Lee Made in the USA

[geargnasher]

On a slightly different note, and this is not directed at anyone on this thread, but in general, I believe a lot of the "Lee bashing" comes from this simple phenom: Lack of skills. I have zero issues with Lee moulds, in fact I don't recall at the moment having one that needed more than a deburring or sprue plate dress and good cleaning. But give one to a newbie, or a ham-handed jackwagon and they'll tear it up in no time. Is this because the mould is poorly made? I think most of the time not. If you can't cast good boolits with a Lee mould, it's the operator not the tool. This lack of skills and care about what one is doing manifests itself immediately in cheaply made tools. Some people think it's junk if the CAN tear it up, and it seems that some do their best to destroy something and if it holds up to their abuse, then it's an "ok" tool and doesn't get badmouthed. People want to blame their own inadequacies (sp?) on the tools or whatever first, I've seen it all my life with all sorts of different things.

Now continue this thought to when this same person sinks their $40 Drip-O-Matic in the local lake and swears off of the whole brand because this one tool wouldn't tolerate their dirty, filthy, junk alloy (that they didn't flux properly because they didn't take the time to educate themselves beyond throwing in a chunk of wax and skimming) and then goes and spends $400 on an RCBS furnace that also drips with their filty, dross-contaminated alloy. What do you think happens? Do they go ******** and moaning all over the forums about how this cheap junk furnace still drips? Of course they don't, because they think they bought the best in the business, and at THAT point they start thinking, "what if it's something I'M doing wrong?". Hopefully they do. But customer service departments worldwide are expert at dealing with the consumer who is NOT introspective. If a cheap product fails to work as expected, the product gets blamed. If an expensive product fails to work as expected, blaming the product isn't so automatic. Know why? Because nobody wants less to look stupid then a pretentious bonehead, somebody might find out the truth! It's pretty easy to tell what's going on when the badmouthing begins.

Gear

[Four Fingers of Death]

HaHa!

[Certaindeaf]

HaHa!

You spelled lol wrong. lol!

[Four Fingers of Death]

I did too, sorry, LMAO!!!!

[Ramar]

Gear,
"People want to blame their own inadequacies (sp?) on the tools or whatever first, I've seen it all my life with all sorts of different things."

My theory is the individual's need for a good self esteem image; false or not does not matter as they don't know the difference. This is how they are able to function and be amongst us.
Ramar

[mfraser264]

As far the castings for Lee presses go, they are cast in Wisconsin. I called Lee a few years back and ended up talking with one of the engineers. After he learned I was working is a casting facility that used shell molding, he emailed the 3D CAD model of one of the presses. He went on to say they were purchasing their castings in the area. The design work is done very well and the 3D model for casting showed that Lee had good knowledge of the casting process.

Keep making it here in the states. I have first hand experience with Chinese castings and they are about low cost, not quality. Many companies turn a blind eye to quality when the castings arrive from China due to the cost savings.

I worked at one place where our local sources provided machined parts for about $40.00. China parts were less than $10.00 including shipping. However, quality was less than good and communicating with them was very difficult. Keep encouraging Lee make it here in the states by contacting them.

[Wal']

If those damn green & blue machines weren't around, people would be complaining about how expensive the Lee equipment was.

[Four Fingers of Death]

My friend is a mining engineer and he has a few business ventures going on in China, making high tech equipment that he was unable to source anywhere else in the world reliably and cheaply.

I went to a pizza cook up one afternoon (my mate has an awesome wood fired oven in his million dollar backyard and a beer cooler that is bigger than any bath I have ever used) at his place and he had a Chinese businessman there and a few other Chinese people who worked for my friend and the businessman.

Turns out the guy was CEO of a huge manafacturing concern in China. He said they made stuff for pretty much every air force and Navy in the world, including castings, avionics, etc, etc, etc. He said though a big part of their business was making cheap stuff that the western traders demanded, being completely driven by the dollar.

He said he makes NASA quality stuff and unfortunately **** quality stuff. He went on to say he would be happy just manafacturing state of the art quality equipment, but buyers drove him mad forcing the price down all of the time. Interesting guy. They make trains that cruise safely at 280km/hr, but everything people seem to mention when they talk Chinese is junk products.

I suppose if you turn the screw in far enough, the product will end up being screwed.

[Dan Cash]

The Dillon/Lee type lockrings are annoying, but free up room on progressive presses (which is why they were developed, Lee and Dillon share this patent and also on their powder measures). They are ok if you make allowances when you are removing and fitting them. You need to hold both the die and the ring when they are just about screwed down, or when you are removing them to avoid disturbing the setting. They work ok if you are careful with them.

Please enlighten me regarding these two statements. Perhaps different in Australia but my Dillon die lock rings are a simple nut sans the dumb and agrivating rubber "O" ring. What is the shared patent on the powder measure?

[shotman]

some one said that lee listen to customers and made changes . No they dont "in my experiance" they have never fixed the lee pro. I did and it works . How many of you have popped the carbide insert out. ? the deprime die is good for domestic brass only , the stem they use if it slides several times the die is history, The powder measure system with the chain is junk and wont stay at same setting . The mr drippy why dont they make the drop pin out of 1/4in, that way it wouldnt float. I did and it works
Ok Now for Dillon. It should be called ZILLON . the press is the hardest to change cal of any made. They sell die change sets for $$$$$ and all you need is a part or two. The shell pins are brass and should be steel so you can find them. Have 4 sets or so could do like Lee with a moveable arm. You need a 3ft wide and 9ft ceiling to work it . I bought a 650. that was before I priced the die sets. Then I went to work to see if I could redo it . Result I have a lee case colator on top of a universal drop tube . That will feed any case. Put the bearing kit to keep the powder in the case. made oval shell holder pins -one size fits all And dont use it only for mostly one cal

[Junior1942]

Bad customer service at Lee? NOT!!! Years ago I called with a question. The lady on the phone said, "Just a second." A guy then came on the phone and said, "This is Dick Lee. How can I help you?" Three or so years ago the guy came on the phone and said, "This is John Lee. How can I help you?"

If you can beat that kind of customer service I'd like to know where!

[BoolitSchuuter]

I admit it, I'm a LEE fan. Why? because it works at the price I'm willing to pay. I am also a Lyman fan, an RCBS fan, a Forster fan, and a Hornady fan. Does this mean I am not a fan of the others? no, it means I haven't found the others to do the job I need done at the price I feel is reasonable. I would love to have bought a Dillon or Hornady progressive recently, but I got the Lee Loadmaster with everything I need to reload 6 different calibers and a case feeder for the cost of the Hornady with one caliber and no case feeder. Same for the Dillon. Using a little imagination, I now have a case feeder that I do not have to reset every time I change calibers. I change the slider, change the aluminum guide tube, the dies and away I go! YMMV.

PS; That rare pipe thread on the decapper nut is 1/8" NPT. You can find the taps and dies at those very difficult to find stores like Home Depot and Lowe's

[slide]

I don't have a lot of Lee stuff. What I have has worked as it should. My pot has never dripped. I think using Pat Marlins flux is the reason. No complaints here.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Please enlighten me regarding these two statements. Perhaps different in Australia but my Dillon die lock rings are a simple nut sans the dumb and agrivating rubber "O" ring. What is the shared patent on the powder measure?

I'm pretty sure I read that part about the shared patents in the Lee Reloading book.

I can't remember what the Dillon lock rings look like (sold my 550 in 1993 or therabouts to feed kids, used Lee1000s after that), apart from the fact that they are a plain alloy nut with no grub screw, etc.

The Dillon and Lee Auto Disk powder measures share the same sort of operating principles, powder through die that is activated by the case, flaring it at the same time, slide to transfer powder from the reservior to the powder through die and into the flared case.

I liked the Dillon when I had it, didn't have much trouble with it, bit of fiddling with the primer system at times. I could only afford one powder measure at the time and it is a bear to swap out (I never thought of it at the time, I should have bought two powder slides). The Dillon would be the bee's knee's if you could afford to set up a toolhead for each cablibre with it's own powder measure. The change overs would be really quick then.

I like the Lee1000s, especially now that I have carrier plate assemblies for large and small primers as well as interchangeable tool heads for each calibre change. Works well. I have come to the conclusion that they all work well when the operator is in tune with the machine. I have just picked up an RCBS Ammomaster, with oodles of shellplates, etc, so I will be going through anothe learning curve.

[canebreaker]

I bought a Lee Loadmaster set up for 9m at an estate sale. With lots of extras for a super good price. The first post I read about the press was "have plenty of replacement plastic parts." I took almost a month to get what parts I needed and watch vidios on how to set it up right. After loading 1,000 rounds of 9m, I decided to load some 38 spl. More parts to order. I looked at the parts list and ordered what I needed. Wrong parts were delivered. I relook at list, wrong parts are listed.
After 27 emails from ms. lee, "The right parts are listed, I don't know how to read the parts list." Example: there are 3 different case feeders for the press, all go to the same case feeder part number. There are 6 different parts in the window where this feeder is listed. I was told, "you don't get all six."
I replied, "I know that but the right part isn't listed, I would like to get the right part."
I was wanting some new tubes too. Not listed. I still haven't learned to use their parts list.