Load-Master Low-Down part 2
Well, I ordered a brand new Load-Master, and after it arrived I opened the box and studied the instructions. I mounted it to the bench and went on-line to loadmastervideo's and watched several pretty helpful video's and got the dies all set and primer depth adjusted correctly. I also bought the Lee expander die and the Factory Crimp Die too. So all 5 turret locations are used on my Load-Master. And remember, I was a total newbie with a press!!
A progressive press has a LOT of things going on at once!! One excellent suggestion loadmastervideo had was to just hand feed 1 piece of brass at a time and watch each operation and get used to how it works. So that's what I did. The very 1st piece of brass - it tipped and smashed the primer. I get it cleared and the same thing - tipped and smashed primer. After studying how the primer system works, I determined the primer arm pusher wasn't pushing the primer far enough under the brass. I took an bad piece of brass and drilled a bigger hole thru the primer pocket and I could see what was happening. I have a picture if I can figure out how to show it!!
This is the brass I drilled out:
This is looking down at the drilled brass at the priming station. No primer, but you can see the primer pusher is a little off center. I use the expander die here. It seems to keep everything aligned:
This is what a tipped primer looks like with the shell plate removed:
The next picture shows a black hex-shaped rod the points down and the ram is in full up. The rod is machined to a point and pushes the primer arm over and the primer arm locates the primer under the brass for priming.
Like this:
So, I need to modify the rod or primer arm to push the primer further under the case. So what was my master plan to fix this?? Well, I haven't yet... When I'm reloading, I just stick my finger in there and push the plastic primer arm in all the way!! So far, as long as I remember to do that, the priming system has worked literally 100% of the time!!
The only other issue I've had is most likely not the fault of my Load-Master. I've been using 700X powder and it's pretty coarse stuff. And the powder charge I'm using 4.1 grains. So I have to keep a good eye on the case to make sure it has the correct amount of powder before seating the bullet. Tapping the powder measure helps a lot, but I still have to watch for a light charge. I think most any powder measure would have trouble with such a light load of 700X - It's like trying to meter corn-flakes!! It was kind of hard to see in the case and I don't have that good of lighting in my reloading area. So, I fixed that with an Inline Fabrication 2 LED light set up. I totally recommend it for any turret press owner that wants to see what's going on under the turret.
A picture or two:
I can easily see the bottom of the case:
And one last thing. The case feeder - It's is a marvelous bit of engineering!! It works great!! I hand fed the first 500 or so rounds and then put the case feeder on. What a difference!! I haven't tried the bullet feeder yet so I can't say how well that works.
The case feeder:
So, to some this up, I totally love my Load-Master!! Compared to the way I was reloading, it's like a freakin' rocket-ship!!
Is it for everybody? No it isn't. But, with a total of $350 invested, (including the light kit) I have an auto-indexing, case feeding reloading press that does everything I want! And for the price, I couldn't be happier with it. It does a lot more things than a Dillon 550B, for way less than 1/2 the price. The Load-Master is actually a pretty well designed yet simple reloading machine.
If you aren't mechanically inclined, and have no patience, look elsewhere. If you enjoy tinkering with mechanical things and have a little patience, you can't go wrong with the Load-Master. 2,500 rounds reloaded so far!!
Thank you for reading my posts here and if I can be any help to any Load-Master owners out there, just let me know!! And, If I strayed off-topic, I apologize.