Opinions on K+M arbor press

[Sgtsideways]

Been looking at this option for setting the neck tension but I have to admit that I know nothing about their use. My es #'s have been increasing on my reloads and don't know if this is an item that will help me. 21St Century seems to have a similar item also.
Currently using Redding to set my bullets and measuring neck expansion after seating to determine the tension. Rather new to reloading, so not sure whether an arbor press is the way to go.

 

[918v]

An arbor press is more sensitive than a standard press and allows you to feel the bullet pushing through the neck. You can easily find and cull cases with heavier or lighter seating pressure than your average batch. Whether that helps with ES is hard to say. ES increases due to several variables, not just neck tension.

 

[Rocketmandb]

Been looking at this option for setting the neck tension but I have to admit that I know nothing about their use. My es #'s have been increasing on my reloads and don't know if this is an item that will help me. 21St Century seems to have a similar item also.
Currently using Redding to set my bullets and measuring neck expansion after seating to determine the tension. Rather new to reloading, so not sure whether an arbor press is the way to go.

I love my K&M. Get one with the force pack so you can measure your seating force. This allows you to measure the results of doing things like lubing necks, etc. As @918v mentions, it also allows you to put aside rounds that are way out with respect to seating force to use as foulers, sighting rounds, etc.

 

[craigos]

i went with the 21st century myself and it gives me great feedback on consistency of neck tension (dia, anneal etc). I use it to load a few bullets out of each batch to ensure neck seating force is consistent within the batch and across reloading sessions. Gets me ES in the low single digits.

 

[Maurygold]

I use the k&m with force pack - no complaints

 

[Sgtsideways]

Great and thanks for the responses. I'm a little confused on the force packs and I shoot 6.5C, .308Win, 300WM, and 338LM. Is the small force pack the right one to use? Any other accessories that I need to get?

 

[Rocketmandb]

Great and thanks for the responses. I'm a little confused on the force packs and I shoot 6.5C, .308Win, 300WM, and 338LM. Is the small force pack the right one to use? Any other accessories that I need to get?

Standard force pack is fine. The way these work is there is a constant force spring put into the press. This means that the amount of deflection of the spring is in direct proportion to the amount of force it takes to make it deflect. So, to measure the force, you measure the deflection. They do this with a micrometer - watch how much it reads, and that tells you the force. The standard force pack has a spring that deflects .001" per lb of force and up to 150 lbs. The low force pack is 1/3 of that. Unless you're doing light neck tension all the time, the standard will work well.

 

[SicVic]

Standard, agreed.
For reference, if you press lighter or lower than what the Standard can read it would be the equivalent of seating the bullet with your hand pressing down on the die.
As one other mentioned; it's not a magic Reloading Tool.
Don't just use it to pull out the Turds.
Take steps earlier in the process to correct those SD problems.
You mentioned that they are creeping upward. What s changing??

 

[Rocketmandb]

Take steps earlier in the process to correct those SD problems.

This is exactly it - plus, I've found that the arbor seating dies tend to yield better concentricity results - though some will argue that it doesn't matter.