Lee APP press

[44magLeo]

I just got am e-mail from Midsouth Shooters Supply. They have the Lee APP press in stock.
The add says it comes with the Automation package, 3 X-press Shell holders, breech lock bushing, Shell holder adapter, Feed tubes, Tube supports, Case sliders and Risers. All for a sale price of $75.49.
Almost tempted to get one at that price.
Just thought I ought to let you guys know.
Leo

[Mollyboy]

Best news I have heard in 6 weeks.

[GARD72977]

I got mine a couple days ago. The plastic piece that works as the auto feed was sticking on the rail. I got it working. This thing has lots of cheap plastic parts. I'm really worried about longetvity. Maybe some one will come out with some higher quality replacement parts.

[onelight]

I got mine a couple days ago. The plastic piece that works as the auto feed was sticking on the rail. I got it working. This thing has lots of cheap plastic parts. I'm really worried about longetvity. Maybe some one will come out with some higher quality replacement parts.

Lee will probably have a parts kit available at some point in the future for the plastic parts , The one for the ABLP was about 10 or 15.00 and had all the plastic parts in it. I have one here so if I do break something I won't have to wait. I have only used mine so far for depriming cases prior to cleaning and it is a big time saver for me with pistol cases.

[dverna]

I got mine a couple days ago. The plastic piece that works as the auto feed was sticking on the rail. I got it working. This thing has lots of cheap plastic parts. I'm really worried about longetvity. Maybe some one will come out with some higher quality replacement parts.

When I saw the Midsouth ad I nearly ordered one....then...that little voice. How can they sell it that cheap? I would rather pay twice the price and get something that works well and reliably. Little plastic bits have the advantage of breaking first but then you need a few spares on hand. I will stay with my old, slow, Dillon for swaging primer pockets.

Waiting to see how it holds up for sizing cast bullets. That is about the only other function I need it for. I have a Star now but would sell it if the APP works.

No way it will work on initial sizing military cases...even my RC strains on some of them.

[hpdrifter]

I'm loving mine so far. It is about 10X faster for depriming than anything I've seen or done.

It sizes my pistol bullets pretty swiftly also although a bullet collator would be real handy.

[onelight]

I like the APP but I do think it's built to light for a steady diet of processing military brass .
My primary purpose for mine was a decapper with inexpensive case feeder/collator for pistol brass it is working great for that.

[Dapaki]

I would love to see someone here buy one and cram a bunch of military brass through it until it breaks and write up a story about your thoughts.

No, sorry, it wont be me, I am a single stage boy, I like to open the barn, reload and watch the wildlife go by. I have no need for speed.

[44magLeo]

You may not like having the plastic parts break, but would you like something that cost a lot more to break?
Keeping a few extra parts just in case is no big deal.
Lets say Lee did use metal parts instead of plastic. The whole unit would have to be made strong enough to withstand much greater strain than it needs to do the job it was designed to do. This might be ok for those who have a lot more money to spend than I do. For the jobs the Lee can't handle and shouldn't be use for, then break out the big guns.
I have an old CH alloy frame C press. Should I try to use it for loading 50BMG, or should I get a press designed for the task.
Lee make tooling that does most of the things most shooters need it to do. Will it withstand the stresses of doing the things 5 or 10 percent of loaders do? Probably not, but for those that need vey costly tooling then use it. Just stop knocking the rest of us.
We can't all afford $10,000 rifles so spending $10,000 to load for a $500 rifle don't really make sense.
Leo

[Dimner]

The problem is, there is nothing else on the market right now that can do all the things the APP can do and is below $1000 bucks. I got mine yesterday and am having success swaging 556 primer pockets. I went into this knowing about the plastic parts. My thought process is that the base APP is a well built press with tempory plastic parts. I'll wait for some after market person to offer better designed and built versions. But for now, I'm using it just fine.

[onelight]

That is good to hear Dimner , nice to hear from people doing it !
The whole outfit is cheaper than some die sets , I did not see it as a risk I was sure some of the functions would speed up my process.
And just for anyone who has not had the chance to use one , all the parts of the press under load are steel or aluminum the plastic parts are for case or bullet feeding and the catch bottle.

[RedlegEd]

Hi all!,
Yesterday, I received my pre-ordered APP Deluxe Press kit from FS Reloading, and waited until today to play with it. Set up was straight forward and easy, and since I already had a spare Lee Bench plate, mounting was a snap. I wasted no time in hooking up my bullet feeder set up with a case feeding disk, and proceeded to size about 1500 - .45 ACP cases. It only took me about 2-1/2 hours, but I would have been finished much quicker if I could get the case feeder to work consistently, so I kept out-running it. I did learn a couple of things...for the feeder mechanism to work properly, you need to give the press a full up-stroke and down-stroke. I also used some silicone grease to lube the slide of the feed mechanism and it worked smoothly and effortlessly. I'm not at all worried about the plastic parts as they aren't stressed in use and I suspect will last a long time. Bottom line, I really, really like this press and can't wait to see how it works sizing bullets. For you guys still on the fence, you can't lose if you get it from MidSouthShooters for about $75.00.
Ed

[GARD72977]

I have been able to use mine some more. It does great decapping but I can't get my primer pocket swager to work on 556 cases. I will get the bullet sizer set up p this week. That's the real reason I bought it anyway. Overall I like it.

[redriverhunter]

I have been following the various post about the lee app, and I just purchased one yesterday. I think the most pita thing to do is put shell on and off the press. I don't mind when loading 20 but when I am doing a large batch of brass it gets old. I am hopping the app will make it all go bit better. Size bullets, deprime or size and deprime and seems like I could use to bell case mouth. I hope it works.

[Springfield]

I set mine up yesterday to do it's main job, de-cap all my 44-40 brass as I have been getting dirty primer pockets lately. The plastic parts are worrisome but no problem so far. I do find that due to loose tolerance on the shell holder and the brass feeder that my cases tip and don't slide through the case holder without my straightening the case by hand. But is is still much faster than doing them one at a time in a single stage press, which is why I gave that up. I have ordered the 4 tube adapter kit as when using just the one tube with the LEE collater it tends to bend, as it is a very thin wall tube compared to the tubes on my Star. 4 tubes should be able to take the weight.

[Mollyboy]

Lee advised removing the detent on the shell holder retainer will allow correct feeding. Only required on early shell holders. They say the shell holder must turn freely.

[Dimner]

I have been able to use mine some more. It does great decapping but I can't get my primer pocket swager to work on 556 cases. I will get the bullet sizer set up p this week. That's the real reason I bought it anyway. Overall I like it.

What problems are you having with the swager? I have been able to go through around 400 cases over the weekend, so I might be able to help some.

[onelight]

So far with mine set up with the 4 tube case feeder and collator it has fed 9mm , 38 special , 40 s&w , 44 special 45 acp and 45 colt with about 98% trouble free feeding after the initial setup adjustments for each case , it seems to catch all the primer waste I am using the universal Lee decaping die and have 3 of the shell holders with the primer groove and 3 without . It processes really fast . And would probably resize and decap at about the same speed if I chose to do it that way. A great little tool for my purpose.

[JimA]

It's pretty slick as a cast boolit sizer. I've done a bunch of different sized powdercoated bullets and even sized a hundred .358 jacketed Speer 180 grainers to .356 to use in a .350 legend. I lightly sprayed some alcohol/lanolin mixture on the j words and let them dry. They went right through pretty easy. It took way less pressure than swaging primer pockets on .556 and .350 Legend brass.

[Mollyboy]

I have been able to use mine some more. It does great decapping but I can't get my primer pocket swager to work on 556 cases. I will get the bullet sizer set up p this week. That's the real reason I bought it anyway. Overall I like it.

Check the number of disc springs in your swage tool. There should be 5 and be sure they are stacked like the picture in the instructions. It won’t work with 6.