[VN350X10]

Top of loading bench is slick Formica, floor is concrete. A damp rag for small stuff, chip brush & dust pan for real $tupid ones(powder is expensive now ) and toss it out the door into the lawn.
I reload in a separate building 12' X 16' with electric & compressed air piped in from the main garage. No carpet, I lose too many small parts !

uncle albert

 

[Wyoming]

I have used a Dillon since they came out in the 1980's. The good news is the more you use them the less oops you will have.

However when you load a large batch you will have to deal with debris build up. To handle this I use a combination of tiny dust pan and brush, a military style cleaning brush, paper towels and a can of compress air (use in electronics).

BTW I have tee nuts on my reloading bench so when I want to load shotshells I just bolt down a press. When reloading shotgun shells you will have to deal with loose BBs and powder. I went to the farm and ranch store and bought a big plastic pan that is for animal pens. I drilled holes through it. I bolt everything down when I want to reload shotgun shell. The pan catches most of the spills. A good thing as trying to sweep up BBs on a wood floor is like herding cats.

 

[unclebob]

Bob - Going to the Dawsonville match this month?

Nope this year is slim shooting. Pryor, maybe Talladega depending on the rest of the guys. And Mobile. Wife had two perminiet teeth put in, not cheap, Need a new roof, insurance reason, and wife wants tile in living room and dinning room. Short on funds. Thanks to Capital one the three hotel stays will not cost me anything for Pryor.

 

[Gary W]

You cranking em out Gary ?

Yes I am loaded about 1000 rounds of 9mm and 45acp love my dillons. Hows it going with you?

 

[Critch]

A friend of mine when I was in the Air Force was a really sloppy reloader and he had powder all over his reloading bench...some of us warned him to clean it up..but he didn't..one day he walked in his garage with a cigarette and and laid it down on the bench, all that powder ignited and scared the crap out of him..he said it was a BIG flash and then it was over with..

 

[picker.]

Yes I am loaded about 1000 rounds of 9mm and 45acp love my dillons. Hows it going with you?

Plugging away, 9mm/40sw/45 acp and .357 sig.
Best/joe

 

[Gary W]

Great, enjoy :cheers:

Plugging away, 9mm/40sw/45 acp and .357 sig.
Best/joe

 

[WeeWilly]

Well it's been a while since I've posted to this forum and at that time I was just getting my Dillon XL650 set up. In the mean time I picked up a Dillon RL 550b also. I have the 650 set for 9mm and the 550 for 45acp I love them both they both work smooth with no hiccups, except when I mess up, ha.

Now that brings me to a question, what do all of you do for powder spills? I know none of you have ever done that so this only apples to me. Do you use a vacuum, compressor (blowing it every where) or?

Gary W

Sorry, late to the party.

I use one of those Black and Decker Mighty Mites. Just be sure you don't have any live primers around where the vacuum is cleaning as they can ignite when picked up with the vacuum and with powder in the bag, well, you get the idea.

BTW, the above is not recommend by any reloading authority I have ever read, so if you decide to do it, you are in your own.

 

[unclebob]

We have a Hoover Wind tunnel vacuum that has a clear plastic container. Like I said I’m only vacuuming up a very small amount of powder. But before I vacuum in the reloading room I empty the container out of mostly dog hair. So if I did suck up a live primer and it went off there would be a very small amount of powder in the container for any type of fire, it is not going to explode.. If we had a vacuum with a paper bag. I would find another way of picking up the powder just in case it would set the bag on fire. The bad part would be if just smoldered and it not being noticed after putting up the vacuum it then really caught on fire.
I don’t really think you are going to read in any reloading manual to use a vacuum to pickup spilled smokeless powder.

 

[10or45]

I have been using a shop vac for over 20 years. Still here.

I use a shop vac for small amounts of powder and for old primer residue after several hundred reloads. Like Tater, I have small brushes to get under shell plate, primer slide (550), etc. I reload on stout bench in garage so I can sweep large spills of whatever. The 550 primer system was sticking a lot until I figured out how to tune it up and it was the source of most of my spills.

 

[Gary W]

Sorry, late to the party.

I use one of those Black and Decker Mighty Mites. Just be sure you don't have any live primers around where the vacuum is cleaning as they can ignite when picked up with the vacuum and with powder in the bag, well, you get the idea.

BTW, the above is not recommend by any reloading authority I have ever read, so if you decide to do it, you are in your own.

Thanks, Ive decided to use a vacuum. It seems to be the only way to truly clean the powder up without taking the shell plate off and thats a pain. Being new to the loading and to the Dillon presses I've had a few spills, Mostly not getting the primer seated by forgetting to push the handle forward, But I'm better at paying attention after cleaning up the messes, I'm a slow learner ha.

Thanks for the tip,
Gary W.

 

[WeeWilly]

Thanks, Ive decided to use a vacuum. It seems to be the only way to truly clean the powder up without taking the shell plate off and thats a pain. Being new to the loading and to the Dillon presses I've had a few spills, Mostly not getting the primer seated by forgetting to push the handle forward, But I'm better at paying attention after cleaning up the messes, I'm a slow learner ha.

Thanks for the tip,
Gary W.

Make sure you dutifully remove the buttons before vacuuming, digging them out of the bag is a pain.

 

[Gary W]

Make sure you dutifully remove the buttons before vacuuming, digging them out of the bag is a pain.

Your to late, Ha! I found out the hard way and I had half a tank full of dirt and whatever. I'll dump the tank first from now on and try to remember to pull the buttons.

I'm still laughing!
Gary W

 

[WeeWilly]

Your to late, Ha! I found out the hard way and I had half a tank full of dirt and whatever. I'll dump the tank first from now on and try to remember to pull the buttons.

I'm still laughing!
Gary W

If it only happens once, you will be way ahead of me. It is amazing how hard that little B&D pulls.

 

[tjpet]

Smokeless powders, vacuum ok. Blackpowder, uh uh.

 

[Gary W]

If it only happens once, you will be way ahead of me. It is amazing how hard that little B&D pulls.

I'm tow times so far but I'm sure there will be more.

Have a great day. Oh ya I shot my first loads yesterday both 45acp 230gr FMJ with 8.1grs of HS6 & 9mm 125gr JHP with 6.4grs of HS6 and they all ran smooth as butter shooting Springfield XD tactical & Glock 19 gen4. 100 rounds of each. Good day at the range.

Gary W

 

[crockett]

Make sure you dutifully remove the buttons before vacuuming, digging them out of the bag is a pain.

We should start a club or something. I was robbing around on the floor like a goof. Now I know where they are hiding!

:couch:

 

[Gary W]

We should start a club or something. I was robbing around on the floor like a goof. Now I know where they are hiding!

:couch:

HA HA!!!!!!!! I TI thought I was going to have to do that until I realized they had been sucked up by the vac.:crying:

 

[crockett]

HA HA!!!!!!!! I TI thought I was going to have to do that until I realized they had been sucked up by the vac.:crying:

I very rarely loose my stuff, thanks to some voluntary OCD. When I didn't find them on the floor I was really baffled. Only when you guys brought up this topic it 'clicked'. Now I remember vacuuming the shell plate after the last session.

Some even spend 5 minutes looking for that one primer that escaped sudden death. :crazy:

And when it finds its way into the vac we are ready for the girly dance, if it manages to go off.

:supergrin:

 

[Gary W]

I very rarely loose my stuff, thanks to some voluntary OCD. When I didn't find them on the floor I was really baffled. Only when you guys brought up this topic it 'clicked'. Now I remember vacuuming the shell plate after the last session.

Some even spend 5 minutes looking for that one primer that escaped sudden death. :crazy:

And when it finds its way into the vac we are ready for the girly dance, if it manages to go off.

:supergrin:

I just went out and dumped my powder out of the measurer and had to smile when I thought of this. I even looked to see if my pins were still there as I was cleaning up.

I'm going in for surgery on my rotator. Cuff on Wednesday and won't be doing any loading or shooting for a while. Left handed just doesn't work for me ha!

Gary W.