I went red. Hornady LNL

[peels]

please ... PLEASE ... PLEASE. go to post titled (what clever little things have you "invented or discovered" that you can share) then go to post # 1334. Follow it and your problem will go away. I can set my primers with two fingers on all four of my ammo-plants. The primer has to be perfectly under the primer pocket to go in smoothly.

I agree that if the shell plate is misaligned at the time of primer seating, the primer plunger may be pushing against the brass instead of only the primer. And that will definitely prevent the primer from seating properly.

It's a lot easier to check primer shell plate alignment that you described. Just take 5 empty unprimed brass and rotate it thru the stations without any primer loaded into the press. Go thru the motion of priming. If when the brass is at the primer station and it moves left or right or rocks back and forth when you try to prime, it is not aligned properly. Often times you will find the brass move towards the center of the shell plate slightly. That is fine. The movement is the plunger entering into the primer pocket and aligning the brass. This also proves the plunger can and will go deeper than flush when seating primer.

Which leads back to shell plate deflection as the next culprit in not being able to seat primers properly.

 

[Blue68f100]

Put a straight edge on your shell plates to check if any are not flat. If not contact Hornady for a replacement. I had one I had to get replaced years ago that was dished where you could put a 0.010" shim through the center. Hornady replaced it free of charge. But they did require the old plat to be sent back for confirmation.

 

[Reeferman]

Two finger seating would be amazing. I'll give it a try! I was 1/3 of the way there with drilling out a primer pocket. I'll cut it for viewing window and tap up those ball detents and give it another go. Thanks!

James

Listen to Drainsmith as something is not adjusted right on you press. Primers on my press seat with very little forward pressure on the handle.

 

[DRAINSMITH]

O.K. first off if the shell plate is warped you will find that one or two positions you will have problems. But if you have problems at all positions it will be timing.
Now, there are many ways to find out if the timing is off. My first attempt to help folks is to load all positions with brass with the primers still in. I then ran each one up with a piece of typewriter correction tape between the punch and the primer until the brass moved. It showed how much the timing was off. When I tried to explain how to do this I found that many youngins had not even seen a typewriter, let alone correction tape. So I had to find a way to help everyone that is why I came up with my timing kit.

 

[Suedenflames68]

I had ran a bunch already deprimed checking punch clearance, and then drilled a primer pocket out to float a primer through. Just got done trying drainsmiths set up. Played with ball detents on shell plate from stock, to not touching, to barely touching, to steps in between to see the difference it might make. Cut a case so i could see and drilled all the way through the primer pocket. No doubt the primer punch will push far enough to smash a primer darn near flat if enough force could be applied directly to it. Tweaked that pawl around a tiny tiny bit , but already had it pretty much dialed in.

No real different in the effort required to seat the primers. Couple times I've had the edge if the case snag a primer when the spring may not have been pulling the case in quite enough, sounds like what Peels was describing, but that's a completely different feel.

I think I am crushing the primers just a little. Experimenting with measurements and partially drilled out primer pockets best I can tell would be fully seated about .002 on my calipers. I tried many times following up the hornady seating on the single stage and was constantly putting em down farther to .0035- 004"....but, ( and this makes me feel really dumb) I seated a few on the single stage and they seemed to be stopping at about that .002 most of the time.

I'm really starting to think the increased effort I'm experiencing is just an ergonomics/leverage thing. That handle is layed out to the right side pretty far and I'm kinda over to the left and up close to the machine to load cases and bullets and check powder. If I take a step back and more behind the handle it seems to take less pressure and seat them well. I think some of my force is just going out sideways. It nowhere even close to a two finger possible push, but being lined up ,not deflecting sideways as much is a big difference. Still more than the effort of what's necessary on the single stage or turret. There's a lot of slop in the linkage when the ram is up to the dies , and the ram rotates when priming, but sounds like that's normal from what I've read.

May be easier if handle was a little lower for pushing in those primers, but then I'd be bending down to put the ram up. Might be trying one of the ergo handles and make a "motorcycle lever grip" like I've read about to be able to grab and squeeze the handle into to seat primers. I usually end up doing that at some point with the frame on my single stage in long priming sessions on it.

 

[AR-Bossman]

I just remembered something reading your last post, @Suedenflames68 When I prime on mine some cases are just stupidly tight, and I CAN NOT do it on my LnL. I have mine pretty buttoned down and it will prime really well, but I've had to take them off and go to my single stage, hold my breath, turn my head and push to get them installed. I'm not saying you have tight cases, what I am saying is the LnL doesn't seem to have the leverage just like your are saying to go full tilt crazy on a primer.

 

[Suedenflames68]

Well, I grabbed some other headstamps to try and measured pocket depths after cleaning em out and primed one of each in each press. Win and fc were similar depth to pmc. Both presses accomplished same depth. Blazer was much deeper and the hornady sunk it down to .006 no problem just like the single stage did.
.... so I guess I've been fighting to try and crush primers. Sheesh. And apparently the leverage just isn't there to do it on the hornady like it is on the single stage. So apparently it's good to go.

Also I realized I messed up on step one: "mount to sturdy bench"
I took for granted that my super heavy, solid feeling, 8 foot metal bench with 2" thick wood top was gonna be fine. I figured out that what I thought was me pushing so hard I was lifting the bench was the goofy leg set up rocking. Jambed a 2x4 under the front and no more rock and half the effort required to seat primers. Still not as solid as it should be so will be building a proper bench and anchor to the concrete floor and not have a giant plywood riser and expect effort will be further reduced. Now I understand where all that force was going.

Thanks SO much for all the help and info offered and time yall have taken to help me get this figured out! I've learned a bunch through this process and my press should be tuned up pretty well now lol. I was getting close to throwing in the towel on this thing and it wasnt even at fault, just dumb stuff I was overlooking or taking for granted.

James

 

[Reeferman]

The majority of those that I have seen in videos who are having so many problems with the LNL and especially with case feeder, when showing their press in operation you can see the press moving not just a little but sometimes an inch or more. I think Hornady could have done a better job on quality by tightening up the clearances but if the press is flexing its going to magnify any problems.

 

[Skgreen]

Y'all will have to excuse my simple ways,,,

My 'qualifier' on primer depth is function. Never have measured one.

I'm not in the running for a national championship or anything even remotely close to that, so consistent feed/fire is all I realistically need.

Feeds like factory and light's 'em up each time, every time, without fail???
Works for me!

Ya find one that takes 2 whacks to light it off???
99.9% of the time that means it needed to be set deeper.

As always, YMMV

 

[Suedenflames68]

I guess I may not have ever measured em either till this deal. Just always felt to make sure they were under flush. And if not I'd try and see if they wanted to squish down some more. I think I could probably guess the measurement by feel now at this point with as many as I've been inspecting haha.
Think I'm gonna be paranoid running progressive for awhile. Have the turret but usually run the single stage it seems. Used to lots of opportunities for inspection. heck most of the time I'm using the auto charge dispenser so every charge is weighed. The spring case retainer was a big positive for me too as I figured I'd be pulling cases a lot to double check stuff. Definitely has been handy. Gotten so used to it I hardly notice it's there.

 

[Skgreen]

Had my LNL AP for a couple-5 years now. Primer punch wore a divot in the frame about 2 yrs ago. Fender washer + JB weld fixed that.
Really haven't had a lot of problems with it that were not self-created. Kinda wish I had been a bit more gentle with it earlier on, though,,,
it took me a while to learn that just because there are 5 stations on an AP it doesn't mean you have to use them all at once every time.
(I also have a RockChucker w/ a case kicker, but it rarely see's any use now)
.
Congrats on the AP, and once you 'meld' with it a bit more, it will all become second nature.

 

[Suedenflames68]

added a squeeze priming assist. Amazing the strength in ones hands when isolating the pressure like that. I can absolutely BURY the primers if I want like this. Let's me feel more relaxed loading also not having to brace my body for a push on the handle .

Very crude just mounted a ladder hanger on there . When I decide I'm happy with set up of everything I'll make a nicer riser with a grip built in somehow.