Dillon 550C - Shellplate Bearing Kit

[Rathmatik]

Has anyone used the Shellplate Bearing Kit from Hit Factor Shooting Supply? It’s supposed to remove play in the shellplate, while still allowing the indexing sprocket to move. Interested to see if this would be a good improvement for precision reloading (6.5 Creedmoor, for example) and reduce runout, or if there’s any other similar products that achieve this and work well.

Hit Factor Shooting Supply, LLC - Products

Hit Factor Shooting Supply, LLC Products

www.hitfactorshooting.com

 

[Franko]

I own it along with the shellplate bearing kit from Uniquetek. Both kits do remove play from the shell plate and I would consider them a worthwhile upgrade. As to which is better, I want to say that the Hit Factory kit is slightly better than the Uniquetek kit.

 

[Rathmatik]

I own it along with the shellplate bearing kit from Uniquetek. Both kits do remove play from the shell plate and I would consider them a worthwhile upgrade. As to which is better, I want to say that the Hit Factory kit is slightly better than the Uniquetek kit.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. I was also curious about the Uniquetek one too, good to know. I though the Hit Factory one looked better just from the pictures.

So to confirm my assumption, are you able to tighten the shellplate down all the way with this and still operate the index?

 

[Adam B]

I have 2 of them and they work great, I highly recommend buying one.

 

[Franko]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. I was also curious about the Uniquetek one too, good to know. I though the Hit Factory one looked better just from the pictures.

So to confirm my assumption, are you able to tighten the shellplate down all the way with this and still operate the index?

You can't tighten the shellplate all the way down or it seizes up and can't be turned. It's a bit of a balancing act to get the shellplate tight enough to really reduce wobble but still be able to be turned easily and index into place. Even with the kits there is a slight ammount of wobble' it's just less than without the kits.

 

[Rathmatik]

Very cool, thank you both! I’ll have to place an order soon, looking forward to see this in action. It’s a reasonable price for what seems to be a potentially big upgrade.

 

[PatMiles]

Loading on a 550, read this if you want the best out of your 550, they don't run any bearing.

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

 

[Mudflap621]

I haven’t bought the bearing but I did hone the bottom of my shell plates with 1000-1500-2000 sand paper and it made a huge improvement. There were some high spots that couldn’t see before sanding now they are a mirror finish on bottom and took about 5 min per shellplate. Once tightened down I have practically zero slop in the shellplate

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

I have a shellplate bearing, and it helps, but there was a bigger reduction in wobble when I sanded the shellplates. I didn't even take all the finish off the bottom, just enough to get them to lie flat on an inspection plate, then some dry ws2 on the bottoms.

I also have a ceramic index ball, but I don't think that really makes a difference.

 

[6.5SH]

The purpose of the lightweight index ball is to lessen the "snap" that happens and can sling powder out of a case (especially short pistol cases).

I've always been in the habit of putting my left index finger on the case mouth and using my thumb to move the index sprocket from station 2 to 3.

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

The purpose of the lightweight index ball is to lessen the "snap" that happens and can sling powder out of a case (especially short pistol cases).

I'm sure that it works in theory, but with it being the same size, over the same spring, it makes no discernable difference in practice. Tuning the shell holders and getting the bearing tension just right made everything much smoother/more stable in rotation.