I have a mix of die mostly with Hornady lock rings. But I also have Forster, RCBS, and Dillon rings.

I found any crescent wrench will work on my Hornady LNL press. Seems like there is plenty of room between die. For my Dillon 1050, die seemed spaced closer. It's hard to get a crescent wrench in between them. I don't want to buy a tool head for every caliber. I plan on using lock rings for the die and just taking them off the head.

Recommend me a good wrench? The jaws of a standard crescent wrench are too wide to fit between die.

Hornady makes a die wrench that works well.

http://www.hornady.com/store/Die-Wrench-Deluxe/

ETA: for Hornady lock rings, that is.

Perhaps I need to convert to only Hornady rings. ;) I do like them. I wonder how well it will work on a Dillon 1050.  Seems like nice thin jaws.

I don't know what the clearance is on a 1050, but the dies are pretty tight on my LNL-AP, and the thin oval jaw fits nicely in between stations.  I use Hornady lock rings with the quick change adapters, and use the wrench to seat my dies in place and "unlock" them when changing calibers, and I can even get the wrench in to unlock the dies around my powder measure, so I would think the dies would have to be on top of each other on your 1050 for that wrench to be too large.

Thanks. I will give it a try.

Yeah but its $25.00 + shipping.........I want to modify something to work......I guess I will go to HF and buy some cheap wrenches and grind 'em down.   Any better ideas? if so email me.....

Good point..  post ideas here for all of us though.

Yeah but its $25.00 + shipping.........I want to modify something to work......I guess I will go to HF and buy some cheap wrenches and grind 'em down.   Any better ideas? if so email me.....

Sir, FWIW I have a 650 and a 550 but not a 1050 so please forgive me if I assume the die proximity of the 1050 is similar to the two presses I have.  I too have concerns about the tightness of the lock rings on the Dillon presses and generally use a twelve inch crescent wrench to tighten the sizing die when the other dies are not yet installed.  With the one inch lock rings common to Dillon dies mostly I've found the Dillon wrench adequate for the purpose but certainly not capable of getting the lock rings as tight as with the crescent wrench.  For the most part the other dies lock rings don't need to be as tight as the sizing die ring my experience.  I do check occasionally while reloading to ensure the other lock rings remain tight.  It usually requires me to remove one or both of the tool head pins to do so.  I have a one inch open end wrench that I've considered grinding down to fit but have never actually done so.  HTH, 7zero1.

Dillon makes a wrench specifically for this operation.

I can also say that adjustable wrenches are not all designed the same.  I have an adjustable by ChanneLock whose jaws are much more tapered than the jaws of a Crescent wrench.  The ChanneLock wrench neatly fits down in between the dies to tighten/loosen the rings.


Having said all that, it is my opinion that you are making a mistake by reusing a toolhead for multiple cartridges.  They are fairly inexpensive (big bang for the buck).  

Reusing the powder measure IS the right thing to one - one measure for rifles and a different one for pistols.

For me, I am setting up 1050 for only a handful of calibers I run a bunch of... but even so, I may load enough for many months. Spending 200+ per toolhead only to let them sit for months is not at all worth it. Don't see how that is a mistake.

I use this die wrench on my 1050 with the Hornady die lock rings. It has worked fine for me so far.