RCBS rockchucker supreme deluxe at cabelas

[Trickymissfit]

I was a bit taken back by that myself so I went out in the shop and looked. Mine is about 3 years old. I can't find any 'made in China' anywhere on the casting. I wouldn't doubt it in as much as about all the casting houses are gone from America, due in large part to the EPA and their suffocating regulations.....

We won't say where Caterpillar blocks are made or Cummins or DDEC. Lets just say not here............

On precision tools, I'm still all LSS, Athol, Mass.

next time I see the folks down in Columbus, I'll ask them where Cummins has their blocks cast these days. I know that Golden went under, and they did a lot of casting for Cummins (but not blocks). There are still quite a few small foundreys around, but they usually can't do the big stuff. The frame on a reloading press would be an easy item for any small foundrey to do, and most of them need the work.
gary

 

[SidecarFlip]

next time I see the folks down in Columbus, I'll ask them where Cummins has their blocks cast these days. I know that Golden went under, and they did a lot of casting for Cummins (but not blocks). There are still quite a few small foundreys around, but they usually can't do the big stuff. The frame on a reloading press would be an easy item for any small foundrey to do, and most of them need the work.
gary

I'll give you a hint. It never snows there and Weber Gage has a factory there as well and has had for decades...... I remember when Weber moved from Triskett Road in Cleveland to there. I was shocked then, not mow.....

I believe Cat is contracting with the same foundry and DDEC too. DDEC got a pile of porous castings early this year. We had a bunch of crate motors come in for replacements in new, never titled Class 8's. Shipped the leakers back to DDEC,... read on...

I was over at Omni Source a few weeks ago in Toldeo (they are part of the company I work for) and there was a literal mountain of blocks in a pile. I know where they came from. Pulled the components and scrapped them.....

 

[Trickymissfit]

I'll give you a hint. It never snows there and Weber Gage has a factory there as well and has had for decades...... I remember when Weber moved from Triskett Road in Cleveland to there. I was shocked then, not mow.....

I believe Cat is contracting with the same foundry and DDEC too. DDEC got a pile of porous castings early this year. We had a bunch of crate motors come in for replacements in new, never titled Class 8's. Shipped the leakers back to DDEC,... read on...

I was over at Omni Source a few weeks ago in Toldeo (they are part of the company I work for) and there was a literal mountain of blocks in a pile. I know where they came from. Pulled the components and scrapped them.....

I worked for Allison Transmission for 34 years, and I've certainly seen my share of junk over the years. We had about 14 different dynos in test cells with everything from a gas turbine in them to a V16 deisel. Every brand name you can think of, plus a few more to boot. The only motor we never blew up was a Cummins, but we did wear some of them out (700K miles on them).

I've seen piles of Mercedes deisels out back waiting for them to pick them up. Same could be said with most all the major brand names. Repaired every form of block that Detroit ever produced (test stands and dynos are kinda brutal on engines). Watched CAT quality go south over the last five to seven years (a real shame). Watched the guys in the test cells literal fill up scrap tubs with engine parts out of Asia. Watched the evolution of the Duramax go from pure junk to a fairly good engine over several years of redesign. Watched them haul pallots of these motors in one door of the test cells while hauling out pallots of blown up Durmax engines out the back door (they started out lasting about 72 hours on the dyno with a catstropic block failure). Saw the samething with the Ford deisels as well I might add.

The test cells we setup for the M1 tank power pack are probably the nastiest ones on drive trane parts I've ever seen. If it's gonna break; they'll break it! Have never seen a gas turbine fail than God!! Have heard the horror stories. But have seen rods hanging thru the sides of Detroit V16 engines a bunch of times (that's a really expensive engine failure by the way). We switched the deisel engines in the test cells over to Cummins V16's and I never saw a failure. But right next door is the samething with a gas turbine running 24/7 as well. I did witness an X1100-5 shift into two gear ranges at the sametime. My ears rang for a solid week! The guts came out like powdered metal. Valve body casting developed a porosity leak under high pressure and heat. That was a $447K failure. Glad it failed in the test cell instead of the battle field
gary

 

[boomtube]

"Are there better options for the money? "

I certainly think so. First, the RC is okay but, trust me, it's not magic and has no advantage over any other iron press of it's type; it they look alike, they will work alike. Lee's Classic Cast single stage press is just as big, just as strong, perhaps more precisely machined and has much better user features. If it had been made when I got my RC my main press would be red.

Digital scales/digital powder dumpsters --- I suppose those who have liminted mechanical skills are just as well served with them as anything else but they cost a lot and and they rarely last very long - unless you think two years is a long time! Digital scales are no more accurate than balance beam scales and no faster to use if the beam is used correctly - most are not but, that's no fault of the tool.

Kits ... well, IMHO, kits tend to suk and are never complete no matter how much you pay for 'em. Each loader has, or will have, prefered ways to work and that means different features in his tools. A kit gives you what the kit maker wants to sell, not what you may want to use. But you can buy just as much use by choosing comparable tools of other brands that will total a lot less than $700+.

Stuck case pullers are inexpensive and there's no valid reason for a serious reloader not to have one. Cases get stuck in sizers and the rims pull off due to a improper or insufficent case lube. Proper case lubing is a learned 'feel' thing and most of us go from too much in the wrong places to too little anywhere so most of us stick a case or two or three or ...

If you never need an erasure on a pencil perhaps you won't need a bullet puller. Otherwise, it's wise to have one and the inertia type is inexpensive, the most versatile and all most of us will ever need.

Bet all that's helpful, right?