Scott,

I would go with ordering directly from Dillon. You will be given a customer I.D. number for any future orders and receive a monthly catalog. I've been a Dillon owner/user for nearly 30 years now. Their customer service is absolutely one of the best in the business.

Accessories, extra primer tubes are nice to have on hand. The Dillon 550 ships with 2 large and 2 small tubes, each holds 100 primers. That, and their 550 Series Machine Maintenance Kit is good to have have on hand. Add to that, 4 additional tool heads and you should be good to go.

Murphy

I am a user of Dillon reloading press , dies and tumbler`s . I have five 550`s and one square D. And soon to have a 1050. I have always been impressed with Dillon .

Sometime you can find a good used one on a forum but usually not very much off the new price. I have the 650 with case feeder...great machine. I tried the 550 as a second machine but the auto-index of the 650 spoiled me and I sold the 550. Tool heads and maintenance kit will be necessary. Dillon customer service is wonderful.

and tool heads are a must. You will probably end up adding additional powder hoppers and bins.
Good to hear from you! I hope that you are doing well.

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops

If you can find one I always suggest the LGS as a first choice.

First and foremost a powder check die (requires that one have a seat and crimp combination die) for station 3.
I can email pictures (have no photo host so can't show here) to explain why this important.

Be especially careful when first using either primer system if you have failure to feed a primer, since it is manual advance one can double charge the powder.

I threw the operating handle in the Three Jaw and significantly reduced the diameter and made it with flat sides and round top. Turned it 3 times til I got the feel right for me!

Some like the other operating handle, I don't feel like it would work for me, but folks must lie it and feel that it is more more ergonomically correct.

http://forums.brianenos.com/index.php?/topic/239556-dillon-550-press-and-conversion-ez-...

the quick change plates are pretty cool but regardless, the mounts are excellent. All of their products I've bought have been very high quality with good customer service.

https://inlinefabrication.com/collections/quick-change-press-mounting-system

You don't have to buy a lot of add-on stuff to make it run but a few extra things will help.

Depending on your budget, what calibers you use, and how often you switch will determine what will help you.

Toolheads help everybody. Set up one for each caliber.

If you load "overlap" calibers such as .44 special and .44 magnum, you can get by with one toolhead between them. One sizing die is fine but you need 2 seating dies and 2 powder dies, or at least a couple of those spacer washers that go under the dies to set up for .44 magnum. Buy extra lock rings for the dies so the lock rings lock to the dies and stay in place if you take the dies out. For .44 spl you put in the .44 spl seating die and the .44 spl powder die and go. To switch to .44 mag you unscrew the seating and powder dies and put in the .44 mag versions. Of course for a little extra money you can just buy an additional toolhead.

I think some kind of rack to store the toolheads would be convenient but I haven't come up with a design that I like. You can put the toolhead with dies and the conversion kit in a zip lock back and stick in a drawer.

If you load the same load frequently you need extra powder measures. Or you could buy the slides and set them for different charges, then just swap the slides.

If you don't use a lot of different powders, it would be real convenient to "calibrate" your powder measure for each one. Fill the measure with powder, drop 5 charges and average them. Then twist the adjustment screw about 3-5 turns, drop 5 charges and average them. You can calculate how much the charge weight of each powder changes for one turn of the screw. This makes it real convenient to quickly change from one load to another- you know how many turns of the screw it takes to get in the ballpark.

There are 3 allen wrench sizes that are commonly used for caliber conversions. Take those 3 out and keep them handy. I've often thought it would be even more convenient then the normal allen wrenches to locate hex bits in those 3 sizes and use them in a screwdriver handle.

With a big enough budget you can get 2 machines, leave one set up for small primers and one for large primers. I've also read of people buying a separate square deal B and leaving it set up for one caliber that they load frequently.

I've had opportunity to use an old version of the 550. The chute that loaded rounds fall down is not very reliable. It helped to make a "fence" to put along the side of the chute to guide rounds into the bin. It also helped to add a little bit of weight to the top of the plastic rod that pushes down on the primers.