mk7 evopro review from a lee loadmaster user

[andrewtac]

A little background first...engineer by training, fly airplanes to by the bills.  So I've been taught to analyze and figure things out, but as a pilot I know everything (dangerous combination).  I loaded on the loadmaster for years, before that a pro-1000.  So I have tinkered with reloaders as much as I have actually reloaded.  I was overall happy with the loadmaster with speed and success rate (I'd say on average probably 96-98% of the bullets I loaded I was able to use, that was an acceptable waste level to me based on the cost of the reloader).  I finally decided to upgrade to a more expensive reloader.  My desire is to have something closer to 99%+ of acceptable rounds, and more importantly not have to pull the handle and load ammo semi-autonomously. 

 

Unboxing - Overall impression is it is an order of magnitude higher as far as quality of parts from my Lee (my daughter has a 550, and I'd say the quality of parts appear to far exceed it as well, never seen a 1050).  The machine work looks to be from quality machines, the press is very rigid, fitment of parts seems to be exact.  There was a scratch or two I found, but that doesn't bother me.  The spring that holds the shell cases in is brilliant.  It allows easy access to remove shells if your checking something without any tools, and it is also easy to put the shells back in. 

 

Assembly - I utilized the MK7 directions, found them very intuitive and easy to follow.  I set the dies as follows 2-Lee sizing with decapper; I process my brass prior to loading; this die is a QC check for size and that the flash hole is empty. 3-MA Swage hold down, no experience with swage, but figured it couldn't hurt.  4.Redding sizing die no decapper, this is another QC for size but mainly to hold the shell for priming.  5-Lee expander die with Mr.bullet expander. 6-powder drop.  7-currently empty, I have a mk7 powder check on order.  8-mr bullet feeder, 9-redding seater, 10-lee fcd (I have used one for 10+years and never had an issue for 9mm,10mm, and 40).  I set the dies up using the MK7 directions.  When setting up the primer station the press quit indexing (will discuss more below in the problem section).  I got the press running prior to setting up the autodrive, however I screwed up the mr.bullet feeder by cutting the spring too short (no knowledge of it, I didn't no there must be zero side force on the top of the drop or it will double feed every time regardless of die height).  **for those who haven't used a mr.bullet feeder or are unaware that there must be zero side force on the top of the drop from the spring, make sure you don't over trim the spring for the drop**.  The autodrive was also easy to put together using the directions.  I did have some issues with the tablet, mostly self induced (will discuss in the problem section).  One the issues were solved, controlling the press with the autodrive and tablet is intuitive.   

 

Problems -

 

1.  My first issue was the press quit indexing when I was putting the dies in.  I suspect that this occurred because the dies put pressure on the shell plate and moved it a little.  The problem was the index paw was not dropping down into the hole in the index plate.  I removed the tool head and hold down nut and was able to trouble shoot and find the problem.  The indexing on the press uses a paw that sits into a hole on the shell plate, at the top of the stoke the paw pushes the shell plate one station forward, on the down stroke the paw rotates backwards to set itself in a hole in the index plate one station back.  The paw seems to have some give (maybe there is a spring of some sort in there, I didn't take the press all the way apart, but you can press on the paw and feel that it moves a little and tends to want to go up).  The shape of the top of the paw is sort of a half sphere on top.  The backside is rounded off and the front side is flat (this side pushes on the shell plate).  During the backwards action of the paw, since it is rounded on the backside and has some spring it slides out of the hole rather than push the shell plate backwards.  On my press as the paw was actuating backwards it would drop out of the forward hole and then hang up on the hole it was sliding back to on the upper right forward section of the paw.  If I lifted the side of the plate a smidge or manually turned the plate forward a smidge the paw would pop into the hole and then the plate would index.  I sent in a help ticket to MK7, it took a day for a reply.  They wanted me to use the indexing instructions to try to set the indexing.  I had already done this, should have been more clear on my help ticket.  I replied then they wanted a video, and were going to send it to engineering as the techs didn't know how to solve it.  That evening I found a post on the revolution page that said to file the edge of the paw.  Based on how the plate/paw/index functioned I had already reached this conclusion, and since I found a recommendation on the mk7 site I decided to just do it as I knew it would solve the problem.  A little at a time, and I got to index 100%.  Later in another call for the next issue, I told the tech what I did and he said that was one of the solutions engineering was going to recommend (once they saw the video and confirmed the issue). 

 

2.  Once I had the autodrive hooked up and tablet mounted, I turned on the tablet and it would not show the accept or deny buttons on the reloader menu, so it was stuck and I couldn't get past that screen.  I called MK7, got through in about a minute.  Step one was to upgrade the firmware.  For some reason the tablet wouldn't read the sd card I tried.  I tried another one and it worked.  Once it loaded, I tired again and the tablet wouldn't show the accept or deny buttons.  So it was stuck.  I was getting frustrated.  Evidently I didn't seat the 5pin wire that goes from the console to the motor, plugged it in and it worked!.

 

3.  Mr. bulletfeeder gave me fits.  I should have ran it into a bucket prior to running the press.  I set it up based on the DAA manual.  On initial startup, bullets started falling out of the bullet feeder.  I was trying to watch it, the press, and the shell feeder.  I mistakenly thought the bullets were falling out due to the spring being to long.  So I trimmed it, fired it up, same problem.  Trimmed it again, same problem.  I finally realized the bullets were falling out of the top of the feeder and not the spring.  Well at this point I had trimmed too much off the spring.  When the press was in the down position it was pulling on the bullet feeder; this resulted in a double feed of bullets every time (I did some searches and this is a know problem with the system).  So I have ordered a new spring.  During this time I also decided to watch the bullet feeder from the top.  The DAA manual showed a bullet slightly low as the correct shim height.  I am using BB 200 grain 40 bullets, in order for the flipper to work correctly I needed two thick shims and one thin.  This resulted in the base of the bullet sitting a bit out of the hole.  I ran it for a while all bullets flipped and none got pushed overboard. 

 

3.1. The micro switch on the bullet feeder would get stuck open, shutting off the motor and not feeding bullets.  I took it apart (cut the zip tie) to look at it and made sure the hole had clearance.  While having it apart the microswitch had spring and I also found the hole for it had clearance.  I put it back together and I still had the issue.  Again, frustrated as I knew it worked and knew it had clearance.  So I figured it was not aligned after tightening a zip tie during assembly.  I rotated the microswitch slightly and it worked 100%.  I suspect had I done this before taking it apart it would have worked. 

 

Low rate production - I made a couple hundred rounds today.  The OAL was spot on, very little variation.  The powder drop was fairly consistent.  My scale measures to 0.0, I saw a variation of +/- 0.1 grains using WST.  Most of the samples (probably 75%) were spot on; on the chrono using a sample size of 20 for two different loads my SD was 5 and 7; good enough for USPSA.  I did have two times that the shell plate did not advance and resulted in double charges.  While loading I have to stand on the left side of the press and hold the bullet feeder spring straight to prevent the double drop of bullets (can't wait for the new spring).  This results in about 90% of my attention focused on the bullet feeder and I cannot see the right side of the press at all.  Both times that it didn't index I had a crushed case on the right side of the press.  I suspect the shell plate had force on it while the case was getting crushed and resulted in a bind on the index paw.  Currently I am unable to monitor the right side of the press to determine the problem.  Once I get the bullet feeder spring hopefully I can figure out what is causing crushed cases.  I will use the powder check die once I get that, that should stop the press with any double charges.  Hopefully I don't have an index issue and it is due to the crushed cases. 

 

Overall I am happy so far.  Customer service was quick to reply to emails and quick to get on the phone.  There are a couple bugs to work out.  Some of those were self induced.  I don't trust it enough to run it without watching it directly.  However, I think it will get to the point where I can run it and do something else in the garage at the same time.  That was the goal with it, save some time and allow me to multi task.  I also plan on another tool head using a MA die to decap, maybe swage sense, and two sizing dies (regular followed by a U die) for processing.  I have done two pass for some time and plan on continuing with it; though the press is more than capable to single pass.  I usually process a 5 gallon bucket or two of brass at a time. 

 

 

[mayassa]

Great feedback thanks!

[tanks]

4 hours ago, andrewtac said:

...  However, I think it will get to the point where I can run it and do something else in the garage at the same time.  That was the goal with it, save some time and allow me to multi task.  I also plan on another tool head using a MA die to decap, maybe swage sense, and two sizing dies (regular followed by a U die) for processing.  I have done two pass for some time and plan on continuing with it; though the press is more than capable to single pass.  I usually process a 5 gallon bucket or two of brass at a time. 

 

I have the Revolution so it is from that perspective I am talking. I think once you get all the sensors { PowderSense and BulletSense ) you should be able to run it and multi task. Now, I have the automatic primer collator and for me that adds one other thing to watch for. At this point all the jams occur at that station due to brass issues (though not that often). If you pre-process the brass like you stated then even those issues go away. I have found S&B brass just does not work. I am looking forward to getting the primer orientation sensor whenever M7 releases it as that will allow to catch issues upstream of the process.

 

For a USPSA shooter making two passes is not a big time sink especially seeing that you can run the press full out at max speed with no dwells for brass processing and in a few hours you have enough brass to last a very long while. That process you don't even need to watch,  just keep adding brass every 20 minutes or so. Perfect interval for dry firing etc. while the press is working. In my case it is a 3 step process overall as I roll size all brass as well. I am running out of cat litter plastic containers to hold all the brass. After Area 2 I will turn all the brass into ammo.

 

One interesting think I had to do is that I have the large 14" case feeder. I can put 1K brass in it at a time but brass was flying off the top as the case feeder was rotating. I made a cardboard shield and taped it to the top to stop the brass flying. I might have a machine shop make an aluminum shield for it so it doesn't look like a hack job  

[slavex]

I made the same shield, MK7 says they are making a plexi one that will be hinged or something. I look forward to that so mine doesn't look like some homeless dude made it

[LowBoost]

Tanks:

 

I believe you have written a few references to this, but I am too tired to do a search right now. Do you still believe a two pass process is the better option to avoid issues or do you think that a one-pass with sorted brass should be OK and without issues?  

[Smithcity]

On 10/25/2018 at 9:01 PM, LowBoost said:

Tanks:

 

I believe you have written a few references to this, but I am too tired to do a search right now. Do you still believe a two pass process is the better option to avoid issues or do you think that a one-pass with sorted brass should be OK and without issues?  

You will no question have less issues running 2 passes. It will work with 1 pass, you will be stopping more often to deal with issues, likely have more powder spillage opportunities, etc. If you fully process the brass, then move to loading with case lube, it is darn near close to loading with brand new brass.

[donttreadonme]

It is without a doubt better to brass process separate from your loading press. However, the Revolution is completely capable of one pass processing.

[tanks]

On 10/25/2018 at 8:01 PM, LowBoost said:

Tanks:

 

I believe you have written a few references to this, but I am too tired to do a search right now. Do you still believe a two pass process is the better option to avoid issues or do you think that a one-pass with sorted brass should be OK and without issues?  

 

The presses are fully capable of doing everything in one pass. That being said fully processed brass would make the loading process go faster. Majority of the issues are related to the brass, so the better shape your brass is in the better the reloading. I have talked to some guys that have loaded 10s of thousands of rounds on the revolution starting with new brass and afterwards only use their own fired and processed brass and have had no issues whatsoever.

 

Seeing that you are sorting your brass, I'd throw away any S&B brass you come across.

[andrewtac]

update...

 

I have the powder sense die now and fixed the mr.bullet feeder.  I used the new brass sensor rather than the mixed head stamp sensor as it has tighter tolerances; I am using range pickup mixed brass (so we'll see).  I did several test runs with empty and double charges; stopped the press.  I dumped out what appear to be about 1/4 of the double charge and it would still stop it.  I didn't do any actual weights to see when it set the press off, but it is unlikely that I'll have anything other than no charge, correct charge, or double charge.  

 

While waiting for the powdersense I took the shell plate off again to check the paw, seemed fine.  Did a good cleaning and lube.  

 

I ran the press and watched it do it's thing.  In the 1st 100 rounds I had two failures to index; the powdersense worked and stopped the press.  However, this is an unacceptable rate.  I remember seeing somewhere it was recommended to loosen the shell plate in not indexing proper.  I think I had over tightened it. The set screws were further clockwise than factory.  I loosened the plate a little past where it came from the factory.  It ran 300 more rounds with no failures (OAL was still consistent).  Not quite ready for autonomous operations, but getting there.  I had a friend print me the ramp used for the brass collator.  I had one stoppage tonight with the collator, should install the ramp tomorrow prior to testing.