The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Is my Dillon 550B a hunk of CAST POT Metal Junk?

Cheapo · January 23, 2001, 04:41 PM

ya ever heft a cast-iron press of similar proportions to the Dillon unit?

I did. An ancient Herter's twin ram jobbie. It wuz hevvvyyyy!!!!!

Dillon probably saves its buyers far more cashola on shipping than the additional materials cost of aluminum vs. iron.

Re: Precision
The most critical dimensions are generally between the bottom of the shellplate and the die. Between the toolhead slop, the shellplate slop, the ram slop, and the die threads slop, I believe you're not going to get much precision from the press's body.

The IMPORTANT dimension, between the case and the die's interior, tends to be quite self-centering. The other important dimension is between the die bottom and the shellplate top, but that's in a single dimension and not subject to variable errors. Either it's right or it's wrong, and the press will have nothing to do with it.

January 23, 2001, 04:41 PM	#9
Cheapo Senior Member Join Date: November 19, 1998 Posts: 986	ya ever heft a cast-iron press of similar proportions to the Dillon unit? I did. An ancient Herter's twin ram jobbie. It wuz hevvvyyyy!!!!! Dillon probably saves its buyers far more cashola on shipping than the additional materials cost of aluminum vs. iron. Re: Precision The most critical dimensions are generally between the bottom of the shellplate and the die. Between the toolhead slop, the shellplate slop, the ram slop, and the die threads slop, I believe you're not going to get much precision from the press's body. The IMPORTANT dimension, between the case and the die's interior, tends to be quite self-centering. The other important dimension is between the die bottom and the shellplate top, but that's in a single dimension and not subject to variable errors. Either it's right or it's wrong, and the press will have nothing to do with it.