Hornady LnL 9mm case catches on V-Block. Suggestions?

[Kaldor]

Hey Kaldor I can’t remember if you mentioned it before but did you try pitching your fix to Hornady?

Not going to bother. The biggest weakness of the LnL progressive isnt the press itself. It produces accurate ammo very quickly, its the frustration of dealing with tuning the case feeder that drives alot of people to a Dillon press for any amount of production work. It took them years to fix the issue with the tip stop (part 77) and another year to fix the twisting issue with the cam block clamp (part 78). Both of these issues I had solved 4 years ago, with a couple of screws into the top of the press, and a shotgun shell. My faith in them actually doing more than a bolt on is pretty meh to be honest. They need to address case stacking in the bowl, the gate catching and jamming the feeder plate, and the case funnel at the top that has a tendency to let cases get sideways creating what I call "brass rain."

Lastly, they just need to swap the pivot block to an injected molded piece of plastic, maybe with a little glass fiber reinforcement. Then pay a little more attention to the shoulder bolt hole on the pivot body so its consistently the same correct depth and is square to the top of the pivot body. That would solve the issue permanently. I have 2 pivot bodies, and one is good (the original), the replacement they sent me was incorrect for the shoulder bolt depth and was out of square. The messed up one was the one I actually drilled and tapped for a stud.

The issue like I said is metals of similar hardness (cheap pot metal is not hard at all) that galls easily. Plastic will not gall even the cheapest pot metal and even if you get a little dirt between the two pieces, plastic doesnt care.

Im actually kicking around making about a dozen of the pivot blocks from delrin this spring. Id just cut to thickness and size, drill in the proper hole for the case drop hole, cut in the ramp, and put a pilot in for the pivot stud so you can use whatever sized stud you want. Something I need to talk to my buddy about, as he could CNC the case drop hole in each piece in about 15 seconds on his HAAS 5 axis mill which is honestly the most tedious part of making these other than cutting to the exact thickness of 11/16". Whoever gets the blocks would be responsible for drilling and tapping the stud into the pivot body, drilling the delrin pivot for the stud of their choosing, and adding a couple eye hooks and a spring. If I had more time, Id probably make it happen.

 

[Reeferman]

I’m in.

 

[DRAINSMITH]

I called Hornady about the bracket on Monday. In less than 48 hours I hold a bracket and feeder tip stop in my hand for each of my presses. Thank you, Mr. 45+9

 

[45+9]

I hope that fixes your problem. I think it will. I had a kludge fix on mine that stopped the rotation, but the clamp is working better. Now if the brass rain can be addressed, I might stop thinking about that XL650.

 

[Blue68f100]

I've stopped most of it on mine. The problem seams to happen when the brass falls mouth first. I set the window so if the brass does not fall soon as possible it prevents it from doing so. This is the fix that I found. There is a pretty small window that you have to hit.

 

[AR-Bossman]

concerning the case feeder..there is also the dynamic that when you aren't doing anything it generally works well. It's when you are actually using the machine that the swaying and moving and vibrations make the brass do things that don't show up when the unit is just sitting, doing it's thing. All my machines have multiple brace rods attached to the wall and to the poles of the case and bullet feeder. Along with a bench that is attached to the wall as well.
I've seen plenty of machines attached to what looks like a cardboard box and on the down stroke the case feeder is parallel with the floor.

 

[Kaldor]

I've stopped most of it on mine. The problem seams to happen when the brass falls mouth first. I set the window so if the brass does not fall soon as possible it prevents it from doing so. This is the fix that I found. There is a pretty small window that you have to hit.

Thats what I have found too, and its more prevalent with cases like 9mm but occasionally 45 will do it too. Traffic cop in the bowl does help with it. Rifle cases pretty much always fall base first with the traffic cop in place, so no jamming issues with those really anymore.

BTW Blue, I did add a little piece of leather on the bottom of the foot on my pusher, works like a champ. I still want to try making some caliber specific pusher feet for fun this spring, especially for 223 which is the most tippy of all cartridges for me.