Loadmasters: Easy Primer Warning Mod

[stilly]

I have not yet PDFd this but I saw a video on Youtube where someone had drilled a hole in the side of his carrier (left side) and had an LED inside that hole and when you prime a shell and there is a primer, then you can see nothing but the shell, but when you prime too fast and it skips a primer and then you have a shell with no primer, you can see a light.

I thought it was a good idea. I found that most of my issues seem to stem from going too fast with how Lee has it setup. Granted, if I was priming and charging and making bullets from step 1 all of the way to finish I would NOT be going this fast because it would throw powder out of my shells and all over the place, but I wanted to see how fast I could pull the handle and prime and the result was several skipped primers and several flipped primers.

SO, the video on youtube talks about a primer warning system. I thought it was neat.

I was bored, so I made the warning system from the video. It is really very simple.

1. Get a super bright LED, in my case I got a 5mm BRIGHT green LED.

2. Get a PSU to match the LED, in my case my LED is a max 5V LED so I got a 3V PSU. I got a 3V PSU because I was told the 5V PSU might actually put out more than 5V since there is virtually no load on it with the LED.

Okay, seems legit.

3. Cut the plug and solder the LED to the wires with the proper polarity (test it first that it lights up, if it does not, reverse the wires). Most LEDs have a longer positive lead as well. I stripped the wire about an inch, wrapped it around the leads and then put a touch of solder in the middle and put heat shrink over it.

4. Plug it in AFTER IT COOLS and watch it shine.

5. Dril your hole and do some cable management and let it do its thing...

When the primer is in the shell it will block the green light from shining inside the case. When the primer is NOT in the case (because you went to fast or are out) then you will see a bright green light inside the case. Pretty easy to tell which cases are not primed. Now I can go a little faster, but more importantly, I do not need to worry as much about making rounds with no primers in them.

[Psychbiker]

Interesting. I have a hornandy progressive LnL mounted so drilling the plate under a station a primed case should be would be tough.

I think placing under the shellplate would work though. Some trial and error to see the difference between light shinning with a primed and unprimed would be needed.

[bruce381]

take a night shot of this I like christmass tree lights

[stilly]

Interesting. I have a hornandy progressive LnL mounted so drilling the plate under a station a primed case should be would be tough.

I think placing under the shellplate would work though. Some trial and error to see the difference between light shinning with a primed and unprimed would be needed.

This is what I know SO far about LEDS. Many of them, this one included are designed to be seen from their top, so if the top is NOT pointing at something, then the light is not as bright as it could be. When you mount your LED then you should have that top pointed at the hole in your shell plate so that it can travel up into the case.

take a night shot of this I like christmass tree lights

I will even get all artsy fartsy with it...

Matter of fact, I will go drill out and get things setup now.



AND BTW, this is just another safety net for priming on the loadmaster. It does NOT give you permission to go as fast as you want, it DOES tell you if you have a shell that has no primer in it. What you do after you know is totally up to you.

This is one of the things that this press lacks. I think all presses should have checks and balances in them and the Loadmaster is missing several things.

Here is a 30 second shot with the work bench light turned off. I know, it does not LOOK like it huh?

The brass case with the green light in it is SUPPOSED to be primed because it is on the powder charging station now. I also made a movie demonstrating how it works.

[cjskalka]

Surprised that the LED lasted for than a second. You really should have a current limiting resistor in series with the LED, 330ohms generally works well without having to look up the forward voltage on the data sheet.

[stilly]

Surprised that the LED lasted for than a second. You really should have a current limiting resistor in series with the LED, 330ohms generally works well without having to look up the forward voltage on the data sheet.

The PSU has a resistor built in to it.

I forgot to mention that. IF not then yes, you will need a resistor.


The LED was on and running for about 2 hours last night.

[ChrisToad]

Nice looking LM there! The only next step I would take would be masking off the LED from spilling light out from below the shellholder. Great idea!

[llazyjs]

Easier to sit and hand prime watching TV with the wife. Sitting here hand priming 300 rounds of.44 Mag that I just got from Davepoloman, enjoying a cocktail and watching Nat Geo about some wild dog in Africa that lost her pack and took up with a pack of jackals. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening.

[Pablo5959]

This is a great idea.
I'm not familiar with the Load Master.
The priming system is that bad?

[stilly]

Nice looking LM there! The only next step I would take would be masking off the LED from spilling light out from below the shellholder. Great idea!

Thank you. I think I want to PC it white with gold letters and red splatters on it...

I am NOT thrilled about the light spilling out under the plate, but it is good at letting me know that the PSU is on so I will live with it.

Easier to sit and hand prime watching TV with the wife. Sitting here hand priming 300 rounds of.44 Mag that I just got from Davepoloman, enjoying a cocktail and watching Nat Geo about some wild dog in Africa that lost her pack and took up with a pack of jackals. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening.

I agree, but I sure do NOT care to prime 10k 9mm shells with my APS universal primer. I now have a fading blister and calus on the middle of my inside middle finger. I figured that since I have a progressive machine that I should be able to use it and it is much faster to prime on AND resize, so when I am given money to buy pills for it, I can load up the powder and cases and just go for the gold...

This is a great idea.
I'm not familiar with the Load Master.
The priming system is that bad?

It is not that it is bad, I mean, it was DESIGNED to work flawlessly and perfectly and fairly simple, but I have pointed out that it is NOT foolishly bulletproof and there ARE issues that pop up from time to time. When I first had this press I had to fight with the indexing rod. Mainly because it was not set properly and if you watch the jackasses on youtube, they tell you to spin it this way and that and adjust it, but then it becomes out of adjustment and it is a ***** to tune unless you spend time (like me and my 20 e-mails back and forth to Lee) working on it to get it correct. Finally my indexing is PERFECT and works absolutely fine, but then there is the primer issue. If the press shakes excessively, the primers can fall off the pin or flip around somehow. But the biggest thing is that if you go super fast (which you should not do with powder in the cases) it will skip cases because their little delicate sensor bends instead of moves and that makes it faulty. I do not want to check every single shell before I charge it, so I am taking this time to get the priming issues ironed out and then when I get more pills in I can just load them and powder and cases and start making more ammo. Now I can tell if each case is primed or not. Lee maintains the angle that designing more things on it and changing things will drive the cost up and they wanted something that people could afford. Since it only cost me $150 I can tell what they mean, BUT...
The other issue I have and most people mainly have is that with the 19S shell plate it is meant for .40 cal and 9mm, but if you do not have your 9mm sizing die into the number 2 station then your shell could be misaligned if you failed to properly set the shell retention devices and that could mean flipped primers or sideways primers. The solution is to get a 6S shell plate since it corrects the issue, but it is not meant for 9mm so it has to be ground down a bit, beveled so to speak so that the 9mm shells can lay flat.

[liber]

Nice mod!

[JohnCCW]

I always "feel" the primer seat. Even with a progressive press. Handloading shouldn't be done where there are distractions from the job at hand.

I always choose a powder and charge that is near max case capacity, so that a double charge is obvious by the spilled powder everywhere.

[AGunNut2]

Stilly. Using unregulated wall-warts can allow your LED to pull excessive current sometimes. These days, I would use a 5v usb cell charger and add some resistance in series to limit the current through the led to a safe level, by meter. Max on little leds like that is ususally 30 ma or less. If your led dies in the future, you may wish to tame its current a little, especially since it's constantly on.

[AGunNut2]

Right on with the limiting resistance. Didn't see CJ's post.

[stilly]

I always "feel" the primer seat. Even with a progressive press. Handloading shouldn't be done where there are distractions from the job at hand.

I always choose a powder and charge that is near max case capacity, so that a double charge is obvious by the spilled powder everywhere.

I have not been able to feel the primer seat. I have the sizing die on the priming station so the shell is lined up with the priming pin. I FEEL the resizing, but not the priming. The priming is barely noticeable.

Your rules you follow of those from a seasoned and well informed reloader. I have read them and I try to follow them as well. But this Loadmaster still has me in AWE at the things that it can do. I can prime faster on it then on my Turret, I do NOT have to worry about pushing the handle forward trying to feel the primer settle in (like on the LCT) as long as the handle bottoms out on the stop I know the primer is in and seated, well, hopefully anyways. I do get smilie faces though.

I was cranking out primed shells the other night trying to see how fast I can go and I can go VERY fast - like maybe 900+ rds per hour if I kept that same pace and had a modified primer holder (0o0o0! Next mod!) and case feeder.

I especially liked how I can go as fast as I can move and as long as I slow down to allow the primer sensor arm to get bumped properly, then I am all good. It just is a killer machine.

I am also looking forward to putting my LCT back on to make some more .44 mag.


BTW, I think Lee might have lied about their Auto Disk Pro powder dropper.

So what was I reading about how it worked on the LCT? In order to test it out you have to drop a charge, then rotate it four times for the next charge to get an accurate representation of the charge correct?

So why do they include that same dropper with the Loadmaster or Pro 1000?