I Saved and Saved, but...

[cltitus]

2 Cars take up the garage, but after reading some pm's and other sites going to do a little more planning.

[mikeyr]

Cars in the garage ? whoever heard of that ?

Only the special cars go in the garage, the daily drivers stay outside giving me plenty of room in the garage.

[Whiterabbit]

That's why I told my wife I could never ever live in a townhome. No driveway for parking cars.

[emc002]

Ummm, quit shooting so much, take your "Dillon Savings" and buy a crappy starter house instead then you could have your man cave in a couple years?
VA loans are great right now...

[noylj]

Why would any newbee start with a 650? Unless you need a case feeder, at least get the L-N-L progressive. Very easy to learn on (I taught my son and he found it very easy to work with). The Dillon is a step-up in complication, cost, and compactness.
Start with a Lee Classic Turret unless you needs actually involve needing to reload more than 100 rounds per hour.
Do you NEED to have a movable "bench?" You can find a really stable table or desk at a thrift store or old furniture store (not antiques). You drill 2-4 holes for "permanent" mount (using wing nuts) so you can remove it when you want or you mount the press on a 3/4" thick piece of plywood and c-clamp it to the table/desk.
If you need small, look to Lee's Reloading Stand (~$100) plus a brick, or an adjustable work height workstation from Harbor Freight for $25 plus a brick for weight.
Progressive presses need to be mounted to a sturdy surface and Dillons generally need an even more stable surface, often needing to be bolted to the wall.

[Whiterabbit]

Why would any newbee start with a 650? .

Well, I really like reloading on a single stage press, but I'll take a shot at that.

Because his rate of shooting is super high on a single caliber, and nonexistent for any other.
Because he has a load from a friend that reloads that works well enough (no development needed), and he just needs the gear to crank out the rounds.
Because he has unlimited money (like the renters that own 5 series BMW's) for toys but prefers to rent.
Because he wants big blue and the 650 has a feature he wants.

That's just the top of my head. Maybe he just wants the 650 cause calgunners say thats the best. our opinion on his motives doesn't matter.

[noylj]

If we can't question motives, then we can't give a real opinion.
I covered those possibilities, I believe, in my response.
I have used a 650. A 650 is NOT a beginners press. The Hornady is much more open and easy to operate and learn on (as I did with my son). I feel those EXPLAIN why I question a beginner starting off with a 650 (or any Dillon).
If he has an OK load from some friend, then he should be loading with his friend to learn and then he isn't a newbee.
I want a newbee to actually ENJOY reloading and not get frustrated, and I have read several threads from newbees who leapt right in with a 650 or 550 because "everyone" says "it" is the best and then spent months and lots of messages trying to learn how to use it.

[Briancnelson]

Black and decker workmate 225. Replace top and vise with a single 1" thick wood top. Use earthquake tiedowns along some open wall to lock it down and stabilize it when you bring it out of the closet. It Has served me well and currently is rock solid with an lnl ap on it

[grant22]

I can't speak for a 650, but my first press was/is a 550 and have had great luck with it.

I also had no reloading friends to show me the ropes, so all my info has been pulled from here, youtube, and the manuals.

I think anyone with reasonable intelligence can start with a 550 if desired.

But starting with .223? Whoa there feller! I'd start with pistol to learn the fundamentals and then you would grow into rifle.

My opinion only, not fact.

[Bongos]

Get a 650, you will be glad you did, if you go LNL once you own it, you will start adding stuff like casefeeder, differnet plates,... this that, next thing you have is over $1100 into it and still have to tweek the casefeeder and other components just to make it work correctly.. then you wish you went with the Dillon. Anywho here is a pic of my old 550 on a B&D 225 workmate. if you go strong mount, it saves even more space!

[cltitus]

I would buy a house in California, but with my recent 3 year divorce and getting stuck with the **** end debt and a chp 7 buying a home was out the question.

650 Mainly because of lifetime no bs warranty and my sisters bf has one so I started to fall in love with ti.

Plus I saved 25 bucks a month for the past 3 years to spend just on reloading. Which it might be 3 more since I'm changing residency to Idaho because of a job opening.

and Whiterabbit I own a CBR600RR I have paid off that I rode in the rain for 3 years to save up and pay off the damn divorce debt that I still needed to get rid of.