You have to be a Team member for that to work. If nobody links it, I will when I get home.

Now I see, said the blind man,

The arm device is flipping the cases into the funnel to get them upside down,

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Z7ObAWK_9QU[/youtube]

edgephoto, Very good observations on the differences of the two machines, but did kind of miss the mark of running the machines for say 1K rounds per batches instead.

The Plus-Marks you gave on the Hornady machine, turn into negatives really quick on higher numbers of batch  loadings instead.

With the hornady priming system, lacks a releif channel to allow powder fouling in the slider feed chute to self clear, so you get powder build up between the end of the slide and end of channel, and this leads to priming problems; until you pull the shell plate to clean the fouling.  So your kind of right on  the way you attached the Hornady shell plate being faster (Adding in a split washer so the nut holds is position helps so you don't have to keep tighting it back up), since you going to be pulling the shell plate during the batch runs to clean the primer slider track.

What I will give a thumbs up on the Hornady, is the powder dispenser system, and light years better than the unit on the Dillon machine instead.  Hence to get the best throws with a powder dispenser, you really want to be throwing spherical powder. With the Dillon unit, it's migration central unless you fit the dispensor with a tigher fitting charge bar like the Arredondo unit instead.

Truth is, the Arredondo bar itself costs at mush as an entire Lee powder dispensers with Micrometer charge bar, and since you have to do fitting either way, the lee unit for spherical powder just works out better on the Dillion machine for dedicated dispensers on each tool head instead.

As for caliber conversion costs, here too with a case feeder in play, the Hornady is much cheaper to convert, but take more time setting it up each caliber conversion instead

Myself, when I have a machine set up, I do runs of between 1K~3k, before the machine is converted over for the next caliber.  
Like many, the cheaper inital costs of the AP drew me to it, but it took a lot of mods before that machine would run correctly for those amounts of counts.  The Mod'd machine was sold to a friend that just had to have one (did not feel like moding another for him and why he got my mod'd machine instead), and I moved onto a 650 instead.  The 650 was used for a few year, but since it did not swage primer pockets and I wanted to move up to a machine with a drive, it too was sold, and how I ended up with a 1050 isntead.

So where I really see the AP being a great machine, if for someone that is not going to use a Case feeder isntead. Once you need a case feeder on the machine/trying to reload a lot of rounds quickly, then here is where the  650 that outshines the AP; flaws and all.

That makes two of us.
I would have made a comment if it did happen.
I have neither of these presses, so I haven't posted until now as I had nothing to add.
Since this has become a very good comparison thread, I'm going to set the archive toggle to keep this thread out of the archives.
When this thread eventually slips off page 1 edgephoto can click on My Topics in this forum and this thread will be there so you can quickly go to it.

Going to sling powder out of a 9mm case on the index.  So the mod here is a lighter detent spring, softer mylar index ball, and adjusting the machine so it pawl so it indexes the shell plate all the way to the next position (isntead of the barrel snapping the shell plate over the last of the way).

Next is the lack of feel of when you are seating a primer.  Hence you have the blunt end of the cam pin down the greased ramp block friction that you feel more than the primer  entering and seating into the primer pocket.  So by going to a ball bearing end cam pin that now glides down the ramp block as you are handling all the way back to seat a primer, all you feel is the primer and how it entering the primer pocket and seating instead.  Truth is, when loading on a 650, I did such sitting down, so ball handle worked better than a roller handle for reloading sitting down, with the ball handle given even better feel feed back of what the primer was doing at priming too.

Other mods are just added frosting on the cake.

Yes, but once you have the index spring tension reduced and the mylar ball in place, they are not going to snapping the shell plate the last of the way in place isntead.

So as you are adjusting the index block, index the shell plate a few position via the handle ,and pay close attention that the shell plate U slots  are ending up centered on the primer ram.  Hence not over indexed, or under indexed, but the U slot of the shell holder dead center on the primer ram.

In this photo, you can see that the index block is over indexing the shell plate and the U slot is no longer centered on the primer ram .


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As for the alignment tool that, just aligns the entire sub plate on the ram to the tool plate above it to begin with, and is really used if at any point the sub plate has been removed from the ram. What is not going to do is adjust the index block so it centers the slot on the primer ram instead.

When loading 223 on a Dillon using ball powder, it helps if you pause for 1-2 seconds at the bottom of the press stroke to allow for the powder to flow into that tiny 22 caliber neck.

That should help.