Lee APP press

[LittleLebowski]

It seems to me that mounting a bin under the press will be simpler and higher capacity.

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I’m not a fan, I don’t like primer dust aesthetically nor from a health standpoint. On my Dillon 650, I route my spent primers to a milk jug with mineral oil inside, all of the waste and dust stays right there.

[44magLeo]

Ok, I got my APP on the 11th. Not bad for being shipped on the 9th.
Anyway, I got it on the bench. I first tied it with FL sizing some 250 Sav brass. I think it takes a bit less effort on the APP than on the Challenger.
I then set up the case feeder on the same cases. It worked pretty well. I do need to spend a bit more time fine tuning it. On the cases I used the Xpress shell holder worked fine. not much resistance of the case from the die. On cases that do have more resistance then using a regular shell holder is a good idea.
I might get a universal decap die. I like Lee's They have the stock decap rod and sell caliber specific rods that help align the case in the shell holder and die so the decap pin is less apt to get broke from hitting the case.
I then tried it sizing some cast boolits. I have the old style Lee kits. I got out the 430 kit I opened up to .432.
I have an NOE 44 cal 265 gr RFN boolit mold. I lubed with A 50-50 mix of Lee Alox and Johnson's liquid wax.
I need a bit of time with this too. The boolits sometimes they tip at the die. I think I need to play with adjusting the screw for the jaws.
The boolits sized easily. They come out of the mold about .4322 to .4327. So they are not sized much.
I have a Lee mold for the 303B It drops a 185 gr boolit. I use it in my Mosin Nagant 7.62x54R. I need to try that boolit through the APP too.
So far I am very pleased with this press. Well worth the money. It does take a bit of time to figure out it's idiosyncrasies. Buyt most anything new take the same sort of time.
When sizing boolits I took the lock ring off the die. Used a regular breech lock bushing in the bottom of the APP. I put the lock ring that cokes with the bottle top and threaded it all the way on the die. Slip the bottle cover on the die and threaded the die up into the bushing. till the end was not quite flush with the rail, then screw the bottle cap up snug to lock the die on place. Screwed the bottle on and did the sizing. Worked very well.
The bottles cap has a couple tabs on it that I think get used when it's mounted on the Lee PPM. These tabs make the cap screw up a bit crooked the way I used it. I could shave off the tabs but it worked find as is.
I then went to Lee's site and looked up the way they say to use the old style size kits on the APP. I dii pretty much the same but hooked the bottle on.
Lee said this bottle cap also fits on most powder bottles. I tried it and it fits the ones I have.
So instead of 3d printed adapters for soda bottles just use an empty powder bottle. When not catching primers just unscrew the bottle and put the cap back on.
I like the deal from Mid South. It came with the automation kit. Some places want the same money for just the APP.
I doubt I'll get the primer pocket swage kit. I don't deal with crimped primers much.
If I start casting more sizes of boolits I will get Lee's new style boolit sizer. The body that uses bushings.
It does come with the new style breech lock bushing with a st screw that you tighten with the wrench. I think I like. Enough to convert all my dies to, not really, the cost would be a bit much.
As a lock ring to use on a progressive where a bit more torque on the nut might be needed this will be plenty. No more mangled lock ring from pliers or end wrenches.
The wrench may be plastic it is plenty strong. If you break one you are tightening them too much.
The lock rings screw should be a Allen head screw. The Phillips head screwdrivers I have are a bit to big in the shank. It won't line up straight in the screw.
I recommend this press to all. Even if you only use it for boolit sizing it's worth it. It makes the task very quick. And much less apt to pinch fingers.
Leo

[LittleLebowski]

I’m slowly wrapping my head around how to set up this little bugger, but I like it. Next on my to-do list is either doing the fender washer trick on the collator to fix the occasional upside 9mm cases, or rigging a way to use my Dillon casefeeder with the Lee App, perhaps with this part? https://www.doublealpha.biz/us/mrbul...ension-adaptor

[LittleLebowski]

Getting there, just need to modify the collator to prevent upside down 9mm cases.

[GWS]

The easiest and very effective way is to cut 4 pieces of 9/16" OD thinwall tubing .79" long and drop them in each hole. They will be loosey, but it doesn't matter....easier to remove them. But the result is 9mm cannot go in backwards, unless you dump them in that way......works for .40 as well. Turn the collator upside down and dump them out when you are through so you can collate .45.

Do load the brass from the sides carefully so they are all laying sideways before you start shaking.

[LittleLebowski]

Ordered some of that tubing, thank you GWS!

[GWS]

I found the best way to cut that stuff is to lay it in the opening of a bench vice opened a bit smaller so it makes a cradle for it, and then use a hack saw. Then it cleans up smooth as a baby's butt by touching the ends to the side of your bench grinder......so cut them just a lil long to compensate. You'll have to figure your own idea to present it square to the grinder.....I just eyeball it....sometimes I even do pretty good.

I've used a lot of that stuff in the past 10 years.....use them on my H.M. case feeder for my Pro 2000 among other things.

[Kenstone]

Att: @GWS

What would be really cool (to me) would be something that would funnel de-prime/de-capped brass coming off the APP back into tubes for the case feeder.
You would need extra tubes, not a lot of $, but the refilled tubes could be used to feed a progressive or run back thru the APP again for primer pocket swaging, etc.
The same deal for bullet sizing, sized bullets coming off the APP caught in tubes to be used for the bullet feeding die on a progressive.

I don't have a APP but if I did this is something I'd be working on

[GWS]

That could be as simple as using the Lee collator (for pistol) or my modified one (for rifle) instead of the more typical bin for the outlet.....more tubes like you said....since you are still using the first four in the feeder.

You just have to drill a hole through the bottom sides of the tubes and stick a hitch pin clip through it to keep them until you can mount them into the feeder again. Just keep an eye out for cases dropping in the holes upside down on the way in (or temporarily plug the four holes with dowels). When done with that operation, mount the tubes in the feeder and start shaking.

Good idea! Might be a great step saver. (and time saver)

Attachment 260322

[Kenstone]

That could be as simple as using the Lee collator (for pistol) or my modified one (for rifle) instead of the more typical bin for the outlet.....more tubes like you said....since you are still using the first four in the feeder.

You just have to drill a hole through the bottom sides of the tubes and stick a hitch pin clip through it to keep them until you can mount them into the feeder again. Just keep an eye out for cases dropping in the holes upside down on the way in (or temporarily plug the four holes with dowels). When done with that operation, mount the tubes in the feeder and start shaking.

Good idea! Might be a great step saver. (and time saver)

Attachment 260322

You mean hitch pins, like these:

My tube are 3' so I put a pin top and bottom.
Exit collection tube need not to be vertical, say 45 degrees would be enough to allow cases or bullets to slide to the bottom of the tube against the pin.

[GWS]

I already have an extra four 9/16 OD tubes with hitch pin clips in the bottom, that I have used for my Home Made RCBS Pro 2000 case feeder for years. Yep, 36", but the extra weight of cases 36" high may be a stabilizing problem for Lee's little feeder.....sure to be with heavy boolits in them. I'll have to give it a try. I do have more new tubes that could be cut to Lee's length specs if needed.

See, being stuck at home in quarantine isn't all bad....

[Kenstone]

I already have an extra four 9/16 OD tubes with hitch pin clips in the bottom, that I have used for my Home Made RCBS Pro 2000 case feeder for years. Yep, 36", but the extra weight of cases 36" high may be a stabilizing problem for Lee's little feeder.....sure to be with heavy boolits in them. I'll have to give it a try. I do have more new tubes that could be cut to Lee's length specs if needed.

See, being stuck at home in quarantine isn't all bad....

Ha-ha
All my presses mount in the same place on my bench, one at a time, so I have a Sky Hook above to support the 3' tubes

I have that revolver tube thing from Lee too, but find the added indexing step a pain, and have reverted to using the long tubes, for now.

[44magLeo]

I found the longer skinnier boolits take a bit more time on setting the drop tube in the right place.
Once you get it right it feeds very well. Occasionally a boolit can tip and you have to fiddle with it.
I think the end of the top part that clips on the slider should have the ring be thicker, as thick as the rest of that part. This would help the boolit stay straighter.
Have a wider assortment of drop tube diameters so you could get one closer to boolit diameter would help boolit tipping.
It does work well even so.
When doing the 30 cal boolits I took the next size larger drop tube and slipped it on the one I was using and taped it in place. This let me put almost 30 boolits in the tube. I needed to stabilize the top. Tried it just to see if twice the weight would effect how it worked. It had no effect on function. it just let you run longer before you had to refill. The 30 boolits took about 30 seconds to run through.
Leo

[LittleLebowski]

Ha-ha
All my presses mount in the same place on my bench, one at a time, so I have a Sky Hook above to support the 3' tubes

I have that revolver tube thing from Lee too, but find the added indexing step a pain, and have reverted to using the long tubes, for now.

Where did you get the long tubes?

[GWS]

I get my 36" long Lees-thinwall-rigid-tubing-clear here: (another Lee company)

https://www.petmountain.com/product/...d-tubing-clear

They come in 1/16" o.d. increments and telescope into each other. 9/16 o.d. works for the 4-way Universal feeder....but it comes with 4 shorter ones. I use everything from 7/16" to 5/8" for reloading projects.

My current one is the making of a no motor rifle bullet collater for my RCBS Rifle Tube Bullet Feeders (.223 &.308) which are my latest RCBS excitement. They work 100% efficient for a progressive, and like an M die, stick them sure and straight....but you either have to buy a MBF or MYO. I tend to do the money saving MYO.

About finished....when I do I'll post it. MYO rifle case feeders using Lee's shaker was easy.....bullet collating is another thing, but I think I've found a way.

[mac60]

Yesterday, I f/l sized 400 .357 mag. cases in my app. Used a Lee carbide f/l size die. It went extremely well, it took very little time. Aside from 2 cases that came through the case feed upside down - no hangups or issues whatsoever. If only it had a little more leverage. The roller handle upgrade might help things a little.