Lee MicroDisk and Titegroup

[N5XTH]

Good morning all

I am trying to build a 9MM load - 147 grain plated bullet over 3.0-3.3 grains of Titegroup. I use a Lee Turret press. Using the smallest of the normal disks my throws are in the 3.5-3.6 range. It was recommended that I move to the Micro disk for smaller throws. I purchased the Micro Disk, but using the .27 hole I am only throwing 1.9-2.0 grains. Am I doing something wrong???? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Graham Smith]

I may be wrong but I think that 3.0 is a bit low. Never the less, here is a trick for creating an adjustable disk. Get an extra set of disks so you can mess with things and drill a hole in the side of the disk into the "cup" you are using. If you have a tap set, you can tap it and put a bolt in, otherwise use a fine threaded screw. By moving the bolt in and out, you have an adjustable powder disk.

Needless to say, take your time with this and be careful or you will crack the disk.

[iainmcphersn]

My experience with Lee is their table data is usually off. If the table shows a .27cc aperture should throw 3.0 gr Titegroup, it's going to throw less.

I tend to ignore Lee's tables, weigh the charges, and change to a larger or smaller aperture until I hit my desired charge.

I'm loading on a Lee 1000, 9mm with 147 gr lead truncated cones and Titegroup, I believe the charge is a little over 3 grains but don't have my data with me. I chrono'd some last night at 885 FPS from my G17 with Federal(?) aftermarket barrel.

I'll try to remember to check when I get home on the charge weight and disk aperture but I never bought the Micro disk kit. It has to be one of the standard sizes.

[BMartens]

Lee makes an adjustable bar and that might work. Don;t remember how small it will go.

You can also start with a smaller hole and enlarge it until you get what you want.

[Graham Smith]

Lee makes an adjustable bar and that might work. Don;t remember how small it will go.

It doesn't go small, it's for larger volumes.

[iainmcphersn]

I'll try to remember to check when I get home on the charge weight and disk aperture but I never bought the Micro disk kit. It has to be one of the standard sizes.

I'm using a .30 cc aperture and it's throwing 3.3 gr Titegroup.

[ETexPops]

I replaced the disks with the adjustable charge bar and it will go well below 3 gr with Titegroup. I agree with an above statement that Lee's numbers are a little off of the charges thrown by the disks. I tend to have to adjust a little higher with the charge bar but once it's set you are good to go. Might want to try it out.

[Graham Smith]

I replaced the disks with the adjustable charge bar and it will go well below 3 gr with Titegroup.

That's interesting. I tried the same thing and had no end of problems with consistency. When I contacted Lee, they told me that the bar was designed for larger volumes rather than smaller volumes.

[ETexPops]

Graham, maybe my choice of words was misleading. "Well below 3 gr" is just a little misleading. I went and set up some Titegroup this morning and could consistantly throw 2.8 gr. Maybe that's not too far below 3 gr but my particular charge bar will get under 3 grs although I am pretty sure I will not be loading in that range at all. Thanks for making me go check and make sure I didn't post bad info.

[Graham Smith]

I went and set up some Titegroup this morning and could consistantly throw 2.8 gr.

It's possible that they changed the bar since I bought mine 3 yrs ago. What I found was, that looking down through the powder measure, the opening of the adjustable bar was not fully centered under the hole in the bottom of the hopper. If I increased the volume a bit above 4.0 gr of Titegroup, the problem seemed to clear up.

[98sr20ve]

I replaced the disks with the adjustable charge bar and it will go well below 3 gr with Titegroup.

That's interesting. I tried the same thing and had no end of problems with consistency. When I contacted Lee, they told me that the bar was designed for larger volumes rather than smaller volumes.

I would agree. Mine did not like TG and small charges. I wouldn't trust that thing with 9mm TG loads. The discs work perfectly.

[CrankyCrash]

I spent tons of money on the various Lee Powder dispensing devices and/or accessories for my LoadMaster and basically gave up on them. I could hardly ever get the exact amount of grains that I wanted.

I saved up for a few months and bought this:

RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 Powder Scale and Dispenser Combo

This is extremely slow and is a manual process, yet I know exactly how many grains of powder I am actually putting in the case; no more guessing/second weighing because I don't trust the Lee Powder dispensing equipment.

[burningsquirrels]

I use the micrometer adjustable bar to throw 4.0 grains under a 124 jhp with little problem. once in 100 may throw low to almost none, haven't figured out why though. but that's why i look before adding the bullet on my LM. one time i saw a piece of cardboard, wierd. i may try duplicating the powder baffle i see a lot in dillon powder hopers to see if it fixes the problem. i think the issue is that with small charges under 3-4 grains, the opening in the micrometer bar becomes slit-shaped and powder may not drop nicely through it. otherwise, at my 4.0, it drops the same weight every time (minus the 1 in 100 issue).

i know i've missed looking at the case once, and this was the result:

ouch!

[jlow]

I am basically trying to do the same thing with the Lee Micrometer Adjustable Charge Bar and running into exactly the same problem. It will not dispense Titegroup when set to the correct setting which should be 0.26. I tried to increase the setting and it appears that it drops powder when set to somewhere around 0.4 but the amount is almost random and much more than 3 grain. In reading more, my understanding is that this setup does not work well with Titegroup at all. I am now looking at the micro disk but I want to avoid spending more money on this unless I know it can accurately measure Titegroup and in the range of 3.2 gr

I was re-reading the thread and notice iainmcphersn’s comment that “My experience with Lee is their table data is usually off” and the fact that he might be using one of their “standard sizes” disk. With this in mind, I use the smallest aperture in the standard size disk which is 0.30 which according to Lee throws 3.5 grains of Titegroup. Here is what I got from ten consecutive throws:

3.20

3.34

3.34

3.34

3.42

3.40

3.32

3.32

3.38

3.36

Average = 3.34

So that looks like it might work. I want 3.2 but I am willing to go to 3.3 which is 4% higher. What do you guys think?

ain.

Edited May 16, 2010 by jlow

[dsmw5142]

That stupid charge bar frustrates and scares me. It NEVER throws an accurate, consistent load for me and sometimes I end up with nothing at all on a pull. I ended up doing what Graham suggested above about two years ago. I drilled a hole in the side of a disk and used some soap to coax a set screw in nice and snug. Now I can just adjust it in and out as needed. Works great as do all the disks. I also tried enlarging one of the micro-disk holes a bit to get the mystical 3.2gr of Titegroup which worked ok. In the end I came up with the simplest fix of all... I stopped using Titegroup for the most part and switched to Solo 1000 which is near impossible to double charge.

Edited May 16, 2010 by dsmw5142

[jlow]

This is excellent advice!

I went and got the tap this morning and had no problem putting the set screw in. Now I just need to do some trial runs to figure out how far I need to put the screw in to get that magical 3.2 grains. Thanks guys - great info!