Square deal B - Feedback?

I've got an old Rock Chucker, a SDB and 2 1050's. My wife and I have loaded well over 100K rounds on the SDB and it's still going strong, it's a great little loader.

I have two SDBs - purchased both used. One set up for large primer and one for small primer. I use a Rock Chucker for the little bit of rifle ammo load.

I don't understand all the fussing - the SDB is a great deal. If you consider it comes with dies (the other machines require dies to be purchased), it a great value.

If all you load is pistol ammo, it's hard to beat a SDB!

I'm a big fan of Dillon and have been using a 450 since the early 1980s. I do not care for auto indexing as I take my time and scale about every 5th round. I only load 45 and do not try for production. I do not use the primer function on the press but prefer the manual Lee AutoPrime. Have worn out one of those but the 450 has been very close to flawless. A powder feed knob striped shortly after I got it and Dillon promptly sent me two replacement knobs.

Their customer service is impressive.
John
Charlotte, NC

A friend of mine did some small scale commerical reloading in the late 80s maybe early 90s. He had four or five of them set up in his basement in different calibers and would turn out thousands of rounds a night from them. He never seemed to have much trouble with them. Made a lot of rounds.

I load both rifle and pistol cartridges and use a Rock Chucker for the rifle and a Dillon Square B for the pistol. I do not require a large volume of rifle as I shoot single shots and bolt guns (no semi auto .223) but I do use a lot of 9mm and .40 S&W. I have the press mounted high on a bench which permits me to visually check every case for powder before seating the bullet. The powder drop system is very good and will maintain a constant charge weight. The only time I have problems with the Dillon is when I try to hurry the process and I make mistakes. I produce about 300 quality rounds per hour with little trouble. It is a reliable machine that requires some maintenance (partial disassebly) to clean up powder and other debris.

I like the RCBS 2000. I use a Dillon powder measure that flares and dispenses powder in one stroke and the five station design allows me to use a powder check die and still use separate seating and crimping dies.

I think in the smaller presses the RCBS 2000 beats the others by a fair margin. When I bought mine they cost <$350 with a powder measure.

I have a Dillon 1050 and that is in a class by itself but it is only worth setting up if I plan to run at least 1000rds and to get the best quality out of it all cases must be the same.

I have owned the 550 and the 650. They were OK, but no where near as rugged as the RCBS. Also in my experience RCBS customer service is equal to Dillon's.

I also have a Redding T7 turret press that I use for work up loads.

I am happy with this setup.

Noxx said:

Had me eyeballing the Dillon site for those big 1050's with power everything.

Click to expand...

I've got 2 1050's, what power everything are you talking about?

I settled on Dillon presses a long time ago.......back when the 450 was a pretty new design.

I bought an SDB back in 1984 I think and to be honest, other than a worn out part or two, and Dillon providing updates when something needed attention, that machine has loaded thousands of rounds.
Yep, it has it's slight shortcomings, but what machine doesn't ?

I've converted that old 450 into a 550B, and also bought another 550B, so between all three machines, I'm well covered.

With a single stage, and turret press, I can do just about anything slowly, or in large quantities.

Most machines made today are pretty good, it's all just a matter of preference, or need.

Take care,
Bob

Noxx,

Are you using the plastic "primer height" rod that rests on the primer stack, and that sets off the low primer alarm ? Although it's function is to set off the alarm when the primers get low, it also helps positive feeding if there are any slight hangups that occur in the tube itself.

Many times when the primers get low, they'll hang up slightly due to not only the lack of weight, but other reasons as well.
One reason (I recently found out) was due to the inside of the primer housing tube being aluminum, it will oxidize.

Even though I clean my machine a couple times a year, I never really considered to clean my primer tube. I'd blow it out with compressed air, but that was about it.....and apparently not enough.

Apparently there was a reaction between the aluminum and the primer dust the primers give off, and it eventually oxidized the aluminum to the point that it jammed up the primers.
I had the machine set up for .38 wadcutters, and I had loaded so many that I was overly supplied. I keep the machine set for just that one load, so it sat idle for several months.
Apparently that was all the time it needed to create the problem.
A call to Dillon, and admitting that it was my fault for not checking it, they still sent me another primer system for free.
The rep. laughingly said "well, the primer system has been updated anyway".

Now I run a properly sized bore mop down the tube, and using a toothbrush, I brush out the primer feed ramp at the base to remove the dust that builds up.
I also took that old corroded tube (which wasn't all that bad really) and with several patches of "Mother's" Mag Wheel polish, I polished it up nice & brite. It turned out so nice, I did the new primer tube as well. It polishes it to a chrome like finish and helps in the ease of feeding.

A light coating of industrial graphite down the tube also helps.

Live & learn.......I did.....

Take care,
Bob

I have the 550b and really am satisfied with its performance. I use it to load all of my handgun rounds and for my AR. A great machine for punching out lots of ammo in a short period of time but my friend has a sdb and is just as pleased with it as I am my 550. If you are just loading for handguns the sdb would do you great. But don't ever get rid of the rock chucker,,, I imagine that press would compare to the winchester 94, nearly all of us has had one and the ones who got rid of it wish it was back with them. The RC is what I use to load my hunting and match ammo with.