Severe drawback of Forster Co-Ax press

[Netpackrat]

I've been probably the biggest cheerleader here for the Forster Co-Ax reloading press, so in the interest of full disclosure, I thought I should relate my experience with it last night. The Co-Ax's good points are really great, but it does have a few bad points, and I ran into one of them last night that really sucks.

I was loading up a batch of .308 using previously resized, trimmed, and primed PMC brass. Got them all charged with powder, and went to set up the press. The Forster press doesn't use regular shell holders; it has a set of automatic jaws that can be adjusted for any case using only two different sets of jaws. When it is adjusted properly, it is extremely slick in operation.

The last ammo I loaded on this press was 7.62x25, so I had to turn the jaws around for the larger .308 case head. This has to be done with some care, since there are a couple small springs that are only held in by tension when the mechanism is removed from the press, and in the process of turning the jaws around, one of them fled for an unknown part of my shop. I mean, I am pretty sure I know which half of the shop it must be in, but I'm not going to find it without removing everything piece by piece, which isn't going to happen.

So, I had to break out the old RCBS press just to get bullets seated on the charged cases, whereupon I headed inside to scour the internet for more springs. Turns out, you can basically only get them from Forster, but at least they have them linked into their shopping cart system if you look hard enough. I've got 10 spares ordered, but my press is dead in the water until they arrive.

I see where some guys have modified the jaw assembly to make the jaws and springs captive, so you just swap out the whole assembly. It would mean buying a bunch of extra parts, but it may be worthwhile since I load enough different calibers that I end up changing the jaws out on a regular basis.

[PawPaw]

whereupon I headed inside to scour the internet for more springs. Turns out, you can basically only get them from Forster, but at least they have them linked into their shopping cart system if you look hard enough. I've got 10 spares ordered, but my press is dead in the water until they arrive.

Oh, bullshit. Every good town has a bearing shop. Here in town ours is Motor Parts and Bearings. They've got more springs, and bearings, and motorized crap than you can imagine. I'd bet you a dollar against a donut that I could take one of those springs into Motor Parts and the old lady at the counter would scowl at me, then walk over to a box and shake out a handful. I've seen her do it a hunnerd times.

I lost a steel ball out of a Savage extractor once. I went in there and told her that I needed a 0.125 steel bearing.

"How many?" she asked.
"I dunno, three or four" I replied.

She wrapped a piece of scotch tape around her finger, went to a box, and stuck her finger in the box. She came out with about six of those little bearings. She took the tape off her finger and dropped it in an envelope, sealed it an handed it to me.
"How much" I asked.
"Geez, that ain't worth writing up. Come back when you need something."

I'm a big fan of Motor Parts and Bearings. Go look in your Yellow Pages. I bet you've got something like that close by.

[Aglifter]

+1 - gun companies/almost all manufactures get their bearings/belts and springs out of catalogs. (Although, at least industrial companies, often sell them cheaper than you can buy the small amount you need as a repair.)

[Netpackrat]

That's all true. But it would also require me to spend some of what little business-hours time I have sans baby, out chasing springs that I can order from the net and then pick up on one of my normal runs to the post office. If I were to try to source them locally, the way it would go is I would spend hours driving to both bearing supply places, the 2-3 hardware stores that might have them, one fastener place, and then the gun shop that keeps some Forster stuff on hand. I would still come up empty, and end up ordering the right springs from Forster (or some online industrial supplier, if I wanted to measure and research).

When I moved from the small rural town where I grew up to Anchorage, one of the principal differences I found was that back home , I could exhaust my local options in under an hour, whereupon I would mail order whatever I was after. In Anchorage, there is really no limit to the amount of gasoline and time I can waste looking for something, and still not find it.

[HTRN]

Two words: McMaster Carr.

[PawPaw]

That's all true. But it would also require me to spend some of what little business-hours time I have sans baby, out chasing springs that I can order from the net and then pick up on one of my normal runs to the post office. If I were to try to source them locally, the way it would go is I would spend hours driving to both bearing supply places, the 2-3 hardware stores that might have them, one fastener place, and then the gun shop that keeps some Forster stuff on hand. I would still come up empty, and end up ordering the right springs from Forster (or some online industrial supplier, if I wanted to measure and research).

When I moved from the small rural town where I grew up to Anchorage, one of the principal differences I found was that back home , I could exhaust my local options in under an hour, whereupon I would mail order whatever I was after. In Anchorage, there is really no limit to the amount of gasoline and time I can waste looking for something, and still not find it.

There is the time and convenience of ordering online. I've gotta admit that the intertubes have made it convenient.

[Rich Jordan]

One time that happened to me so I took apart some clicky ball point pens and found a spring that worked well enough until I could get a real one.

[D5CAV]

Thanks for the heads-up on Forster. It kind of reminds me of my Hollywood press.

I mostly reload the PITA calibers and don't bother with volume 7.62 and 5.56. I pretty much gave up trying to get parts from Hollywood Engineering years ago. My experience wasn't as bad as this guy, but customer service wasn't their forte: http://www.meyette.us/HollywoodEngineeringSaga.htm

I haven't tried to buy any dies and parts from them for years. I think they are out of business. Most of my reloading friends are Dillon disciples and are bugging me ditch my dinosaur Hollywood and convert to Dillon.

Why did you go Forster vs. Dillon?

[blackeagle603]

so does that suggest you might have a Hollywood on the market?

[Netpackrat]

Why did you go Forster vs. Dillon?

I already have a Dillon SDB that I use to load pistol rounds. I was going to get a Lyman turret press to use for anything I would have used my single stage press for, until I realized (after it was suggested by someone here) that a Co-Ax is a better turret press than any turret press, because of the snap-in die feature. My dies stay set up, and I don't have to buy (or store) a bunch of turrets. Of course, I found that due to some of the Forster idiosyncrasies, I still need the standard single stage for a few tasks.

My springs did arrive the other day, but I have not had the opportunity to continue my reloading due to taking a trip out to ze cabin.