Lee Loader

Ranch Dog wrote:Welcome to the forum! I have some Load-Master love, have four of them! I load the 25, 32, 380, and 45 Auto along with the 9mm Luger and Makarov, plus the 30 Carbine and 7.62x39. I use all the press' functions; case and bullet feeders (no bullet feeder with the 25 Auto & 7.62x39), priming, and Auto Drum powder delivery.

My advice is not to get too wrapped up with what you see online. I spent a lot of years being very frustrated with the press and always was following someone else' tinkering and buying someone else's accessories. One day I decided that if the presses could not work the way they came, I would get rid of them. I made sure I had a solid bench attached to the wall and a solid mount (Bench Plate) and then followed Lee's instructions to the letter. I still had small primer seating problems but had started to uniform and bevel the mouth of all my rifle primer pockets as I had started priming on my Classic Turret with the Safety Prime, and that pocket treatment had made the seating 100% better. So, I started doing that work with the cartridges heading to the Load-Master. It ended my primer seating issues.

If your press isn't new, you probably will not have gotten the deal you thought. You need to make sure your primmer feeder is the latest (three generations). I've helped some fellows setup used presses, and the most common thing I see wrong with them is that the ram and carriers need to be replaced because the Draw Bolt at the base of the ram was tightened by feel rather than with a torque setting and both of those parts are damaged, out of round, where they mate. There are actual threads on other forums advocating that a torque value than Lee's spec need be exceeded! This is a huge problem with the dozen of presses that I have looked at and quickly brings the price of a used press to more than that of a new press. I did it to my first press. Buy a torque wrench, it is cheaper than those parts and all the frustration of crappy ammo and locked shell plate rotation. Finally, if a used press, get a new shell plate with the ratchet bottom versus the round pins. Probably need a new index rod too! The list of correcting the ills of a misused press can be extensive.

My toolkit is simple; a few small wrenches, a popsicle stick, five popsicle sticks glued together, a pencil, a torque wrench, and Lee's instructions.

Loading on a Load-Master is a hoot, but it boils down to case prep. That is probably about 90% of the work.

larryw wrote:Yep, off to Ace Hardware I go..

horseman wrote:

larryw wrote:Yep, off to Ace Hardware I go..

Make sure to take your GPS along so you can find your way back home Larry....

Et2ss wrote:I looked at the bolt on the bottom of the ram, and checked the torque value, and it was right around 12 ft lbs. so it wasn't over torqued. I did dump about 100-150 primers out of the ram, which is probably all the use the press has seen. There was a crap-tonne of powder everywhere (the previous owner probably had a topside mishap with the auto-disk)

Et2ss wrote:Oddly enough the shell plate was the older style with the drive pins instead of the ratchet bottom. Putting it through the dry run, it seems to index fine enough. The dies were in an old unlabeled red box without the normal paperwork, so probably obtained separately along with the shell plate? I do have a new index rod on the way as well.

Et2ss wrote:I'm going to clean it up well, and lube it all with STP treatment. and start setting up the case feeder.

Ranch Dog wrote:First things first! The dude owes us a video concerning what is in the box up on the shelf!

reloading_fails.jpg

The details of the stuff inside the ram suggests to me that the fellow owning it did no case prep. He was running brass with spent primers through it. I bet they are small primers as well and the powder is fine pistol powder flowing through flash holes that haven't had a primer seated in them. There might even be some bent or crushed primers in that mess.

I'm not against depriming on the press, I do it. I have a single turret with a decapper on it. You can run a thousand cases through the press in no time. I do wash all my brass and dry it before I deprime as it will cut down on the other stuff that falls in the ram. After I deprime, I dump the primers. You will need a thin, stiff wire to keep the port free and I use compressed air down through the ram (without a shell plate on the press) to blow them into a trash can under the press. I then spray out the inside of the ram with dechlorinated brake cleaner, blow it out with compressed air, and then spray the inside of the ram with a very light coat of WD-40, distributing it with compressed air. Seems like a lot, but maybe three minutes.

I have used my progressive(AmmoMaster-Auto) only for depriming/repriming brass, I would throw a charge on my ChargeMaster and seat on a RockChucker. But then again I've only loaded for rifle, with the exception of very limited quantities of 44-40 Black Powder loads for my old S&W Model 3 'New Frontier' I did attempt to set up the uniflow on the top.... but for one, it's not all that accurate, and the linkage is a pain to set up right.

The press certainly needs a good cleaning, just need the time to do it.



The older shell plate will be fine, but I'm curious as to why you need a new indexer? I'm already feeling the twitch that it has to do with the previous quote of yours and my comments about bent or crushed primers. If there is a misfeed, it will bind the press, and frustrated operators will try to powder through it which is a huge mistake because there are a few things it will damage. The indexer can lose its bevel, and the flipper can crack or be ground off.


Well I ordered a new one because, as I was on the lee site, ordering the new hopper, all of their replacement parts in quantities of 1 show up as "This item is FREE for you!" so I grabbed a bunch of parts I thought I would need in the future, and only paid shipping


About that STP. I wouldn't use it. I think the debris of reloading sticks to it and it becomes a lapping compound. Sooner than later you will experience some type of powder spill, and powder is very abrasive. I suggest using petroleum jelly as it will clean up with a paper towel without any added solvents. You should clean and lube the press after every use, and this product will make it an easy task for the routine and emergency.