Lee's new brass processing machine

[Tokarev]

I got mine set up over the weekend. My main use will be de-capping 9mm brass. It doesn't run out of the box and if you are not willing or able to spend LOTS of time tinkering, don't buy one! After two days of frustration and almost on the verge of returning it for a refund, I've got mine running 90% reliable. The main issues were in the automatic transfer and feeding of cases. I've got mine hooked up to my Dillon case feeder and its doing a much better job than the single stage process I was using before so I am happy with the little APP. I just wish Lee would have spent more time in R&D and product set up before rushing it to market.

I assume getting the feeder to push in a new case and expell the other is going to take a lot of fiddling. Off just a bit and I'm sure you'll crush cases in short order.

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[igolfat8]

12 hours ago, Tokarev said:

I assume getting the feeder to push in a new case and expell the other is going to take a lot of fiddling. Off just a bit and I'm sure you'll crush cases in short order.

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It doesn’t crush cases but rather spits them all over creation.

[Tokarev]

It doesn’t crush cases but rather spits them all over creation.

Any update?

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[Hooked]

For just depriming 9mm brass, I found a used Lee Pro 1000 for $60.  Added the $15 collator and a universal decapping die and I was off to the races!

[N3WWN]

Just got mine on Friday and like it for the most part.

(I'm only bulge busting so far)

The issues I have are:

1) The C shaped riser on the case inserter is too far back when snapped all the way on. If all the way on, the jaws push the bottom of the case, tipping the case and causing it to jam against the next case in the feed tube. So far, leaving the riser out about 1/8" seems to be working. Both risers that I tried are too far back... I tried both 9mm and 40 S&W cases and both required the 1/8" gap to be present.

2) I didn't realize the automation kit was 4 sizes of single, short tubes. Based on the description, I thought we were getting what amounts to the universal case feeder with 4 tubes and a collator option. I can get about 18 cases in an APP tube, which isn't a lot, even compared to the 20 or so per universal case feeder tube (80+ for all 4 tubes).

3) When bulge busting, the cases have to be mouth down, so a collator won't work directly. If I'm going to touch every case and flip them to be mouth down, I may as well just use the bulge buster on my single stage press as I have been doing for years.

My first attempt to get past items 2 and 3 are plugging the end of one of the unused tubes with a rubber stopper and corking 3 of the 4 holes in the Lee collator so I can fill the tube with a handful of brass. The tube with collator is held upright using a single stage press as a support. When full, I pull the collator, cover the end of the tube with my finger, invert it over the feed tube on the APP and let the brass fall. Pull the handle 18 times, rinse, repeat.

Still not the high speed, low drag solution I was hoping for, but better then filling the feed tube one case at a time.

Anyone come up with any better methods?

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[Jeremyc_1999]

20 hours ago, Hooked said:

For just depriming 9mm brass, I found a used Lee Pro 1000 for $60.  Added the $15 collator and a universal decapping die and I was off to the races!

Can you put a case feeder on the lee pro 1000? 

 

[Hooked]

6 hours ago, Jeremyc_1999 said:

Can you put a case feeder on the lee pro 1000? 

 

With a bit of tinkering, I don't see why you couldn't. It would just be a matter of getting the Dillon casefeeder tube to line up and fit onto the feedramp of the Pro 1000. 

[OptimiStick]

Okay, replacement part came last week , and I had time to tinker with it today. I didn't have as much trouble with it as igolfat8 did. Mine pretty much worked out of the box for 9mm. It took me about 30 mins to get it set up. I've never worked with Lee before, and I think if you have experience with the Pro 1000, you'd breeze through the setup much faster. The APP shuttle sometimes catches before getting the case all the way into the shell-holder, but other than that, it seems to work okay. I may try trimming the spring for a little more tension if it continues to be a problem. I threw in an extra MA universal decapper i had laying around, and got to work. I just need to re-iterate - It's not a beefy machine at all compared to...any other press. The entire APP system is really thin delicate plastic and the tubes are just clear vinyl plastic tubing  - but it seems to do the job. You definitely 'feel' everything going on in the stroke.

 

I ordered the cheap universal case-feeder and collator from Lee, we'll see how that does. I also have an older Dillon case-feeder I may see if I can rig up on a pipe or conduit mount. I also have the swage kit coming to try out.

Edited February 12, 2020 by OptimiStick

[OptimiStick]

I got the swage kit installed and ran it through it's paces.It works fine. It actually works better than decapping does. When using the swage kit,there's a bottom die that holds the swage punch and spring, and your shell-holder goes into that. I think it changes the level of the shell-holder just a bit , and there's no obstruction when the shuttle is moving the case into the shell-holder. I ran a quick video so you can see it decapping and then swaging. You'll see the shuttle sticking a few times decapping. That was one of my better runs too

 

 

 

[Tokarev]

It does look like it swages pretty smoothly.

How is the swage itself? Is it adjustable? Have you primed any of those cases?

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[OptimiStick]

Yeah, it is adjustable a bit.  Basically the bottom punch is a set depth with spring resistance. You adjust it by controlling the length of the backing rod up top.Basically the punch is screwed in from bottom,through the spring and shell-holder. So the shell-holder can go down into the punch which is static. So by controlling that backer-rod depth on the top die, you're determining how deeply you are driving the case down into the swage punch. You have a positive stop on the press arm, the instructions say to adjust it so that you are putting 25 Lbs of pressure against that bottom spring assembly before hitting the stop. So you're muscling it against the spring and static punch assembly.  You get 22 cal and 30 cal backer rods, and small and large punches. There's also a longer top die in the kit for 223/556 that does some neck forming.

 

to your second question, no. I have not yet. I was looking last night and didn't see any nato 9mm brass that hadn't already been processed in my Mark7. I'm pretty sure I have some though, I'll work on it this weekend. I did sharpie some 9mm to make sure it was getting up in the pocket,and it was. But yeah, I want to test it to make sure it swages all the crimp out.

 

I will say, and you can see in the video, it's smoother at swaging than decapping. I think it's the depth of the shell-holder. It sits a little prouder in the decapping setup, and brass gets hung up a little bit at times sliding across the bottom into the shell-holder. That plastic shuttle is very very light, and there is not much spring tension. So anything in the path hangs it up. What you are seeing is not the press handle sticking, but me noticing that the case didn't make it centered on the shell-holder, so I stop and manipulate the handle to push the case further into the shell-holder. If I can get that smoothed out, you can really move quickly assuming you can feed it brass at a steady pace. Now for that, Lee sells a cheap little case feeder and 'collator' which looks like a gravity fed setup. But for 9mm , I need the 'small' version which apparently Lee has discontinued. People are complaining that the regular kit leaves too much room , causing the cases to lean, and causing issues. Some people appear to have existing stock of the discontinued part # (Small Case  Feeder # 90659). We'll see in a few days if they really had stock, or if their inventory reporting system just sucks. Without that piece, either I get the old Dillon case-feeder rigged up to it, or this thing goes on the shelf as a novelty.

[anbrumm]

If you're able to get the case insert sorted out, and hook it to a dillon case feeder, I feel like this could be a nice addition to the small/medium volume shooters.

[OptimiStick]

On 12/3/2019 at 4:49 AM, Tokarev said:

I looked at Graf's earlier. I saw the press and the automation kit but didn't see the swage parts. Did I miss them?

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Yeah. https://leeprecision.com/app-primer-pocket-swage-kit.html

 

I think I got mine at Titan Reloading...

[OptimiStick]

2 hours ago, anbrumm said:

If you're able to get the case insert sorted out, and hook it to a dillon case feeder, I feel like this could be a nice addition to the small/medium volume shooters.

Honestly, even with the hiccups with the case insertion you can move pretty fast. My collator plate didn't come yet, but I hooked up the 'universal case feed'. Which is basically 4 plastic tubes instead of the stock 1 tube, and you manually rotate a tube to be the active tube over the APP shuttle. The tubes hold 87 total 9mm cases, and I was able to finish decapping them in 2 mins 15 seconds. And that was with 5-6 case insertion snags, and having to rotate the tubes. Of course filling the tubes probably took about that long. So if you can feed it brass fast enough, that's not bad.  You could do 500 in 12 and a half mins. 1000 in 25 mins. Probably faster, because that's assuming my 1.5 seconds per which had some feed corrections and turning the tubes.

 

But it's alot of pulls.... get comfortable.

[anbrumm]

2 minutes ago, OptimiStick said:

Honestly, even with the hiccups with the case insertion you can move pretty fast. My collator plate didn't come yet, but I hooked up the 'universal case feed'. Which is basically 4 plastic tubes instead of the stock 1 tube, and you manually rotate a tube to be the active tube over the APP shuttle. The tubes hold 87 total 9mm cases, and I was able to finish decapping them in 2 mins 15 seconds. And that was with 5-6 case insertion snags, and having to rotate the tubes. Of course filling the tubes probably took about that long. So if you can feed it brass fast enough, that's not bad.  You could do 500 in 12 and a half mins. 1000 in 25 mins. Probably faster, because that's assuming my 1.5 seconds per which had some feed corrections and turning the tubes.

 

But it's alot of pulls.... get comfortable.

 

That's not bad at all. I decap on my 650 mostly, but if you didn't want to dirty up the machine that seems like a plenty fast enough alternative.

[OptimiStick]

Kept tinkering. I fixed the feed issues, mostly.I got it down to 1 min and 33 seconds for the 87 cases. That included 1 straggler i had to manipulate into the final position on the shell-holder. But that was flying, and not a sustainable pace. I was trying to see how fast I could go. But - my point being, the machine can keep up with you. That's what..3367 cases per hour? If you could keep it brass-fed, and your arm didn't fall off at the shoulder. I won't bore everyone here with the details of I tuned out the inconsistencies, but if anyone gets one and wants to know , PM me.

 

I'll work on rigging up a case-feeder.

[Tokarev]

 
I'll work on rigging up a case-feeder.

I think there's a video on YouTube.


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[OptimiStick]

Interfacing with the APP should not be hard.  But getting the Dillon feeder mounted in my space available will be the challenge.  I’m going to have to bend some conduit or something else creative.  Having a floor standing one on a caster base I could wheel around for different projects would be cool too.  I need to give it some thought.  

[Tokarev]

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[OptimiStick]

Funny. That’s who I bought the swaging kit from. It was on back order since the press came out.  Sounds like I got fulfilled out of the first shipment.  I will say that while the press and automation kit are delicate - that swage kit is not.  You get everything you need for 5.56, 9mm and .7.62, and the dies are well made.  Usually Lee dies are on the light side. These babies could anchor a boat. I agree with him about the swaging. If you don’t have an on-press swager like 1050 or Mark-7, this is probably your best option in terms of speed and flexibility. The swage die holds the xpress shellholder differently than the bottle adapter does.  It doesn’t have the detent. So it lets that xpress holder float  and self align to the incoming case.  That’s part  issue I had decapping, the detent keeps the xpress holder from really floating , so if it’s not aligned just right - you get a snag.  Not so on the swage die.  It was zero problems on that from the get-go.  It works like a champ.  

[Tokarev]

The appeal of the press for me as as a swager primarily. As I think I've mentioned, it makes sense for something like 308. I load 308 but don't shoot a ton so it is hard to justify a full kit for the 1050.

 

As I see this I would full length size on my 650 and then swage on the Lee. After that the cases would go into the wash. Once dry they'd be ready to load. If trimming is needed I could do this on the 650 as well.

 

Yes. An extra step over using a 1050 to process but the Lee press is less expensive that the 1050 conversion kit. No doubt it would work better than the Swage It. Some people have had good results with the Swage It. I have not.

 

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[OptimiStick]

yeah, I'll use it for rifle as well. I just had a ton of pistol around and ready to test. You can swage pretty damn fast on pistol. I imagine rifle will be a bit slower, but not THAT much.I give it two thumbs up for swaging, and like i said, the swage kit is pretty darned nice. Very beefy.

 

 

[Tokarev]

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[Lesliet]

Just got mine today, and got it set up. I got the case collator, and it's pretty darned fast for shucking primers out of 9mm brass. Mighty Armory shorty decapper.  Having the occasional shuttle snag, I think there was a video where Lee recommended using something like "Pledge" to lube the slide?  Can't seem to recall where I saw that. I noted the issue where the feed tube for the brass is really too big for 9mm, made a little collar out of a .45ACP case I cut up, and put that in the bottom of the feed tube, just above the shuttle.  Works like a champ to make the cases feed straight down. How have you guys gotten the shuttle not to stick?  

[OptimiStick]

I lubed it with some dry lube, but pledge would work too. As i kept troubleshooting , mine is catching where the shell holder comes up thru the plastic ramp.  It’s hard to get it so that it’s just the right height otherwise the case snags. I played around with some cardboard shims.   But when I change out the bottle to empty primers, it can change the height again.