Broke my Dillon 550

So it wasn’t the press, but the die?

Asking cause I have the same press with only 1,500 rounds through it, and maybe 1,500 more depriming/sizing strokes.

Sounds like it wasn’t the press or the die itself, rather the spring steel E-clip (known in some circles as a Jesus clip as in “Jesus, where did that go?) that retains the spring loaded decapping stem on Dillons pistol dies, they are not on their rifle dies with the built in stuck case remover.

I"ve read many accounts of those breaking. If you have that die you really should have a spare or 2 on hand. Most Hardware stores carry them

I do all my decapping on my Chucker w/ a Lee Universal. Too much trash in spent primers gumming up my 550's, so I now de-prime before I water tumble. Squirrel Daddy pin in the die. If I had the room on my bench, I would mount an APP and be done with it.

Bill

I have always been impressed with Dillon customer service. I reload a fair amount compared to most being a cowboy shooter of some 11 years. I can recall on several occasions, that when I needed a part, the usual reply was, "It's under warranty, NO CHARGE." WOW.

Dillon is a stand up company My powder charging tower broke (it's over 25 years old) I called dillon they said put it in a box and we will ship you a new one a little over a week later I was loading again it only cost me shipping 1 way. I have also lost that steel spring they shipped me 5 for free.

Same happened to me after about 30 pounds of 9mm powder used. The die box had a spare in it. Should be good for another 50k rounds at an average of 4.1 grains per round!

Dillon products and especially their CS are first class! I’ve been dealing with them since 80s. When there was an issue, which was very seldom over the last 35 or so years, they politely offered tech advice and sent the required parts pronto-free.
Their NO BS lifetime warranty policy is just that! I have 3 Dillons in the stable along with my original 1973 Lyman Spartan.

A simple fix, whew. Suggest amending the thread title to accurately reflect the breakage.

Easy fixes are the best Love my Dillon 550 Going strong since 98 .

I got tired of having Dillon replace everything I broke for free, and bought the spare parts kit for my 550, FINALLY, I was able to spend some money with them, and it saved the day a few times by having just having that little part on hand..if you don't have the spare parts kit, get one!

Clipper67 said:

I got tired of having Dillon replace everything I broke for free, and bought the spare parts kit for my 550, FINALLY, I was able to spend some money with them, and it saved the day a few times by having just having that little part on hand..if you don't have the spare parts kit, get one!

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Same here. Little plastic failsafe rod holder broke.. got one from Spare parts kit and Dillon replaced for free, zero downtime. There was something else I lost but there was one in spare parts kit. Reordered in my next Dillon order whenever

I had one of these break a number of years back. I was able to source a replacement from a local hardware store.

Even when a Dillon breaks it doesn’t break

I agree. Dillon's no BS warranty is truly no BS. I was a Dillon dealer about 20 years ago. I would occasionally when ordering parts, include a part or two that I gave to a customer from one of my demo machines. They would tell me that these parts would be free and that's what they wanted me to do.

More recently, I had a couple problems with my own 550B. When calling Dillon, they said the parts were under warranty and arrived a few days later at no charge.

frogfurr said:

After many thousands of rounds I was finishing up that last of some 9mm I was loading and heard something bounce across the loading bench. I thought it was an errant spent primer. About that time my decapping rod fell out of the sizing die. It was the E-Clip that retains the decapping pin. Dillon included a spare one in the die set to get me by. I went online and ordered (5) last Sunday and they came in the mail today.

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Love my Dillon and Their service !!!!!

Erief0g said:

Same here. Little plastic failsafe rod holder broke.. got one from Spare parts kit and Dillon replaced for free, zero downtime

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Good thinking! I never thought of that!

35+ years of loading on Dillons with Dillon dies and I have only had one E clip fail. It broke in half.

Might have mentioned this here before, in case I haven’t…had a 650 and snapped one of the link arms couple years’ back. Just by looking at it I knew it was a bad casting…called and had a new one in the mail the next day as well as a return label for the broken one…wanted to look it over I guess.

Dillon's warranty/service policies are invaluable assets to their business model, resulting in enviable market-share. Their customers are the most effective salespeople, overwhelmingly and enthusiastically tooting the blue horn. I never tire of a US success story.