Lee Loader

I was recently looking through my dad's garage and noticed my brother's old press. He followed in my footsteps and started loading when he was in high school as he was a serious deer slayer. He went to college and got married/moved away and he lost interest. My dad passed away a few years ago so I'm about the only person who goes to the barn anymore and I'm usually on a mission when I do. I knew the gear was there but had not paid much attention to it until this visit.

While looking for a tool I spotted the press and other gear and noted the surface rust on the ram and handle and decided to load it all up and see what I could do with it.
I couldn't move the handle as it was so pulled the pins and popped off the shell holder spring and hit it with some Fluid Film. Used the handle to rotate the ram and was able to pull it out without too much difficulty. Knocked off the rust with some 1200 grit sandpaper and lubed the ram with some Teflon grease. No issues reinserting the ram and it moved with no binding. Reassembled everything w/o spending too much time on polishing it and it works fine.
Also loaded up a few other "Red" items and even an Orange accessory which needs some cleaning as well. Unfortunately no primers in the box...
I'll keep it as a spare/second press as I have it's older brother as my primary single stage.

Nice work. When and if the cast arms break like mine did I got the solution here and the cost was less than $15 from Lee.

GasGuzzler wrote:Nice work. When and if the cast arms break like mine did I got the solution here and the cost was less than $15 from Lee.

I don’t see them on the webpage under parts so I assume I would just call Lee directly? Might not be a bad idea to order them for the future...

Never mind I just found your post... very helpful.

You might not work it much as the fine bit of corrosion on the steel ram would work against the press's aluminum frame. Heck, it's worth $15 worth of parts to put it back online! How long has it been sitting there? I often think that there must be a lot of reloading gear sitting around like that.

Probably sitting in the barn 25 years at least... I don’t plan on using it much but will probably order the updated parts of the linkage.

Excellent! I like "old" tools and that's probably why I have 4 presses under my bench, carefully oiled and wrapped. There's something about an old hand tool, maybe it's "soul" (or maybe I'm crazy). I have a ball peen hammer I bought in '67, a pair of pliers that are probably as old as I am, a real Stillson wrench somewhere in my shop but I haven't seen it for a few years, and until they were stolen I had some of my Dad's Model A tools which included a Monkey Wrench. Resurrecting an old press can be very satisfying...

Over the years I have found a couple old presses. One is a Herter's that was froze up. At one point someone welded it back together. The last one I found is an old Pacific that was so rusted up that it wouldn't move. Had to use a 2½ pound single Jack to coax it out of the bore. It's kind of cool, you can reverse the handle and have the ram come up while raising the handle. It took a bit to get enough rust off to go back together.

Good Job Sir. Believe it or not. That press is worth three times, what was paid for it when it was brand new.
I would tweak it out and put it to work. "If only used for popping out Verdan primers". I can see the look on your brothers face when he comes over for a visit and see's the press.

I have been looking for a press for a friend. Used presses don''t actually show up very often right now. Anyway I found and acquired a Lee Challenger press. It was purchased new in the 80's sometime. It has the cast link. I did not realize that they set at an angle. It seemed pretty dry so I dismantled it. The lower pin was not in the best shape, had some galling, and the cast center link was dry with some black powder in the ends. Ended up polishing all of the pins in the little lathe. The ram didn't have hardly any wear on it. No side slope whatsoever. Greased everything up and reassembled. It seemed a bit stiff so I began oiling the ram with some 3in1 and that displaced a lot of the grease and now it is buttery smooth. I took it to my friend last night and he is very happy. Now to find a set of dies and a shell holder.