Took my Dillon apart and got a little surprise.

[Rinspeed]

My SDB was feeling real stiff the last couple of times I used it so I decided it was time to yank it apart for a good cleaning. Well I determined the stiffness was coming from the pivot point at the bottom of the handle. After removing the set screw I tapped on the pin with a hammer and dowel. It didn't want to move and I wasn't sure if it was pressed in or not.

It finally came out with several good hits and it was quite apparent was the press wasn't cycling smoothly. There was a good amount of galling on the pin and frame holes. I polished the holes with a drill bit wrapped with scotch brite and the pin with my die grinder and a buffing pad. After giving the pin a good coating of slide glide I put it back together and it works 100% better. I know Dillon says their presses don't require any lubricant but this is one part that requires some attention

 

[Ky Larry]

About once a year I take my Rockchucker to work and take it apart. A good scrubbing in the solvent tank and lube with grease and it works 100% smoother.

 

[Walkalong]

All moving metal parts that contact other metal parts require some lube of some kind. Even if there is only the tiniest amount of friction/force on a junction, sooner or later it will wear because of it. Lube everything that moves. Dirt only speeds wear along, and it will find its way into everywhere.

 

[rfwobbly]

If you want your lube to stay in place and stay on the job, try using 1 or 2 drops of synthetic motor oil on the moving parts of your press. Synthetic oil does not oxidize like regular oil. Oxidation causes the oil to evolve into a gummy mess.

A reloading press does not cycle fast enough or often enough to get grease to properly flow into new areas. For this reason, oil is a much better idea.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Never had your press "GREASED" by me have you. Oil drips and wife really does not aprove of that. Grease, quality grease that is, does not drip and will get into all the nooks and cranies if you do a proper job...

 

[uf-engineer]

Can you drill in a zert fitting, kinda lik the LNL?

 

[loadedround]

I run two Dillon 550B's and once a year or so I strip off all moving parts, unscrew it from the bench and throughly degrease the press housing with brake cleaner and a brush. Let the it dry and then moly grease all bearing surfaces any moving parts. It is amazing how much grime and crud accumulates on these presses in a year, especially from any spilled powder that was missed in cleanup. Just my two cents.

 

[Rich219]

I always break my presses down every year or two for a good cleaning/lubricating.

 

[weeniewawa]

I know Dillon says their presses don't require any lubricant but this is one part that requires some attention

my dillon super 1050 has all kinds of lube points in the manual

 

[Rinspeed]

my dillon super 1050 has all kinds of lube points in the manual

After doing a bit of digging what I said was wrong and I guess the older 550s and 650s had some zerk fittings installed. The SDB manual specifically states "all bearing surfaces are Delrin and require no lubrication" I'm not sure why Dillon decided to put Delrin bushings on all of the other pivot points except these two. My main reason for posting was just to give other SDB owners a heads up that this is something that needs to be addressed.

 

[Randy1911]

I talked to the tech at Hornady about lubing my LnL. I said that the zerts didn't seem to do a very good job of lubing. He said to use RemOil instead of the grease zerts. He said it works better. It made a big difference on my press. It's a lot smoother now. RemOil does drip though. The stain under my press on the carpet will testify to that.

 

[highlander 5]

I've had to have the pivot arms replaced on my 550 when I owned one,several times. Dillon replaced them no questions asked,but in taking to the tech support guy asked why they didn't hard anodize the pivot points it would cut down on the need to replace the arms. I used to work on the fuel controls for different military jets and a lot of the parts are aluminum and to cut down on the wear factor the IDs were what we called "hard coated" which looked to me like a black anodize. Honing out those parts was a choir but we rarely ever had to replace that particular part.

 

[Walkalong]

In 20 plus years of using my Projector I always used oil. It did not have "zerts". I am doing the same for the LNL. After all, my Projector has no visible wear on the moving parts.

For moving parts that do not have a lot of stress on them, if they are kept clean and oiled, they will last just about forever.

 

[The Bushmaster]

NO!! Don't do it! I said NO!!

 

[The Bushmaster]

I just can't take it anymore...Z-E-R-K fitting...:banghead:

 

[Walkalong]

Sorry Bushmaster. I have always just called em "grease fittings", so how would I know.

 

[The Bushmaster]

[Snicker] I feel soo much better now...