Rant on.
It has been quite a while since I've seen a fail this bad. My old Lee auto prime has given nearly 3 decades and countless thousands of rounds of use. I actually inherited it from my grandpa. It finally got to the point where I was bottoming out the lever, and it still wouldn't seat deep enough. I finally bought a new lee auto prime. At first I was impressed. I actually like the folding tray, I got sick of spilling primers as my favorite brand, Federal, has trays too large for the old one. The rest of it looked nice, and it even has a nice plastic case. All good until I went to use it. I was using CCI 550's to prime some handgun, I got a couple, then it started jamming up. It was getting 2 in at a time somehow, going in sideways, etc. I gave up that day. Later I tried some Winchester small rifle for some 223. This time it was consistently going in crooked. Again I put it up. Next I decided to try the large size, with some Federal 150's, and the frickin things don't even fit up the elevator. I mean, it's not even close. I tried to force it, but all it does is bend the stupid rubber "elevator". I took it all apart, and tried to chamfer all the corners, made sure it was smooth. Still no dice. So I measure the opening, it's about .030" SMALLER than the diameter of just a primer. The small primer one is about the diameter of a primer, but still not large enough for a primer to fall through. I returned it to the store, and got a whole new set. I go to try some large pistol again, and nada. Brand new set, if anything it was worse. At that point I walked to the door and chucked it straight in the tall grass. I am a long time LEE fan, but this thing needs to be pulled from market immediately.
Rant over.
About a week later I'm looking into the RCBS primer, when I see something about interchangeable parts. I walked back out and grabbed the *** from the yard, and brought it in. Without thinking, I pulled the handle off, and got the idea to try it on the old one. Not only does it fit, it 100% fixed my old auto primer! All I had done is worn out the socket of the old handle.
As long as I don't break the connecting rod, my old one is set for another 30 years.
I really hope Lee can come up with a hand primer again. If safety is the reason, just add a little divider that comes up. That is all that is needed. Better yet, take the Mc Donald's approach. Put a danger sticker on the old one that works.