Well I loaded another 450 rounds tonight after the chitlins went to bed. The press works perfectly. The primer feed stinks. I mean it really really stinks. And this is coming from someone who loves the safety prime on my turret.
I loaded a few just to test different techniques of pushing the primer arm and then timed some batches of 100. The case feeder tubes hold 95 9mm cases so I loaded till it was empty, put 5 extra cases in and finished them all through. The first 100 rounds took 18:30 and I dropped at least 12 primers on the floor. This was using the old style round black primer tray. The time included picking up the primers off the floor, hand feeding them in, and fiddling with the angle of the primer dispenser. For the next 100 rounds I tried a different technique of holding the primer dispensor in with my thumb so that the arm meets it. This seemed to work better but I still dropped 9 on the floor. Time was 14:30.
After this I did some more testing and fiddling and decided to chamfer the cup of the primer arm to help guide the primer in. I also decided to try a hybrid of the old and new primer dispensers. After analyzing it a bit I found many of the dropped primers were because the spring was too weak on the old style actuator thus causing it to actuate before it was actually over the primer arm and dropping the primer early. The old style dispensor uses a very weak square shaped spring but the new head uses a stronger coil spring. So I took the head off the new dispenser and put it on the much better older style tray and feed tube.
The next round of 100 I still dropped I think 8 on the floor but it seemed less sensitive to how you pushed it. Time was 16:00. For the last set of 100 I decided to try a different primer. I was using S&B primers but switched over to winchester. This was a night and day difference. The feed felt much much better and I only dropped 4 on the floor. Time was 13:20.
This is still an unacceptable number of dropped primers but at least its progress. I will continue testing when I get some more bullets to load. If I can get this down to like 1 out of 100 falling on the floor I can live with that, but 4 out of 100 to me is unacceptable. And this was being very careful and deliberate paying close attention to how I met the primer arm with dispensor and exactly when to push. Unlike using this on my turret it is very very sensitive to how and when you push it. I will relay my experience to Lee so they know about it.
Also I can't figure out where in the heck they are coming from but mabey 1 or 2 out of 100 spent primers come shooting up out of the press during sizing and fall on the floor. I havn't figured out how this is even possible but I thought I would mention it.