New reloader here and the small leak was driving me nuts. Thanks for your idea, it worked great. I used 600 grit sandpaper cause it was all I had and worked just fine
another easy tip. when reloading 556 natto that darn crimp is a real pain in the neck. lol. however if you use a Phillips screwdriver bit in the cordless it puts a nice little chamfer and primer slide right in it only takes a second per case. it doesn't cut the metal it just pushes it back! simple fix for NATO crimp!
Great simple fix. I made a quick mandrel to hold the drum while sanding by using a 3 inch long piece of 10mm id tubing and puting an inside chamfer on the end where the drum will be inserted. The drum drive shaft is a press fit in the 10mm hole and will not spin when sanding and pulls off to remove. Dust with grahite and it runs extremely smooth. The mandrel removes the rotational eccentricity caused by clamping a square object in a triangular hole. FYI i used my lathe to true up the parts.
Good information. I just purchased a new autodrum to add to my others. I used it right away with some of my older drums that were already adjusted, so I haven't really looked at the condition of the new drums. I'll clean them up as you suggest. I've also experienced my older autodrums starting to hang up and not return fully after dropping powder. This will result in light charges. It's not a matter of the drum being too tight, but the spring system requiring cleaning and lubrication. I typically rinse the whole area with Hornady gun cleaner/lube and let dry being careful not to spray anywhere where powder will make contact. After this it will be fine for thousands of charges. I've done this maybe 3 times in the past 5 years.
Run a hopper of powder thru the powder measure. It makes the parts marry up. This used to be in the instructions, The wiper is the same idea in the perfect powder measure. It is a proven design that does not cut powder. It is difficult to grasp for those coming from a perspective of cutting powder as normal.
I pulled it apart and used lapping compound between the aluminum housing and the plastic piece and it married up perfect. Clean with alcohol and your set.
Interesting. I've been using the Auto-Drum for .390 charges as I normally use the Auto-Disk, but the Drum I've never had issues with. I coat those drums with graphite powder when I first put a "new" one in and never had issues. I've got a friend who's making me a "wrench" for the knob that tightens down the drums too, fingers slip off of it some.. or I'm just getting old and lazy haha.
Others have told me that the drums were smoother a while back, but the ones being sold today are all roughly machined, be glad you got one of the good ones, either way its a quick fix and makes the wiper last longer. Thanks for your comment enterprise59, make good rounds and stay safe ! .
Io dopo una settimana che ce l'avevo l'ho BUTTATO e ho comprato quello della hornady tutto in acciaio; non si possono mettere in frizione una parte di acciaio con una di plasticaccia!
sidneywhite749 I've seen these powder dispensers go on sale for around $39 at midway, who gets them for less than that from Lee, then there's the cost for boxing and shipping by both manufacturer and retailer, if Lee had to have an employee chuck up every drum in a lathe to true it up and polish it they would not be as inexpensive, for the cost they really aren't a bad powder measure, and with a little spit and polish they should run for decades. Have a good time reloading, make some good rounds, and stay safe !
I bought a couple when they first came out in 2015, the drums were smooth and worked perfectly for me, they started roughing them up in 2016-17 iirc and have had leakage problems ever since. I spray mine with molybdenum disulphide- dry graphite to help smooth them out
Yeah I'm not sure why they leave the surface so rough, I'm thinking the production is outsourced, but at least it's a simple fix, not that we should have to !
I concluded the auto drum is a design failure. The wiper dosent work as it should. I can't trust it enough for powder charging. A spring loaded metal wiper would work better.
Yes something like a nylon or even a metal wiper that had spring behind it would work well, if you polish the drum before you start using the powder measure it actually works well, Lee will send you a new wiper if you ask them, they genuinely are nice folk.
Mine is very accurate, easily to within 0.05gr with alk kinds of powder. Very fine powders like H110 do tend to leak grains on the bench, but still drop accurately. Tuning the drums per this video, lubing with smalk amount of powdered graphite, and using the drums with smaller cups for small charges work best.
New reloader here and the small leak was driving me nuts. Thanks for your idea, it worked great. I used 600 grit sandpaper cause it was all I had and worked just fine
another easy tip. when reloading 556 natto that darn crimp is a real pain in the neck. lol. however if you use a Phillips screwdriver bit in the cordless it puts a nice little chamfer and primer slide right in it only takes a second per case. it doesn't cut the metal it just pushes it back! simple fix for NATO crimp!
I did the exact same thing as you a few years ago and it never leaked at all. It is dead nuts accurate drop after drop. Thanks for the video
Great simple fix. I made a quick mandrel to hold the drum while sanding by using a 3 inch long piece of 10mm id tubing and puting an inside chamfer on the end where the drum will be inserted. The drum drive shaft is a press fit in the 10mm hole and will not spin when sanding and pulls off to remove. Dust with grahite and it runs extremely smooth. The mandrel removes the rotational eccentricity caused by clamping a square object in a triangular hole. FYI i used my lathe to true up the parts.
This actually helped tremendously, thank you
great fix u are a hero
Good information. I just purchased a new autodrum to add to my others. I used it right away with some of my older drums that were already adjusted, so I haven't really looked at the condition of the new drums. I'll clean them up as you suggest. I've also experienced my older autodrums starting to hang up and not return fully after dropping powder. This will result in light charges. It's not a matter of the drum being too tight, but the spring system requiring cleaning and lubrication. I typically rinse the whole area with Hornady gun cleaner/lube and let dry being careful not to spray anywhere where powder will make contact. After this it will be fine for thousands of charges. I've done this maybe 3 times in the past 5 years.
Thanks for the info on the spring I'm sure a lot of guys will benefit from it
I have a Pro 6000 coming Friday, will have to look into doing this. Thanks.
Run a hopper of powder thru the powder measure. It makes the parts marry up. This used to be in the instructions,
The wiper is the same idea in the perfect powder measure. It is a proven design that does not cut powder. It is difficult to grasp for those coming from a perspective of cutting powder as normal.
Great Tip!
Excellent fix!!!
Smoothing the drum and using graphite helps. I also find the smaller hole of the small charge drums tend to leak less with fine powder.
Great advice and demo. Ty.
Hey great tip thanks. I'll be touching mine up tonight.
Good advice, but hot do you get the Lee Powder Measure from shop shaking. It doesn't stay steady.
Good and simple fix .Do you have also al ready the primer problem. thx Rudi
Great video and great information
thank you. awesome advice
how about valve lapping compound?
I pulled it apart and used lapping compound between the aluminum housing and the plastic piece and it married up perfect. Clean with alcohol and your set.
@ so did I, it's dropping powder clean and very accurate
Excellent, thank you.
Great Work.
Interesting. I've been using the Auto-Drum for .390 charges as I normally use the Auto-Disk, but the Drum I've never had issues with. I coat those drums with graphite powder when I first put a "new" one in and never had issues. I've got a friend who's making me a "wrench" for the knob that tightens down the drums too, fingers slip off of it some.. or I'm just getting old and lazy haha.
Others have told me that the drums were smoother a while back, but the ones being sold today are all roughly machined, be glad you got one of the good ones, either way its a quick fix and makes the wiper last longer.
Thanks for your comment enterprise59, make good rounds and stay safe !
.
brilliant .. thank you
Excelente video !
Great
Io dopo una settimana che ce l'avevo l'ho BUTTATO e ho comprato quello della hornady tutto in acciaio; non si possono mettere in frizione una parte di acciaio con una di plasticaccia!
Good stuff .
How come Lee doesn’t fix it!
sidneywhite749 I've seen these powder dispensers go on sale for around $39 at midway, who gets them for less than that from Lee, then there's the cost for boxing and shipping by both manufacturer and retailer, if Lee had to have an employee chuck up every drum in a lathe to true it up and polish it they would not be as inexpensive, for the cost they really aren't a bad powder measure, and with a little spit and polish they should run for decades.
Have a good time reloading, make some good rounds, and stay safe !
I bought a couple when they first came out in 2015, the drums were smooth and worked perfectly for me, they started roughing them up in 2016-17 iirc and have had leakage problems ever since. I spray mine with molybdenum disulphide- dry graphite to help smooth them out
They could have put a smooth face on the plastic when they were casting, wonder why they didn't?
Yeah I'm not sure why they leave the surface so rough, I'm thinking the production is outsourced, but at least it's a simple fix, not that we should have to !
or you can buy a RCBS Uniflow
Exactly.
I concluded the auto drum is a design failure. The wiper dosent work as it should. I can't trust it enough for powder charging. A spring loaded metal wiper would work better.
Yes something like a nylon or even a metal wiper that had spring behind it would work well, if you polish the drum before you start using the powder measure it actually works well, Lee will send you a new wiper if you ask them, they genuinely are nice folk.
Mine is very accurate, easily to within 0.05gr with alk kinds of powder. Very fine powders like H110 do tend to leak grains on the bench, but still drop accurately. Tuning the drums per this video, lubing with smalk amount of powdered graphite, and using the drums with smaller cups for small charges work best.