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Did Hornady fix their case feeder problems?


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Powder measure has no fail safe and have to buy another rotor for it to do well with small charges. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/615914/hornady-lock-n-load-powder-measure-micrometer-for-handgun-rotor-and-metering-assembly

It also doesnt come with a baffle but that is pretty easy to make too.

I never found much difference between OALs with my LNL's or other machines, all acceptable.

The half index is not a bad idea, having to adjust the paws to "time" your press kind of sucks until you figure out what your doing.

My LNL came with both powder rotors and a baffle.

Ditto.

Mine runs great with small (3.6, 4.1, 4.4 grains Titegroup/Universal) Most consistant powder measure I have ever used. Case feeder is still in a box awaiting new bench... will have to see how that goes!

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I´ve learned, that the LnL AP has a lot of advantages above the Dillon 650 (lower costs, better powder measurer, more consistent OAL, half way indexing for solve the powder stray issue of the 650, and some more).

Lower press cost, higher case feed cost.

Powder measure has no fail safe and have to buy another rotor for it to do well with small charges. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/615914/hornady-lock-n-load-powder-measure-micrometer-for-handgun-rotor-and-metering-assembly

It also doesnt come with a baffle but that is pretty easy to make too.

I never found much difference between OALs with my LNL's or other machines, all acceptable.

The half index is not a bad idea, having to adjust the paws to "time" your press kind of sucks until you figure out what your doing.

Dated info. Buying the press, the PM will come with both rotors, and both the press and separate PM purchase come with the powder baffle.

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Hornady did silently update their case feeder some time back (maybe a year or so?).

Previously, there were some talking about 're-clocking' the collator vs the tube position, to line them up more properly...this is no longer an issue.

Somewhere, I and others posted numerous LnL AP tips..I could probably dig them up from my notes if needed, but overall, the press itself sans case feeder, is pretty easy to get set up once properly, and then more or less forget about it. This includes some minor stuff that perhaps shouldn't 'need' to be done, such as smoothing the primer shuttle and beveling it slightly to avoid powder easily jamming the shuttle, but it'll work well with very minor, more or less one time only effort.

The case feeder isn't perfect. There is some initial adjustment that isn't terribly obvious, adjusting the effective tube length to ensure a pair of cases can't jam the sensor, like so:

bZQKKC6.jpg

Once adjusted, however, this issue is adjusted once and forgotten, and will fill the tube looking something like this:

KyDeZ0f.jpg

As the 'pusher blocks' don't extend all the way downwards, I've added a 'pusher' made of a paper clip, to help push the shells from the bottom (much less chance of tipping for e.g. .223).

2aj43Cy.jpg

Someone else has posted pics elsewhere of extending the drop tube with a piece of thin-walled PVC or other tube, which also helps. I've done it with a piece of clear tubing, I think I got from Linen and Things online..no pic, but it just slips over the silver drop tube shown here:

ry4mABc.jpg

Last on my mods list...I believe Hornady really should have designed and included a few funnel tube inserts. With shorter cases (e.g. 9mm), it's possible for the case to occasionally lodge itself in the funnel front to back, which will then result in 'brass rain' as it blocks off the funnel and tube. I cut up a primer tray that sits on the front face of the funnel, which makes the front to back distance < length of a 9mm case, and eliminates that problem. .223 could infrequently manage the same side to side, so - another cut up primer tray hooked into the left hand side of the funnel pretty much resolves that. You can see that 'insert' in one of my pics above.

With these things done, for me, for .223 and 9mm, it's pretty good. Not perfect as in 100%, never any brass rain or jams at all, but pretty good, as in I can usually load for a session of 200-500 9mm with 0 or 1 issues, and similarly for .223. It's reliable enough that I haven't quite become motivated enough to chase down that 'final few %.' What will happen occasionally is a jam of sorts at the top of the tube, but still in the collator. As the Dillon and Hornady collator plates are identical, maybe this happens on Dillon as well? What I *think* is happening is you get multiple cases still on top of each other somehow at the top of the rotation, with one case in the correct 'ready to drop' slot/position, but then the motor's rotational speed is slightly too fast for the 'extra' cases, causing a jam. If so, there seem to be two ways to solve it - adding a rheostat or fixed resistance to slow the motor down slightly, or maybe putting a slot in the side of the collator to put a 'wiper' on the inside of the collator, knocking back any 'extra' cases just before the case drop. One of these days, I may get to it..maybe. :)

Pretty happy with it overall, but wanted to add some more info in case someone digs this thread up later..or, of course, if anyone has the 'last remaining issue' above solved already. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great photos and tech. What did you do to get the 223 case to sit like that? Use the primer holder? I've messed around with it a bit, and I still get 223 cases piling up on each other once in a while.

I did the primer holder trick on the funnel. Definitely does the job keeping the small cases in line. Before that, 9mm cases were all over the place.

I used a clear 12ga hull over the drop tube. Works like a champ. Wiggled the crimped part of the hull over the tube to give a friction fit. I liked it more than using the pvc.

I have a camera squeeze blow gun next to the press to blow things off once in a while. Got it off Amazon. Large hand held black bulb with a red plastic tip. Does a nice job, and was cheap. Keeps powder out of the primer mechanism, and just takes a couple quick squeezes.

Edited by soflarick
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Great photos and tech. What did you do to get the 223 case to sit like that? Use the primer holder? I've messed around with it a bit, and I still get 223 cases piling up on each other once in a while.

Which pic, the before w/jam, or after (one w/cut up primer holder in funnel)?

It's been a while since I fixed that particular issue, so it may have been taken (pic one above, no primer cutup in funnel) with the ram up, engaging the next shell to drop, with the shell at the top of the stack + the new one just dropped actually wedging below and over the switch in the tube - a condition which would pretty immediately result in overloading the funnel/jam. For that specific issue, I adjusted the tube 'length' with the adjuster at the bottom of the tube, to make sure the above shown pic doesn't/can't happen at either ram up or ram down position, which stopped most of the .223 jams/rain of brass, while the primer cutout inserted into the side of the funnel removed the possibility of a sideways jam in the funnel.

For loading 9mm, I'll also insert a 'primer tray funnel insert' on the front face, so the distance of the funnel front to back is < the length of a 9mm case.

Good idea on the shotgun shell, BTW - I had plenty of those, but went looking for a tube.. ;) Also on the camera/lens blower..have a couple of those, will use as backup for whenever I run out of canned air...a single can lasts a pretty good while (I usually blast the tray before/after sessions, or every few hundred rounds, but only for a second or two)..but 'free is good,' too. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Only for the books, gentlemen:

Me, as the fred starter, has bought a Dillon 650 now, mostly because of the case feeder problems from Hornady.

I´ve googled around, spoke and wrote with Hornady owners, contacted Hornady via email and made my decision.

I don´t want to buy a product for fairly enough money and have to "repair/customize" it, brand new, out of the box.

Thanks for all of your infos,

have a good life,

Jay.

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Powder measure has no fail safe and have to buy another rotor for it to do well with small charges. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/615914/hornady-lock-n-load-powder-measure-micrometer-for-handgun-rotor-and-metering-assembly

It also doesnt come with a baffle but that is pretty easy to make too.

I never found much difference between OALs with my LNL's or other machines, all acceptable.

The half index is not a bad idea, having to adjust the paws to "time" your press kind of sucks until you figure out what your doing.

My LNL came with both powder rotors and a baffle.

Same.

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The LnL case feeder works well if you:

1. Don't overload it with brass, to much will cause the feeder plate to tilt and become disengaged.

2. CAREFULLY adjust the clearance between the drop tube and cam block. Most critical for 40 brass.

3. Follow all the adjustment instructions.

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  • 2 months later...

Just to throw my feed back out there for the lnl case feeder, I recently purchased a case feeder after a year of inserting the cases manually and have had no problems so far.I wish I would have bought it earlier is the short response. I have only loaded 9mm and I've only loaded about 1500 rounds so far but it for the most part has been smooth.Super easy to set up and I haven't really done any adjustments and seems to work surprisingly well compared to the reviews I've read. Some cases on occasion will be upside down maybe once every 300 so far. about two times the funnel at the top of the hopper has had a case sit sideways, clogging it and producing the "brass rain" mentioned above. Although you will notice if you are paying any sort of attention because you wont hear cases dropping but it will continue to spin and fill up the funnel. the fix above for the brass rain is going to be my first adjustment and will hopefully solve the only issue I have had so far. I don't know if hornady made any changes to the case feeder with recent models, but mine is Awesome!

(my luck and everything will go wrong the next time i use it :surprise: )

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I recently added a casefeeder to my LNL AP for .38 Special exclusively, and have added several very cheap mods that (thus far) seem to have eliminated:

- Collator wheel jams

- Case rain

- Upside down cases

- Shell plate tipping jams

- Primer follower rod snagging

The whole casefeeder now runs superbly and so far has been 100% reliable, only defective cases will hang it up.

After some more testing I'm planning on sharing pics and descriptions of those mods.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Powder measure has no fail safe and have to buy another rotor for it to do well with small charges. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/615914/hornady-lock-n-load-powder-measure-micrometer-for-handgun-rotor-and-metering-assembly

It also doesnt come with a baffle but that is pretty easy to make too.

I never found much difference between OALs with my LNL's or other machines, all acceptable.

The half index is not a bad idea, having to adjust the paws to "time" your press kind of sucks until you figure out what your doing.

My LNL came with both powder rotors and a baffle.

So to did mine
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  • 4 years later...

Bit of a necro-bump, but this seems like the best place to put it:

I got a casefeeder for my LNL, and it has been mostly good, except for cases hanging up in the funnel, between the collator plate and drop aperture(can't think of a better description at the moment), or between the bowl and plate after the aperture.

I saw this(https://www.sassybrass.com/sassybrass/product/casecage/) and made my own version of it(just because I didn't want to wait for shipping) with parts from the hardware store. Installation and alignment took about ten minutes and it looks like it should fix all of the issues I was having with the feeder.

Loading 9mm, by the way.

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Good upgrade, Harpo. Wish it was around 6 years ago when I sold my LNL. Having only Dillon since, I can say it’s a shame both Dillon and Hornady haven’t fixed these issues. Dillon’s new feeder is a good start. 
 

I got the upgrade kit for my Dillon as the adjustable speed helps with that case that gets stuck in the gate. 

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