quick review-new lee auto drum powder measure

[kcofohio]

My long charging die works just fine with the LEE Auto Drum and 30-06 cases. Something sounds amiss.

Sorry about that. Some reason I was looking at the cartridge OAL.

I have mine set up for 223 on the LCT. There is only about .800" thread left below the nut. Not sure, but I don't think I could do 30.06 on mine either. I use the riser. Don't remember the difference of not using the riser.

I did some 8mm and I'm thinking I barely had threads holding the die there.

 

[Bartojc]

Well, you guys got me. I ordered mine yesterday. Larry should have it to my door by Monday. I have the Pro-Autodisk which worked well, but I like the idea of the adjustable charging of the drum. the disk is kind of adjustable....as long as the charge you want works with the hole in the disk.

-Jeff

 

[Pushrod]

Just ordered one from Titan thanks to this thread. You guys are going to monetarily break me!

 

[maddmaxx11]

I really like mine but I did take off the double charge safety because it would throw no powder some times. Works great now and usually is right on the charge weight and never more than .1 off.

 

[D Rudd]

Broke mine.

Installed on a Loadmaster with pull back chain installed and loaded 100 rounds of .454 Casull worked great. Decided I'd load some .44mag loaded 100 rounds no problem. Changed quick change drum and started loading a different .454 load, on the 96th round the disconnect broke.

Lee was quick to put a replacement in the mail and it should be here tomorrow. Good service from Lee once again.

So far I really like it, bought the 4pak of spare drums so I can set them for various loads and then switch when needed.

Dana

 

[Gadawg88]

I run one on my Loadmaster also. I removed the disconnect and have no issues with it that way.

 

[kcofohio]

I had a slight problem recently with powder (CFE223) leaking. I took the drum out to preset for the volume change. I used a glue brush to clear out loose powder in the pocket. With the drum back in place, I noticed a trace of powder leaking while charging the cases. I hadn't noticed that with other powders. When I made the change to another load, I dumped the powder and took the drum back out. This time I wiped with a clean rag. The leak went away. I think the first time, I didn't get all the powder out, and it created a gap for the powder to leak. Hopefully lesson learned.

 

[rivraton]

Sorry about that. Some reason I was looking at the cartridge OAL.

I have mine set up for 223 on the LCT. There is only about .800" thread left below the nut. Not sure, but I don't think I could do 30.06 on mine either. I use the riser. Don't remember the difference of not using the riser.

I did some 8mm and I'm thinking I barely had threads holding the die there.

The riser just moves the powder dispenser higher for clearance of dies...

 

[kcofohio]

The riser just moves the powder dispenser higher for clearance of dies...

Correct! But it seems to me that there was some tweaking to be done when I added the riser for the long cartridge die. Either the case came up too high or too low with the riser added.

 

[Schwing]

Since my last post, I tore my auto drum and riser apart and cleaned everything. I did this when I first purchased them but something must have been stuck in there.

I still have the issue with the riser where I have to throw around 20+ throws before it equals out and throws consistently (after making any adjustments) but, after that, it is pretty dead on.

I measured a few dozen throws last night. I was aiming for 5.6 grains of unique. After my 20 throw away charges, All but 2 were dead on at 5.6. 1 of them was 5.4 and one of them was 5.8.

For me, there is little doubt that this is far superior to the autodisk in just about every measurable sense. I even prefer it to my Dillon powder measure and that is saying something.

 

[splattergun]

The Brown Truck left an auto-drum on my door the other day, to be used on my LCT. I removed the PPM and adapter from the powder through die on both my .45acp and 9mm turrets, then I tried the LAD on each in turn. I used a piece of brass to test the function and soon discovered that the flare was much too great now that the PPM adapter was gone, so I had to adjust both powder dies to reduce the flare.
Just a bit of adjusting, and I feel I have the dies set up to function properly with the LAD.

I am liking the functionality of it so far and later today, after a funeral, I will try running some powder through it and testing the drops. Hopefully I will get around to using it to load some 9mm tomorrow evening.

One little thing I see is the little plug to convert the large drum to be used as a small drum. The way it fits in and functions to reduce the capacity of the large tube is quite clever. Because at this point I am using this for only 9mm and .45, I will set one drum for each, and I do not need to buy the extra set of drums. Yet.

 

[smitty1942]

Ordered mine on the 6th of Feb. Safety Prime, Auto-Drum, 9mm&45acp carbide dies still on back order. Maybe next week.....running low on ammo.

 

[Bartojc]

Finally got a chance to fool with mine last night. Be careful, the drums will fit two ways, the right way and the wrong way. One way 180 degrees off you obviously won't drop powder. Do not ask me how I know.
I set up my 9mm set with the drum while I removed my old disk powder drop. My disk set was dead on every time. After getting things adjusted properly I think the drum will be acceptable. I'll still have to check often before I'm completely confident but I think it'll be fine. I'll also be removing the little double charge switch. It's nice that it is an option, but really annoying pushing that switch every pull.

Jeff

 

[SARuger]

Finally got a chance to fool with mine last night. Be careful, the drums will fit two ways, the right way and the wrong way. One way 180 degrees off you obviously won't drop powder. Do not ask me how I know.
I set up my 9mm set with the drum while I removed my old disk powder drop. My disk set was dead on every time. After getting things adjusted properly I think the drum will be acceptable. I'll still have to check often before I'm completely confident but I think it'll be fine. I'll also be removing the little double charge switch. It's nice that it is an option, but really annoying pushing that switch every pull.

I didn't notice until it was pointed out in another thread/forum that while the safety switch is installed the drum will not turn the full motion. Which gave me some inconsistency, not much, but I'm OCD and I had to fix it. With the switch removed, it is very consistent.

I'm going to order a few more of them as money allows. Even though set up is easy, I run a lot of short runs and it would be nice to be able to put the turret on, add some powder, drop in the safety prime, start loading. I have 6 of the safety primers now one for each size primer that I use.

 

[AV8TOR]

Do you guys leave the key in or out during use? When I started I removed it but have been leaving it in as of late.

 

[drband]

Put it in the storage slot on the Drum. If you leave it in the lg capacity Drum adjuster, it will run into the safety prime on a LCT. Storage slot takes care of that issue.

 

[SARuger]

Do you guys leave the key in or out during use? When I started I removed it but have been leaving it in as of late.

I leave it in until I get the load just right then pull it out. Sometimes it will hit the primer feeder slightly but doesn't hurt anything.

 

[AV8TOR]

Ah thanks, I never tried to fit the key in that slot/hole.

 

[THRASH]

I just got my two new Auto-Drums, man, what a huge improvement over the disks. So far so good, pretty much throwing with in a .3 variance (Win AutoComp) for .40 reloads. I immediately took off the reset-device (and had always used the spring-conversion trick on the auto-disk, beaded chains are for ceiling fans and mama's boys). Switching out the drums for diff powders & calibers is also really super, do the RCBS "$$$.$$" ones do that?

Only things I don't like is... 1) It's kind of wobbly sitting on the die, but I'll be fixing that soon enough, and 2) As with other Lee powder dispensers, the lids are real loose, so I fixed that by putting little drops of clear super-glue around the top edge, like 1/16" down from the lip, spaced about 1/2" apart, all the way around, then let those dry really well. Makes the lid fit snugly!!!

 

[Uncle Chan]

All,

I gave this little gem a pretty bad review. After messing with it for awhile, I discovered that it wasn't the Powder Measure, it was the operator. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, it started working as designed. I learned that the high volume of powder I was using wasn't so high and the smallest volume setting in the large drum was about 12gr larger than I needed. My bad. When I use the small drum, it works perfectly.

I will be buying additional measures/drums. This is really a sweet little measure and accurate enough for my taste.

Uncle Chan

 

[splattergun]

My favorite 9mm plinking round is a Berry's 124 gn HBFP over 4.3 gn W231. After I ran a 1/4 lb of W231 through the machine to get the graphite coating, I adjusted the small drum for 4.3. My first series of 15 throws weighed as follows on my Franklin Arms scale;
4.3, 4.3, 4.2, 4.3, 4.3, 4.4, 4.3, 4.3, 4.2 4.2, 4.3, 4.3, 4.3, 4.3, 4.2. I worked the turret through each stage, just as I would during a reloading session, for the sake of consistency.

This is plenty consistent for my needs and I have not doubt that it should improve with
more use as I gain familiarity and graphite coat improves.

I like the feel of it and the function. I think I've settled in on my favorite powder dispenser!

 

[jimbo4]

Got one today.Set it on my 45 dies wanted to throw 6gr of unique. After running a little bit of powder I got the scale out to see how it was weight wise so far so good.I like it.

 

[ericuda]

Has anyone found where to buy the small drums only. I load primarily for pistol and have no need for a bunch of large measures.

 

[kcofohio]

Has anyone found where to buy the small drums only. I load primarily for pistol and have no need for a bunch of large measures.

The large drums include an insert to allow reduced capacity charging like the smaller drums

You can use the large drums with the plug insert for handgun loads.

 

[splattergun]

Put together 100 rounds of 9mm with 4.3 gn W231. The LAD ran flawlessly. After verifying charge setting I weighed the 1st actual load powder drop, 4.3 gn. 25th drop, 4.3 gn, 50th drop 4.3, 75th 4.2, 100th drop weighed 4.3 gn.

This tool is definitely staying on my LCT.