Updates From Previous Posts

Reloading

I finally got the production run of 200 rounds of 9mm done yesterday that I wanted to do these past two Wednesday evenings, but something came up both times preventing me from loading. This past Wednesday was a late day structure fire a couple of towns away that we got called to for station coverage. Oh well, 2 more hours overtime.... CHA-CHING!! Since I was off yesterday and my plans to do a tire rotation on wifey's RAV-4 went out the window because she was going to be out, I had a few hours to myself to get my reloading done. Unlike the recent easy run of 200 .357 Magnum rounds, I ran into some issues. These have happened before and I finally solved the root cause. I then had a powder mishap with using my new Lee Pro Auto-Disk dispenser, caused by my inexperience with the newer model I recently bought. The bad news; I had to burn off a quantity of contaminated powder (what a waste) to dispose of it. The good news; I am not blind or burned, the house is still standing, and I have all my fingers. I will explain below.

The Lee Pro-1000 set up for 9mm, ready for the next tube of shells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems like I have had problems with loading 9mm before, but didn't remember the details until I got into it yesterday. As the shell plate carrier comes down on the operating lever upstroke, the primer gets seated in the primer pocket, and you can feel it seat. I occasionally did not really feel it seat and when the completed round cycled out into the bin, it seemed to have a dimpled primer in it and it was slightly sticking out. As I carefully watched the operation of the press from another angle, I discovered the problem. The resizing die and de-capping pin were out of adjustment, meaning the old primer was occasionally not being pushed all the way out of the primer pocket. Thankfully, the protruding primer prevented a new one from coming down the chute, otherwise a new primer would get crushed against the old one, probably making a loud sound. I shut off the powder, emptied the primer chute, and cleared the shell drop tube. The sizing die was removed, the de-capping pin adjustment lengthened slightly, and the die reseated on the turret plate. Running a few shells through to only resize and de-prime resulted in a 100% success rate. Those shells were put into an empty shell drop tube by themselves for the restart of production. The powder was turned on, primers reloaded in the Lee Auto Prime, and I began cranking the operating lever. There were no more hiccups and the 200 rounds were finished.

The powder mishap occurred as I was clearing the press of powder and primers. The primers always go away first, since they could be an ignition source. I remove the feed tray then clear the chute. There is no easy way to do this, but I have it down to a science. Because of the way the new powder dispenser is constructed, you can remove the hopper and leave the base in place. This allows you to change disks to increase or decrease your powder charge for a different caliber using the same powder. This is perfect for me since I use Alliant Bullseye for 9mm, .38 Special, .45 ACP, and .45 Long Colt. So I thought I would try removing the hopper and dumping the powder back into the container. When I experimented with the new dispenser the other day, I filled it and then emptied it. Once you turn off the hopper valve, you have to cycle the dispenser a few times to clear the charging disk. I did this by putting an appropriate shell in the shell carrier, and then short stroking the operating lever to move the shell into position below the charging die. I operated the lever fully to charge the shell with powder. When the shell filled with powder gets to where it would flip off into the catch bin, I carefully removed it by hand, and then dumped the powder back into the hopper. I would have to do this 3 or 4 times to get all the powder out. It seemed to work fine that way. Unfortunately, I had a total brain fart and forgot about that whole procedure. Instead I unscrewed the knurled knobs holding the powder hopper onto the base and lifted it off. Of course, powder poured out of the hopper unabated and all over the press. I twisted the hopper to "OFF" and stopped any more from pouring out. What a fucking IDIOT!! Oh it gets better... as I went to put the hopper full of powder aside, it tipped over and the cover got hooked on the side of my toolbox, popping it off and spilling an even larger quantity of powder all over the case of my vernier caliper and bench top. So as not to start a fire or blow myself up, I used a hand broom and dust pan with an aerosol duster instead of a shop vac. It took the better part of an hour to clean it all up completely. I have an old coffee can I use for bad powder, so I took it out to the gravel driveway, dumped it out, and lit it up. It made a nice bright orange flame about 2 feet high for about 3 seconds and it was all gone. I will not make that mistake again. Once everything was clean, I set the press up for a quick 100 round run of .38 Special I'll do maybe later today. That will give me 200 rounds each of all my target ammo; .45 ACP, 9mm, .38 Special, and .357 Magnum.

 

Local Fiber Installation

Well, my question of whether they were going to run the new fiber down my back country road got answered. They did.

New fiber strung and hung waiting for splicing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This pole is located at the right front corner of my property. My house is up the hill to the left. As I said in this post the other day, that ship has sailed. Frontier can just suck it if they think I would EVER go back to them. I don't care what kind of promotional rates they are offering. As with AT&T's old fiber internet and U-Verse TV, even though there are light strands on poles, doesn't necessarily mean they will put in the fiber boxes required to activate it all. Those are expensive to install and maintain, and they won't appear unless there is enough demand.

I hope they don't bother bringing it up to the pole in my driveway, because I am sure my neighbor that shares the driveway and utility pole won't be interested either.