Serial Number 2336. I drove down to Spolar on Friday and picked it up. 100 rounds so far, and they all went Bang! I am a newbie to reloading and I am so glad I bought their Troubleshooting DVD and watched it before setting it up. The first thing I managed to do was get piece of shot between the press plate hubs which prevents the primer from pressing in all the way...which then prevents the handle from moving the die-retaining plate...I would have never figured out why it wouldn't move so quickly without that DVD.

 

#1903 since 9/2006. Probably about 15,000 reloads in 20, 28 and 16 gauge. No maintenance problems.
TerryS

 

#563 purchased 12-28-98. I have probably loaded 175,000 - 200,000 rounds between 12,20,28, and 410.

I had the charge bar linkage replaced a few years ago. I was having some problems with the vibrator and sent a bunch of parts back to Carter and told him to replace what was out of spec. I got a totally different charge bar linkage back that solved all of the failure to vibrate issues I was having.

I had to replace one spring on the lever you move to keep the machine from indexing.

Stripped powder tube threads. May have been due to just having a 3/4" plywood bench that allowed too much vibration.

All in All if something happened to mine today, I would buy another one tomorrow.

 

#1896, since 08-2007, 30,000 + 12. ga. trap rounds loaded.

I bent a shell post at station one because I was not paying attention, and bought a new one.

I have replaced wad fingers twice, at 15000, and 30000 shells.

Best investment I ever made.

tips? I use powdered graphite on the primer tray, in lieu of the suggested Hornady one shot dry lube, and i stopped using the purple lube on the die cleaning brush mop; it makes my hulls dirty. I keep a can of "dust-off" (canned air) AND an air compressor hose with blower switch handy.....

Buy their cover for the machine; looks classy and works very well. Also, it fits properly, and is very durable.

buy the hydro unit; this machine is much more efficient with it, than without it; and reloading in bulk no longer becomes a chore. I followed their suggestion to load a few hundred hulls manually, before I hooked up the hydro, and I am glad I did that.

I'm also really, really, glad, that I DID get the hydro. It was worth it.
I had to rebuild my bench to handle the torque, but that was worth it too!

One end of the bench has the Spolar with hydro unit underneath, and the other end has a Dillon XL650 with 6 calibers. Good stuff on both ends.

I had the Dillon SL900 for a year and a half, and made the mistake of watching Carter load at the 06 Cal. State shoot. Took me a while to arrange the money (sold my damn gun!) but in the end, I got the complete loader and hydro, and a DT-10 to replace the BT-99+.

Good luck to you. Dicksie knows more tips and tricks than all of the owners combined, by the way.....and Carter has forgotten more about his machine than most people know. (the guy is a damn genius!)

JohnJohn

 

Thanks for the info johnjohn. Questions...if not the purple lube, what are you using on the mop? I've tried Tri-Flow, but it's a little oily on the hulls, even when used sparingly. How about the charge bar? Have you used the mysterious white powder? Someone else suggested that graphite works better on the charge bar. Or do you think it is necessary to lube it at all?

I've only got 6000+ through mine now, but I'm really enthused. I didn't think it really got any better than a finely-tuned PW, but the Spolar is definitely a step up.

BTW, I found I couldn't really talk to Carter....only listen. He talked over me constantly and didn't really seem interested in anything I had to say or ask. Dicksie is a pleasure.

 

I have #0318 and bought it used about 3 years ago. The original owner only had the 28 and 410 dies for it and had to have a friend come over to switch gauges. Very mechanically handicapped if he could not do it himself. I have added 20 ga and 12 ga since then. I have loaded around 60,000 round since I got it.

I had a few issues with mine but fixed them myself. I could not get the vibrator to cycle and finally glued a small piece of hard felt to the button to extend it. I also put a bolt through the linkage instead of the quick remove thing. I rarely use any of the lub on the mops. I understand what you said about Carter. I had the same situation when I discussed the 28 ga AA hs hulls with him. I found the solution but the problem was never the machine, just issues with the length of the hulls. This was early on when they made the short ones.

I buy my wad fingers from Hornady direct and always have a few extra of each gauge on hand just in case.

I don't follow their advice to break the machine down and clean any powder and shot if you get a spill. I keep going until there is a jam in the primer chute (occurs near the outlet) and reach in and use the primers to clear it. Saves time when I am loading.

I also use powdered grafite like JohnJohn and I also use it on my charge bar. I use WC820, a military surplus powder, when loading the 410 and I can go longer without cleaning the bar when loading. This powder is very fine and migrates a lot. Not a problem if you don't have any because you can't find it anymore. I have mine mounted with a baking pan under it to catch any stray powder or shot.

I have a Mec Grabber in 12 ga, a Dillon 550 and a Bonanza Coax on the same bench.

I have been toying with buying an electric motor from PW to run my spolar. I don't find it a big chore to do it by hand but the additional speed I hear would be nice.

 

Deleted by Lester

 

Thanks for the input Lester. I didn't buy the hydraulics with my Spolar because I had previously owned a MEC 9000 with that system. As you say, way too loud. As for the Auto-Mate, I have retained a MEC attached to one and it is far superior in every way to the hydraulic system. I highly recommend them for MEC users. I haven't heard of one being adapted to Spolar or PW though.

Unless you have shoulder problems or some other physical disability, I can't really see the advantage to the hydraulics on a Spolar, unless it is for extremely high-volume reloading. I shoot 500-1000 shells a week and definitely don't need any more speed than I have using the loader manually. A couple of short loading sessions weekly and I have more shells than I care to shoot. The effort required on the handle is much, much less than that on most MEC's and somewhat lower than that on my PW's.

I'd be interested in what problems you have encountered with your primer feed. Mine has been perfect so far.

 

PW makes an electric drive for PW, Hornady, and Spolar. I have only used the one for a PW, and it works excellent. It is really quite.

 

deleted by Lester

 

Lester Take a quick look and make sure what you have is a Spolar 'cause I haven't experienced ANY of the problems you discribe. But then I've only loaded about 180,000 12,20,28 & 410s on mine. Mine doesn't have a light on it but the last time I looked the average hight of most folks in the country is well under 6'4" so that could explain the light placement. Just because the cheapy Cheddite folks decided to put their primers out in a ******* size container don't expect the world to react. Think the "jigler" is loud? Try loading on a Dillon with the shell feeder! News flash!!! Solvents and lubricants usually have an OFF odor. :shock: The real secret to a perfecly running Spolar is cleanliness, and understanding of mechanics of the machine and experience using it. Maybe you're just a MEC guy. We all know they are so much less work. :roll: Ric

 

#2157 Got my gold beast in mid december 2008 and have loaded 25K shells to date. I have had no problem except for some crap getting in the primer rail, had to stop and clean it really well. I LOVE that reloader!!!! I would not own another mec9000h if it was given to me!!! I had Nothing but problems with primer system. I am getting ready to get another Spolar because my daughter wants to start shooting sub ga sporting clays and i like having reloaders setup and not have to change tool heads. At the other end of the bench I have a Dillon Super 1050 with KISS bullet feeder and waiting for the PW motor to show up!

One quick note, that 1050 with case feeder and bullet feeder sounds like a John Deer tractor in the room running! I am going to run the Hydro unit hoses into the garage for a little less noise.... :shock:

 

Marks. Trust me the gage change is very quick and repeatability of the loads is astounding. The changeover is also a great time to do a little cleaning and preventive maintenance. Save your money and just get the additional gage set. Ric

 

Marks,
As Ric said, changing gauges is really easy and fast. I do load a lot of shells once I change so I am not just loading a small quantity. As far as cleaning the primer chute, I do it with a primer. It always gets something right down and the end of the chute and I hold the lever part way and reach in and force a primer throught and go back to loading. It takes less time to clean it that way than it took to type it.

And I have never had the problems that were enumerated earlier. Or at least I dont object to the vibrator and dont have the primer detector and never thougth I needed it. Just glance up occasionally and see the level of the primers in the chute. And I thought the same thing that Ric did regarding the Cheddite oversized trays. Contact Cheddite and tell them to get their act together, the don't fit in any primer tray. You end up with one screw up company coming out with a ba$tard sized tray and everyone is supposed to redo their equipment? Buy Fiocchi, their tray is fine.

 

I was scanning through some of the older Spolar treads today and came across this one asking about age and serial number. I have unit #0034 ( there is a picture of it on the reloader rooms page on Spolar's web site). A friend of our family passed it down to the wife and I about 8 years ago when he stopped shooting due to health reasons.
When we received it, the unit was bone stock, and he had loaded about 50,000 rounds on it. I then did a complete cleaning and called Dicksie @ Spolar. I replaced any parts that have been updated over the years like the primer feed assembly and a few other minor items. We also added a 28 and .410 gauge head as we shoot a lot of small gauge events. I then took the hydro unit off of my old PW and installed that. The unit today has well over 100,000 rounds through it and it is as tight and clean as a brand new unit.

 

Using graphite is way too messy,just clean your charge bar with Hornady One Shot spray and put
some of the powdered lube on the top of the charge bar,only as Spolar recommends,also spray the
primer tract with the one shot and blow it dry,works wonders.

 

I have #2698, which I got the end of September 2012. I have about 15,000 rounds through it, and am totally happy with it. My biggest problem, which has been corrected with the updated primer stem and cup, was the tipping of primers in the cup when they were picked up and dropped from the primer feed rail. Some posters on the thread I started telling about the new update claimed the problem was because of dirt. It happened from day one, when the press was clean as a whistle, and stopped with the installation of the new cup and bolt system. The only other gripe was that the primer tray is not wide enough to use Cheddite primers as they come packaged, unless you come up with a fix. Mine was to use a thin sheet of aluminum about 6" long, and about 1/4" narrower than the tray. I slip it in the top side of the Cheddite tray, flip the tray over and push the aluminum sheet into the primer feed tray about 3/4". Then, just start the tray out of the sleeve enough to where you can push down on the plastic tray hard enough with your left thumb that when you push the other end of the plastic tray with your right thumb, both will slide into the primer feed tray. When the plastic tray is all the way into the primer tray, slide the aluminum sheet out and lift the plastic tray off. You can load the primer feed tray full doing this, and is a lot easier than I just made it sound. I have talked to Dicksie about this, and she is adamant about not widening the tray. It is her opinion that Cheddite should change. Keep the press clean and lubed, and it should outlast you. Also, it does not wiggle and dance around like some other presses I could name.

 

Dirt and or adjustment on the primer adjustment rod can cause this problem of feeding,if you have this primer feeding problem,then how come us older # owners don't have it? as for the cheddite primer
case being the metric sized boxes,if you start the cheddite tray against the feed tray and pull a little
bit of the plastic ,with the primers in them out about !/2",and then pull fast on the tray,usually most of the primers will stand straight up,sometime's you might get about 3 or so that won't,although your
aluminum set up would probably work?

 

creeker, I have no answer as to why you "older # users" aren't having the tipped primer problem. Good for you. Any local owners I have talked to are unanimous in having tipped primers. As I said in my previous thread, I had tips from day one, when the machine was straight out of the box, still clean and in factory adjustment. If yours does start to go bad, remember the upgrade. Until then, load happily.

 

I have one older Spolar and one newer one. Both are great. To solve the primer tipping problem I put a big glop of grease on the "button" on the base of the loader where the primer arm makes contact. It cushions the metal to metal contact and solves 98% of tipping for me. (This is not necessary on my newer machine.)

creeker, I have no answer as to why you "older # users" aren't having the tipped primer problem. Good for you. Any local owners I have talked to are unanimous in having tipped primers. As I said in my previous thread, I had tips from day one, when the machine was straight out of the box, still clean and in factory adjustment. If yours does start to go bad, remember the upgrade. Until then, load happily.

 

I guess I just didn't think of this when I mentioned before about my thoughts on the tipping being a result of a dirty press. If there was not a mechanical problem, why did Spolar come out with an upgrade instead of just telling people to clean things up. With everything being the same, except for the upgrade, the problem went away. Sorry for hijacking the thread, kinda.

 

I don't know why,Spolar has upgraded,things on parts including the primer shaft and going to washer
seals and ball check tension on the shot bottle,the earlier machines did not have this.As far as foothills
posting goes,I have the same set up,old and new,I do agree with Spolar,on using Hornady One Shot,
it is a dry lube and works just super,a lot of Spolar users will attest to that.As far as using graphite
or grease, forget it.I pull the primer shaft out of the machine,and spray one shot,down in the channel
where the primer shaft slides and blow it dry,I do the same on the primer assembly,also the charge
bar,it makes these parts,move extremely easy.

 

I don't know what # mine is but it has had about 15 tons of shot that has went through it.

ALSO I MADE A COVER THAT GOES OVER THE PRIMER SLIDE, WHICH KEEPS ANY SHOT OUT. I MADE IT OUT OF A PRIMER BOX AND ATTACHED IT WITH TAPE, NO MORE SHOT IN SLIDE.

If some one will post picture for me I can send it to a phone, if anyone is interested.

Allen