Baldrage's reloading log

[baldrage]

baldrage,  Something I just recently purchased and was well worth it - an anti fatigue floor mat from Costco.  Sure is nice to stand on that instead of a thin carpet when doing a bunch of reloading.  Some folks sit in front of their presses, I find that for me, that makes it difficult to do a consistent motion on the load handle.  Might be because I have the Hornady LNL and they have a different press - who knows.

About where in northern VA are you?

Good tip, thanks, I'll look into that, as my floor is actually bare cement.  I was planning on sitting on a high stool, so not as to worriy about fatigue, but I have found that tiny components like primers bounce off the floor and roll like crazy when dropped, making it very difficult to find them.   Was thinking about maybe putting a plastic tarp down under the press when I am reloading to make finding dropped components easier to find.

I am in bucolic Burke, VA.

[Wobbly]

I not only read the stickies, I read virtually all of the threads on ALL 138 pages of this sub-forum, going all the way back to before Mr. Sasquatch started reloading!

That is a huge amount of reading and research !!



BTW, Mr. Sasquatch was the recipient of a give-away press, way back before the Obama crunch. That's how we met, and that's how he got into reloading. Really nice guy. I miss his posts here.

 

[1SOW]

I liked SAS too.  Good guy.

I haven't had battery or deviation problems with the full-featured HF digital calipers.  I have a much older one with a bigger readout from Frankford Arsenal that still agrees with the better HF model within .001".
They both measure wire size drill bits accurately....enough. Maybe luck of the draw.

[Boris_LA]

I don't think caliper discussion should continue here and derail this thread off topic. OP already has the tool and either type of caliper will do if you trust it. The important is to have one and use it properly.

[J Lee]

Great thread Baldrage.  You've found a great resource here.  I'm a 3 yr old reloading newb myself and can't tell you how much I have learned here from some good contributors.  In fact, learned something new here just today. Be sure to remember what I see repeated often, "there are no stupid questions", although I sometimes push the envelope.

Good luck to you.

[painter]

Mr. Sas and I came around here within a few weeks of each other. He's a funny guy. I, too, miss his posts here.

I've been called a colorful character before, and I mean no disrespect, but are you by any chance an engineer Mr. baldrage?

[Wobbly]

...I mean no disrespect, but are you by any chance an engineer Mr. baldrage?

Hold it !

I resemble that remark. 

[painter]

...I mean no disrespect, but are you by any chance an engineer Mr. baldrage?

Hold it !

I resemble that remark. 

I still like you Mr. W.

[baldrage]

I've been called a colorful character before, and I mean no disrespect, but are you by any chance an engineer Mr. baldrage?

Nope, not an engineer!

[baldrage]

So now that I have the SDB mounted, cleaned, and lubed, I have been experimenting with running an empty casing through the stations and testing out ability to prime/deprime, as suggested by the Dillon manual.  I found that the priming system was not working properly.  After loading a few primers into the primer magazine and working the handle, the SDB would not feed primers either up onto the bare shellplate, or into an empty casing.  It seemed as if the primers would either just stay in the primer magazine, or feed down into the primer slide, but miss the primer cup that is supposed to push them back up into the shellplate/casing.

After consulting with the Dillon manual, I made some adjustments to the various set screws on the primer slide and housing, and after much trial and error (and some dumb luck), managed to get everything set to the degree that the SDB now seems to be feeding primers correctly.  I got it to consistently feed primers up onto the bare shellplate and I seated a primer on an empty casing.

Next steps are to: 1) get some practice with the powder measure and RCB scale, to get some experience in weighing and measuring powder charges, and gain confidence that the SDB will consistently drop the correct powder charge; 2) set up the Cabela?s/Berry?s tumbler that arrived this week, and clean my first batch of brass.

[Boris_LA]

Just a word of advice on tumbling your brass. Charged media (NuFinish Car Wax or similar products) works much better than dry media. Faster polishing and adding layer of slick wax lubricant to the brass for smooth press operations. Make sure that when you charge your media with wax, there no clods left. I just smash them with my fingers while running tumbler without brass. If this get inside the brass, it will stay there and interfere with powder later on.
Small timer with power disconnect allows for unattended operation. I set mine on for two or four hours in the garage and go about my other business. No need to watch it. Come back (at your convenience) then its done and turned off and reload tumbler with the next batch of brass. Tumble different types of brass separate, one size at the time.

[baldrage]

OK, here's my first ever load of tumbled brass.  Used a couple of capfuls of the cabella's case polish that came with the Cabella's/Berry's tumbler mixed in with the media.  Ran it about four hours.

IMG_4647 by baldrage, on Flickr

Very purdy -- shines like pirate's gold -- and it is nice and slick, too.  Do I need to bother hitting it with a squirt of One Shot case lube when I am ready to start running these through the press, or is the lubrication provided by the case polish sufficient?

[Boris_LA]

Polishing wax provides sufficient lubrication. No need for additional lube..

[Wobbly]

Wow. That's nice looking !! 

[baldrage]

I filled up the powder hopper with HP-38, and practiced filling an empty casing, weighing the powder charges, and adjusting the powder setting.  Zeroed the scale with a checkweight before starting, and it was accurate to hundredths of a grain. 

Scale and powder drop worked fine, but I did have a problem when advancing the casing from station #2, as there was a ?bump? or small hiccup after I pulled the handle when the shellplate was rotating, which would cause about half a grain (my estimate based on weighing the remaining contents of the casing) of powder to jump out of the top of the open casing before it came to rest at station #3.  Not sure what is causing this ? primer slide slamming back into station perhaps?  I experimented with both fast and slow pulls of the handle, thinking perhaps it was my stroke that was causing this, but different speeds did not make a difference. 

Any tips on how to smooth out the rotation of the shellplate so that powder does not go flying out of the casing after it is filled?