What are the different press types?

[dalepres]

I read the sticky post about required equipment for reloading and most of it made sense.

Could someone provide some information missing from that article: what is the difference between turret versus progressive presses? What is the difference between a fully automatic press versus semi-automatic press?

Thanks,

Dale

 

[evan price]

A turret press is basically a single stage press but the dies mount in a movable "turret" that holds an entire set of dies in one turret.
The advantage is that you can set up all your dies in the turret and then you won't have to remove and install dies every time you change from resize to expand or to seater or crimper. They are all setup and to change to the next die you just turn the turret (or some presses auto-index the turret for you).
You still are working on only one cartridge at a time.

A progressive has the turret feature of a turret press, in that all the dies are setup in a turret on top of the press, but also there is a moving shell holder that indexes shells individually through the stations for each die. Thus, you are working on three cases at one time.

For example, on a Lee Pro 1K:
Pull lever, that loads shell 1 to the decap/resize die.
Pull handle. Shell 1 decaps/resizes, as handle goes up, shellplate advances shell 1 to the expander/powder fill and inserts a primer. Shell 2 is loaded at the decap/resize die.
Pull handle. Shell 2 decaps/resizes. Shell 1 expands and gets powder dumped. Shells advance to next station, shell 2 gets primed, and shell 3 gets loaded at the decap/resize die.
Set a bullet on shell 1, pull handle. Shell 1 gets seated/crimped. Shell 2 gets expanded/filled. Shell 3 gets resize/decapped.
Shells advance to next station. Shell 3 gets primed. Shell 1 (now a finished round) drops off into bin. Shell 4 gets loaded at the resize/decap. Process continues, with a finished round dropping out of the press with every handle pull.

Hope that helps.

 

[RustyFN]

Could someone provide some information missing from that article: what is the difference between turret versus progressive presses?

A turret press will take three or four handle pulls to give you a complete round. A progressive press will give you a complete round every handle pull after the first three or four, once the shell plate is full. The Lee classic turret will make about 200 rounds per hour and a progressive will make around 400+ depending on the press you buy.

What is the difference between a fully automatic press versus semi-automatic press?

I'm going to assume you are talking about indexing. On the turret you will have to turn the turret by hand on the non-indexing and the auto-indexing will turn on it's own when the ram is lowered. The progressive is the same only the shell plate turns instead of a turret.
Rusty

 

[dalepres]

Thanks to you both. After spending hours reading manuals and websites for press manufacturers, I could never ascertain the difference.

Now I understand - I think