I’ve probably loaded 15,000+ rounds on my trusty Lee Classic Turret and it has been a uniformly trouble-free system. I switched to the Autodrum pm about 18mos ago and it too, has been trouble free.
Sooo... this morning when I set up to load some .22TCM it was a rather annoying situation when every powder drop leaked W296 all over the ram and base of the press. I checked the Autodrum—no issues at all, even disassembled the Autodrum and the powder drop die and cleaned them before reassembly. No change. Still several granules of powder spilling with every drop. Very messy.
Finally I explored the turret alignment. It “seemed” ok with firm actuation from the press handle but would occasionally under rotate a fraction and then click in place with the die on ram movement.
Still seemed ok, but I wasn’t happy with the powder mess on my press.
I finally disassembled the auto rotate assembly at the top of the ram and found...
Yep, the minuscule under-rotation was caused by this broken (top left corner) nylon square ratchet.
I could have kicked myself for not checking this FIRST. And... knowing that it’s a common “disposable” part on the LCT, I always keep a few on hand. Easy fix—the press and powder drop now work perfectly without even a granule of spilled powder! As it should.
The “tiny” misalignment of the powder drop die and the small top of a .22TCM was the source of the messy press.
It sure is easy to forget the simple fixes when your setup works so well!
Now... back to reloading perfection!
Sooo... this morning when I set up to load some .22TCM it was a rather annoying situation when every powder drop leaked W296 all over the ram and base of the press. I checked the Autodrum—no issues at all, even disassembled the Autodrum and the powder drop die and cleaned them before reassembly. No change. Still several granules of powder spilling with every drop. Very messy.
Finally I explored the turret alignment. It “seemed” ok with firm actuation from the press handle but would occasionally under rotate a fraction and then click in place with the die on ram movement.
Still seemed ok, but I wasn’t happy with the powder mess on my press.
I finally disassembled the auto rotate assembly at the top of the ram and found...
Yep, the minuscule under-rotation was caused by this broken (top left corner) nylon square ratchet.
I could have kicked myself for not checking this FIRST. And... knowing that it’s a common “disposable” part on the LCT, I always keep a few on hand. Easy fix—the press and powder drop now work perfectly without even a granule of spilled powder! As it should.
The “tiny” misalignment of the powder drop die and the small top of a .22TCM was the source of the messy press.
It sure is easy to forget the simple fixes when your setup works so well!
Now... back to reloading perfection!