I have a standard lee press, not the "o" frame but the other inexpensive press and it works fine

****BUT****

The frickin little piece that is supposed to prime the cartridge and cause spent primers to drop into the drop tube keeps falling out while I'm sizing cases.

Any fixes???

Yep abandon the press primer and get a hand primer. I didn't have your same troubles but a couple years ago I switched to an RCBS hand priming tool and it is super fast easy and can't be beat.
Good luck with yours.

Get a Lee Auto-prime hand primer. Probably the most widely-used priming tool in all the world. Cheap at only about twenty bucks. Get a set of priming shellholders, too. It comes with none. You can't prime without the correct type of shellholder. The priming ones are about 1/4" thick, like a big plug nickel. The sizing ones have the extension on the bottom for use in a press. I have found that for fat cases, like the 300WSM, you need to take a round file and open up the throat of the priming tool a bit to get them into the shellholder. I have two: one for small primer cases like .223 and the other for large primers like .30-06 and 300WSM. Makes switching between the two much easier than having to use the included parts to convert one to the other...

Agree with the Lee Auto-prime. Inexpensive, very functional, and you can feel the primers seating much better than on a press. Also I find I give the case a better inspection when I hand prime. I have RCBS, Redding, and Lee presses and I haven't primed on a press in years.

Jerry Liles

I hand prime with an RCBS. Takes the same shell holder as the press. Hand priming gives a better "feel" for seating, and is relatively fast.

quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Liles:
Agree with the Lee Auto-prime. Inexpensive, very functional, and you can feel the primers seating much better than on a press. Also I find I give the case a better inspection when I hand prime. I have RCBS, Redding, and Lee presses and I haven't primed on a press in years.

Jerry Liles

Agree 100% on the Lee auto primer. The actual feeling of the tight fit of the primers is a great way to know that your primer pockets are still fine & your max loads are safe. If the primers seat easy, you can feel it & you know at once that your loads are too hot! You of course first look for all other signs of pressure - case head measurement, etc.

I really like my Lee Auto-Prime too. Too bad Lee has no holder for .450 Nitro Express. That and relieve a bit of material on the tool itself so the shell can pass through and it would be nice.

I've thought of getting another shellholder and cutting it down to the proper thickness so it will fit the Auto-Prime rather than a reloading press.

get an rcbs hand priming tool .. it will use your shellholders to primer .... or get and aps strip bench primer setup .. this is my favorite non-progressive way to prime!

I believe all the responses above bring good advice. I've got an old RCBS Bench Priming Press and a later RCBS Hand-Held Priming Tool, both which use standard RCBS shell holders. Both work like a million bucks. I wouldn't attempt to seat a primer in a reloading press designed for resizing due to high mechanical advantage. I've read (and believe) it's easy to crack the dried compound in the primer with a big press and seriously affect accuracy. I don't shoot good enough the way it is.

Don Boyd

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana_Dave:
I really like my Lee Auto-Prime too. Too bad Lee has no holder for .450 Nitro Express. That and relieve a bit of material on the tool itself so the shell can pass through and it would be nice.

I've thought of getting another shellholder and cutting it down to the proper thickness so it will fit the Auto-Prime rather than a reloading press.

Buy a Honrady, it uses the same shell holder as the press. Better nade & works better too. You use your entire hand to seat instead of the thumb.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana_Dave:
I really like my Lee Auto-Prime too. Too bad Lee has no holder for .450 Nitro Express. That and relieve a bit of material on the tool itself so the shell can pass through and it would be nice.

I use the Lee Auto prime hand tool almost exclusively. It's nice to sit in an easy chair in front of the TV to do your primers for a change of pace. The use of thumb pressure also lets you detect excessively expanded primer pockets quite easily.

Lee does need to modify the tool for larger cases (maybe they've done so already). I found that even a WSM case, which has the same rim as a belted magnum, won't enter the tool because the frame is too small to clear the slightly fatter sides of the WSM case. You could probably machine a little of th frame away if you had access to a lathe.

quote:

I've thought of getting another shellholder and cutting it down to the proper thickness so it will fit the Auto-Prime rather than a reloading press.

I've done this, too. All you have to do is take a regular shellholder and grind the bottom portion off of it, leaving only the flat upper disc. This fits the Lee tool exactly.

The great thing about the Lee is that you can lose, break, or wear out three of them for the price you pay for one of anybody else's tool. I keep at least two of them -- one set up for large primers and the other set up for small primers. I think I even have a third one for a spare. You wouldn't want to make that kind of cash outlay for the green or red variety. Nor would you ever want to mess with those friggin little primer strips.

I have a Lee set up for every primer I use, they work great and they are cheap.

Thats why I didn't get the Lee all the mods and shell holders. My RCBS shell holders are the same ones in my RCBS press, very simple like me................

It would be cheaper to replace the press than to buy a priming tool.

That's true but you still need the Auto Prime.

Prime at the top of press with a ram prime unit.
You can fine tune the primer seating depth and seating stops positively, you can't crush a primer.
I like to be able to measure with the tail of my caliper that the primer is seated to .003".
I didn't like the idea of seating by "feel" it was too unscientific for me.

quote:

Originally posted by homebrewer:
Get a Lee Auto-prime hand primer. Probably the most widely-used priming tool in all the world. Cheap at only about twenty bucks. Get a set of priming shellholders, too. It comes with none. You can't prime without the correct type of shellholder. The priming ones are about 1/4" thick, like a big plug nickel. The sizing ones have the extension on the bottom for use in a press. I have found that for fat cases, like the 300WSM, you need to take a round file and open up the throat of the priming tool a bit to get them into the shellholder. I have two: one for small primer cases like .223 and the other for large primers like .30-06 and 300WSM. Makes switching between the two much easier than having to use the included parts to convert one to the other...

I've done as you have on both counts. Opening up for the WSM and WSSM and having one for SM primers and one for LG primers. Great tool.

I did just find out that my #4 shellholder was FUBAR (outs spec). Other than that one of the best reloading thingys I own. Love the "feel" you get when seating a primer.

Ummmmm, I must not have askes the question right... I have an auto prime. The priming piece needs to be in place when resizing so the spent primers fall into the drop tube. Otherwise the primers fall unpredictably on the fl0or. I don't use the priming tool anyway, so I was looking for ideas on how to solve this short of buying a new press.

quote:

I have an auto prime.

There are two kinds, both called Auto-prime. One is used in the hand, the other is on the press. The on-press kind never worked for me. The primers always jammed up and it was just a hassle to keep tapping it to keep them sliding down that little curved chute. I went to the hand type in the mid-90s and have never looked back...

"The frickin little piece that is supposed to prime the cartridge and cause spent primers to drop into the drop tube keeps falling out while I'm sizing cases." ????

I have two of Lee's little "Reloader" presses, strickly for priming work. One has a universal decapper and the other does re-caping with the Lee Auto Prime II. I also have two hand held Lee Auto Primes, one each for large and small caps. All of them work fine.

That said, I have no idea of what you are talking about. Which of Lee's several presses is "standard"? They are all "O" framed but one and the very inexpensive little Lee "C" press has no means of sizing/decapping and then recapping at the same time.

If you're beefing about the spent primers scattering on the floor, I think all of the presses do that to a greater or lesser extent. I know mine do. Just vacuum.

I have taken to laying down an old bedsheet and just letting them hit the floor. My Rockchucker has that little black plastic primer catcher thingy, but I find it's a pain in the obama to get it off without spilling primers all over the floor when it's full. So I just eighty-sixed it...

I just move the garbage can under the press when depriming. It catches everything and then if you drop something it catches that too.

If you ever move up to a Forster Co-Ax press, no shellholders required, all primers drop into a bottle and primers are seated at top of stroke without fail. r in s.

Ray is right! My Co-ax never drops a primer as long as I remember to screw the primer catcher jar onto the press before I use it. Lee's classic turret also does a good job of catching spent primers if you remember to install the primer arm in it.

I have wore out around 6 or 7 maybe more lee auto primes they work great. I have a freind that goes by lee now and then I just have him drop off the worn and broken parts and they give him new ones. I have 3 of them sitting on my loading bench now.

I have seated thousands and thousands of primers with them.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Yep abandon the press primer and get a hand primer. I didn't have your same troubles but a couple years ago I switched to an RCBS hand priming tool and it is super fast easy and can't be beat.
Good luck with yours.

Yep, ditto on replacing your current priming methid and go with a hand primer.

quote:

Originally posted by Jack125:

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Yep abandon the press primer and get a hand primer. I didn't have your same troubles but a couple years ago I switched to an RCBS hand priming tool and it is super fast easy and can't be beat.
Good luck with yours.

Yep, ditto on replacing your current priming methid and go with a hand primer.

+2

I retired the two Lee Autoprime tools about a year ago, and bought two of Sinclair's hand priming tools. I have no experience with other hand priming tools other that the two I mention, so no cmts about the others. I will say, the Sinclair hand priming tools are excellent. I had trouble with the Lee units seating primers to the full depth of the primers pockets, so I decided to get better tools, nothing bad about the Lee's other than that. I have no more primer seating problems using Sinclair's tools.

quote:

Originally posted by Wayfaring Stranger:
I have a standard lee press, not the "o" frame but the other inexpensive press and it works fine

****BUT****

The frickin little piece that is supposed to prime the cartridge and cause spent primers to drop into the drop tube keeps falling out while I'm sizing cases.

Any fixes???

Wayfaring S.
I've had the same probelm I think that you're talking about. I have a Lee Classic Turret press that I've purchased recently. (If this is the press you're refering too. And yes, I really like mine!)
The small "piece" that presses the primer into place is supposed to lever back as the press raises and cam back into place as it nears the bottom. After several weeks of use, mine started falling out in the floor occasionally. After a bit of careful looking I noticed that it would hang in the upwards position as the ram started up and then, somewhere on the upstroke, it would drop down - and then plop out onto the floor. I looked into the slot of the ram where the small pin is at that it is supposed to ride on, and found a small burr there on one side. After a judicail application of emory cloth and a little cleaning, the problem went away!
>
And being a "newbe" to the site, let me take this moment to say "Thank you!" to everyone here for the great information that gets posted - very helpful! I'll try to do my part!
AXTON1

quote:

Originally posted by Wayfaring Stranger:
Ummmmm, I must not have askes the question right... I have an auto prime. The priming piece needs to be in place when resizing so the spent primers fall into the drop tube. Otherwise the primers fall unpredictably on the fl0or. I don't use the priming tool anyway, so I was looking for ideas on how to solve this short of buying a new press.

I use the Wilson tool to de-prime. I put the base on paper towel. When I'm finished, I fold up the paper towel and put the whole mess into the trash. Perfectly clean.

quote:

Originally posted by Wayfaring Stranger:
Ummmmm, I must not have askes the question right... I have an auto prime. The priming piece needs to be in place when resizing so the spent primers fall into the drop tube. Otherwise the primers fall unpredictably on the fl0or. I don't use the priming tool anyway, so I was looking for ideas on how to solve this short of buying a new press.

i know what piece you are talking about it is shaped like an L with a little slot in it that sits on a pin inside the ram. its the piece the primer actually sits on when you use it to prime. i have the same thing and ive came up with nothing as far as something to take its place. ive not had a problem with mine falling out though. is your vise mounted to a secure bench? maybe try the other one it should have one for sm and large primbers. also how often do you take the ram out and clean it and oil it. i did notice that after a couple thousand deprimes i had a lot of gunk built up in there and the thing had fallen off a couple of times. i pull the ram spray with brake parts cleaner and inside the bore for the ram then oil the ram with 30wt motor oil.

quote:

Originally posted by Axton1:

quote:

Originally posted by Wayfaring Stranger:
I have a standard lee press, not the "o" frame but the other inexpensive press and it works fine

****BUT****

The frickin little piece that is supposed to prime the cartridge and cause spent primers to drop into the drop tube keeps falling out while I'm sizing cases.

Any fixes???

Wayfaring S.
I've had the same probelm I think that you're talking about. I have a Lee Classic Turret press that I've purchased recently. (If this is the press you're refering too. And yes, I really like mine!)
The small "piece" that presses the primer into place is supposed to lever back as the press raises and cam back into place as it nears the bottom. After several weeks of use, mine started falling out in the floor occasionally. After a bit of careful looking I noticed that it would hang in the upwards position as the ram started up and then, somewhere on the upstroke, it would drop down - and then plop out onto the floor. I looked into the slot of the ram where the small pin is at that it is supposed to ride on, and found a small burr there on one side. After a judicail application of emory cloth and a little cleaning, the problem went away!
>
And being a "newbe" to the site, let me take this moment to say "Thank you!" to everyone here for the great information that gets posted - very helpful! I'll try to do my part!
AXTON1

I gave it a try, we'll see how it goes...