Dillon 550B maintenance/ upgrades

[donnrcp]

Getting ready to add .223 to the 9mm and 45 ACP reloading on my 550B. I have already rebuilt two Lee progressive 1000s and a Lee 3 hole turret press in the past, so doing the Dillon is straight forward with their video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuMsTIKsaU&t=58s

So, who has done it and who is thinking about it?

I am getting the platform alignment tool from Dillon. I got my 550B for Christmas 2012. I keep it clean but have not done the major disassembly and lubrication on it. I have noticed grains of powder on the shell plate and platform from reloading. Does the use of the Delrin ball and spring modification make a difference? http://www.ebay.com/itm/290616514978...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Or the shell plate bearing http://www.ebay.com/itm/290616514978...BIDX%3AIT kit?
Or the primer plate bearing kit? http://www.ebay.com/itm/231783630462...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT.

At this time my plan is to resize on the single stage press, trim, sort by case length, prime with or without the 550B and use it to drop powder, seat and crimp. Once I got the powder measure in the neighborhood I'm working in, I did two back to backs throws of 10 and came up with 257.7 grains of TAC twice. I am impressed. Any advice is appreciated.

[flyinverted]

I loaded 100K+ rounds on my 550. Never needed the alignment tool until I got the Dillon 650. I probably could have used the delrin ball, but you can control the speed of the indexing by your fingers with the 550. I switched to the delrin ball and replacement spring on the 650 and it made a big difference on the 9mm cases. You should not have an issue with .223 or .45acp without the ball.

I did add that same primer plate it to my 550 and it did help. My issue was that at some point I over-tightened the two mounting screws and that bulged the screw holes. The result was the primer shuttle then rubbed on the inside of the primer housing. I was able to sand that down to make it new again. I would only upgrade that if you're having an issue.

[jwest]

I've done a few upgrades; like the 'Turbo' bearing from UniqueTek and the kit that secures the die head; that works pretty good.

I'm using Redding Powder Charge since I load for my son; that's worked out pretty well.

Some will say this is silly maybe; but the response I get from my son is well worth it.

[03fatboy]

Do those bearing kits eliminate the spring and ball?

[stranded1980]

In my opinion, those kits make a difference on the Dillon 650, not on the 550. For the 550, you have more control of the speed at how fast you rotate shellplate.

I put a liberal amount of grease between the shellplate bolt and the index sprocket (the star looking piece of pot metal you use to rotate the shellplate) everytime I change calibers, which is frequent on the 550, so I haven't seen the need for the bearing kit there. If you're the type that keeps it set up for one cartridge, you might find it more beneficial than I did. I do appreciate the bearing kit on my Dillon 650 when I do large runs of one particular cartridge.

As to tearing down a Dillon 550, it's pretty simple. Just make sure when you hammer out the link arm pins, you're resting the Dillon on a non-marring surface; you don't want to scuff up the paint. All of my Dillons were used and the grease was dried up pretty bad, so I tore them down completely when I brought them home. Cleaning them up is the most time consuming part. Disassembly and reassembly were relatively quick.

For both the Dillon 550 and 650, I found the platform alignment tool very valuable in getting it dialed in perfect. I wouldn't start the process without one. Your experience may differ.

[stranded1980]

Do those bearing kits eliminate the spring and ball?

No, you still need the spring and detent ball.