Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Do presses wear out?

As the title states do reloading presses wear out? I've been noticing my old Hornady 007 press seams loose and has some wobble to it. Can that have a negative impact on the shells I load?

I've had my RCBS Junior press since around 1965, and it is still working great. I do use a little light oil on the moving parts and keep them clean.

I'll be interested in what the gun writers say, since they use theirs a Lot more than most folks.

I've got a Pacific Power C and an RCBS Junior from the late '60s and they're still going strong. Maybe its care and feeding.

I have seen cast press' rusted, neglected, and broken, but I have never seen any "worn out".
I have seen a couple of alloy press' that a local shooter stuffed, the linkages came apart when he kept full length sizing in them, I sold him a Redding press and he has not had any problems since...I steer clear of alloy press'.

Being left in the back shed and dropped on concrete seems to be the biggest problems.

I know one guy, has shot competition every weekend there is a match except Indy 500 weekend, for way more years than us.

He claims that FL sizing 06 cases years ago, his press "sprung" on him and was loading shells non concentric RE sizing the cases.

I've nevery fathomed how that could be, but hsi word. Bought a new Rockchucker and his scores went way up to the High Master level he was shooting before this happened...

I'd be scared to know how many rounds went through that press though. 1-2 matches a weekend plus practice, since the early 80s... 88 rounds per match typically... 52 weekends a year....

Bought an RCBS JR press in 1973 (used Dad's press before that)


A cupple years ago it was starting to "skreech" a little.
I took the ram out and lubed it(for the first time)with case lube. Been running fine ever 'sence.

Been hoping the press will wear out, so I have an excuse to buy a Rock Chucker! (grin!)

Virgil B.

Ive got an old Bair "C" press, built shortly after the bronze age...still use it occasionally and it still works better than I do....

I have an RCBS press given to me in 1958 by Joyce Hornady. It was used by him on the bench back of his desk. I have never had any other press. It has loaded thousands of rifle and handgun rounds and still works perfectly.

Sask Hunter;
I trust that other than some loose reloading machinery that this finds you well on the first Saturday of July.

If I may I'll address a couple potential wear areas on a press separately - and I'll only address single stage presses, either C or D type frames.

Also, as mentioned previously I've got an educated hunch that aluminum alloy framed presses would not apply to anything I'm about to write. In my opinion there are a whole lot of good uses for aluminum, but a reloading press frame isn't remotely one of them.

Before going further I've got to be clear in saying that the examples I'll give come from industrial equipment used in our cabinet shop - arbor presses and then cast iron guides on various other horizontal panel saws, cnc's and gang drills.

So on a press the two main movement areas are the ram itself moving up and down in the cast iron body of the press and then the pivot pins and operating lever at the bottom of the ram and their mounting points half way up the press.

This is of course a compound leverage press and not a Bonanza type or an older style with the leverage pins in the ram itself.

To my mind there is much more force and repeated strain put on the pins and the leverage arms than on the ram itself as it's motion remains lineal.

Typically in woodworking machinery, unless one gets some abrasive debris into the wear areas a cast iron bearing surface running on semi hardened steel will run a fairly long time if kept clean and lubricated.

That said it can and will wear out one or both surfaces which is why the "endless ball pack" type of bearings were developed. You see them now on the arms of sliding compound miter saws.

The leverage arms and the pins that they pivot on could theoretically wear out I'd think, depending upon what they are made out of and again how much debris and what type of debris it was subjected to.

As long as the ram doesn't have noticeable - say 1mm+ - play in it and it is still able to repeatedly go to the same position when topped out, I can't see any harm in continuing using it.

Sorry about the long winded answer sir, hopefully it made at least some sense to you or someone else out there.

Regards,
Dwayne

PS;
I've been reloading since '81 and am on my 3rd press now - an older Rock Chucker. The only reason I switched is that the compound leverage presses are easier on the bench and the reloader with bigger cases.

None of my RCBS cast framed presses showed any signs of wear when I changed them out.

I don't think they will wear out in one man's lifetime but some can be damaged.

I sprung my first press back in 1977 or so, it was a Lyman C press. At least that's what I figure happened. A friend had a custom .300 WM with a very generous chamber, trying to FL size his cases took all your might on the handle even with a generous dab of lube. Immediately after that batch it wouldn't size any other case without a ton of effort so something happened to it.

Replaced that with an RCBS Reloader Special (RS) in 1978, that's been my only single stage press in all the intervening years and it's still going strong.

Yep, they almost never wear out but they can be sprung or broken.

My first press was a Herter's, purchased new in 1974. Got it cheap because they were discontinuing it. After a few years a major linkage part broke and couldn't be replaced. So I bought a new RCBS press and used it until maybe 5 years ago, when I switched to a Redding T7. Gave the RCBS to Dober for a kid he knows, and evidently it's still working.

Everything wears out but presses if you care for them last a long time. I have a RCBS Rockchucker. I've used it since December 1973 and I clean and lube it a couple times a year. Use a little Hoppes and some Mobil 1 on it. It has probably loaded well over 30,000 rounds.

Yeah, a quality press will last a long time with reasonable care. I must have loaded at least 30,000 rounds on my T7, and it's still as tight as when it arrived, almost a decade ago.

I can't say that I have ever seen one wear out. I have two that have been going for over 25 years, one is a Herters cast iron press I bought used. The other is one of the Lee aluminum presses, the linkage has some slop, but the ram is fine. I could not say how may thousands of rounds that press has loaded. 300 H&H down to 38 specials. Still going strong.

Never wore out a single stage, still have my first one. But back in the late seventies and early eighties I was shooting a huge amount of 45s. I bought a jet precision progressive loader from somewhere down in texas. After about 4years of reloading I had to send it back and have it rebuilt and it lasted about another 2yrs and I quit shooting as much. Put it in a box and it is still there. Don't shoot enough pistol that I cant reload with a single stage.

I've been reloading since about 1951. Started with a Krupp-American press I used for years. It was the same casting as all the Herter's line of presses and all parts were virtually identical, except for the shellholders and their attachments. In the early 60's a friend had a dollar problem and offered me his Rock Chucker for pennies. I'm still using that press, along with several others, including a Lyman Orange Crusher and a Lee O press I used to reload at the range.

Along the way I got into checking concentricity of the presses, particularly the rams and the shellholder points of attachment, after reading an article about how important that was. Made sense to me at the time so checked all that. That's how I acquired the Lyman as it was inherently more concentric than the others. During that chase in the early 90's I became convinced concentricity had more to do with reloader's technique than most anything else, at which point I went to the Forster Coax. I sold that old Krupp-American to a collector who worked at Brownell's with whom I became friendly, back in the '90's. Still have a receipt for that entire outfit from Krupp-American that gave me the press, dies, shell holders, powder measure and scale, for $26!!!

None of my presses have 'worn' out. I lube the pivots with moly lube regularly and wipe and re-oil the rams, which collect the most abrasives during the reloading process from the depriming. I have no way of estimating the number or rounds I've reloaded but at one period in the 90's I was shooting 6 days a week and reloading not only for my guns but for those of a rifle builder whose rifles I was test firing and developing loads. Without calculation I would guesstimate I've reloaded over well 100,000 rounds in my life.

I think you'd have to severely mistreat any press to make it none functional.

The main pin on the linkage seams sloppy to me. There is some wobble there as well.

It was just a thought I doubt the press is completely worn out, I think I'm just looking for a reason to get a new press.

You dont need a reason to get a new press...Ive got three of them bolted to my bench in what we call a " North Dakota Progressive" style....

Presses are like any other piece of equipment, parts wear and some things requirement replacement over time. Linkages typically are the weak part. Generally speaking, they are thinner and mechanically, feel the most flex (stress). They should be watched - especially if you shoot matches. Regardless of what discipline(s) you shoot, everything should be tight.

Every reloader should make sure that their dies are properly set up. Rifle reloaders, or anyone that is NOT using carbide dies, should ensure cases are properly lubed. But not too much! Carbide die users should make sure that their brass is clean. This will reduce wear and keep the press working longer.

Keep the press clean and lightly lubed. Keep the cases clean. Keep the dies clean. After you're finished, wipe things down and remove excess lube that will trap dust and dirt.

Too much hand pressure on the press handle when resizing usually means there's something out of alignment or improperly adjusted. Stressing the handle, and subsequently, the linkage, is the leading cause for premature press failure and out of tolerance cartridge assembly.

It doesn't matter who makes your press or your dies, a little maintenance and attention to detail goes a long way. I've got a Lee 2001 press that has never broken. It now does duty with a universal deprimer die because the linkage is old and is getting sloppy after 30 some years.

What ingwe does is very smart. Even handgunners would be better off using several dedicated single stage presses rather than one progressive. Briefly, the linkage isn't constantly being stressed. Individual operations are tighter with a dedicated press. If one press fails, you're not stuck.

For non-critical steps like depriming, an inexpensive press is a great addition to your bench.

It's not about the name or the amount of money you spend on reloading equipment that matters. Take care of your toys!!

I started out reloading in the '60's with one of those big ole Herter presses. I later traded it off and got an RCBS Jr. I've since had two Rockchuckers, gave one to a good bud to get him started reloading. My son has the RCBS Jr.

I now run two, a Redding Big Boss II with the tube primer collection system for de-priming/sizing and a Rockchucker for seating. I use a bench mounted RCBS priming tool.

I also had a Herter scale, long since gone. My current scale is a 10-10 RCBS.

Because presses don't wear out easily, good deals in used equipment can sometimes be found on EBay. With RCBS, if there's a problem, their CS dept. will fix it. So, it's hard to go wrong.

DF