LNL Progressive Initial Setup

[georound1]

"Look on the bottom of the box. If there is a handwritten number in the range of 22XXX it is probably the serial number. My box was marked that way. "

Thanks!. I noticed that number, but didn't know it was the serial number! I cut one of the barcodes off with my pocket knife.

[GillaFunk]

I am making a custom bench for this puppy. How tall are your relaoding benches and do you sit or stand. I have bad knees so I need to sit.

I just got my unit. Fooker is HEAVY! This thing should last forever.

[mstlaurent]

I am making a custom bench for this puppy. How tall are your relaoding benches and do you sit or stand. I have bad knees so I need to sit.

I just got my unit. Fooker is HEAVY! This thing should last forever.

I sit as well. I got one of the tall shop stools with a backrest from Sears because my bench is a built-in and it's pretty tall.

[ejor]

The primer cam rod has an adjustment at the top, you can loosen the screw and lean it outwards a little and retighten it will cam the slide out further, if its bent might not help though. I think shipping might have "adjusted " mine a little. I've had to clean the primer punch occasionally.

[badreligion]

My bench is 46" Tall. 12 feet long. 27 inches deep. The top is 2 inches thick, with a 2x4 frame underneath for a total thickness of 6 inches. It is mounted to my re-enforced insulated garage wall and anchored to the floor at each leg. I have 12 4x4 legs. Everything is screwed, glued and lagged together. My bench top has a piece of 10 guage stainless steel that is 2'x4' flush mounted as the center piece top. The stainless section is grouned to both the house electrical system and a seperate ground rod outside the house. The wood has been finished with many coats of varnish and poly.

I use a 12"x12" piece of 5/8" thick steel that I use to make my reloading press mounts. I clean it, round the corners and sharp edges and finish it with epoxy enamel paint, same stuff used on stove tops. This plate is mounted to my bench using four 1/2" stainless steel bolts. The four bolts stradle the wood and stainless section of my bench, they also stradle one of the 2x4 frame legs under the bench. I have a 3"x3" square washer, a round ss washer, lock washer and stainless nut securing the bottom and round washer on top.

My lnl press is mounted to the 5/8" plate using half inch ss nuts and bolts set up also. My Rockchucker is mounted to its own 5/8" plate, using 3/8" stainless nuts and bolts, that matches the LNL plate so all I have to do is remove the 4 half inch mounting bolts and change the plate.

There is no movement in my bench or press while I am reloading or doing anything else.

I have tall stools so that I can work at the bench either standing or sitting.

I will post pics this weekend, once the final set up of the LNL is complete.

[powaybob]

Continuing the saga of the LNL, I received the replacement primer cam rod yesterday and proceeded to install it. I ended up removing the press from the bench to get at the nut underneath that holds the rod in place. I completely disassembled the primer mechanism, cleaned it by wiping it down with a paper towel, and did find some rough edges that I smoothed a bit with a fine file (looks like I need a Dremel tool to really polish these parts or does someone have a tip on how best to do this. I am a computer engineer and don't know much about the fine points of working with metal). The shuttle in particular was pretty dinged up. I loosened the protective shroud to allow a little "wiggle" room.

I ran about 20 rounds through and the primer assembly worked more reliably but it still gets hung up below the tube and does not go fully forward. But at least I got through the 20 rounds without a missing primer. That is some progress at least. And it is still fun.

[badreligion]

Metal work is a fine science in itself. To remove burs files are a good way to get started. Be careful and go slowly cleaning and checking your work often. If you remove to much material you can make things worse. I like to finish my file work with emery cloth to polish and remove tool marks.
A dremel tool system is a great system for small detail work. Home depot has them on sale right now. You can use the polishing wheel with compound to put a high shine on metal with some practice. You can also ruin your stuff if your careless.

[ar15barrels]

A dremel tool system is a great system for small detail work. Home depot has them on sale right now. You can use the polishing wheel with compound to put a high shine on metal with some practice. You can also ruin your stuff if your careless.

A dremel tool in the hands of a customer is the gunsmith's best friend.
You won't believe some of the things people have brought me after they jacked them up...

[badreligion]

I am sure you have seen some things that make you scratch your head in disbelief. Dremels like any other tool takes time to master.
I would suggest that anyone planning to use any tool get some material to play with, practice on and plan to destroy before using those tools to do final work. People always wonder why some professions get paid so well. The basic truth is they took lots of small steps and messed a lot of things up to become a professional.
There is a fine line between polishing and removing material. Like I said slow steady work, never try to make it perfect on the first pass.

[powaybob]

On my weekly trip to Home Depot ( I really should buy stock in that store) I bought the Dremel tool that was on sale. I used one of the stones to smooth a couple of rough spots and then used the fabric and rouge to polish parts of it. There was serious improvement but it is not yet perfect. It is still catching on something occasionally and not coming forward. I know suspect the rear of the shuttle away from the primer pickup. I'll polish that next.

As I was grinding away AR-15's comment about the Dremel being the gunsmith's best friend was forward in my mind, so I did as little grinding as I could and spent a lot more time polishing. That seems to be the best approach since the parts fit pretty precisely already- no need to change dimensions of the piece, just get it to run more smoothly.

As noted, indexing and priming are sensitive to debris. A missed primer and powder into the case upset everything. To address that my Home Depot purchase included a cheap 1 inch paint brush to sweep stuff away and a can of compressed air to blow stuff away. That helps.

I loaded about 100 rounds in an hour or so, which included the time to polish the shuttle, with only 4 failure to prime. A lot better than the 1 in 5 I was getting a while ago.

Still lots to learn to get up to the multiple hundred rounds per hour some folks have achieved.

[ar15barrels]

I loaded about 100 rounds in an hour or so, which included the time to polish the shuttle, with only 4 failure to prime. A lot better than the 1 in 5 I was getting a while ago.

4 priming problems in 100 round is still a serious problem.
If I had 2 priming problems in 500 rounds, I would be stripping down my dillon press to look for the problem.
I'll accept 1 in 500, but 2 is a problem that needs dealing with.

[nn3453]

4 priming problems in 100 round is still a serious problem.
If I had 2 priming problems in 500 rounds, I would be stripping down my dillon press to look for the problem.
I'll accept 1 in 500, but 2 is a problem that needs dealing with.

0 priming problems in the last several thousand rounds. The LnL is a good press if you understand how to set it up right and gain experience with it.

It is a tool, not a religion. No need to turn it into a holy war. I like both brands. The 650 is a slightly better press I believe, fewer issues out of the box. It is also a lot more expensive. I have used both. The LnL is cheaper and you have to watch out for certain things, especially with the case feeder, but once you get around to figuring out how to fix the quirks it is smooth sailing. It is faster to change calibers. People complain about ergonomics. Not an issue if you have a case feeder. Then you only have to worry about the bullets. Hornady has fixed most issues in newer designs and their customer service is top notch. Dillon has been on the scene a lot longer.

[Hans Gruber]

I should be getting my LnL press either tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll post up if I run into any problems.

[powaybob]

I finally got to shoot my first efforts with the LNL and the results were not impressive. Total was probably 250 rounds. I had more than a dozen fail to feed due to the plating on the Rainier (copper plate) or Precision (moly plate) bullets being scraped and accumulating in a lump outside the case. I had several fail to fire either due to lack of a new primer or the primer not firing. A few of the fail to fire were due to the round not being fully seated in the chamber and the primer got a light hit. They fired after getting a good hit after being properly seated. I also had three squib loads resulting in bullets being stuck in the barrel. Fortunately they were positioned so subsequent rounds could not chamber. A 7/16 dowel came in handy. I was shooting most through a Springfield Armory XD.

I was pretty humbled by all the mistakes. After using a single stage press for years and never having a squib and few failures to feed, I was surprised at my error rate. I have a lot to learn in getting the press operating smoothly. I think the squibs probably came from my concern over the primer feed problems I was having and advancing the shell plate without raising it far enough to load powder.

The positioning of the bullet in the case so there is no scraping of the surface is troubling. I had Lee dies which were a bit short for this press and I was getting a lot of scrapes that I detected and through into the scrap bin. I changed to Hornady dies which reduced this somewhat, but now I think I have the dies set so they start to crimp before the bullet is fully seated. Is that possible?

The immediate problems to be addressed are reliable priming so I am not pre-occupied with this and cause me to overlook other simultaneous problems, and to work on the bullet seating and crimping step, re-adjusting the die to ensure the bullet is seated before it is crimped. Any tricks there?

At this point I am still inclined to blame the operator and not the equipment. I still have a lot to learn. For me, a hobby is as much about learning something new as it is doing something enjoyable. I think I will stick to 45 reloading until I get that process working reliably with the Hornady press before trying anything else, especially rifle.

With all the bad rounds I made, I broke my kinetic puller (actually the collet few apart and the pieces disappeared) so I ordered a new one from Midway and also the cam type that uses a press. I also ordered a primer flipper tray (why doesn't Hornady include that in the package- it is only a couple of bucks) and a couple more reloading books.

[nn3453]

but now I think I have the dies set so they start to crimp before the bullet is fully seated. Is that possible?

That will do it. Probably up there in the list of top 10 rookie mistakes. Make sure you back out the seater, have a case in the shell holder and tighter the die until it touches the case. Then screw in the die half a turn in or out depending on how much crimp you want or do not want. Then seat the bullet and adjust the seater until the desired depth is reached.

I will bet anything that your issues are operator mistakes. I have lost count of the number of rounds of 5 different handgun calibers and 3 rifle calibers I have loaded using my LnL.