[Houngan]

If you've ever had a case or a primer get in between the working parts of your press, then you know the mushy feeling as it is crushed rather than the crisp "bottoming out" feeling of proper operation.

While loading tonight, my 650 suddenly had this feeling at the top (seating/sizing/depriming/crimping) of the stroke, and won't go the last inch or so of travel of the arm. The weird part is that I've stripped it down to just the ram and can't figure out what is causing it. No toolhead, shellplate, or primer system, and I can't see anything touching at the end of the stroke. It's like the ram started bottoming out in a different place suddenly. I have a notch cut into my workbench that matches the bottom of the throw exactly, so I know it has changed.

Any thoughts?

H.

[Lee King]

Check the deprime pin. Make sure 1) it's not bent and 2) the retaining collar hasn't unscrewed some. Had this happen and the collar had started to back off.

[rrflyer]

how about the finished round chute? Mine bent outwards and was hitting the bottom of the case feeding mechanism.

[Houngan]

toolhead is out, it can't possibly be a die thing at this point. I'll check the chute.

H.

[Pezco]

I'm with Flyer, the chute just needs to be bent back out.

[Houngan]

Okay, I misspoke and obfuscated the problem. We're at the other end of the stroke here. The ram is at the top, handle down, where everything except priming happens. The chute has been left below, and as best I can see, there is absolutely no contact whatsoever between anything. I'm thinking that something primal slipped inside the ram.

H.

[JThompson]

Look at the bottom behind where the handle attaches to the press... pull that spent primer out of there and get back to reloading.

[gfmun]

The problem I had was the spent primer chute had jammed up and a spent primer was blocking the shell plate. I looked all over for the problem for a long time before I noticed. I would suggest taking the shell plate off and see if it will cycle properly without the plate. If so, you will narrow your search quite a bit.

Good luck,
George

[dillon]

Most likely there is a primer , or similar debris behind the right link arm on top of the crank. Only other possibilities are the pivoting arm that drops cases is jammed, or the pivot pin that connects the back of the crank to the bottom of the shaft has walked out, and is contacting a link arm, blocking full travel.

[Houngan]

I'm off to Ohio, I'll check it out again on Sunday. Thanks for the advice.

H.

[Houngan]

gfmun, on Oct 2 2009, 09:06 AM, said:

The problem I had was the spent primer chute had jammed up and a spent primer was blocking the shell plate. I looked all over for the problem for a long time before I noticed. I would suggest taking the shell plate off and see if it will cycle properly without the plate. If so, you will narrow your search quite a bit.

Good luck,
George

That's the first thing I did, it is stripped down to nothing but ram and arm at this point.

H.

[openmike]

I'm not 100% clear on your description of your problem,,,,,,,,,,,, but let me share that my 650 failed to complete stroke once and really perplexed me for a long time. An unused primer failed to drop out of the primer wheel (into the little catch tray) and rode the primer wheel around until it got back under the primer tube.
On my press, that locks the wheel.

This happened when I was starting a new run and had empty slots in the shellplate.

The only way to clear it is to remove the shellplate and primer assembly and get the lost primer out of there.

When ever I have an open slot in my shellplate (going by the primer position), I watch that unused primer to make sure it drops out of the wheel.

This post has been edited by openmike: 02 October 2009 - 09:31 PM

[charliez]

It's been 5 days, oh the suspense ...

[Houngan]

Sorry, still haven't found it. Just to avoid the continuing confusion:

FOLKS, IT IS STRIPPED COMPLETELY. It's just the frame, the ram, and and the arm now. Everything else is sitting on the bench, so it can't be anything with the primer system, case delivery system, etc. I'll try to post a video later today.

H.

[Houngan]

Ah, found it. It was a primer, as we all suspected, that had become sandwiched in the tiny space at the right side of the hinge where the crank arm frame meets. It had been smooshed down flat enough that I couldn't see it unless I craned my head around in front of the press while working the arm. It was flat enough that I thought it was just a surface feature at first.

This concludes my Princess and the Pea story in Dillonland.

H.

[dillon]

Houngan,
Send us an e-mail with your name and address, and ask for the alignment tools for your 650.

[Houngan]

You think I've knocked it out of alignment with all my arm-mushing? Let me run some rounds off tonight, I'll see if it is out of time.

H.