Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

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Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

Started in on Load-Master #3 this morning. This is the press that I sent all the stuff to Mike's Reloading for the upgrades but have since decided to go back together with stock parts because of the success that I've had with the other two.

Been working on it off and on today and I'm about 75% complete. The priming station is awaiting the rocker arm parts from Titan as these parts were modified by Mike's. I really don't anticipate any issues here any more with the case beveling being the cure. As far as the press is concerned I'm thinking all it takes is a second or third generation primer feeder and care in setting up the primer rocker arm.

I put the carrier on the ram but in operation I could hear a clicking noise coming from inside the lower ram. I hadn't taken the ram off the press or its linkage so I went ahead and did that.
ram_interior_debris.jpg
Darn if there wasn't a loaded cartridge with a sideways primer in their making the noise! I suspect that it dropped in there because with the primer sideways that is quite a jam. It would entail taking the shell plate off to get it out of the shell plate and it must have dropped in there. Also a lot of good primers and powder which means no primers. Hopefully all this will be corrected.

This press has been rough and while off I felt inside the bore of the press, the area that the ram slides up and down through. It was not smooth, like machining or milling tool impressions. I smoothed it all out with fine wet and dry sandpaper using WD-40 for the lubricant. It is too bad that they don't mill a ring around the circumference of the bore where the oil applicator is located. That would be nice for getting lube all the way around the ram.

Speaking of lube, I've been using petroleum jelly on the rams of my presses and have been very pleased with it. So much so that I bought a mini grease gun to lube the Load-Master fittings and a syringe grease applicator for the ram oiler. All the old grease and oil has been cleaned out of this press and it is running on PJ as the only lube. With cleaning up the bore of the press and the PJ, this once rough press is silky smooth. Still need to do this with the other two presses that are up and running.
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

All done except of the silly little parts. Tres amigos!

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Dug the Lyman 4500 out and will get it ready for any future cast bullet lubing. I didn't have .367" sizing/lube die for my Makarov bullet but went to the Buffalo Arms store and as I've bought custom sizes from them in the past. Sure enough, they have one and it is on the way.

Now my only wish is that I had allowed for a bevel base on my 32, 380, and 45 Auto designs. The NOE Powder Through Expander Plugs are working fine but I'm thinking more of what the bullets would need to use the stock Lee plugs.
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Fyodor »

Nice to see that you got those guys working properly. And even more, that it works fine, if you stick to the instructions. The RTFM-method is something, that seems to have gotten lost for many.

And I see a few Titans parts, but no more Mikes parts. :D
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

Fyodor wrote:Nice to see that you got those guys working properly. And even more, that it works fine, if you stick to the instructions. The RTFM-method is something, that seems to have gotten lost for many.
Yeah, pretty much so. I keep repeating it but I think the primer pocket beveling is really big and if there is a sizing die at station position #2 to align the case, it can only be indexing issue if things are not aligned. Indexing the Load-Master is very easy and I have a torque wrench to set it in place.
Fyodor wrote:And I see a few Titans parts, but no more Mikes parts. :D
I'm using the Titan tube spacers and the Prairie Dog powder baffles, had them long before the Titan baffles were available or I'd have them. That's it for aftermarket stuff. Got to uniform those tube spacers against each other, that looks sloppy! :shock:

The Mike's Reloading stuff is really nice looking stuff but it is also expensive and still requires a bunch of setup. I looked at it from a cost point. I need six turrets, plus the setup on two other presses. Two much money to put in these Load-Masters.

We are going to have about three days of really crappy wet weather so I'm going to pull the rams from the other two presses and see what the bore of those presses look like. Then will take the bullet feeders off and use friction tape on them.
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by horseman »

Ranch Dog, when you talk of "beveling" the primer pockets what are you using. Pocket uniformer, crimp remover or something else. I've been doing the primer pocket uniforming on my rifle brass but not my handgun brass. Ummm, may have done some 9mm brass learning the new to me procedure as I didn't want to "mess up" any of my good 06' cases.

Also I read a post a couple days ago with a fella going to use vaseline PJ on the ram of his new hand press. I thought it may be to "heavy" to work well, guess not. I'll give it a try on my LM's. Like you, I've removed the ram on my presses and "cleaned up" the castings a bit where the ram moves. It did help on mine also. Sounds like you're getting there... +guns
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

Horseman wrote:Ranch Dog, when you talk of "beveling" the primer pockets what are you using. Pocket uniformer, crimp remover or something else. I've been doing the primer pocket uniforming on my rifle brass but not my handgun brass. Ummm, may have done some 9mm brass learning the new to me procedure as I didn't want to "mess up" any of my good 06' cases.
This picture is posted in my "Load-Master 1 of 3 ~ 45 Auto" topic. I have both the Lyman & RCBS tools. My RCBS reamers not threaded tools but used with a drill or other power device.

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Horseman wrote:Also I read a post a couple days ago with a fella going to use vaseline PJ on the ram of his new hand press. I thought it may be to "heavy" to work well, guess not. I'll give it a try on my LM's. Like you, I've removed the ram on my presses and "cleaned up" the castings a bit where the ram moves. It did help on mine also. Sounds like you're getting there... +guns
I've used PJ as a lube on small things for years so I thought I would give it a try on my Challenger and Turret press and I like how clean it was and how easy to clean up. I've started using it on my turrets and will see how that goes as well. Never have like using oil or grease on the presses, it is just messy, leaves stains and fingerprints once touched, plus powder and brass debri really sticks to the advanced stuff and I think possibly creates more of an issue than it solves on these unsealed and exposed parts.
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

Continued to play with the Load-Master off and on all afternoon and some of this evening.

I wasn't real happy with case expanding using the NOE Powder Through Expander Plug as when shell plate indexes to bullet seating I can see that the Lee PTE Plug flare is kind of important. The NOE plug does a beautiful job of uniforming the case to accept the oversized bullet but setting the bullet on the case to be seated still requires precise placement and the only way that can happen is by hand. The bullet fingers are doing a great job in handling the bullet but I ended up with a 1:10 being slightly askew which caused the case to shave a little lead off the bullet.

:?: :arrow: :!: :arrow: :o
The flair that Lee plug probably assists the fingers in getting the bullet started in the case. :D

Sure enough, when I switched the NOE Plug out for the Lee and then readjusted the die to accept the oversized bullet, bullet seating error dropped to "zero" out of 50 rounds passed through the press. Those fingers setting bullets on the cases are icing on the cake! These were all dummy rounds that I have already taken back apart.

Another byproduct of using the Lee plug is that the Powder Through Expanding Die adjustment for the flare happened right at shell plate contact. This is something that happened on the 32 Auto press but I thought it might be a bit of a fluke. I think the die/expander is probably designed to be slightly off the shell plate for the flair required with jacketed bullets but the small additional turn-in to flare for the oversize puts it right there. That is great as the more die to shell plate contact there is the more stable everything is. I have no doubt that all the Lee dies were designed with the Load-Master in mind. Not much is sticking up after they are adjusted, any of them. There might be a turn or two before they top out. I'm going to go back and try the Lee expander plug with the 45 Auto press.

I found nineteen live primers in the ram so I went ahead and prepped and primed an appropriate amount of cases, pulled the decapping pin from the decapping die, and then sent them through the press for loaded ammunition. Everything worked great. Once the 19 bullets and cases where in the tubes, I didn't touch a thing.
LM_9mmLuger_01.jpg
All the cases used today were completely prepped. These started as range pickup off of my range from others shooting factory ammo. I cleaned & sorted them by manufacture. Today I was using the R-P cases and the primer pocket conditioning showed a number that would not have accepted a primer on the press. Both the reamer and uniformer had trouble correcting the pockets.
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

I thought it was just me, but I'm finding that a lot with recent Remington brass both pickup and stuff I've shot myself and not just 9mm.

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Curt.......makin' smoke and raising my carbon foot print one cartridge at a time +guns +guns
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

I'm done! Everything from case feed to bullet feeder including on press priming is just as slick as a whistle! After a range session today, I settled on my inventory load. A picture is worth...

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Today's target...

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Will get a year's worth run through it and then make the switch to 380 Auto or 9mm Makarov. :|
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Re: Load-Master 3 of 3 ~ 9mm Luger

Post by Ranch Dog »

This isn't complete without a picture of pistol & cartridges!

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