[joe kuhn]

Is the precrimp working?

 

[dirt stirrer]

Yes, need more pics. Take one with hull emerging from the pre-crimp station. Something is hinky here.

 

[Jim Porter]

Hard to say but it appears that the center section of the crimp station is going down inside the hull then the crimp starts to form around it. I have no idea what is out of time or sequence.
Might be a good time to call MEC...they are good!

Let us know, I'm interested.
Jim

 

[darr]

Not indexing correctly.

Darr

 

[hollywood5150]

Thanks for the replies. I ran out to the garage and found that in fact the pre-crimp die was not closing the top enough, causing the problem. I now have a large hole in the center of the hull, and it seems to be crimping deeper. I have attached several more photos. One photo shows a Nitro hull that I reloaded before all of this started.

 

[dirt stirrer]

Something else slipped besides your pre-crimp. Your entire final crimp has slipped down somehow. Good luck and MEC has people that help on the phone.

 

[Rhodesengr]

assuming the final crimp is not actually broken...
The hole in the center means the cam is down too far.
The roll crimp at the outer edge now looks too deep. That rim should be only 50mil and it look deeper than that.
So back off on the center punch screw until the edge is about .050". Then lift the cam until the hole is gone.
I also saw some buckling on the sides of your shells. That also means the center punch is too deep.
It would help if you posted a photo of your pre-crimp.

 

[1straightshot]

It appears your stack height is not correct to me. By any chance did you change wads or get some mixed together.
You do have multiple problems. Obviously your pre-crimp is not set correctly. Plastic cases do have a memory but you need more pre-crimp.
I can't imagine how you can get a shell as in pic # 1718 to have the crimp to fold past the shot like it is. Unless you have no wad, wrong wad, or the wad has collapsed. The same goes for pic #1724. the center punch in the final crimp needs to be adjusted up. It is either crushing the wad or the wad is not correct.

 

[hollywood5150]

Thanks for all of the input, and I will try some adjustments tonight. Someone asked me to include a photos of the pre-crip which I have attached. The recipe for this load is:
Gun Club or STS hull
17.6 grns of IMR Red
Green Duster Wad
1oz shot
This should produce 1200 fps.

 

[Rhodesengr]

The pre crimp looks OK. Could possibly be a little tighter but certainly doesn't explain what was happening in your final crimp. I don't know anything about your wad but I was getting nice flat crimps using CB8118 (Fig 8 clone) with both a high density (WSH) and lower density (WST) powder. You might measure the shot depth to upper edge of hull before pre-crimp and report the height of your wad.

I like to test a load on my 600 JR before trying it on the 9000 where things are nice and controllable. If I can't get it looking good on the 600, no point trying it on the 9000.

 

[Trapshooter1100]

I would check to make sure that the crimp punch is tight. If everything was fine and then all the sudden it wasn't in the middle of a loading session, I'd be looking for something obviously broken or loose on the crimp depth station. That is station 5.

Also, the pre crimp could come down some. Per the mec manual it should be adjusted such that a primer will not fit in the center hole.

 

[birdk9]

You snapped a bolt. Been there done that. Everything has slipped on the press. Check all the bolts to see if they pull out. Visual inspection probably won't see anything. Use a wrench on each end and see if you snapped one or more.
Start with the main bolts at the top and then work your way down.
That's my story.

Good luck

 

[birdk9]

If it is a snapped bolt, order one from MEC. The replacement bolts shown in the pictures above are Grade 8 bolt from the hardware store. In time, it will break also. The bolts MEC now sends out have about half the thread length of the bolts shown above. The full width shaft of the bolt extended past the friction/fatigue point shown on the broken bolt. To date I have not broken one of the new bolts.

Good luck.

 

[hollywood5150]

Many thanks for all the suggestions and all that commented! No broken bolts but some did need snugged up. After about an 1 1/2 hours and 30 test shells, the problem was the pre crimp and the camcrimp die had gotten way out of adjustment. Now the joy of taking the shells apart. Here are the last 3 hulls that were tested.

 

[joe kuhn]

Many thanks for all the suggestions and all that commented! No broken bolts but some did need snugged up. After about an 1 1/2 hours and 30 test shells, the problem was the pre crimp and the camcrimp die had gotten way out of adjustment. Now the joy of taking the shells apart. Here are the last 3 hulls that were tested.

Great. Next time, if there is a next time, it'll be a lot faster for you. At least you know what to check now to be sure it doesn't get out of tune.