New to me LCT

[az2vet]

Yesterday I picked up a used but unused LCT from a gentleman from another forum. It came with one turret, the old style round primer holder/dispenser and an auto drum with a long charging die installed but the indexing rod nut is plastic. So it is a little mix of new old parts and new parts. I played with it a little last night and with an empty turret it indexes about an eighth short, but it indexed perfectly at his house with dies in a turret. I will wait to get it mounted and dies installed before I make the adjustment though.
I also got 2 Lee 6 cavity molds, 9mm 124 grain and 45acp 230 grain both round nose. For this we agreed on $200.
Then he told me to grab two boxes off a shelf, each about 15 pounds of wheel weights. He then went to a shed and started grabbing little boxes and putting them in front of me, 7 of them. He gave me a nice bunch of his cast 9MM and 45ACP bullets, some RN and some TC already coated with ALOX, about 20 or so pounds worth. He had to get inside as the heat was getting to him and we were just chatting for a bit when he got up and went around a corner and motioned for me to follow. He has a nice shelf setup with the round die holders with turrets loaded with dies. He then grabbed a round die holder with 3 empty 4 hole turrets and opened it up pulled out 2 and handed them to me.
I gave him the $200 and I handed him another $20. Gotta love a little extra

[mikld]

Sounds like a killer deal! I loved my turret, I used it for mebbe 25 years and loaded everything from 9mm to 7.62x54r, but I didn't use it semi-progressive, for my batch loading style I hand indexed. The first time I set the press up it would index when I didn't want it to so I removed the indexing assy and hand indexed. Turning the turret by hand is n big deal for me and it fit's my life style better than auto indexing. It sounds like the plastic, square ratchet is worn and not indexing fully. Make sure the lever is going through it's full travel to avoid "short cycling/indexing". The system isn't all that complicated and a remedy is probably just an easy adjustment, but someone with more experience on the indexing feature will stop by with more info. and comment on your indexing problem...

[Ranch Dog]

Yesterday I picked up a used but unused LCT from a gentleman from another forum. It came with one turret, the old style round primer holder/dispenser and an auto drum with a long charging die installed but the indexing rod nut is plastic. So it is a little mix of new old parts and new parts. I played with it a little last night and with an empty turret it indexes about an eighth short, but it indexed perfectly at his house with dies in a turret. I will wait to get it mounted and dies installed before I make the adjustment though.

This does sound like a great deal! Yeah, I would wait to see how the indexing goes until it is on a solid mount. Don't forget to keep the turret lubed. I use petroleum jelly. The Square Rachet (indexing rod nut) is plastic (?) but stands up to tens of thousands of cycles.

If you didn't get the instructions with the press, you can download them on the Lee website.

[az2vet]

What used to be a metal 4 side nut on the top of the index rod that fit into the bottom of the turret is now a piece of plastic.

Edit: yes, I did get the instructions. But no boxes. No big deal as I had the boxes from my first LCT in the separated garage when the house burned down in 2015 and I still have them.

[larryw]

Sweet deal, I love my LCT.

[AlaskanGuy]

i love mine too... had this one for about 20... before that i had... another turret from lee...lol

[az2vet]

Well, I set the press up on my bench with a couple of C- clamps last night. I set it up with my Lee 45 acp dies and it was still indexing just short. It took me a few tries to get it just right but I got it. I then made a dummy round and realized that the bottom end of the handle was hitting the c- clamp. So I had to back out the handle a little then make adjustments to the dies as I made another dummy round.

I then put the auto drum on the powder thru die and got it positioned to only bump as it passed the primer tray as my riser was with my Pro 1000. I set it to drop 5.0 grains of Silhouette after several dump and weighs. I then made 8 rounds and only forgot to put one primer in the primer seater but caught it before I dumped power. I am going to have to play with the auto drum more to get it figured out. When I set it for the 5.0 grains after each dump I would cycle the turret all the way around as if I were loading ammo and got a couple 5.1 and a couple 5.2 charges. Don't know if that was from the auto drum or if it was from the FA digital scale I was using. I will double check it with my Hornady powder dispenser.

I will mainly be using the LCT for my 308 and 30-06 ammo. Glad to have another LCT.

[GasGuzzler]

Make sure to use a different case each try while setting up the Auto Drum.

[Ranch Dog]

Make sure to use a different case each try while setting up the Auto Drum.

I would say that when adjusting the Auto * (any measure), make sure you are using a resized case with each pass. Never use the same case twice without resizing it.

With pistol cases, I cycle about ten cases through the measure before I verify charges for a production run. This is to get the powder flowing. Of course, they do need a primer in them With rifle cartridges, I cycle about five drops, depends on the size of the case, before use. All the powder goes right back into the hopper.