My dillon 550 is driving me nuts

[redneck2]

FYI: I've run Lee dies one a Dillon. After someone here told me to put the lock ring on the underside of the toolhead, they worked fine.

I forgot about that. Some lock rings are too thick to use on either top or bottom. If they are too thick, the shell plate bottoms on them before the die can work correctly. You don't get full travel into the dies.

IIRC this may be true of the Lee rings. I may have had to switch to Dillon lock rings. Don't remember. You can buy lock nuts that are thin enough at a good hardware store.

 

[JIM BOB]

I reloaded 25000 44cal on a 550B with very few problems but it was 100% Dillion parts.When I first started got a lot of good help and advice from their customer service.One of the few things I've bought that worked as advertised.

 

[X-Rap]

I use only Dillon and Redding dies in my 550's for pistol loads and have never had the problem described by the OP. I won't say it is a Lee problem exclusively but it is probably caused by the dies not being designed for the 550.

 

[chutestrate]

Gosh dang it, I think Bush Pilot got it right. I'll just sell the press and buy factory ammo. Brilliant

Thank you everyone. I am looking at the shell plate and there does seem to be too much wiggle in it. A fella at the range with a 650 mentioned the same thing. I'll just pull it apart and try again. It hasn't been running smoothly for a while, and I'm very frustrated with it. Someone suggested calling Dillon and keeping them on the phone while doing the adjustments. If I'm not satisfied with my efforts then that's what I'll do.

 

[rbernie]

I use Lee dies on my 550B and love the setup. I *have* moved to Dillon sizer dies because they work much better at speed than the Lee equivalents, but all of the other dies on a given tool head will be from Lee. I even still use the Lee AutoDisk Pro on all of my pistol and intermediate rifle toolheads (on the Lee flaring/powder-thru die), and everything works just fine.

About the only issues I've had is lack of lubrication on the ram causing baulky loading (resolved with lube, natch) and lack of lube on the primer slide thingee causing the primers not to get picked up from the drop (solved by lube, also).

 

[Red Cent]

RCBS sells "Cowboy Dies" that have the large mouth for pistol calibers. Does sound as if the trip to the sizing die is not smooth.

 

[jack44]

mine was doing the same last night! - but I bent that little clip that holds the brass in.

 

[Hondo 60]

I had a similar problem with Lee dies & 38 spl brass.

I finally bought a set of RCBS dies.
That fixed the problem, because the RCBS sizing die has a much wider opening so the case doesn't get crushed.

 

[One78Shovel]

I don't know about Lee dies, but I use Hornady dies in my 550B and it is flawless.

-178S

 

[chutestrate]

Problem fixed. Thanks for all the help. I did it to myself. 6 mos. ago I completely broke down the press, and cleaned it. I didn't align it when I put it back together. I found my alignment tool, and voila I'm aligned.

 

[GaryL]

Glad to see the OP figured out the issue.

I was just going to say I have about every brand of die on my 550, but more Lee than any other. It's not the die sets.

I did have an old RCBS sizer die with a really tight throat that has a new radius on it. It used to catch a lot of cases and wrinkle them before I decided I didn't care if it survived my garage. A little work with a die grinder and now it works pretty well.

 

[RustyFN]

Problem fixed. Thanks for all the help. I did it to myself. 6 mos. ago I completely broke down the press, and cleaned it. I didn't align it when I put it back together. I found my alignment tool, and voila I'm aligned.

Working good and with crapy Lee dies, who would have thunk.
Glad you got it working right again.