App Press

[klr]

Soooo.... I tried the baggie method last night and it looked like the way to go. Right up until I stuck a case in the Loadmaster. Maybe I went too light with the coating this time. I'm currently tumbling the brass and will try it again later with a heavier application.

[GasGuzzler]

My project arrived. That's 3K more 9X19 cases.

[horseman]

Yer gonna need more of them Folgers coffee cans.... I don't want to see another fired 9mm case for a very long time, except the ones being ejected from my gun as I shoot.

[GasGuzzler]

Lee bench mount bins arrived yesterday. Still no swage kit, case feeder, collator(s), or bench plates so I'll start washing this brass...

[larryw]

I don't want to see another fired 9mm case for a very long time, except the ones being ejected from my gun as I shoot.

???? What??? Blasphemy!!! Blasphemy I say...

[klr]

My APP arrived today. I set it up and tried resizing .223 even though the instructions recommend against it. I stuck a few cases and quickly saw that the universal push-through shell holder does not have enough bite on the rim to pull the case back out of the sizing die. Lesson learned.

Next up the deprimer that comes with the swage kit. It works well, but bells the case mouth a little too much for my liking. So I adjusted that out. And deprimed 150 pieces.

Next up the swage kit. Easy to install. I got two barbell weights that totalled 26.4 lbs and hung it from the handle after inserting a piece of brass. I probably did 20 pieces while adjusting the die. I then primed a few using my Auto-Prime. They seated easily but not at all loose. Perfect.

So I started to swage and it was a pain to get the swage die aligned with the brass. Reread the instructions and I realized that that large bell on the case mouth was necessary to get the swage die stem to go in the brass. So I reinstalled the deprimer and adjusted it for a large mouth flare. And ran them all through the depriming die. Then reinstalled the swage kit and repeated the swage adjustment process.

Then swaged them all.

I have two problems. It will sometimes double feed a case. I think this is because the riser is made for a large rifle cartridge and the .223 rattles around and can get pushed sideways. I'll build an insert for the riser mouth and see how that works.

Second problem is the slider doesn't always go it's full travel towards the shell holder. I had to give it a little push to get the brass far enough to align with the die. I lubed with vaseline but that may be a little thick. I'll clean it and lube with something like silicon oil. I'll also polish anything that moves and the rail the slider travels on.

[Ranch Dog]

Great report and fixes!

[GasGuzzler]

I got all 3K 9X19 brass washed for the pre-primer-removal on the APP. Since the 4-tube case feeder, swage kit, bench plates have not yet shipped from Midsouth Shooters after a week since ordered, I'm stuck for now but at least my bins showed up. I also pre-assembled the APP with the Lee universal de-primer and the catch bottle.

[klr]

Tonight I cleaned the slider and rail, sanded the corners on the underside of the rail, and lubed with silicone oil. It worked. I now have full travel of the slider.

Next I epoxied wood to the sides of the riser to reduce the wobble of the .223 cartridge.



It worked. I ran over 50 pieces through without any problems. Like crap through a goose.

Then I tried the swage die. No luck. The case still wasn't being pushed far enough to center it under the swage ram. It was also too far back towards the press. I added a piece of wood to the riser and then another to push it a little more and forward. I also trimmed off the stop nub on the slider rail to get a little more travel towards the shellholder.



It worked. Mostly. Only one round in 10 need a little nudge.

Then I returned to depriming. I had to remove the center piece of wood, but it worked fine again.

I noticed that the shell holder has a lot of slop in the swage die. That allows the shellholder to move enough to misalign the brass with the swage die ram. I'm going to try to insert a piece of plastic to reduce the slop in the swage die. Otherwise, It looks like I need another riser to have one modded for swaging and one modded for depriming. At this point, it looks like the APP is not the best for .223 processing. Hopefully 9mm brass and sizing cast bullets will be more forgiving of it's tolerances.

[klr]

This morning I gave it another shot. I measured the shell holder and found that one side was .005" narrower than the other. I marked the thin side with a diamond file and made sure it faced the direction I want the brass to go. Next, I inserted a piece of hdpe cut from a rubbing alcohol bottle into the slot of the swage die that holds the shell holder. The piece was .028" thick. The piece was positioned to move the shell holder toward the front of the press. The shell holder can still rotate easily.

These two changes repositioned the brass enough for the swage die to work smoothly now. About one in 50 pieces need a little nudge to allow the swage ram to go in.

At this point my shoulder is shot and I need to take a couple of days off.