RCBS Green Machine

[Gary]

Had a fellow offer me (actually it's posted for sale on another site) a fairly stripped down RCBS Green Machine. It is in need of restoration but I can't seem to locate any parts. Any ideas of where I could come up with a OEM bullet feeder die, powder measure, brass feeder, ect.?
Also it would need the primer feeder as well.

 

[Ben]

Gary,

No effort on my behalf to discourage you, but...........here are the facts on the RCBS GREEN MACHINE :

Parts are near impossible to find. RCBS has no parts.
When you do have all the parts you're looking for ( and the odds are against you finding all of them ) the Green Machine had a less than ideal reputation of working well.

So many other progressive presses today that work so much more reliably and parts are still available for them.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but I do want to be realistic.

Ben

 

[Gary]

Ben;
Almost word for word what I said to the seller, however, I added that if I bought what he was offering I'd probably wind up with an expensive boat anchor. They do look to be a solid press and the cool factor is 10+, IMO.
Watching youtube vids of the press in action was also an eye opener, only one video showed the press actually working 100% without a hitch and most mentioned a priming problem.

 

[Jeff Michel]

Ben would be correct regarding spare parts. I have one in 38 special, I picked it up out of my friends trash, he darn near had a nervous break down trying to set it up, finally canned it in frustration. You will definitely need the owners manual to do the setup, it is not like any press you have experienced. I don't use mine to prime, I've always did that as a separate step, regardless of the press, so I always avoid the jammed primer hassles. Part occasionally show up on Ebay, if your patient, they eventually show up. The powder measure is a Little Dandy with a actuating disc screwed to the back of the rotor. I really like mine, I setup for wadcutters and three grains of BE and haven't had to make any adjustment since and I have pounded out thousands of rounds. If you could get one for little money, complete. I'd say go ahead and do it. Short of that, there are a lot better choices to be had in progressive reloader. Just my opinion FWIW.

 

[Gary]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've run into, so I haven't pulled the string on this one yet.

 

[KeithB]

When I look at things like this I would have to decide whether the difference in price between what I would pay for a better press (maybe a used one) and what it would cost to fix up the Green Machine and get it functioning. With a scarcity of parts how much time do you want to spend making your own parts or adapting other parts or even foregoing some functionality (priming for example)? How long do you want to wait for parts to show up online? And from everything I've read it doesn't seem like it was a very good press compared to other presses then and now, it doesn't seem to have any superior features at all.

My free advice (worth exactly what you've paid for it) is to buy it if you want a project and you have a patient nature, or buy a better, newer, better supported press if you want to load ammo. Being of a not so patient nature I would most likely buy the best used press I could find - cry once, enjoy it forever after.

 

[Gary]

I already have 7 presses on my bench(s), this was going to be a project just to see if I could get it working. However, it's without so many parts, I'm going to get a small metal lathe instead.

 

[KeithB]

I already have 7 presses on my bench(s), this was going to be a project just to see if I could get it working. However, it's without so many parts, I'm going to get a small metal lathe instead.

That's a good option.

 

[Pistolero]

A friend used a Green Machine for about 5 years, switched to a Dillon 550 decades ago. He said it
was a reasonably good machine, but fussy about setup and needing constant fiddling. Second hand but this is
a very comptent and patient guy who told me this, I have been close friend for 33 yrs. and trust his
opinions.

There are reasons they are not made any more.

Bill

 

[Gary]

Long since passed on the Mean Green Machine. The killer on the deal was lack of replacement parts. Couple that with the reviews on the running machines, and I decided @ 71 Yrs old, I might not have enough time left to get one running right.