Finally started (pic heavy)

[Weber]

For the last year I have been collection reloading equipment, building my work area, and collecting items.

This past weekend I finally opened the reloading cabinet, and started processing.

I started by building me work area, I set it up just for reloading and building rifles.







Finally opened the cabinet.



Started with sorting some 223/556 brass.



Inspected the brass for things like this.



Into the tumbler to clean them up.



Ran the tumbler for about 2 hours.





Then time to lube the brass.



Let dry for a few then into the case feeder.



Recapped the first piece of brass using the lee universal decapping die.



Made some adjustments to the sizing/trimmer die.



Before



After

 

[Weber]

Check the cases with a case gauge.



Found I didn't have the expander tight enough.



Fixed that, and everything was set.



Hooked the vacuum attachment up, and started working.



Ended up breaking a decapping pin on a piece of crimped primer brass. Not sure what caused it, but I had spares.



100 piece went really quick.



Then it was time to clean the lube off.



20oz of water.



Using a PVC dome top cap to measure my solution. The cap is 1/2 ounce, so two caps will do.



I did 3 cycles, and they look pretty good.



Then they need rinsed off.



Pat them dry.



Primer pockets look pretty good.



Then I put them in the oven to dry them completely.



Came out really good.



1st 100 rounds of prepped brass was complete, besides a few that I need to swage they primer pockets with the dillon 600 super swage.

 

[cowtownup]

Wow.. You have a nice setup... It makes it so much more enjoyable to have nice equipment and a clean work area IMO...

 

[dredd]

Wendy O. Williams!!!

Nice!

Just one little helpful hint...

I bought a cheap food dehydrator for drying brass.
I find it very convenient.

That being said... you have a great looking setup.
Congrats!!!

 

[Weber]

Thanks.

I'm hoping to find a cheap one on sale around the holidays for that.

 

[quaid]

Almost an equipment overkill, but overbuilt is rarely bad. The tumbler/sonic cleaner is redundant. I no longer use my sonic in favor of dry tumbling, but still have both. I don't like the water drying delay.

Bonus points for routing the vacuum hose in from another room to keep noise out. Did you install a switched outlet so you could turn it on and off from the bench?

I'm a fan of the Lee decapping design. How to put this delicately... have you considered upgrading your full length 223 dillon sizing die to one of Lee's? The inevitably missed berdan primer won't break your tools next time.

 

[Weber]

The switch for the vacuum is in the cabinet next to the press, I can reach it from the press.

The lee decapping die is what broke, the sizing/trimmer die is the dillon.

I was able to deprime the rest of the crimped ones, not sure what broke it, the case it broke in had an extra primer in the case. Not sure if it got stuck on the pin from the previous piece, but there was one in the case and the original still in the pocket.

 

[TomJones]

Nice setup. Looks like you put some sweat equity to good use.

 

[quaid]

The switch for the vacuum is in the cabinet next to the press, I can reach it from the press.

The lee decapping die is what broke, the sizing/trimmer die is the dillon.

I was able to deprime the rest of the crimped ones, not sure what broke it, the case it broke in had an extra primer opinion the case. Not sure if it got stuck on the pin from the previous piece, but there was one in the case and the original still in the pocket.

Switch too! I'm very impressed.

Extra pin? That may have caused a lateral force, I don't know of any die that can withstand that.

 

[Weber]

I'm all set to reload 223/556, 308, and 300 blackout.

 

[gamestalker]

I would use something to check the internal of your brass though. Someone took that brass way over max to have caused such a severe split extending down the entire case body. I can't imagine what the chamber looks like, yikes!

OTOH, really nice set up! Just watch you P's and Q's, and you should have an uneventful future in reloading.

GS

 

[Springfield0612]

I was goinng to say, "Looks nice but I think I saw a Lee product in that cabinet!" No one has ever been successful using Lee products so that one die just ruined all your other gear! Joking of course!

I'm jealous, one day I'll have a reloading/casting room. When I build mine, it will have a work tub type sink in it as I like to wet tumble my brass with stainless steel pins. I like the vaccum tubes you setup, thats a great idea!

 

[Weber]

I processed 100-150 pieces of 223 last night.

It was Winchester brass, looked like it had a ring around the primer pocket. Is this crimped primered brass?

I went ahead and swagged it anyway.

 

[Walkalong]

Is this crimped primered brass?

Did any of them look like the ones in this pic?

............................No crimp..........................................Ring crimp.........................................Stab crimp

Another thing to check on rifle brass from the range is to check it internally.

Great setup, and a great start.

 

[Weber]

Looks like the one on the left.

 

[DC_art]

Jealous of your set up. Both the space and all of the equipment!

 

[Weber]

Jealous of your set up. Both the space and all of the equipment!

Thanks

 

[Weber]

There was concern on wether or not I could trim 300blkout on the LNL due to its thick top plate.

I ordered a CH4D trim die to use with the dillon as I had a few ideas how to make it work.

Well, the die came in today so...

300 blkout is all setup, I was able to get it adjusted and used a nut off an emt fitting.

It was tought to get adjusted and locked down, but not impossible.

Here is the die adjusted down, and you can see the nut on the bottom.



Vacuum fitting connected.



Before



After



After doing a few hundred pieces I pulled the vacuum attachment of to see if I was packing shavings up, wasn't bad at all. I have more than that in there from 223 & 308.



One thing I may do is cut the bushing square on two sides. I held it with channel locks while I tightened the bottom.

 

[swampcrawler]

Trade you my sister for your setup?

 

[Weber]

Trade you my sister for your setup?

Pics of sister?

 

[Weber]

After I processed all my 300 blkout brass, I started to make some from 223.

Start with a regular piece of 223 (I already processed it for reloading 223)



Put it in the jig on the mini chop saw to cut the case down.



Cut down.



Cut, but not sized or trimmed.



Into the press to form the neck, size, and trim to length.



Final measurement.



Double check everything with a case gauge.



And here is the brass in the different stages next to each other.

 

[Walkalong]

Put it in the jig on the mini chop saw to cut the case down.

That gauge is the schnitz. I almost ordered one, but was nearly through cutting cases when someone posted about it. I used a makeshift set up.

 

[Weber]

That gauge is the schnitz. I almost ordered one, but was nearly through cutting cases when someone posted about it. I used a makeshift set up.

Looks like it would work good, just not as fast since you have to clamp the brass in.

I bought the jig about a year ago for around $30, it was worth it. Tonight was the first time I used it. I bought the chop saw today for $20 on the Black Friday sale, along with a 25% off coupon.

 

[Weber]

Alright, so today I moved into more uncharted waters and on to the next step of reloading.

It took me awhile to get everything going as this was my first time and I made some mistakes along the way that I had to figure out not only what the issue was, but what I did wrong as well. Then there were a few manufacture issues, that I had to fix.

So, I started by converting the press from brass prep for 300blkout, to prime, powder, bullet seat for 223.

I cleaned the powder drop, and bullet seating die.

Then I figured I would get the priming station up and running.

Opened a new box of primers.



Then flipped the ones that were upside down over using a little screwdriver.



Then into the dish and picked up with the primer tube.



And down the chute by pulling the pin.



Then moved onto setting the powder drop station up.

Put some H335 in the tube, and started getting some drops to adjust the charge and check consistency.



Adjusted...



Moving in the right direction, and double checking each one on the beam scale to verify accuracy of the scales.

Found the beam scale was missing a magnet, that was not glued in properly. Fixed that, but still was getting inconsistent drops. Took it apart and found the powder was clumping together.

You can see in this picture that the powder is stuck inside, this was after trying to get it out.



So it took it all apart again, cleaned with the brake cleaner and then used one shot as directed.

Finally after cleaning it multiple times I was getting consistent drops that were verfied on both the digital scale and beam.





With that problem fixed I moved on to bullet seating, but found that I had an issue with the primer set up after I stopped doing one case at a time.

I found I had the large primer parts installed and needed the small primer parts, fixed that and reloaded the primer tube and it still would not pick the next primer everytime. After trying to adjust the primer system, I found the adjustment slot was not fully cut out to allow full adjustment. A drill bit took care of that, and it was working flawlessly.

Since I have no reloading experience, I read the directions on how the bullet seating works, and gave it a go with some trial and error.



First bullet did not seat fully, so I adjusted it and tried again. Much better, but still to high. Then, some how this happened.



Not sure what happened, but tried again and was able to get it seating properly.



Little more fine tuning and we were set.



After triple checking everything and making sure everything was consistent, I knocked 20 out in no time.



So here they are, 223 Hornady 55gr sp, cci primer 400, 21.6 gr of H335, at 2.200 COL.

 

[Walkalong]

Then, some how this happened.

Can't say I have seen one quite that collapsed before. Did you chamfer/deburr the inside of the case mouths? I am a big believer in a light deburr/chamfer inside and out on the case mouth.

Great pics by the way.