Lee loadmaster is AWESOME...

[psriley]

...unless your primary interest is making ammunition. If you're into tinkering with machines and swearing, it's right up your alley. Shipped last week, mine made almost 200 usable rounds and several paperweights before the cascade of failures, primarily due to cheap plastic parts, began. Out of the box, the case feeder never worked once without binding. I just took off the linkage and manuallly actuated the feeder. Not ideal, but I could've lived with it. Next, the little plastic shuttle part in the priming "system" got lunched by the priming post. Fixed that with the spare, made about 10 more rounds, then the indexer started jamming. About the only things that DO work are the powder disk and the dies themselves.

On the positive side, the rounds I was able to complete chambered and fired in my Kimber with no issues.

Sorry for the rant from a newbie, but I felt compelled to share this in case anyone else is thinking about ignoring sound advice to the contrary on this board and other boards and buying one of these. Mine's going back to Midway and I'm going to pick up a Dillon, which appears to be well-regarded. I realize there are people that use loadmasters with no issues, but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. I think this is truly a case of "you get what you pay for".

Cheers.

[buffybuster]

The Lee Loadmaster's can/do work very well. However, they are a bit fiddly and you NEED to be very careful in setting them up and adjusting everything. On Lee Precision Website there are a few videos on setting them up which may help you.

I kind of had a similar experience (though not as bad as you) in the beginning. 10 years later, I have two Loadmasters and I've loaded 100K's rounds with no further problems. You just need to check adjustments every 5K or so and lube it in the right locations. Don't give up on it yet..... or buy a Dillon 650.

[MustangO4]

I have it and use it and like it for the $ I too removed the case feeder and do it by hand, and I order the primer feeder slider widgets 5 at a time. If you had one set for each cal and left it alone, it would be great, but changing cals caused most of my problems. Most of them were from the case feeder. Good luck.

[psriley]

The Lee Loadmaster's can/do work very well. However, they are a bit fiddly and you NEED to be very careful in setting them up and adjusting everything. On Lee Precision Website there are a few videos on setting them up which may help you.

I kind of had a similar experience (though not as bad as you) in the beginning. 10 years later, I have two Loadmasters and I've loaded 100K's rounds with no further problems. You just need to check adjustments every 5K or so and lube it in the right locations. Don't give up on it yet..... or buy a Dillon 650.

Thanks for pointing out those videos...I had somehow managed to overlook them on the Lee site, and they were helpful. I got the indexing readjusted per the video, and it seems to be working all right again. If the plastic parts are intended to be basically consumables, I can probably live with that, though I'd gladly pay a few more bucks up front on the press if they'd use metal. I watched the video of the customer chunking out rounds, and now that I've seen the case feed actually work, I'm determined to give that another shot.

Still got the shopping cart loaded on the Dillon site, but willing to give the Lee one more shot...

[anothergunnut]

My first real reloading experience was with a Lee turret press. It worked okay but the turret was driven by a plastic doo hickey which was always out of adjustment or stripped. I stepped up to a Dillon Square Deal which I still have. Although it is much more expensive, it too has it's set of problems. The primer systems is always dumping primers, sometimes the whole column of 100. When only one slips by and I don't notice it, it gets stuck in the mechanism and slowly self destructs. My point is that progressive presses tend to be finicky regardless of maker (but they sure crank out the ammo).

Now that I am thinking of reloading rifle ammo, which the Dillon won't do, I think I am going to go backwards and get a single stage press. I guess whenever I am ready, I will turn to you guys for help.

[buffybuster]

psriley,

Make sure the ram is aligned properly, sometime during shipping it can get tweaked. Also, slightly loosen all the case keepers (little tabs around the shellplate) and run one empty case all the way around slowly and smoothly. At each station tighten the tabs down as you go. Now the case should be perfectly aligned on the shellplate and to the toolhead. The primer feeder is the trickiest, just make sure everything operates smoothly before putting primers in it. Those plastic parts aren't necessarily comsumables, I haven't munched any plastic parts in about 20-30K rounds. You do need to occasionally take everything apart and clean out all the carbon, unburnt powder, cleaning media, bits of brass, etc.. so things don't get hung up. Also, it is very important that you work and developing a rythmn, smooth stroke both down and up and feel for problems before they become problems. When I'm loading I can load 100 rounds in under 4 minutes. With time to refill primers, casefeeder, etc. I can still load 600rounds/hr and they all come out perfect. I think that's pretty decent.

Granted a Dillon 650 is better, (I have one) but the Loadmasters aren't too bad either, once everything is set up. It's the setting up that is the PITA... you need the patience of a saint.

Good Luck

[psriley]

Appreciate all the kind advice, and it did help me squeeze out a few more rounds. Heck, for about 10 minutes, I actually had the case feeder more or less working as well. But after religiously following the instructions that came with it and following the tips in the video clips, I've still got a machine that requires an awful lot of coaxing. The case feeder got out of sync (for lack of a better term) again, and I disconnected it again, the indexing got sloppy again, then quit all together despite several attempts to readjust.

I'm pretty adept mechanically speaking, but my primary interest is making good quality 45 ACP ammo (which this machine does when it's working). Also, I'd rather be monitoring correct powder charge, bullet seating depth, primer depth, etc., rather than wondering whether the machine is going to index this time. Think I might check out the Dillon.

[anyracoon]

I would pack it up and send it back, if you can, if not than put it on E-Bay. Than buy a Dillon. If you are going to to do just pistol in one or two calibers get a Dillon Square Deal other wise a 550 or 650, depending how much you plan to shoot. Just drink the Blue Kool-Aid.

[psriley]

Koolaid has been drunk. XL 650 is on the way.

Think I'll actually hang on to the Lee and use it for experimental or individual loads.