The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

gashtyke wrote:Yes, it`s too bad Lee don`t make the original Autoprime any more. The square type primer tray on the new version is vexing to use.

I've heard several people say that. I have both the old round type and the newer square type and I actually prefer the newer square one.

I use the Lee safety prime mounted onto my Classic Turret press and am very satisfied with its performance.

ukrifleman

The one I am referring to is the bench mounted version. I tried it with large primers initially it jammed up after about 5 rounds I had to dismantle the plastic feeder unit to remove the jammed primer. I went on line and checked it out on you tube and apparently the first thing you should do on purchasing one of these is remove the rubber ring that acts as a buffer. So I did that and moved on to small pistol primers. It was inconsistent in feeding the primers you have to keep tapping the tray to feed primers it jammed up again. It took ages to prime 100 cases.
After priming the 100 38 special cases. I had another go with large primers. The plastic primer insert has a spring loaded safety gate that cuts of the primer feed while seating a primer. Once you have seated the primer the spring loaded cut off slides out of the cut off position and allows another primer to fall into the feed position. That’s how it’s supposed to work. The plastic cut off gate did not spring back at all it just jammed up so not allowing any more primers to feed.
The problem is its plastic and it binds up. The whole thing is held together with three screws. If the tension on the screws is not right the whole thing locks up. I backed the screws off and ended up with a very loose fit. I tried polishing the cut of slide the darn thing still keeps jamming.
Its just so frustrating if the cut off slide was polished aluminium I think it might be better. I can prime with the small primer set up well sort of if I don’t run out of patience with the constant faf on. But the large primer thingy is just a pain in the but. I might have a go dismantling it and making an aluminium cut of slide if I get bored and need a project. For now it’s back to hand priming or priming on the press.

I have taken the whole thing to bits and all it component parts the Engineering side of me is astonished how cheap the whole thing looks.
I put it back together tried it. Dismantled it put it back together I see what the problem is. Basically its a cheaply produced load of crap.
I can make it work. The question is do I want to. We will see.

There's a modification to the primer to make it more reliable, have you removed the black O ring from it?

Yes that was the first thing I did. I removed the rubber O ring. It does not help at all in fact it compounds the problem because it introduces slop into the mechanism. I can see now what the problem is and I can fix it.
Its cheap and nasty but I could get it to work.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I tried it again. Using small pistol primers I attempted to prime 100 38 special cases the maximum amount of cases I managed to prime with out having to dismantle it and un jam it is 12.
In my opinion this tool is dangerous and could lead to a primer going off when trying to clear the darn thing. I would not give it away never mind sell it. Its a pile of pap.
Removing the rubber O ring makes no difference what so ever.

This thing has been driving me nuts I keep coming back to it even though I know it's going to give me grief. I know what the problem is but the darn thing is so cheaply made with gash plastic it's a nightmare to fix.
So I looked at it from a different angle. The problem is the piece of plastic that acts as a guide for the primer to drop through rides over the top of the shell holder and jams. So I milled a flat edge on the shell holder so the bit of plastic does not come in contact with the shell holder. Its working fine up to now. Keep your fingers crossed I have retrieved this from the bin at least ten times now.

Do yourselves a favour and buy an RCBS Universal hand priming tool, it works :)

The last RCBS hand priming tool I had I gave to Adam.(dromia)
I don't want it back.