Who has a press mounted case trimmer and swager?

[turnerdye1]

After doing some research I've finally invested in the press mounted case trimmer for my XL650. After looking for a Dillon RT1500 for months I was never able to find any in stock. I located the Honeybadger router adapter that fits the Dillon trim dies so I jumped on it to give it a try considering I had an extra router sitting at home. The price was also right which was nice.

Honeybadger Adapter w/ Shroud - $108
Carbide 3/8 Endmill - $15
Dillon 223 Trim Die - $62
Bosch Router - Free - $120
Lee Universal Decapper - $15
Swage It - $100

Total Cost was $300 dollars since I already had the router.

Station 1 - Universal Decapper
Station 2 - Swage It
Station 3 - Dillon Size/Trimmer Die
Station 4 - Empty
Station 5 - Lee 223 Size Die

Anybody else run a setup like this? I'm just looking for any tips you might have on the setups. I should have all my parts this week so I'll update when I get it setup.

PHOTOS and SETUP have been added to Post #16

 

[Clay Pigeon]

What is the reason to just decap on station one over just sizing the case before trimming.

 

[turnerdye1]

To deprime the case before the swager in station 2. I have a lot of LC and FC 556 brass that has crimps on it sitting around. I've always just avoided loading it so I wouldn't have to mess with the primer pockets.

This allows me to deprime, swage the primer pocket, trim the case, and resize the neck after trimming all on one toolhead.

I have a separate toolhead setup with the powder drop, bullet seater, bullet crimp dies as well.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

To deprime the case before the swager in station 2. I have a lot of LC and FC 556 brass that has crimps on it sitting around. I've always just avoided loading it so I wouldn't have to mess with the primer pockets.

This allows me to deprime, swage the primer pocket, trim the case, and resize the neck after trimming all on one toolhead.

I have a separate toolhead setup with the powder drop, bullet seater, bullet crimp dies as well.

OK,If you size before you trim you will get much better average case lengths.
I have deprimed and sized 10's of thousands of crimped cases using a regular small base die and never really had any problems. Sizing makes rifle cases longer, Thats the simple facts.
I would bet that with you trimming before sizing your case lengths will be all over the place. If you are just loading ball ammo with a cannelure and a lee factory crimp die it doesn't matter, but if loading different with a roll or no crimp it could be a problem.
Just food for thought.

edit, I see you said just neck sized.... what rifle do you plan to shoot this ammo out of?

 

[turnerdye1]

OK,If you size before you trim you will get much better average case lengths.
I have deprimed and sized 10's of thousands of crimped cases using a regular small base die and never really had any problems. Sizing makes rifle cases longer, Thats the simple facts.
I would bet that with you trimming before sizing your case lengths will be all over the place. If you are just loading ball ammo with a cannelure and a lee factory crimp die it doesn't matter, but if loading different with a roll or no crimp it could be a problem.
Just food for thought.

edit, I see you said just neck sized.... what rifle do you plan to shoot this ammo out of?

I may have not explained this as well as I should have. These rounds will all be shot out of AR's. No bolt guns for me.

The Dillon trim die is also a sizing die. So when the case goes into the die it'll be sized and whatever excess there is will get trimmed.
I'm only using the Lee sizing die afterwards to sort of deburr the inside the neck afterwards. I'm going to back the Lee sizing die out quite aways just enough for the expander ball to knock any larger burrs off.

This is all just plinking ammo and I'll be using a Lee factory crimp die when I load.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

I may have not explained this as well as I should have. These rounds will all be shot out of AR's. No bolt guns for me.

The Dillon trim die is also a sizing die. So when the case goes into the die it'll be sized and whatever excess there is will get trimmed.
I'm only using the Lee sizing die afterwards to sort of deburr the inside the neck afterwards. I'm going to back the Lee sizing die out quite aways just enough for the expander ball to knock any larger burrs off.

This is all just plinking ammo and I'll be using a Lee factory crimp die when I load.

 

[turnerdye1]

Does that make sense? Or am I completely off base lol? I thought it through but I could have forgotten something?

I've been reloading for 10 years now but am still fairly new to the progessive game.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

Does that make sense? Or am I completely off base lol? I thought it through but I could have forgotten something?

I've been reloading for 10 years now but am still fairly new to the progessive game.

Yes it does, my ears perk up when I read or hear universal decapping and it doesn't involve black powder cartridges...
Please post on how it works out for you.

 

[bwframe]

 

[turnerdye1]

Everything will be here Wednesday! I can’t be the only one who’s automated case prep on a 650 lol

 

[Waldojr]

I use the Giraud trimmer for all my rifles but I've always wanted to get a rt1500 or the Honeybadger. Did you need to get the Jacknut from them for your Router? Excited to see how yours looks. I know most people won't do the Swageit because of warranty but you gotta do what you gotta do!

 

[Gluemanz28]

Everything will be here Wednesday! I can’t be the only one who’s automated case prep on a 650 lol

I have a 650 and the 1500 Dillon trimmer. It’s still new in the box and I’m going to be installing it in about a week when I get through the pistol loads I’m working on. I’ll be follow this thread to get and advice I can get. Might have to go see Andrew soon too.

 

[turnerdye1]

I use the Giraud trimmer for all my rifles but I've always wanted to get a rt1500 or the Honeybadger. Did you need to get the Jacknut from them for your Router? Excited to see how yours looks. I know most people won't do the Swageit because of warranty but you gotta do what you gotta do!

I opted out on the Jacknut just due to price alone. I looked into how to set it up correctly and it required a lathe and sort of special measurement tool. It was alot more then I wanted to do. So i emailed the company and they said it was really wasn't required but was an option for people that wanted it. They advised that a jamb nut or spindle nut could be purchased at an auto parts store that would work just fine for most people needs. They stated that a 13/16-20 nut was required. I went to OReillys Auto Parts and it was $3.50ea and had them in stock in 2 days.

And I haven't heard of any warranty concerns from using the Swage It? Are their any threads or posts about that? To be honest I haven't checked the Dillon warranty either.

I have a 650 and the 1500 Dillon trimmer. It’s still new in the box and I’m going to be installing it in about a week when I get through the pistol loads I’m working on. I’ll be follow this thread to get and advice I can get. Might have to go see Andrew soon too.

Two of my boxes were delivered today but sadly my third box is still scheduled for Wednesday. I got my hopes up too soon lol

 

[turnerdye1]

Well my package showed up a day late. So I unboxed the Honeybadger today and the quality looks great. The vacuum shroud is 3D printed and seems pretty well made.

I went to go install this today and it was missing the screws that connect the Honeybadger to the router. I called Bill at the phone number on the card inside the box expecting to leave a voicemail and get called back later. To my surprise he answered at 6:15PM. He advised that there were supposed to be screws included but must've been missed during QC inspection.

Bill was overally apologetic and gave me some options. He advised he could get the screws mailed out next day or he could refund $5.00 dollars. Bill stated that the screws needed were 4Mx30 which are common at most hardware stores.

Given the time I opted for a refund and will by the screws locally. Within a few hours I was notified by email that I had a refund being processed.

Overall I'm still pleased with the Honeybadger and the customer service so far. Hopefully I can get it up and running tomorrow.

 

[Fullmag]

Recently started loading 223 on a 650 also. Following this thread so, Don’t forget the pics.

 

[turnerdye1]

Alright everyone sorry for the delay. Finally got this thing up and running over the weekend.



Honeybadger website said to order a 2.5" endmill. I installed it according to the instructions and it would not reach the sized case. So I extended the end mill out with the collet biting onto about a half inch of the end mill. Should still be plenty secure. If I were to do it over again I would just order a 3" endmill.




Got the sizing die installed and setup correctly for the cases. The Dillon sizing die installs just like any other sizing die.




To make room for the vacuum shoot to be clear I placed the lock ring on the bottom of the toolhead to make more space.




This shows how far down the end mill actually has to come to make contact with the case. It's probably 1/8" away from the trim die.




Heres an overview of the vacuum shroud.




This shows how little clearance there is between the vacuum shroud and the toolhead retaining pin hole. There was not enough room so I had to come up with a replacement.




Luckily I had a flat headed picture hanging nail around that just happened to be the right diameter. I used a pair of wire cutters and trimmed the nail down to length and it locks in great.






Here's a photo of 3 trimmed cases and the lenghts. Setup took a little bit of time because there are no fine adjustments on the trim die or router adapter. You just have to unscrew it a little at a time until you get it figured out. Took me probably 5 minutes or so.




Overall tool head setup. I was able to get everything to fit on this toolhead due to using a homemade toolhead retaining pin. If you want to use the factory retaining pin then you will have to move the trim die to Station 4. But if you do that you wont be able to use another sizing die/expander mandrel on station 5.

For Station 5 I used a Lee factory sizing die and install it as usual. To prevent the die from fully sizing the case again after being trimmed I back the die out 3 full turns. I then used a silver sharpie marker and color the inside necks of my cases. I ran them through the die and you could see where expander ball went into the case and resized the mouth knocking any burrs off.

The length of the case after the trim/size die was 1.750 and after the Station 5 case mouth size it was still at 1.750. I was worried about Station 5 expanding the case again and causing the case length to go slightly high but that didn't end up happening.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with this setup! Should make knocking out LC and FC brass quick and painless now.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

I use the Giraud trimmer for all my rifles but I've always wanted to get a rt1500 or the Honeybadger. Did you need to get the Jacknut from them for your Router? Excited to see how yours looks. I know most people won't do the Swageit because of warranty but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Yes, using the swedger voids Dillons warranty....

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Administrator​

dillon
3,222 posts
Joined July 2007

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[FONT=&quot][h=3]RE: XL 650 SWAGER - WARRANTY VOIDED?[/h]March 13th, 2015 at 4:37pm
This item is an unauthorized modification to the machine, and installation of one on a Dillon machine voids the warranty.

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[bwframe]

Wow, that looks great. Hopefully you'll follow up later on and give us a rundown after you've had some time running the setup.

 

[Pin]

Stage 1 -> Decap
Stage 2 -> Size
Stage 3 -> Trim
Stage 4 -> I don't have a stage 4
Stage 5 -> I still don't have a stage 4.

 

[turnerdye1]

Yes, using the swedger voids Dillons warranty....

[FONT=&amp]

Administrator​

dillon
3,222 posts
Joined July 2007

[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]RE: XL 650 SWAGER - WARRANTY VOIDED?

March 13th, 2015 at 4:37pm
This item is an unauthorized modification to the machine, and installation of one on a Dillon machine voids the warranty.

[/FONT]

Eh I'm not too worried about it. I did some more research once you posted that. It seems people worry about it but I've never seen any posts of presses that were actually damaged. The website also states that they've never had any issues over thousands of rounds. When running 223 I've never really felt the need to push too hard on the handle to get the swage to go.

Wow, that looks great. Hopefully you'll follow up later on and give us a rundown after you've had some time running the setup.

For sure! I plan on running 3k cases tomorrow or Thursday and I'll letcha know.