When I clean the surface rust off of the sides of the drum on mine I swear I can watch it it re-rust right before my eyes. It develops just a little surface rust, and then seems to stop right there and not get any worse. The steel outer housing (the threaded one) of the primer feed tube is also bad about it if you leave any finger oil on it. If you have any Hornady One-Shot Gun Cleaner and Lubricant, a light coat of it helps. Once the carrier evaporates, the dry film it leaves behind is completely non-tacky and won't run where it might contaminate powder or primers. I've really gotten to like that stuff.
As far as the action being a little choppy, you should definitely grease the ram but that probably isn't the problem. You didn't say if this was with or without a shell plate in place, but overtightening the retaining cap screw on it can make the action very draggy (conversely, not tightening it enough will result in all sorts of timing/advance problems). Don't forget to put a little lube on the ball detents on the underside of the plate and work it into them a little. If you find that the shell plate doesn't smoothly advance and then smoothly come to a rest in the detents without "snapping" into place, you may need to adjust the timing on the press via the pawls at the bottom of the ram. Mine needed adjusting right out of the box, and I have seen several others state their LNL needed to be timed out of the box. There are Youtube videos out there, I eventually watched several and followed the instructions in the manual and then kicked myself in the butt for not doing it sooner. Another thing I've seen stated and have come to agree with - the LNL will not tolerate a flimsy bench mount. Especially if you eventually add the case feeder! The more solid the bench, the easier everything works.
Speaking of Youtube videos,
this guy did a lot of Hornady LNL tips and tricks and general reloading videos that really helped me. He has since switched to Dillon, but that doesn't detract from the usefulness of his LNL videos. I think these were early videos for him, and he got considerably smoother in his later videos. The info is solid, just not the polished production you might expect to see in videos today.
Good luck and don't let the little bumps that come with going progressive (reloading that is) get to you, it'll be well worth it in the end.