18 replies to this topic

[Griz]

I just got a 1050 and while it's the best press I have ever owned, I have a few gripes I need to get off my chest.

1) The height of the press... It is a foot taller than every other press I have ever used. My reloading bench is built for my existing presses and the 1050 is an ergonomic nightmare. Either I have to sit on a bar-stool, which kills my back, or I have to stand up and hunch over... which kills my back. I'm going to have to build a new bench and find a spot for it just because Dillon had to "think different". I also find it amusing that they apparently sell "strong mounts" to bandaid their standard height presses to be compatible with a bench setup for a 1050.

2) Dillon should be ashamed to ship this fine press with that kludged-up ratchet crap installed. It was non-functional out of the box. Every 4th or 5th stroke of the handle, the ratchet would jam up and lock up the press. None of their other presses have this lawyer-inspired feature, so why would they cripple their premium product with it?

3) The "factory setup" was poor... The shellplate was so loose that it tilted and flopped making about every 10th case miss the shellplate, fall over and get jammed up. The primer pocket swager didn't swage. The expander was set so that bullet jackets were getting shaved. I would have preferred that they just shipped the dies loose and didn't claim to have set them up rather than to have set false expectations that it would work right out of the box.

I have it all tuned up now though and was able to crank out 200 rounds in about 10 minutes for an impromptu range trip after work yesterday. I just need to deal with the height issue because my back is sore after just 10 minutes operating it.

Flame away!

[ChuckS]

I just got a 1050 and while it's the best press I have ever owned, I have a few gripes I need to get off my chest.

1) The height of the press... It is a foot taller than every other press I have ever used. My reloading bench is built for my existing presses and the 1050 is an ergonomic nightmare. Either I have to sit on a bar-stool, which kills my back, or I have to stand up and hunch over... which kills my back. I'm going to have to build a new bench and find a spot for it just because Dillon had to "think different". I also find it amusing that they apparently sell "strong mounts" to bandaid their standard height presses to be compatible with a bench setup for a 1050.

2) Dillon should be ashamed to ship this fine press with that kludged-up ratchet crap installed. It was non-functional out of the box. Every 4th or 5th stroke of the handle, the ratchet would jam up and lock up the press. None of their other presses have this lawyer-inspired feature, so why would they cripple their premium product with it?

3) The "factory setup" was poor... The shellplate was so loose that it tilted and flopped making about every 10th case miss the shellplate, fall over and get jammed up. The primer pocket swager didn't swage. The expander was set so that bullet jackets were getting shaved. I would have preferred that they just shipped the dies loose and didn't claim to have set them up rather than to have set false expectations that it would work right out of the box.

I have it all tuned up now though and was able to crank out 200 rounds in about 10 minutes for an impromptu range trip after work yesterday. I just need to deal with the height issue because my back is sore after just 10 minutes operating it.

Flame away!

I'll give ya $50 for that POS

[chainsaw]

NOT a flame, but a response. i too, just got my 1050, on weds the 6th. same day as you i think. i can't address #1 as the height of a bench is totally out of anyones control except the guy that built the bench.
now....i am 61 yrs old. i have NO PROBLEMS bitching, whining, cussing, arguing etc etc if i think i haven't gotten my $$$ worth. or about ANYTHING related to obama, welfare, liberals. had my 1050 had ANY of the issues yours did, i'd a posted it. but straight up, my press had NONE of those issues urs did. my main gripe is that the exploded views in the manual don't show the bin mounting brackets adaquetly and caused me an extra 30 minutes to figure out while assemblying the thing. and that coulda been ME, not the drawings. also it was seating primers high, so i grabbed a beer, sat under the A/C, and called dillon. minutes later the problem was solved. i too think the ratchet is a PIA and unnecessary, but mine works just fine. to ME its a minor issue. had i recieved your 1050 instead of mine, i'd be pissed too though. mine DID work right out of the box.

Edited by chainsaw, 07 June 2012 - 09:14 AM.

[Torogi]

That ratchet hang up on me too. Called Dillon and was told just to loosen a screw.. then its working fine now

[Griz]

That ratchet hang up on me too. Called Dillon and was told just to loosen a screw.. then its working fine now

I also fixed it by loosening a screw... loosened it all the way as a matter of fact and tossed the ratchet in the scrap bin.

[Griz]

I'll give ya $50 for that POS

You are welcome to bid on it at my estate sale... Hopefully you'll have a long wait though!

[Youngeyes]

Get a piece of hardwood plywood and bolt it to your bench. You can easily change to whatever height you want by changing thickness.

[dhenry132]

That ratchet hang up on me too. Called Dillon and was told just to loosen a screw.. then its working fine now

I also fixed it by loosening a screw... loosened it all the way as a matter of fact and tossed the ratchet in the scrap bin.

+1

[pjb45]

What ratchet?

I just took mine off.

I have a few years behind my 1050. It still bugs the shit out of me at times-but I am terrible at preventive maintenance. But I would not trade it for anything else.

I have multiple tool heads and conversion units for various calibers, which is a blessing.

Every time I changed calibers I give it a pretty good cleaning.

I really enjoy going out to the garage and in 10 minutes I have loaded that mornings match ammo.

Dillon customer service is premier.

Enjoy you new machine.

[benos]

That ratchet hang up on me too. Called Dillon and was told just to loosen a screw.. then its working fine now

I also fixed it by loosening a screw... loosened it all the way as a matter of fact and tossed the ratchet in the scrap bin.

That was my move.

[chainsaw]

gimme a primer (pun intended) on how to take it off please.

[nwsnowbum]

I have 2 1050's. I left the ratchets on them. The noise they generate does annoy me though. Both of them had the lockup issues you mention. To fix it I had to tighten the bolt up rather than loosen it. It just took a little bit. I asked Dillon if there is rule of thumb on how tight it should be, they just said turn it 1/4 of a turn until the problem goes away. In the exploded view in the manual the part number is #20635 for the bolt you need to tighten.

You can either rip them off or set the tension properly. I don't know why they don't tighten them up a little bit more at the factory, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

[freakshow10mm]

I just got a 1050 and while it's the best press I have ever owned, I have a few gripes I need to get off my chest.

1) The height of the press... It is a foot taller than every other press I have ever used. My reloading bench is built for my existing presses and the 1050 is an ergonomic nightmare. Either I have to sit on a bar-stool, which kills my back, or I have to stand up and hunch over... which kills my back. I'm going to have to build a new bench and find a spot for it just because Dillon had to "think different". I also find it amusing that they apparently sell "strong mounts" to bandaid their standard height presses to be compatible with a bench setup for a 1050.

My bench was built to accomodate a 550 with no mount and standing. I added a strong mount, then later added a 1050 and sold the 550. My benchtop is 36 inches high. I'm 5ft 10in and with the handle to the shortest height (3rd notch from the end) the handle grip is at armpit height. Very comfortable for standing while loading.

2) Dillon should be ashamed to ship this fine press with that kludged-up ratchet crap installed. It was non-functional out of the box. Every 4th or 5th stroke of the handle, the ratchet would jam up and lock up the press. None of their other presses have this lawyer-inspired feature, so why would they cripple their premium product with it?

People were having problems short-stroking the press, so that was the solution. Mine gave me problems until I talked with Tim at Dillon and he said removing it will allow full operation as normal, just visually make sure I'm giving the press the full stroke and there's nothing to worry about. Many trouble free rounds since.

3) The "factory setup" was poor... The shellplate was so loose that it tilted and flopped making about every 10th case miss the shellplate, fall over and get jammed up. The primer pocket swager didn't swage. The expander was set so that bullet jackets were getting shaved. I would have preferred that they just shipped the dies loose and didn't claim to have set them up rather than to have set false expectations that it would work right out of the box.

In Dillon's defense, if you thought you could run ammo without minor adjustments to fit your components out of the box, you're taking it too literally. When you buy a brand new vehicle, you still have to adjust the mirrors, seat position, steering wheel, etc. Same thing here. They've done most of the work for you, you need to "tweak" it down to the finer tunings. Trust me. I thought the same way when I got mine and had a hell of a time getting things dialed in. Almost 2 years later I never want to load on another hand operated press again. Dillon 1050, Camdex, or I'll quit loading and just buy commercial ammo.

[Griz]

In Dillon's defense, if you thought you could run ammo without minor adjustments to fit your components out of the box, you're taking it too literally.

I agree in principle and I didn't even intend to use the Dillon resizing, seating and crimping dies (though I used them for a few hundred rounds to figure out how the press works).

My gripe is mainly that the shellplate and swager should have been adjusted correctly out of the box... Those are not things that should need to be tuned to my components and not something that I would be expected to know how to adjust without RTFM (and who wants to RTFM? ). They were both easy enough to figure out, but the loose shellplate flipping cases up on top of the shellplate really had me worried for a few minutes that the 1050 had a serious design flaw and that all Dillon customers have been brainwashed into ignoring the issue.

[tomfturner]

My only gripe is the pictures and there's nothing mentioning the ratchet adjustment in the instructions. I too had to call Dillon and figure out why my press was locking up. However, they were very helpful, and I could tell by the response this is something common (the tech was almost laughing while telling me about it). I love the 1050 wish I had gotten one to start with ... only bad thing is mistakes are quickly exacerbated (ie a casing sideways ended in a bent decapping pin before I realized it was sideways).

my $.02

Edited by tomfturner, 08 June 2012 - 07:05 AM.

[CGT80]

I had to adjust the swedger (spelling?) and primer depth on mine as well as the ratchet. I chose to leave the ratchet as I am not the only one using the press. The ratchet rarely hangs up and I don't mind the bit of safety added. The noise is a little annoying though. Setting up the 1050 was a learning experience at first. Now I have a bullet feeder as well and the press runs like a top. It sure beats using my 550. The height of my bench isn't too bad. My 550 sits on a home made stand and the 1050 is bolted to the bench top.

[freakshow10mm]

Swedger is a Scottish word not associated with the hobby at all. The proper terms are swage, swaging, swager, and swaged. The "g" is pronounced with a soft g as in the word "general".

[chainsaw]

i beg to differ. its not a "hobby" its an obsession!

[CGT80]

I have heard that the desire to exercise your gun rights is not curable. Wouldn't that make it a disease? I say its a disease. That way I can justify not having any control over the disease. That's my story and I'm stickin to it!

My biggest gripe is that I don't have a second or third 1050. We are lucky to have the ability to buy such a great machine at a cost that a number of us can afford. It would have been much harder to support my habbit.....I mean disease, 30, 50, or 100 years ago.