Dillon XL750 First impressions / First modifications

First topic message reminder :

I ordered one locally about 10 days ago. Installed and started testing last Friday.

Needless to say, my primary interest was in new indexing system, new priming and fail safety mechanisms.

Initial observation is that engineering level is of typical Dillon. It is very raw, without much attention to technical details, too much reliance on free hanging self adjusting parts, and cutting corners for the benefit of production cost. The best example are primer feeding tubes that are installed into primer magazine. Plastic ends on tubes do not provide for consistent feeding. Out of 15 primers I loaded in my first trial, only 13 were loaded. I had to fish for two remaining with low primer rod. I then reamed plastic end with standard 0.175"+ reamer, and loaded another 10 - this time 9 made through. Called to Dillon technical support yesterday yelled suggestion by support tech that my primers might of been out of roundness, and then suggestion to cut off plastic end and install spare one included in package.

I also observed more disturbing thing, - couple of primers got flipped over. I'm interested to learn if any of the early adopters of the 750 had this happening! I also am not happy that during return primer bar crosses open area exactly where particles of powder can drop right into the primer holding cup.

Unfortunately older style tubes with brass ends would not work. So that is the first part I measured, drew and am getting turned out of brass.

Needless to say, I was disappointed that I cannot transfer tool head, that was setup on 650, to 750 without needing to make changes. However the good news here is that releasing two screws holding Powder Measure and rotating it enough to install tool head, was sufficient, and no additional changes to any of the dies was needed. That brings me to that fail safety rod and bracket. Latter seam to be a little bit off dimension wise (2mm, IMO) for the rod to drop down vertically as outlined in manual. And of course, bracket is sized the way, that if anyone wants to use Mr. Bulletfeeder's dropper installed on station 4 (while using station 3 for powder check), it is impossible! Powder measure with current bracket is seating about 10 degrees too far to the right, - this is the issue that Rick Koskela, The Mr. Bulletfeeder asked me to look into. The simplest solution to this problem is using fail safety rod assembly from Super 1050, p/n. 16811. I FaceTimed how it works to Rick, and he will take it to Dillon's folks. However I'm still going to re-design entire bracket for better overall functionality.

I implemented first modification on Sunday. I installed springs on both primer bars between body of the bar and plastic roller, so roller doesn't get stuck at the back corner of the housing. If anyone interested - in my local True Value it is Spring #9 ($0.59), and then cut to the proper size. Or in simpler terms, spring with ID 0.1875" and smallest wire diameter you can find.

I proposed this tread as a means of exchanging experience and ideas regarding this new press. I understand that there might be other forums, that are more specific to Dillon's equipment. I simply don't have time to follow up all of them. Feel free to propagate information.

AP

Pretty sure dillon had issues with aftermarket swaggers on the 550s and possibly the 650s. These replace the primer arm. 750 is still very new

DA/SA wrote:Using an aftermarket swager voids the warranty.

I Googled around quite a bit last night and could not turn up any other cases of that part being broken. It seems it would have surfaced on the internet by now if it was happening to others as well.

Hard to say.

I did that as well.  However I searched for the symptoms I experienced versus direct search of broken part.  The symptoms are:
1. Flipped primers and primers seated sideways and subsequently crashed;
2. Changing position of the primer punch relative to platform as indexing is changing;
3. Inconsistent primer pickup with primer bar locking back for no apparent reason;

I did find references on various forums, specifically on Glocktalk and castboolits.  I also talked to Lee Love of UniqueTek today, - he mentioned conversation with one customer who complained about inconsistencies with indexing system.  However, I agree, there is not much.  Break point of the part is quite difficult to see until press is taken apart.  It kind of hiding in the frame of the press.  

AP

Is it possible that the part is so close to minimum in strength that a cross fed primer contributes to the failure?

I think, the answer is yes it is possible, Steve.  When platform comes down and presses on primer seating steam, force of seating is distributed between three points, - two anchoring points of primer mount assembly (one bolt in the rear and two bolt in the front) and another one represented by top of the index block.  Thus force is applied inside of triangle, and point of application is closer to the front anchor (two larger bolts) of the assembly.  Index block is also held in place by two bolts, and quite a solid piece.  So the rear anchor is the weakest one.  Obviously I didn't bother to take measurements and calculated distribution of the force between anchors, and I could care less about doing that.  IMHO it should have been done by Dillon's designers, and maybe it was, and I just had defective part.  We will see.  As for needing excessive force for seating primer sideways, - I'm actually surprised how little extra force is needed to smash primer flat in comparison with seating it normally.  On very rare occasion same happens on 650, and I immediately can tell the difference.   I learned to sense difference on 750 as well, but elevated force is secondary to hearing faint "ping" from primer seat cap heating edge of carbide insert in the platform.  This is the moment when primer flips over or goes up sideways.

As I said, let me reassemble press with replacement parts, and run it through few rounds.

AP

Yeah, I looked into that, John!
I have two Stars, and love them.  However conservative estimate is that I need sixteen more to substitute capabilities of my three plus one broken Dillons, and then addition to the house.  Investment in the real estate in my state is not very wise notion.   Regardless, I would do it if I'm given a second life time, so I can reload everything I want and still have time to shoot.  That didn't happen either.  So I buried that idea.


AP

Update on status of my 750.  I finally received part.  Interesting detail, - it came with spring installed.  I wonder if spring breaks, will Dillon replace complete mount assembly?  Anyway, I install mount with single screw attachment first, checked gaps (thank you Ashley and Glenn!) with paper strip.  Installed brass shim cut out of 223 case on one side - no gaps anywhere.  Checked and corrected dimensions on large primer slide - see 13.6 / page 59 of the manual.  Re-aligned platform with primer slide.  I then cautiously ran about 50 rounds of 10mm, - whatever number of primers left in primer magazine.  Press operated very smoothly, even when I tried continuous movement while lowering platform and immediately pushing back to seat next primer (this is where I had issue from day one!).  After that I ran batch of 100 rounds, still going cautiously but at a little bit brisker pace - clear loading time for 100 was just over six minutes.  "Clear" is underlined because I don't have Mr. Bulletfeeder on this press yet, and use Output Assembly that I fill in manually with bullets, about 40-45 bullets at the time.  I had no issues with seating primers (no issues with feeding primers either, all way to the last one without low primer rod), and overall operation of the press was consistent and smooth!  While it is still about two plus minutes slower then loading on 650, I'm very happy with the feel of the press.  In the next couple days I'll have a "sit down" with 750 and load large batch of 10mm ammo, probably in 1000 rounds range (filling out bullets every couple minutes is really annoying and time consuming process!).  

AP

Sounds way better. You have to wonder if the bracket was broken from day one...i do think the brass priimer tube ends are the ticket

Finally was able to machine replacement fail safety bracket for XL750.  It can be found on UniqueTek website - https://www.uniquetek.com/product/T1746

I just don't have enough hours in a day to catch up with everything, and have had no opportunity to create webpages for couple of new products on my own website. 

AP