Lee Auto-disk volunteers

[Anvilpoker]

Hello all
I'm looking for a couple of volunteers that use the Lee Auto-disk.
Some years ago I designed and built an adjustable powder charge bar for the Lee Auto-disk. It is quite different from the Lee adjustable bar. See attached pdf.

Volunteers
I will snail mail a free charge bar to a couple of volunteers in exchange for some data. I would like to put together a small database of the reliably consistent minimum and maximum powder charge capabilities of this adjustable powder bar with various powders.

Private message me here on the forum with this info:
1. How many different powders you currently have to put through this bar
2. How long you have been reloading with the Lee Auto-disk
3. Promise to send me the data
I will publish the compiled data for this adjustable bar here on the forums to help others.
This post will be edited as closed after a few volunteers are selected.

[Anvilpoker]

Background
Many years ago, I knew I could not afford the cost of factory rounds for the volume of practice and competition shooting I wanted to do. I bought a progressive press, dies and a Lee Auto Disk powder measure. One thousand rounds of practice a week, no problem. Almost.

As I started reloading the same cases over and over, I wanted to minimize the “working” of the brass in resizing and flaring the case mouth. Flaring the case mouth too much then crimping the bullet in repeatedly would quickly stress the brass into developing splits at the case mouth. Chamber pressures certainly were not an issue of concern in the .45 caliber required to chronograph for competition.

Trying to reduce the amount of flare on the .45 cases proved difficult with the Lee Auto Disk. When I would adjust the dies for less flare, the disks would not always fully move over the drop tube, resulting in greater variances of powder charge weights. This was not good for consistent velocities, especially when every round had to be above a minimum specified velocity for competition.

Not being able to fine tune the charge weights was another issue with the disks. For casual plinking and target shooting they worked great. But for dialing in a not-too-light or not-too-hot load, there was no in-between settings of each hole in the disks.

At the time, there were no progressive press alternatives I knew of that worked with auto-indexing progressive loading presses. After creating “The Bar” which Dean Grennell reviewed in his Shooting Times Magazine with good results. Richard Lee himself even bought one. Then he created his own.

The design I settled on to manufacture these bars took into account the reduced travel of the disks when setting the dies for reduced case flaring. It is very different from the bar manufactured by Lee.
Costs of production were one thing, but the costs of advertising in magazines and such prior to the advent of internet sales proved more than I was willing to pursue. A limited market, Lee's introduction of his own adjustable bar, and other projects took precedence over this project.

Many years later, today, I have a limited quantity of these bars on hand. The injection moulding dies have long since disappeared, meaning there will be no more of these made.

In my new retirement living arrangement, I have yet to set up a reloading space, so everything is in a box, somewhere...

[Ranch Dog]

Very interesting!

[sparkyv]

Does your charge bar have a larger delivery volume than the Lee charge bar? If so, I might be interested in participating. I prefer using my LADM for 44 Magnum charges of H110.

Hello all
I'm looking for a couple of volunteers that use the Lee Auto-disk.
Some years ago I designed and built an adjustable powder charge bar for the Lee Auto-disk. It is quite different from the Lee adjustable bar. See attached pdf.

Volunteers
I will snail mail a free charge bar to a couple of volunteers in exchange for some data. I would like to put together a small database of the reliably consistent minimum and maximum powder charge capabilities of this adjustable powder bar with various powders.

Private message me here on the forum with this info:
1. How many different powders you currently have to put through this bar
2. How long you have been reloading with the Lee Auto-disk
3. Promise to send me the data
I will publish the compiled data for this adjustable bar here on the forums to help others.
This post will be edited as closed after a few volunteers are selected.

[larryw]

PM sent.

[larryw]

Dog gone it!! A day late, & A dollar short it seems ?????

[Ranch Dog]

Dog gone it!! A day late, & A dollar short it seems ?????

Sorry Larry, but that would be a great signature line!

[sparkyv]

Never did see one.

PM sent.

[larryw]

?????????

[Ranch Dog]

Anvilpoker hasn't been on the forum since Jun 15th.