load 9mm, .45, .308, and 10mm.  IIRC, my plinking .223 costs about $0.10/rd while I can buy it for $300/k (I only run brass cased ammo).  So based on that, I'll be more than halfway there on .223 alone when I go to Knob Creek.  I didn't really spend money, I invested it.  Or so I tell myself :rofl:

Please list your plinking .223 components as your $.10 per round is too low.

 

Your press should not move at all, bolt your bench better to the wall.

 

You don't have to separate .223/5.56 by headstamp in order to swage properly, your swage setup needs to be dialed in better. How's your bump measurements? are you using a Wilson type device to measure or proper gauges? I prime by hand, no chance of a kaboom.

 

Good luck with you press, it's a nice machine. Next year, buy another and ship it to Craig for an Autodrive. That's a lot of fun to use......watch :)

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Please list your plinking .223 components as your $.10 per round is too low.

 

Your press should not move at all, bolt your bench better to the wall.

 

You don't have to separate .223/5.56 by headstamp in order to swage properly, your swage setup needs to be dialed in better. How's your bump measurements? are you using a Wilson type device to measure or proper gauges? I prime by hand, no chance of a kaboom.

 

Good luck with you press, it's a nice machine. Next year, buy another and ship it to Craig for an Autodrive. That's a lot of fun to use......watch :)

I buy my components at wholesale prices and with some items, by the pallet, to get them cheaper. I also have friends who have DoD contracts to demil parts so I get projectiles pretty cheaply. My powder is also OEM powder which comes in 35lb kegs and a little cheaper than the 8lb retail jugs. I did discover that the swager on my 1050 isn't working properly because the primer swage adjustment bolt (PN 13245) was bent. I'll be calling Dillon on Monday to get a replacement.

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All I can say is, it's a damn good thing my wife isn't here this weekend.  She'd murder me for taking over her kitchen like this.

 

 

 

You need a Kazinsky shed :D  All kidding aside my wife would definitely smother me with a pillow and tell the cops it was sleep apnea if I set up something like that in the kitchen. really, no kidding :D  Okay, maybe I am kidding....maybe.

 

That is an impressive looking piece of machinery.  How many rounds per minute can you produce and what is the reproducibility of tolerances for OAL and powder charge?

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