RCBS Pro 2000 at work

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RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by horseman »

WARNING LONG BORING POST....
Spent most of the day off and on setting up the RCBS Pro 2000 auto index press. The reason I'm doing this on a Lee equipment forum will come at the end. The press comes pretty well setup from the factory, you just need to add the "peripheral" parts. Set up of case activated powder measure was easy for me because I had added that stuff to my Ammo Master presses from ago. So let's skip through the putting stuff together and get to the point. I had some problems with the APS system. My fault, but none-the-less there is a learning curve there and I'm not sure I can blame it on the instructions, or that I'm totally inept, it's just a bit "twitchy" to me. I had it apart three times (by the way, there are no "instructions" for how to do this, ain't hard but a bit unnerving cause' you don't know whats in there) to clean up my errors. No strips were damaged during my "learning curve". I will mention there are a couple really small odd shaped "shims" (I guess) under one of the plates you remove to get to the priming strips. Didn't know that. Why would I. Saw one lying in the primer track without a clue as to what it was. After looking at the two parts I had removed I was able to figure where they belonged (WAG) found the second one laying on the press base. This is something a person should be made aware of with this press cause' I can tell you for a fact, you will be in there. O.K. back together again, still had problems getting the strips to advance, back to the instructions. Finally got it figured (I hope). Normal die set up, dialed the powder charge (6.3gr Herco) for a plinker 357 mag. and 160gr. home cast bullet. Ran one at a time making sure all functions were working correctly powder, bullet seating, you guys know the drill, and to check for primer seating depth (wasn't good) and making SURE that the strips were advancing. Yes they were, phew. An important point on the primer seating stem, the priming pin just screws into the bottom of the carrier and is held there by a 7/16 nut, no adjustment to go higher.( :geek: ) There is a depth stop on the other side of the press that's adjustable for carrier travel and in the instructions it says for primer seating depth. Well that would be alright if the primer pin was to high, you could limit how close up or down the carrier comes to the frame but once you've gone to a certain point you have no more "adjustment" down. My problem was I needed the pin higher for more seating depth. It seemed to me that the pin was just to short and was going to contact RCBS for a solution. But being a curious person by nature, I pulled the pin (AGAIN) and took a really good look at it. It appears to be three pieces, the pin itself, a spring and on the bottom of the pin a chrome piece. Looking closely at the "head" it appeared to have very small cut edges on it, so figured maybe that bottom piece was threaded on. Small wrench, pliers on the bottom and turned it a few times and sure nuff' it backed out a bit. I "adjusted" it to where I was getting the primer depth I wanted (4 thou) and called it good. Wouldn't you think that RCBS would have added that little bit of information somewhere. I wonder how many owners had this same issue and called or just decided the priming system was junk and primed another way. I was a bit miffed, but glad I was able to find that little glimmer of light. Other than that everything else was pretty uneventful. Only ran 25 rounds (one primer strip, didn't want to press my luck, no pun intended) Think I've about got it figured out. Nice press, big, strong, smooth, quality is there for sure. Has an interesting indexing design to me, but works really well. Typical great Uniflow powder measure nothing new there. All in all I'd give it an 8 at this point simply because of the priming problems I had (maybe still have, we'll see) I wanted this press BECAUSE of the APS priming. But right now it seems a bit "touchy"........now, why this fits here is because at this point, and this could change as I get more "comfortable" with this press but I'm not so sure I prefer it over the LM's I have. May sound strange to some, but my LM's are running really great and I can guarantee they're less complicated than the Pro 2000. We'll see how it goes after a couple thousand rounds....but for now the Load Master's are staying where they are.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by Ranch Dog »

Well I made it through without a problem! I went over to MidwayUSA to see how it compares money wise to the Load-Master... yikes! You would think it would be right, tested at assembly (primers stuff), and ready to roll!

As a note, MidwayUSA has all the Load-Masters on sale but the only one left is the base press without the extras. Still, it's $148.

So much field work going on this past week I haven't been able to get back to the the assembly of my last LM, the one that I use for the 9mm Luger & Makarov. Farming is done, it's Sunday, and I have the new carrier I had order from Titan. This is the press that was so problematic for me. I personally think I have it figured out but if it doesn't want to play nice. I will order the above mentioned press to replace it and use the one I have for spare parts.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by daboone »

Nice to see an Honest review. Thanks for the " long and boring" report. Here is another one. ;)

Many years ago I was given an old 550. I played with it for awhile but ended up giving it to my oldest son. I just didn't need a progressive at that time.

After that I have owned 2 LM. The first one I spent an untold number of hours tweaking. It was actually pumping out straight walled cases fairly well but needed constant fiddling. The last one got the Magic Mike treatment. It was working pretty well but still just produced to many flipped, sideways primers. To be honest I really enjoyed messing around with the LM. I read everything posted on the LMZone site about it. Tried most of the tweaks and fiddled out some of my own. About that time my son returned the old 550 with several additional parts. He had it refurbished. But his family life and work didn't make reloading a possibility.

I don't think I would have ever bought a RL550. But I must admit it works almost as well as advertised and as the all too frequent bragging seen on many other sites. Is it as perfect as all those claims? No. It like any press it requires regular maintenance and cleaning. In fact the depriming residue fouls the primer system in short order. So I now deprime and clean cases before loading. That cleaning with SS pins causes the problems for the 550 too. The Dillon powder funnel/expander sticks in the case mouth flinging power out of the case on exiting the funnel. The lee and NOE powder thru expanders just simply do a better job.
Another thing about the 550 is it is not as fast as the LM is. It's is not progressive like the LM. It requires manually advancing the shellplate. For me that isn't a big deal as I rarely load more than 300 at a time. For me, I've got it so I use it. Just be sure to understand everything about the 550 is way more expensive than the LM. I thank the man who gave it to me and my son for all the extras. On the other hand I use and enjoy it a lot more than than the time spent tweaking (actually cleaning) it.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by Ranch Dog »

Two good reviews!
Ranch Dog wrote:So much field work going on this past week I haven't been able to get back to the the assembly of my last LM, the one that I use for the 9mm Luger & Makarov. Farming is done, it's Sunday, and I have the new carrier I had order from Titan. This is the press that was so problematic for me. I personally think I have it figured out but if it doesn't want to play nice. I will order the above mentioned press to replace it and use the one I have for spare parts.
Went out and got started on the 9mm Load-Master but hit a snag right away as I didn't think about the new carrier needing the Primer Rocker Arm, Bolt, & Spring from the carrier that was modified by Mike. Bummer, off to Titan...

Of course priming is a big deal but I been working on everything else and the press is going together very well and as slick as the others. One of the big things that might help is that I'm no longer depriming on the presses, the interior of all three carriers and rams were nasty. Also, there is no doubt that that beveling the primer pockets is HUGE. I've done several short runs of 32 & 45 Auto over the last several weeks and not a single priming issue. I did buy a new bullet feeder for the 32 Auto as it has a "lean" set in it that I just can't tweak out. The original feeder is very old back to the '90s when I started on these things and maybe stuff just wears out. Will put the new feeder on today. Concerning the bullet feeders, that silly two armed spring is HUGE in correcting the issues with the feeders. It has made them slick as a whistle.
daboone wrote:That cleaning with SS pins causes the problems for the 550 too. The Dillon powder funnel/expander sticks in the case mouth flinging power out of the case on exiting the funnel. The lee and NOE powder thru expanders just simply do a better job.
I've been pondering this a bit in that I will be starting the SS pin treatment is week on all my brass. I think I'm going to mix Turtle Zip Wash/Wax with water in a short after rinse run of a few minutes without the pins before I put the brass in the dryer. This should put a slick finish on the brass.

One problem here on the ranch is that after using a piece of farm equipment and cleaning it for storage, there is a terrible rust issue here on the Gulf Coast. The steel stuff like disc blades/pans, planters, fertilizer broadcaster are cleaner as they are working than after six months of storage. I've tried all kinds of stuff that other guys say they are using, even corn oil, and nothing has stopped the corrosion. I was really concerned about the planter I imported from China in that it has a lot of small parts in the seed and fertilizer meters. My dad suggested that after I get it all washed up, just spray it with the recommended mix of water & Turtle Zip Wash/Wax and give it a quick rinse. It has worked. The equipment is a clean as when I put it away. I can throw a towel on the fertilizer chutes of the planter and it will slide right off six months after the wash.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by daboone »

Turtle Zip Wash/Wax is now on my shopping list. I've been using Armor All Wash and Wax.

For the tools I moved to Sugar Land TX I've been using Hornady's Extreme Lube. It also really work great but is far more expensive that a wash-n-wax. Thanks for the Turtle Zip Wash/Wax tip.
An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.

When setting a job up for myself it must be Idiot Proof as well, as I am a bigger idiot than most people I know, and I prove it to myself everyday.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by horseman »

That's a very interesting post RD. What a great idea, I would never have thought of that. What is the "mix" ratios for the wax and water. We don't have quite the rust and corrosion problems that "Coasties" have but we do get rain and snow and we all know if metal gets wet it will rust.

And tell your Dad thanks from me also....
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

I've been using the Armorall wash and wax for about 2 months now in place of the Dawn, still use the Lemishine. Been pleased with the results so far. I just use it with the pins and find the rinse is quicker than getting the Dawn out/off.

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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by Ranch Dog »

Horseman wrote:That's a very interesting post RD. What a great idea, I would never have thought of that. What is the "mix" ratios for the wax and water. We don't have quite the rust and corrosion problems that "Coasties" have but we do get rain and snow and we all know if metal gets wet it will rust.

And tell your Dad thanks from me also....
I will tell him!

Another thing he suggested was using a garden fertilizer sprayer we had, the kind you pour the unmixed solution in. We had two, one fixed (the pictured unit) and one that was adjustable by the ounce/gallon. We tested the output of the fixed spray, wax used and water delivered, and it was pretty much on the "one ounce per bucket". I assume the "bucket" mentioned in the instruction is the typical 2 gallon mop pail.
wax_sprayer.jpg
With the tumbler, based on what O3W's had to say, just use it with the pins at the ½ ounce/gallon. Not much but it doesn't need to be.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by horseman »

I'm going to have to give that a try RD. Although the rust issue isn't really bad around here, I try to keep my equipment under cover as best I can, but there is still the fact that some things just get put away wet.

A bit more info on the RCBS Pro 2000. I've been loading some 9mm with it and to be perfectly honest I'm really not all that impressed. I was having trouble with the case lining up with the size die (RCBS dies) had to make sure the case was inserted firmly ALL the way in the shell plate all other stations were fine. I seem to have eliminated this issue by installing a set of Lee dies in place of the RCBS. I didn't even remember having those dies. The radius on the Lee sizing die fixed the issue, I find that very interesting..No problems with the APS system this time, but the case holders don't hold the case tight enough in the shell plate that on occasion the case doesn't quite line up with the primer, just a touch with your finger fixes that, but still a bother and I did not have this problem with the 357 brass, larger rim I'd assume. I may try to "bend" the case holder a little at this station to hold the case "tighter" in the shell plate. This is not a problem at any other station. There also seems to be more "slop" in the die plate on this press compared to the LM. Not sure how I like that, but the OAL on the rounds I did were all good, so...not sure if it's a worry or not. The Uniflow measure is rock solid (after I cleaned it) but the way the case activation (same as Hornady) operates with the "full swing" of the rotor is really, well, the best way to describe it is.. "clunky". I had the same set up on my old Ammomaster presses so I know every thing is correctly set up. I didn't fully appreciate really how smooth and un-annoying the Lee measures are. These "annoyances' are really not a big deal, and the press is a very solid, stout unit, and so far seems to do what it's supposed to. However, if you have a Load Master that will run at 99.9% I'm going out on a limb here and say IMO it's a more pleasant press to operate than the RCBS is. Not sure where I'm going with this press, keeping the box for sure. I'm going to set up a LM tomorrow and do a comparison. I do believe if you wanted to progressively reload rifle calibers (larger than 223) the RCBS would probably be a better choice but pistol calibers, ehhhh, not so sure.
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Re: RCBS Pro 2000 at work

Post by Ranch Dog »

Thanks for the comparison and "good reloading"; hopefully, it will work out.

The last two days have been all about the ranch so no lever time on my presses.
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