Eightbore it was a 900 machine which I consider a lesser machine than a 800 machine. I have owned multiple 800 machines and have never had a problem with them. I bought the 900 from a friend with complete hydraulic system. I knew he had had issues with it. It had been returned to the factory for rebuild with zero miles on it. I sent it back to PW for a complete going over, a second rebuild.
PW machines are solid machines but not idiot proof and this fellow was a machinist and my personal experience is that "machinist" can decide that they know more about the machine than the man who designed them and built them. The problem with it was poor powder drops which should be impossible. Anyways it came back in good as new condition, it had not loaded more than a few thousands shells which as you know is nothing for PW.
Within five hundred shells it happened again, double or near double powder drops in several shells. None light or under filled. So I unhooked the hydraulic system and used it as a manual system figuring that maybe it was the hydraulic system. Same problem within a case of shells. So off to PW it went again. They went over it again and returned it. Everything was fine for maybe 1500 shells then it happened again. So I called PW again. They told me that there was nothing wrong with my machine that they could see and hinted about operator error. I don't drink when loading, don't play the radio loud, don't do anything stupid when loading. I had loaded 100K with MEC machines, in the previous five years, without any problems. In fact I was running two other PW machines at the time with absolutely zero problems.
So I sent it back again and had them go over the machine and do a complete rebuild, not cheap. Not cheap and most likely not needed. When It came back it sat on my bench for months unopened. Then a buddy asked to borrow it. He had been loading on PWs since 1975 He had four 800 machines and was as smart about them as Jim Cunningham at the time. Everything went well for two weeks then he called me and reported it did it again.
So there I was, with the machine which could not be fixed. I could not sell it to anyone else. What if the next guy had a son shooting and that machine caused a gun to blow up and injure a kid. I could not fix it. PW could not fix it. No one who looked at it ever found anything wrong with it. Even stripped down it was a time bomb waiting to happen. So it was then that I decided to get rid of it. I stopped on the West bound lane, right over the shipping channel and dropped it off the bridge.
I bought the machine with hydraulic system for $700.00. PW worked on the machine three times and rebuilt it at my expense twice. Heck shipping alone was several hundred dollars. In the end I had a hydraulic system which I used for two years until I switched away from PWs entirely. I sold that with my machines and got most of my money back. But I will never buy a 900 machine again. Maybe it is me, maybe it is them, but I refuse to make PW richer trying to fix another 900 machine of theirs.
