New Lee Automatic Processing Press!

[mmc45414]

The shell plates apparently don’t have enough grab for 9mm either. The first die, which is about ten years old, made it I think nine cases before I got a stuck case. The rim was pretty disfigured but I was eventually able to get the casing out. The second attempt was a new in package die. That made it a whopping three casings before the case was stuck. Still haven’t gotten that one out.

I can understand your initial hate, but the thing can be a pretty cool tool.
I know @RevolverRob did a lotta sizing, but that may have been 38 or 357, I think the taper of 9mm presents an additional challenge, part of the reason I am considering going back to preprocessing my 9mm.

Are you wet tumbling? If so, there are other discussions on just how darn clean the cases get, and how much friction that creates.

My process was to give them a quick wash, just to remove dirt and mud from range brass. I would let them dry overnight, but they really do not need to be dry because the concern about hydraulic dents is not a factor with straight cases. Then I would lube them with the home made lanolin lube, it really takes very little. After that step I would tumble them for good, making them as shiny as fishing lures, and it would still be easy to progressively load them, since they are already sized. And since they do not have the primers in them they dry quickly, without bothering with the heater.

How are you working to get the stuck cases out? Many companies offer something like this, but you could fashion something like it by using one of your sockets and a washer, you will just need a tap and a drill bit. Also, I do like Lee dies, and stuck cases are one of the reasons:


Hope some of this helps, once it is clicking the dog gone APP can just rock and roll through a bunch of cases.

[ssb]

I can understand your initial hate, but the thing can be a pretty cool tool.
I know @RevolverRob did a lotta sizing, but that may have been 38 or 357, I think the taper of 9mm presents an additional challenge, part of the reason I am considering going back to preprocessing my 9mm.

Are you wet tumbling? If so, there are other discussions on just how darn clean the cases get, and how much friction that creates.

My process was to give them a quick wash, just to remove dirt and mud from range brass. I would let them dry overnight, but they really do not need to be dry because the concern about hydraulic dents is not a factor with straight cases. Then I would lube them with the home made lanolin lube, it really takes very little. After that step I would tumble them for good, making them as shiny as fishing lures, and it would still be easy to progressively load them, since they are already sized. And since they do not have the primers in them they dry quickly, without bothering with the heater.

How are you working to get the stuck cases out? Many companies offer something like this, but you could fashion something like it by using one of your sockets and a washer, you will just need a tap and a drill bit. Also, I do like Lee dies, and stuck cases are one of the reasons:


Hope some of this helps, once it is clicking the dog gone APP can just rock and roll through a bunch of cases.

All of my cases are already wet tumbled — I did that with my brass in anticipation of receiving the press. I had not considered that clean brass would cause additional friction. To be clear, you are not lubing before resizing/depriming — just rinsing?

[mmc45414]

All of my cases are already wet tumbled — I did that with my brass in anticipation of receiving the press. I had not considered that clean brass would cause additional friction. To be clear, you are not lubing before resizing/depriming — just rinsing?

No, I am lubing before sizing, the first rinse is just to keep extra dirt out of the size die. If it was revolver brass I probably wouldn't bother.

ETA: I did the rinse with little or no soap, so they were not super-duper clean. But it wouldn't matter, the lanolin is literally, and that is a literal use of the word literally, slick as snot.


Also, my memory is fuzzy (it has been some time ago) but were there some universal shell holders and some that are cartridge specific? I could be wrong/misremembering/FoS on that, but the thought is nagging me.

ETA:
Rinse with water
Dry a little
Lube
Size and deprime
Wash (sometimes I would run a short time and change the water, the lanolin seems to dilute the soap and citric acid, and I love it when they shine)

[rmfnla]

This sounds like the press wasn't setup with the correct shell plate (or one that's out of spec), not a problem with the press itself.

No, he’s right, the auto-feed just doesn’t work well.

I don’t actually care; I bought mine for simple reloading for 9mm and .45 Colt and it works great, but I did try the auto-feed just for fun and was not impressed.

[SecondsCount]

I should try using the APP with my bolt action 223 brass. It doesn't expand like brass in an AR, and I only bump the shoulder back 2 thousandths. With good lube it barely takes any effort to size.

[awp_101]

I spent a couple of hours last night getting mine setup. In general I find Lee's instructions and pictures to be lacking. Being mechanically inclined but a novice at setting up a press, some of the setup just wasn't intuitive. I set it up to deprime .38 Special with the universal decapper (extra Squirrel Daddy pins are already on hand). Once I did some tweaking to get things running smoothly I wound up blowing through ~175 cases in pretty short order. I found it took longer to refill the tube than it did to empty it which was fun. I bought the collator attachment when I bought the press (2+ years ago ) but I didn't know it didn't come with the different base that's required so one of those is on order.

9mm was another story. After switching things around to deprime 9mm, I found the feed to be inconsistent and occasionally it would just shoot the incoming brass right past the shellholder dumping the just deprimed case and incoming case into the plastic bin. I might need to adjust the decapping pin down a little more, I think some of the issue was hanging primers but I'm not sure yet. I only had 75 cases ready to deprime and spent so much time trying to figure out other things that I couldn't pay attention to the possible hanging primer problem.

Am I unhappy with the APP? Not at all. It almost feels like a semi-automatic single stage press and my plan is to use the APP for my .38 loading instead of the Classic Turret press I set up last weekend. I find the APP easier for me as a beginner. The CTP has an issue where it doesn't fully index and I usually have to manually turn it the last ~1/4" to get the dies in the proper location.

So far I think the APP shines with rimmed brass which is my main focus right now. There might be some adjustments I can make to improve the 9mm experience but I'm not as concerned with that right now.

[Kirk]

I’m really interested in trying one of these presses when I move in August. I realize a huge benefit of reloading is the quality of ammo you can make, but with prices being somewhat low again for 9mm, are you guys seeing much savings on 9mm overall?

[jeep45238]

Over the years, I've figured out that I don't really save that much money, especially when I account for my time that goes into it (which I could be doing other things).

It's something I enjoy as a hobby all it's own, and it tends to help stabilize my ammo availability when combined with buying ammo.

I’m really interested in trying one of these presses when I move in August. I realize a huge benefit of reloading is the quality of ammo you can make, but with prices being somewhat low again for 9mm, are you guys seeing much savings on 9mm overall?

[mmc45414]

with prices being somewhat low again for 9mm, are you guys seeing much savings on 9mm overall?

It's something I enjoy as a hobby all it's own, and it tends to help stabilize my ammo availability when combined with buying ammo.

If all you have, and all you will ever have, is 9mm, and the only reason you want to do it is money, it can be a tough ROI and decision.
OTOH if you have, or will ever have, something besides 9mm, reloading is still a significant savings. I have been saying lately, do your cost justification on something else that has a strong ROI, then you can reload your 9mm on free equipment that the other cartridges paid for.
Or, like Jeep said, do it for fun!

[mmc45414]

especially when I account for my time that goes into it (which I could be doing other things).

Ya know (I meant to include this in my prior reply), but while it is not compleatly true, I like to contend that I do not do much reloading when I could/should be doing other things:

• I do it while my wife is watching something on TV I do not care about
• I do it in small windows of opportunity, like waiting for my wife to get hom and I am done (working from home)
• I do it when I would otherwise be watching something on TV

Maybe there are times I do it when I should be on the exercise bike, but I never do it when I would be doing something like (the common rebuttal) going to the range.
ETA: it takes me ~25min to drive to the range, there are lots of times I spend 30-60min reloading when I would not have time to even drive to the range, let alone shoot and drive back.