OK... just got back from work. Here's what I did in fighting with this thing last night...
- Cleaned residual oil off of the primer slide that had migrated over from the ram. No change. Actually made the primer slide a little "sticky" in operation due to lack of lubrication.
- Replaced the red primer magazine tube orifice with a new one. No change.
- Removed the Primer Magazine Tube, and cleaned with Cleaning Jag and Patch with Hoppes #9, followed by 90% isopropyl alcohol, followed by Brake Cleaner and then blown out with Compressed Air. That Tube Is CLEAN. No change.
- Backed out the Slide Pickup Adjustment Screw #13961 to allow the primer slide to travel deeper into the Primer Housing. Helped a *little* bit. Maybe not at all. Still misfeed every 3-4 rounds.
- Adjusted the Primer Seating Punch and Cup #13757/#13825 so that it was at the maximum height in the manual (1.220"). No change.
- Adjusted the Primer Seating Punch and Cup so that it was at the minimum height in the manual (1.215"). No change.
- Adjusted the Primer Seating Punch so that it was at the minimum possible height (1.213"). Helped a Little Bit... biggest improvement so far... but still unacceptable. Now misfeeds every 4-5 rounds.
- Gave up and "lived with it" until I got the batch of brass loaded. Tried to catch it each time when there was a misfeed or flipped primer, but didn't get them all... still had to pull 22 rounds with either flipped or no primer after I was finally finished.
I watched as best I could with an inspection mirror, and it looked as if the primers were flipping inside the red plastic magazine tube orifice #14024. Appeared as if the primers would flip sideways inside the plastic orifice, and then get flipped completely upside down by the primer punch and cup as it slides under the orifice to pick up the new primer. OR, the primer would hang inside the orifice, and not drop down to feed at all, especially if it was upside down inside the orifice.
D'OH!!!!
NOW, AFTER TYPING ALL THIS OUT... and looking through the manual after I'm not completely frustrated like I was last night... I think I just figured out the problem... It's called...
READ THE FLIPPING MANUAL...
RTFM CLOSELY! UNDERSTAND the FLIPPING MANUAL!!!
Notice, I had the tube with the RED orifice on it. I know I've read the manual through at least 3 times now before tonight while I was setting the machine up, but still I got it backwards that the RED is LARGE, and BLUE is SMALL (because the manual is so clear on it until you get to page 13, where it finally gives the color coding. Come on Dillon, you could do SO MUCH better here...). I had the RED orifice in there... thinking I had the correct tube and orifice for small primers in there. But I think I really need to check both the tube and the orifice... the guy I bought my 550B from had the pickup and magazine tubes ALL JACKED UP... he had different tips on each end of each tube... and confused the hell out of this first time Dillon owner until I called the factory to finally try to get the tube situation straightened out. I need to make sure that the blue tip is really on the small magazine tube and the red tip is really on the large magazine tube.
OK, that's my big DUH for the week... hopefully the rest of the week is smarter.