The long-awaited day is finally here!!!

[Irish Red O'Toole]

I ordered a Dillon 650 back in early August. Dillon was very quick (as usual) about getting it to me. So, I started looking around for a suitable bench to mount this beautiful new progressive montser onto. I was disappointed in most of the Craftsman-type work benches I saw locally....all had mellamine or pressboard tops!! So, I found one at Midway. A Kencraft Reloading Bench. It had a maple butcher-block top and the table was made from steel. It also had 5 storage drawers. I natually ordered it, picturing my new press riding on top of it happily cranking out .45LC ammo at an astounding pace. Well, when I ordered it, the very nice lady at Midway said it would take 6-8 weeks to get to me. I thought, "yeah, they just tell you that so you don't get your hopes up", and I ordered it. Well, it finally showed up at my door last night. Exactly 8 weeks to the day I ordered it!! The Dillon has been sitting in it's several boxes on my living room floor (I'm sure feeling abandoned!) I spent 5 long hours last night putting this bench together. As projects go, this was a seven-swear-word event. That means I let out a stream of curse words at least seven times.

On the positive side, it turned into a bonding event for my 9-year old daughter and I. She loves to help build things and when she saw this project, her little eyes just shot open. And, since she has very small hands, she was able to get lock washers and nuts on those hard-to-reach bolts I had no hope of getting to. I don't think I would be done yet if she didn't help. That made the trip worth taking!!

Anyway, my beautiful bench is done and tonight I get to re-open all those forgotten Dillon boxes and assemble my new press. I should be churning out ammo by the weekend!! While I was waiting on the bench, I came across a MEC 600 Jr. on e-Bay for $50, so I bought it too! I've gone from zero reloading to fully everything reloading in the matter of a few weeks!!

Life...is good.

[Matthew Duncan]

And then after 8 plus long weeks you realize you ain't got no primers!

Have fun.

[Pukin Dog]

As projects go, this was a seven-swear-word event. That means I let out a stream of curse words at least seven times.

On the positive side, it turned into a bonding event for my 9-year old daughter and I.

What a lovely picture!  Daddy teaching his young daughter how to spice up her vocabulary! LOL

I'm still laughing thinking about it.  My 6 year old twins sure learn alot of juicy words from me too!

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

tickticktick...

Two hours, IROT, can you do it?



AnnieLee

[SIR WILLIAM]

LOL  I have a mental picture of a redheaded Irishman and a fine and delicate Maureen O'Hara from The Quiet Man assembling a reloading bench.  LOL  The other side of Matthews observation is having the primers but, discovering they are ALL bad Winchester primers!

[Irish Red O'Toole]

What a lovely picture!  Daddy teaching his young daughter how to spice up her vocabulary! LOL

I'm still laughing thinking about it.  My 6 year old twins sure learn alot of juicy words from me too!

Most of the swearing came from me trying to fasten those lock washers and nuts on bolts in impossible to reach spaces.  That's when my little angel volunteered to help.  So, the cursing was at a minimum when she was helping.

[Stump Water]

Only seven?

[Irish Red O'Toole]

Only seven?

It wasn't that big a table.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Hmm, no update on the progress? Either it took a lot longer with a lot more cussing, or IROT was delayed in starting on it...


AnnieLee

[Irish Red O'Toole]

Annie,
1 hour 48 minutes from clean table top to fully functional 650! Took another 9 minutes to adjust the powder bar and powder checker system. Total time was 1 hour 57 minutes. Would have taken me 20 minutes less, but I dumb-assed when I mounted the strong mount and the handle didn't have enough clearance. Had to dismount the press and redrill the holes! Oh well...... Now I gotta get down to some serious reloading!!

Oh, the "no updates" was because I didn't start until 9PM last night!  Had to get some family time in before that.

As soon as I get the MEC 600 mounted, I'll post a picture of the whole work bench so all ya'll (Southern word there  ) can see it in all it's glory.

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Awesome, IROT!

Glad to hear you got it together and so quickly! It'll be great to see the pics.


AnnieLee

[Four-Eyed Buck]

good going, Red!...........Buck

[Micheal Fortune]

Hey Irish,

   Now I didn't really want to pass this story along, being 47 years old and thinking I know what I'm doing and all.  And I don't mind all of you laughing at me if this post will help someone down the road, and none of you could make me feel and sillier than I do now already. So here goes.

   Careful with that progressive press.  I got a Lee Loadmaster a week ago, got it all set up, had quite a bit of trouble with the primer feed but got that working good now, loaded up 50 rounds and went and shot them.  Shot great!

   Made a few adjustments, clicked out 400 more in no time.  Stopping every 20 rounds or so to check the powder drop.

   I did this by taking the scale tray, putting it under the powder measure, and manually moving the arm up and down to drop the powder.  Measured perfect every time.

   Got out to the range and Boom, boom, pop........ Hummmmm, bullet stuck in the barrel.

   Well now that ain't right, take it apart, get the bullet out. And the same thing.  So I took two days with a bullet puller, wack, wack, wack and found that off and on, the powder charge was full to nothing.

   Scratching my head quite a bit, I re-read the directions.  It says the chain that resets the automatic powder measure should go from here to here and so on.  Ok, that checks out, so I go online to the company's trouble shooter and it says: There must be spring tension on the chain so when the ram comes down, it pulls the chain tight and only then will it fully load the metering hole.

   The way to check it isn't manually, it's by putting a primed case under it and cycling the ram fully.

   After making the proper adjustments I cycled it 50 times the right way and it's working fine.

   Also in this last year we have a member that blew two guns up and he has a Dillon press.  One was a Ruger 3 screw and one was a genuine Colt.

   We been thinking that maybe he dropped two bullets in the same case somehow, don't know but we all stand back a little when he shoots these days.

   Thought I would pass it on.

[Irish Red O'Toole]

Here's a picture of my new bench and Dillon.  The space on the right (currently taken up by all those green ammo boxes) will hold my newly-purchased MEC 600 Jr. as soon as I get around to putting it up.

[Pukin Dog]

It shore does look purty.  Bet you can crank out a passel of boolits with that outfit. 

Hmmmm........

Gotta figure out how I can get me one of those by the little lady. .. . .. .