How I Reload (Pic Intensive)

[SgtLumpy]

Here's a little photo essay attempting to depict MY style of reloading. I emphasize MY style because it's exactly that, my own. It's not "The way" or any kind of only way, it's simply the way I do it. There are other approaches.

There are over 50 photos I need to post. I will break them into several posts. If you're reading this and I haven't yet finished posting everything, and you'd like to comment, please hold off a bit before commenting so that all of my photos (and their several posts) can exist in linearity.

Sgt Lumpy

*****

First, my bench -

3/4 inch plywood is RedHead concrete anchored THROUGH the carpeting into the concrete subfloor. Similar 3/4 ply is lag screw anchored through the drywall and into the concrete blocks that form the outside wall of our home. The two oak file cabinets are then bolted, screwed, angle bracketed to the floor and wall plywood.

On the floor and on the bench top RIGHT, you can see some of my recycled plastic containers. I cut the bottoms off of plastic bottles and jugs and use them to hold "Recycle Brass", "Ready to clean brass", "Goofed up rounds that need pulling" etc.



The bench TOP is two pieces of 3/4 ply laminated together to make a 1 1/2" thick slab, then topped with a piece of 1/4 tempered masonite and edged with 3/4" poplar. The entire top is finished with Johnson's Paste floor wax, no shellac, lacquer, polyurethane etc.

The (HEAVY!) top is then bolted, screwed and angle bracketed to the wall and to the file cabinets.

The press (Lee Loadmaster) is mounted on several slabs of 3/4 plywood to bring it up in height above the bench top. The flashlight in the pic is a 3 cell mini Mag-Lite, held by a gooseneck microphone holder.

To mount the press, I used 1/4-20 allthread rod, long enough to go through the sandwich of plywood slabs, through the bench top and even through the steel angle bracket below the bench top. It's extremely solid, yet I can remove the press very easily by simply removing the nuts off the allthread with a 7/16 wrench. I made additional plywood slab pieces to raise the press more, or I could take some out to lower it. So the height of the press is adjustable.

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[shawn mccarver]

That is a nice set-up and you obviously put a great deal of thought and care into its construction. Thank you for sharing the pictures. I look forward to seeing more.

 

[SgtLumpy]

Part TWO

The first step I'm going to do is ready the powder measure.

I start by weighing a spent brass case with spent primer.

Then zero the scale with that case in place.

Now the scale is ready to measure whatever gets put INTO the case (powder), the weight of the case and spent primer is not included in the next steps.


Load that SAME piece of weighed brass onto the press at the powder drop station in the sequence.

Pull the lever, which raises the ram and case, and the case gets filled with powder.

This next step is CRITICAL. The case is now filled with a suspected 4.0 grains of powder (yet to be weight verified). I allow the progressive press to advance to the next station where I VISUALLY VERIFY that there's powder in the case. It's kind of hard to get a photo of this step but I think you may be able to see the powder down there in the bottom of that otherwise empty case. I want to get used to seeing powder fill the case TO THAT LEVEL as I continue loading this batch.

I'll do those last two steps a dozen times or so. Each time, returning the dropped powder to the powder hopper. I'm not weighing yet, I'm just moving powder THROUGH the hopper and the measuring gizmos. I want to equalize all the little air pockets, powder bridges etc and get the thing used to dropping what I hope is 4.0 grains of this HP-38 powder.

Finally, after a dozen or so drops, I pull the case out WITH IT'S POWDER and weigh it. Remember the weight of the case is tared out so all we should see is the weight of the powder.

Sure enough it's 4.0 grains. I'll do that measuring step over and over again with that same case till I get TEN of them that weigh the same. If the weight is still bouncing around (4.1, 3.9 etc) then I keep repeating till the powder drop mechanism settles down and throws consistant amounts.


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[SgtLumpy]

Part THREE

Next steps involving getting the primer feed doo-dads installed and adjusted.

First, remove the shell plate (the thing the brass rides in as they make their merry-go-round way around the press). Remove the nurley nutty thing first.

Below the nurley nutty thing is the ejector finger, pull that off.

Pull it all the way off and set it aside.

Now remove the shell plate.

Shell plate and it's hardware are now removed. In the upper right area of the photo is a round recess. That's the area we'll focus on for the next couple of steps. It holds the razzamataz that feeds and installs the primers into the brass cases.

While I've got it apart, I'll spray it with compressed air. Blow away powder, dust, bug poop, scorpions.

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[SgtLumpy]

Part FOUR

At the tip of my finger, you can see the PRIMER RAM and it's little spring installed into the round recess you saw in the earlier pic. Here, it's in the UP position, as if the press was PRESSING a primer up into the bottom of a brass case.

Same gizmo, the primer ram and spring, now in the DOWN position. As if you had just primed a case and the case was now moving along to the next merry-go-round station.

Now I'm installing the plastic PRIMER FEED MECHANISM on top of that primer ram. That's the plastic arm thingie that feeds individual primers to the primer ram, for installing into the case.

Here's that primer feed arm installed into it's working position.

Here, again, you're seeing the top-tip of the primer ram as it sticks it's head up THROUGH the primer feed mechanism. Eventually a primer will find it's way to that silver post and me activating the press arm will cause that little post to ram the primer up into the case. This is in the UP or BEING INSTALLED position.

And here's that same area with the primer ram in the DOWN position. As if it's allowing the primed case to advance. You can see a bit of black, plastic flat "floor" surrounding the primer ram and a grey, plastic thing that rides on the floor. That grey thing will grab a single primer, slide it over the ram, and hold it there while you operate the press. Then it returns, grabs another primer and continues in that manner till you run out of primers or otherwise decide to stop cycling the press.

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[SgtLumpy]

Part FIVE

Now I'll re-install the shell plate, the case ejector finger and the gnurly nutty thing.

It's all back together now and torqued to exactly "Oh about that snug"

Cycle the ram to move the shell plate around several times.

All the way up -

On the way back down. Watch the grey plastic thing on the end of the steel rod in the lower left area of the pic.

Continuing down. The grey plastic thing rides on a "slide" machined into the press. It's square steel rod is what causes the shell plate to advance and rotate from station to station.

Now the shell plate is all the way back down, the press arm, on the left side of the pic, is about to push on that grey plastic thingie on the advancing rod. That will move the shell plate counter clockwise ONE position.

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[SgtLumpy]

Part SIX

Now I'm going to install the PRIMER TRAY onto the PRIMER FEED ARM. The tray holds a bunch of primers, open side UP and feeds them into the plastic arm we installed earlier.

Simple gravity allows the primers in the tray to fall into the feed arm. While installing, I hold them back from all falling out with a pair of tweezers.

Tweezer tips holding the little jewels from falling till I'm ready for them to fall.

Primer tray now installed onto the primer feed arm. I tap the side of the tray several times to cause the primers to jiggle around and make their way over the feed hole. Cycling the press does the same thing. As the whole thing rides up and down with each stroke, a couple of "bumps" in the press frame tap the primer arm and tray and cause the primers to move around appropriately toward their escape chute and on their way to the insertion point (sounds very tactical!...)

This is a very important view. Here you can see several primers through the slot in the primer feed arm. Visualizing primers in there tells you there are primers ready to feed into the brass. If you DON'T see primers in there then there's usually something up higher, in the primer tray, causing the primers to hang and not fall into the hollow arm.

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[SgtLumpy]

Part SEVEN

Believe it or not, we're actually going to start building a real, live piece of ammunition now...


First piece of brass goes into station ONE. At this station, cycling the press arm will push the case up into the DECAPPER die. There a steel pin will push the old, spent primer OUT of the bottom of the case. The brass I'm using here has already been de-primed, so actually nothing is happening in station one with this batch.

Next the empty and deprimed brass case advances to station TWO. At this station, cycling the press arm will raise the brass into the SIZING DIE -AND- it will insert a primer into the bottom of the case.

Next the empty and (hopefully primed) case advances to station THREE. At this station, cycling the press arm will raise the brass into the POWDER THROUGH EXPANDING DIE. That will both drop the measured amount of powder into the case AND it will slightly flare the case mouth to make bullet insertion easier.

-BUT - Before charging with powder and flaring, I want to physically pull the case out of the shell plate and inspect to be sure the primer was installed and that it was seated to the proper depth. If it wasn't installed, I simply put the case back into rotation and inspect the primer station to see if something is causing primers not to feed. If the primer DID install but it was too deep or too proud, I adjust the primer ram depth, then recycle the case through the rotation. I may lose 3c worth of primer a couple times in the process of getting the depth set correctly. But once it's set, it virtually never needs adjusting, especially if you're using the same brand of primer.

I will do this physical "remove and inspect for primer" for the first dozen or so rounds I build during a reload session. Once I feel like everything is feeding reliably, I don't pull each one but instead inspect the primer after the round is built. If at that later stage, the primer is goofed up, I can still pull the bullet, and cycle the powder, bullet and brass through the system again.

The primer looks ok so I insert the case back into station THREE and cycle the press, which flares the case mouth and DROPS POWDER into the case.

Now the flared and charged case advances to station FOUR.

In a moment, I'll place a bullet on the open case mouth but FIRST -

I VISUALLY CHECK TO BE SURE THERE IS POWDER IN THE CASE. Just like I did when I was setting up the press earlier, I'm looking into the case mouth, with the aid of the mini Mag-Lite, and verifying that the powder is at the level I determined earlier. If it is NOT at that level (too high OR too low), I pull the case, dump the powder back into the powder hopper and cycle the case through again. This one looks exactly as it should.

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[SgtLumpy]

Part EIGHT

We're at the BULLET SEAT/CRIMP station (station FOUR). At this station, I manually set a bullet on top of the flared case. It doesn't have to be perfect, the die will align it. Cycling the press arm will raise the primed, charged case and bullet into the die. That will press the bullet DOWN into the case to a predetermined depth, and apply a light crimp to the brass case mouth.

Here's the 158 gr, copper plated .38 spec bullet ready to be seated and crimped.

It's now been UP into the die, bullet is seated, case mouth is crimped.

Now I physically pull it out of the shell plate again for another quality check

I'm measuring the COAL (Case OverAll Length). For this bullet, the MAX COAL is 1.455 inch. This cartridge is .001 under MAX which is exactly where I want it to be.

This "pull and measure" step is another one that I'll do for the first few cartridges in a session. Once I'm satisfied that it's all seating and crimping appropriately, I don't pull each one every time.


[Continued next post...]

 

[SgtLumpy]

Part NINE (FINAL)

We're near the end!

The cartridge is now complete. It's been deprimed, sized, reprimed, flared, charged, bulleted, seated and crimped. Now it advances to stage FIVE.

There is no die in this stage so nothing happens except it gets ready to be ejected into the waiting plastic bin.

Here the cartridge is just about to be ejected. The rotating shell plate causes the case rim to ride up against the CASE EJECTOR FINGER which causes the case to leave the merry-go-round.

Finally, a single, completed round falls into the waiting Acco bin.

Repeat again and again. Only this time, it's not just ONE case going through the press, it's FIVE at a time. There's a case at each station with every movement of the press arm.

When I'm loading progressively (continual throughput) I ALWAYS keep the little saying "PRIMER-BRASS-POWDER-BULLET". That means that each time a newly manufactured round falls into the bin, I have to check, in that order -
1) Are there primers in the chute
2) Did I manually load a new, empty brass at Station ONE
3) DO I SEE POWDER in the case at station FOUR (the most critical check)
4) Did I seat a bullet AFTER seeing powder at FOUR

Once it's all up and running, I probably make about one round every six seconds. I'm not trying to go fast, I'm trying to be consistant. I don't use an auto case feeder or auto bullet feeder. I manually install the case at ONE and manually install the bullet at FOUR.

I make about 350 rounds per session. Then go shoot them up the next day. Then repeat over and over again.

Thanks for tuning in. I welcome suggestions, questions and chicken recipes.


Sgt Lumpy

 

[Peak53]

Nice job, Sgt. That should help a lot of prospective reloaders picture what they are contemplating. I especially like your emphasis on safety and completion of each step, with inspections.

 

[Engineer1911]

I do like the thoroughness of your presentation with emphasis on safety and accuracy.

An excellent presentation for buying a Dillon 550 progressive.

SgtLumpy: PM sent with explanation. The Sarge is sensitive and a perfectionist.

 

[SgtLumpy]

An excellent presentation for buying a Dillon 550 progressive.

Huh?


Sgt Lumpy

 

[DaSandmanCometh]

I don't know how electronically savvy you are, but here's some mods I've made to my loadmaster to make it more user friendly. All of them together take a lot of continual thought reminders out of the process. makes it a little funner to reload not having to keep checking everything.
Video cam/monitor powder check for your reloading press - AR15.COM

Just thought I'd offer it up for ya.

 

[iouri]

Thanks for sharing SgtLumpy. Why did you put so much effort into bolting down your bench ? My 550 is bolted to a piece of MDF and I just C-clamp it to my desk for usage. This setup works just fine for me even for 30-06 & 8mm Mauser.

 

[SgtLumpy]

... Why did you put so much effort into bolting down your bench ?...

Because -

Lots of torque, repeated, several hundred times every couple days. The more stable the platform, the more uniform the results. If nothing else moves, I can feel the primer seat, feel the crimp form, feel the spent primer being popped out etc.

Same reason big, heavy machine shop mills and drill presses work better than lighter, more flexible mills and drill presses.

We're building ammo here. We're dealing with half of a tenth of a grain of degree of error. The more I can reduce or eliminate unneeded movement in the machine, the more accurate the end result is.

Sloppy U joints, ball joints, 1911 slides, structure doors, revolver end play etc, for example. Reduce tolerances.

And again, this is MY way to reload. C clamping it to a desk might work fine for YOUR way.


Sgt Lumpy

 

[geddylee10002000]

Thanks for excellent post. It should be a sticky for the new to reloading progressive crowd. It is cost effective. I have a friend that has chosen the same way as you. Probably reloaded 20K rounds. I have drank the blue koolaid.

 

[jfp357]

WOW! Nice job.

 

[blujax01]

Nicely done, Lumpy. Kudos.

 

[buck460XVR]

Nicely done, Lumpy. Kudos.

I agree. Only question I have is why you seat a cannelured revolver bullet to a OAL instead of the center of the cannelure? In this pic, you claim this is exactly the seating depth you want, but it shows the cannelure will be completely outta the roll crimp generally used for .38 special and cannelured bullets.