Hey guys !
I finally finished the installation of a Hornady Bullet Feeder on my XL650 and thought it may interest some of you.
Things to know:
1- The supplied support is not high enough if you have the Dillon strong mount, I found 2 options:
a) You can put a 3/8" metal plate between the 650 and the mount and install the supplied support on it instead of the top of the bench.
b) You can make a custom one and install it on the wall adjusting the lenght of the horizontal arm to the lenght needed to reach your press. This option does not remove usable space behind the press. This is what I did, bringing the original one to a machine shop with my specs.
2- Since the "bullet station" of the LnL and the 650 are not at the same locations on the toolhead and not at the same height, the supplied drop tube is too long, so you have to cut it following your needs (it's like a spring). If not cut, it makes a bend in the middle related to the weight of the bullets in the tube and it stops feeding the die.
I also made another notch in the tube support holder to realign it with the die and bent the arm that support the drop tube to fit the 650 and finally added a tie-wrap for more support when loading 45ACP bullets (9mm 147GR don't need the tie-wrap). I "dremeled" the bottom portion of the hole in the feeder to lower the drop tube to ease the gliding of the bullets in the drop tube.
3- Setting the wiper springs and the feeding die is quite straight forward as described in the manual. Note that you cannot use the powder funnel supplied with a Dillon powder measure nor use an Hornady powder die. Also make sure that the center pole on which the plate is tighten has the flat side at the right plate and is not loose. Mine was not at the right angle for best performance, on the picture it is the preferred angle.
4- The bullet feeder is working very well (I did 1200 rounds in 60 minutes, primer tubes pre-filled) and the only issue I found until now (using it for the last 3 months) is the high level of noise it makes. Again I tried several things :
a) Duct Tape on some surface to attenuate the sound of the bouncing bullets on the plastic bowl. It helps but noise is still too high, I will try later with rubber sheets glued on the bottom part.
b) Turning the unit off while you empty the drop tube that contains +/- 35 bullets. Since the switch is hard to reach without stopping reloading, I asked a friend to make a device to control it following this calculation: I can reload 21 rounds in a minute and the feeder can under pick 40 bullets in a minute, so since I will continue to reload while it fills the tube, I found that one minute ON and one minute OFF is the perfect setting, it looks like this.
If you look at the first picture, you see that the control box is placed so I have an easy access to the 3-positions switch : AUTO, ON and OFF with my left hand while I can continue to move the ram with my right hand. I put it ON for priming the tube and OFF when refilling primers and bullets, rest of the time it stays on AUTO.
The timer setting can be set easily removing the cover.
Hope this review helps, if you have suggestion for the noise issue, they’re welcome !
SB
** I had an issue yesterday because the center pin rotated on the base plate and it changed the angle of the bullet funnel so it was not working. I drilled a hole and put a pin through both the base plate and the center pin and not it's rock-solid... finally, this device may have been a better one if it has been a little more "engineered" before being put on the market...
I finally finished the installation of a Hornady Bullet Feeder on my XL650 and thought it may interest some of you.
Things to know:
1- The supplied support is not high enough if you have the Dillon strong mount, I found 2 options:
a) You can put a 3/8" metal plate between the 650 and the mount and install the supplied support on it instead of the top of the bench.
b) You can make a custom one and install it on the wall adjusting the lenght of the horizontal arm to the lenght needed to reach your press. This option does not remove usable space behind the press. This is what I did, bringing the original one to a machine shop with my specs.
2- Since the "bullet station" of the LnL and the 650 are not at the same locations on the toolhead and not at the same height, the supplied drop tube is too long, so you have to cut it following your needs (it's like a spring). If not cut, it makes a bend in the middle related to the weight of the bullets in the tube and it stops feeding the die.
I also made another notch in the tube support holder to realign it with the die and bent the arm that support the drop tube to fit the 650 and finally added a tie-wrap for more support when loading 45ACP bullets (9mm 147GR don't need the tie-wrap). I "dremeled" the bottom portion of the hole in the feeder to lower the drop tube to ease the gliding of the bullets in the drop tube.
3- Setting the wiper springs and the feeding die is quite straight forward as described in the manual. Note that you cannot use the powder funnel supplied with a Dillon powder measure nor use an Hornady powder die. Also make sure that the center pole on which the plate is tighten has the flat side at the right plate and is not loose. Mine was not at the right angle for best performance, on the picture it is the preferred angle.
4- The bullet feeder is working very well (I did 1200 rounds in 60 minutes, primer tubes pre-filled) and the only issue I found until now (using it for the last 3 months) is the high level of noise it makes. Again I tried several things :
a) Duct Tape on some surface to attenuate the sound of the bouncing bullets on the plastic bowl. It helps but noise is still too high, I will try later with rubber sheets glued on the bottom part.
b) Turning the unit off while you empty the drop tube that contains +/- 35 bullets. Since the switch is hard to reach without stopping reloading, I asked a friend to make a device to control it following this calculation: I can reload 21 rounds in a minute and the feeder can under pick 40 bullets in a minute, so since I will continue to reload while it fills the tube, I found that one minute ON and one minute OFF is the perfect setting, it looks like this.
If you look at the first picture, you see that the control box is placed so I have an easy access to the 3-positions switch : AUTO, ON and OFF with my left hand while I can continue to move the ram with my right hand. I put it ON for priming the tube and OFF when refilling primers and bullets, rest of the time it stays on AUTO.
The timer setting can be set easily removing the cover.
Hope this review helps, if you have suggestion for the noise issue, they’re welcome !
SB
** I had an issue yesterday because the center pin rotated on the base plate and it changed the angle of the bullet funnel so it was not working. I drilled a hole and put a pin through both the base plate and the center pin and not it's rock-solid... finally, this device may have been a better one if it has been a little more "engineered" before being put on the market...
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