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I am setting up my Dillon 550B to reload 32 Auto.
This is a factory made 32 Auto. And for comparison purposes, I have a 45 ACP and a 22 Long Rifle.
After talking to other reloaders, who were experienced with reloading 32 Auto.
I learned that powder charges for the 32 Auto, are typically in the 1.9 to 2.0 grains range.
These are very small charges, even for handgun loads.
If you're off by .1 grain, when you're reloading 5.5 grains of powder, you're off by less than 2%.
However, if you are loading 1.9 grains, you will be off by more than 5%.
While it's always important to have accurate loads. The margin of error
becomes more critical, when you're reloading small charges.
People buy the Arredondo powder bar for one of two reasons.
Stopping powder leakage.
Or achieving more accurate charges for the smaller calibers.
This video is about installing the Arredondo powder bar to achieve more accurate and consistent charges.
Regarding powder leakage. Let's take a close look at an example of powder leakage.
As you can see in these two images.
Powder is leaking between the spacer and powder bar.
The way I solved the powder
leakage problem was by calling Dillon.
Who sent to me, a new, slightly thicker,
spacer at no charge.
The new spacer solved the problem.
Therefore, I recommend contacting Dillon first, to see if a different spacer can solve your issue.
Before buying a new powder bar.
Regarding more accurate charges, the UniqueTek website states the
following regarding the Arredondo powder bar.
"These powder drop slides are customized,
exclusively for UniqueTek, to allow even smaller powder drops than the standard Arredondo Powder Drop Slide.
They will meter down to 0.7 grains
(with Winchester 231) and they meter very small powder drops more accurately
than the Dillon extra-small powder bar."
Since I'm setting up to reload 32 Auto, I purchased the Arredondo powder bar from UniqueTek.
In hopes of achieving more accurate and consistent charges.
The Arredondo powder bar from UniqueTek, comes with a UniqueTek micrometer already installed.
You will need the Arredondo powder bar which Arredondo calls a powder drop slide.
I purchased mine from UniqueTek.com. Their URL can be seen in the video description.
As mentioned earlier, the one from UniqueTek comes with a micrometer already installed.
Please note the Arredondo powder bar can replace the Dillon small and extra small powder bars.
But it cannot replace the Dillon large powder bar.
You also need a 5/32 Allen wrench.
A 3/8 wrench. Either open or closed end.
Caliper to measure the thickness of the powder bars.
Pencil, paper to record measurements.
And a sanding block.
And a C clamp to hold it.
Why a sanding block?
The Arredondo is thicker than the Dillon's small and extra small powder bars.
That is how it stops leakage.
However, if it is too thick, it will make it difficult to operate the press.
Therefore, we may need to reduce the powder bar's, thickness in order to operate the press smoothly.
We do this by sanding the bottom of the powder bar.
You need to be aware, that if too much is sanded off, you will create powder leakage.
And you have ruined the powder bar.
The steps we will follow are. Determine how tight a fit there is
between the Arredondo powder bar and the Dillon spacer.
Measure the thickness of both the Dillon powder bar and the Arredondo powder bar.
Sand the Arredondo powder bar to it's desired thickness.
And then install the Arredondo powder bar.
To begin our measurements. We first completely empty the powder hopper.
Since I am setting up a new caliber. I'm starting with an empty hopper.
Then we're going to use the Allen key and wrench, to loosen the bolt that holds the bellcrank.
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And I'm going to loosen it one full turn.
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Then we're going to pull the bellcrank away .. from the powder measure.
Such that the white nylon square comes out of the .. powder bar.
And we'll remove the Dillon powder bar.
Then you take the Arredondo powder bar and .. insert it into the powder {ww hopper} measure.
As you can see, the Arredondo powder bar is so thick that I cannot completely insert it.
Therefore, I am going to have to reduce its thickness by sanding it.
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If the white square comes off. It's easily put back on the pin.
Then we reinsert .. the powder bar.
We'll keep. Intentionally leave it out for now.
So we can see how to put it back on, when we reinstall the power bar.
To give us a reference, we're going to take our calipers and take three thickness
measurements of both the Dillon powder bar and the Arredondo powder bar.
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Alright. This is .. 355.
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And 355.
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Annnd .. 35. Now it's fluctuating. It's stabilized at 355.
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Now three measurements of the Arredondo powder bar.
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This is .. 360.
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This is 362.
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And 362.
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This gives us our starting point of course.
And, I do not go past these numbers.
We, of course, do not want to make the Arredondo powder bar, thinner than the Dillon.
And if you're installing the Arredondo powder bar to stop a powder leakage.
We would not sand it to the same thickness as the Dillon. We would make it slightly thicker.
As you can see, I've got my sanding block
attached to my workbench.
On this side, I have a piece of medium grade sandpaper.
On this side I have fine grade.
I want to start off with the medium grade.
If that becomes too coarse.
I'm going to switch to fine grade. But regardless.
When I'm done, I going to use a fine grade,
to make sure that the bottom is nice and smooth.
You've probably heard the old adage. Remove a little, measure. Remove a little, measure.
And repeat until the desired thickness is achieved.
Because if you remove too much, you can't put it back.
Look at how I'm going to hold it. The micrometer is actually thicker than the powder bar.
So if I held it here. I would actually be sanding the micrometer.
So I have to hold in such a way. That the micrometer is hanging off the edge. Also ..
The part of the powder bar that moves.
If you don't hold it as you sand, it's just going to get pushed up and never get sanded.
So as you sand, you're going to have to hold it down. In order that it gets sanded, evenly with the rest.
As I sand, I would stop frequently and measure with both the calibers
and see how well it sits in the powder {ww bar} measure.
I'm going to compare my measurements, to the measurements we took earlier.
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So let's get started sanding.
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I'm noticing that as I .. inserted into the powder {ww bar} measure.
I'm getting some scrape marks here.
I have to keep an eye out on that.
Because, I made the assumption that the powder bar would not be too wide for the hopper, but only too thick.
So I have to keep an eye out on that to see if I need to take some off the edge.
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It looks like I've taken off .. between one and two thousandth of an inch off the bottom.
If you look closely here, you can see where I was not paying too good of attention.
And actually started sanding the micrometer.
This part of the power bar never really goes into the powder measure.
So, it'd be okay for me to hold it further out.
Because I don't need this sanded, because as you work the powder measure,
this part really does not go all the way in.
So at this point let's see if we have a fit here.
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It is going in further. But stillll ..
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Still really tight.
Especially at the point where ... the movable part begins. That's why we've got to make sure that.
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As we sand, we need to make sure we sand this part.
Otherwise, it will stay too thick and the measure won't go in.
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Alright. We're going to take some more measurements.
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Maybe about two thousandths of an inch has been removed from this end.
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Same here.
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And actually at this point. It's more than. Make sure I've got it right.
It's more than two thousandths of an inch.
So let's take a.
Take the powder .. measure. Leave the bellcrank out of the way. And see how smoothly it goes in.
As I go in. If I'm not careful. And I misalign it. Then this edge will get caught on the {ww hopper} measure.
And again, if this is down too low or up too high as I push it, it's going to get caught on the measure.
So I just want to hold it here so it'll go in.
And let's get a feel.
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Alright. That's ..
Let's compare that to the Dillon.
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And that's very easy to work. But that doesn't mean that's where we want it.
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So this is snugger. But workable.
So if I'm installing this to .. stop a powder leakage. I'll probably stop right here.
So what I'm going to do now.
Is I want to run this across the fine grit paper.
To get. To smooth it all across.
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Now to brush it off.
Then I take a can of compressed air and spray it out. Because the last thing we want is little
bits of plastic mixed in with either the gears or our powder.
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Let's check it one more, one more time.
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Now, that's a good. That's a good fit. I going to stop here.
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So the next thing we're going to do, is install the powder bar into the powder measure.
Now that we have the Arredondo powder bar to the correct thickness.
Let's go ahead and install it into the powder measure.
If you recall. Earlier, when we were removing the Dillon powder bar. The white nut fell out.
So we'll go ahead and install it, when we install the powder bar.
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First let's push the bellcrank out of the way. Insert the powder bar.
Now remember, the part that moves. Let's keep it even with the rest of the powder bar.
Otherwise, it's going to block it going in.
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Once the groove is exposed. Let's go ahead and put the white nut in it.
And we'll raise the bellcrank.
Pushing the powder bar. What we're going to do is, drop the pin, into the opening.
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Now we want to tighten the bellcrank bolt.
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If you recall, we loosened it one full turn. So let's tighten it one full turn.
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Now, we'll remove this piece from the old powder bar. Insert it into the new.
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And we'll check operation.
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Seems to working fine. We now have our Arredondo powder bar .. properly installed in the powder measure.
So I hope this video has been useful to you. And thank you for watching.