Primer tube filler

fvtrkyhntr

fvtrkyhntr

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Anyone using the hornady or Frankford arsenal automatic primer tube fillers . Thinking about getting one but they have many mixed reviews on Cabelas web site. Just bought a Dillon 650 and wanted something a little easier to fill the tubes beside one at a time. Thanks Ken
 
I use the Frankford Vibra prime and it works great.. you may have to smooth out the plastic parts a little where the primers drop down the tube and hold and jiggle it a bit when loading but it has made a world of difference in loading 650 primer tubes.

There are a couple of You tube videos on using it..
 
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I tried the Frankford Arsenal and found it to be junk. I tried all the tricks and it's still frustrating.
I may try the Dillon primer tube filler.
 
fvtrkyhntr said:
Anyone using the hornady or Frankford arsenal automatic primer tube fillers . Thinking about getting one but they have many mixed reviews on Cabelas web site. Just bought a Dillon 650 and wanted something a little easier to fill the tubes beside one at a time. Thanks Ken
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I was in the same boat and went with a PAL Primer Filler based on reviews. That combined with 5 or 6 extra tubes makes the process pretty quick.
 
I have one of the older (circa 2000) Frankford Arsenal Vibra-Primes and if it wasn't for it, I would have given up reloading years and years ago. The first time I tried picking up a hundred primers in a tube to feed them into my Dillon Square Deal B, I realized there has to be a better way.

Mine shows its idiosyncrasies and it isn't perfect but it beats the living crap out of doing it one primer at a time.

With the Vibra-Prime, and my new 100 round chamber checker, and my good old Dillon SDB, I can reload, check, inspect and mark 300 rounds of .40 S&W in less than 2 hours. I'd say close to 1:30 but only if every last step runs smoothly.
 
I have the Frankford Arsenal and as far as I'm concerned it's junk. More often than not the primers want to jam up rather than fall into the tube. I haven't given up completely but I'm not far away from putting it up on the EE with the disclaimer use at your own risk. One of the things that stops me is everyone I've dealt with on the EE is a stand up guy and I don't want to take advantage of them.
 
It took me a while to get mine working well. It would also jam up after it dropped down - just sitting cockeyed on the primer tube. I gave that filler tube a very small chamfer on the inner diameter and it's worked great since. I actually started using my Dillon primer tubes directly, rather than filling the tube that came with my Vibra Prime and transferring the primers to the primer tubes.

Also, for some reason, Dominion primers tend to be a little sticky feeding in to the primer tubes, so I tap the bottom of the fill tube occasionally as it's vibrating and it feeds just fine. I don't have to do this with CCI or Federal primers.

Chuck McCann said:
I have the Frankford Arsenal and as far as I'm concerned it's junk. More often than not the primers want to jam up rather than fall into the tube. I haven't given up completely but I'm not far away from putting it up on the EE with the disclaimer use at your own risk. One of the things that stops me is everyone I've dealt with on the EE is a stand up guy and I don't want to take advantage of them.
Click to expand...
 
VanMan said:
It took me a while to get mine working well. It would also jam up after it dropped down - just sitting cockeyed on the primer tube. I gave that filler tube a very small chamfer on the inner diameter and it's worked great since. I actually started using my Dillon primer tubes directly, rather than filling the tube that came with my Vibra Prime and transferring the primers to the primer tubes.

Also, for some reason, Dominion primers tend to be a little sticky feeding in to the primer tubes, so I tap the bottom of the fill tube occasionally as it's vibrating and it feeds just fine. I don't have to do this with CCI or Federal primers.
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That's what seems to happen with mine. Next time I'm going to load I'll try chamfering the tube, I suspect it can only be enough to remove any burs or ridges.
 
After many years, many trials, the Dillon unit keeps my 650 & 1050 fed without a hitch....

I do not recommend using unshielded tubes, that's a bit risky....
Jon
 
I put a little chamfer on the top of my filling tubes as well. I hold the device so the primer tray is just about level, just tilted enough for the primers to walk towards the top of the tube. I still have the odd hang up and some of my tubes are better than others.

It is still way easier than picking up primers one at a time. YMMV.

VanMan said:
It took me a while to get mine working well. It would also jam up after it dropped down - just sitting cockeyed on the primer tube. I gave that filler tube a very small chamfer on the inner diameter and it's worked great since. I actually started using my Dillon primer tubes directly, rather than filling the tube that came with my Vibra Prime and transferring the primers to the primer tubes.

Also, for some reason, Dominion primers tend to be a little sticky feeding in to the primer tubes, so I tap the bottom of the fill tube occasionally as it's vibrating and it feeds just fine. I don't have to do this with CCI or Federal primers.
Click to expand...
 
I have the RF-100 from Dillon. Unless you have a lot of extra cash or reload a lot, I would consider one of the handheld primer tube fillers. The RF-100 can be very touchy but once setup, works well. It can keep up with 1200 rounds an hour in the 1050 or 800 per hour in the 650 easily.
 
Chrossphyre said:
I have ordered the Hornady LNL 1911 Primer Tube Filler and will report on its performance after I have had a chance to use it a few times.
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Okay I received the Hornady LNL 1911 Primer Tube Filler and here is my review:

Quality
The product is sturdily built and appears well put together. There are no excess plastic flashes from the molding process. The unit feels solid in the hand and the vibration is not uncomfortable, in fact its quieter than I thought it might be. The unit comes packed in a clamshell with 4 extra o-rings, 2 Large Primer tubes, 2 Small Primer tubes, 1 Large Primer tray, 1 Small Primer tray, 1 primer tray lid, and 1 detonation shield. It requires two AAA batteries, which are not included.

Initial Use
I started with the larger primer tray as I thought that is where I would have the most trouble and I wasn't disappointed. The hole that the primers have top drop doown into the tube is quite tight and I finally had to take a drill bit of the same dimensions as the primer hole and do some minor reaming by hand. That and removing a very tiny ridge right at the front of the primer hole in the tray did the trick, otherwise the first primer in would tilt over and jam. I also reamed out the small primer tray hole as well (just use a brill bit and turn it by hand). Excercise caution as I did not take off much at all - you could barley see the plastic dust I removed. After those slight modifications, the unit filled up both large and small primer tubes in about 15-20 seconds. I found the best angle that worked for me was to hold the "gun" portion barrel-level and canted left (grip right) about 20 degrees. That piled up the primers in the tray on the front and left side of the tray (as you are looking at it while in operation) and I was easily able to control the slight change of angle needed ( a slight muzzle upward movement) to feed the primers in to the feed chute in a long single line. The vibration did the rest.

All in all, despite having to do a little plastic shaving, I am very happy with the unit. It will save me hours of "primer picking" and help me avoid what is to me the most mundane task in reloading.
 
Nice review Chrossphyre. It's a fun looking unit. Great that you can load directly into Hornady primer tubes.

The Frankford Arsenal Vibraprime came with a proprietary small and large primer tubes. You are supposed to transfer from their tube directly to your press primer tube, or use a plastic coupler to transfer to your own primer tubes. I found I could just put my Dillon primer filler tubes directly into the Vibraprime and hold it there while the primers dropped directly into it. I like to fill 10 tubes at a time so I can get a good rythm going on my XL 650 :)
 
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