My thoughts on Smart Reloader equipment.

[dragon]

Warning... this is a bit of a rant.

I have now seen three different pieces of smart reloader equipment in person and all I can say is... "Are you kidding me!" I have only been reloading for less than two years but I can still see when a tool is not up to par.

Aside from the fact that they are junk, and I own almost all Lee equipment (that I very much like) at this point, I can't believe that they are getting away with the blatent copying of others designs. I guess that the patents must have run out or the Italians just don't care.

I am someone who personally strives to not just buy American made goods, but as local as possible if the item will fit the need, and that does include build quality for many things. I see absolutely NO reason to buy their stuff. All of it seems to be poor COPIES of items already made by other manufacturers, mostly in the US, and of much higher quality AND higher value. I won't even buy their ammo boxes as I don't want to support this company in any way. Besides there are higher quality cases made in the USA that are within a few pennies of the price.

Does anyone else see a problem with this stuff and this company?

I know that I for one will be recomending to everyone I know to just stay away from it. I guess I am just turning into a grumpy, not so old, crumudgeon.

...Dragon

[William Yanda]

What he said.
Maybe if enough of us don't buy it, those who offer it will get the idea and quit pushing it.

[jcwit]

Smart Reloader equipment is ment for those not so smart.

I own and use equipment from most every manufacturer out their, but none from smart reloader, their price point is similar to Lee equipment which is made here in the U.S. & for that reason I see no need to support Chinese labor nor the Italian marketing group.

[dudel]

Preachin to the choir Dragon. I got their nano tumbler because I usually have some small batches of brass to clean as well as some of their ammo boxes.

All junk. The nano tumbler ran overnight and still didn't clean the brass. The ammo boxes broke at the hinge. No more of that yellow stuff on my bench.

[mdi]

99% of the Smart Reloader stuff being sold is to those that have no idea how bad the stuff is. The price and advertising is very appealing to new reloaders. When they first appeared on the scene I purchased the little "C" press as a secondary tool and about as much plain old curiosity. The only thing good about the press I bought was a half decent paint job and it is a constant reminder to stay away from yellow reloading equipment, even though it's black (I leave it out so I can see it daily). My "press" isn't a copy, but close to some I've seen (not a Lee), and I have heard nothing good about that yellar junk...

[lancem]

Guess I'm lucky, never heard of them... Now that I have, I'll never look for them!

[Prospector Howard]

I bought the priming tool to see if it might be better than the Lee. Boy, what a piece of junk. Don't buy it or you'll be sorry. Won't buy anything else from them now. At least I didn't waste a ton of money to find out.

[dbosman]

The little SMART C press lists de-priming, bullet lubing, and bullet seating on the box. It does not list sizing brass. ;-)

[beex215]

i bought the tumbler they made. its still in use and i dont have a problem with it at all.

[dbosman]

That's one.
I did some searching one day, and every post was about the tumbler motor failing quickly.
Your mileage obviously varies from others.


i bought the tumbler they made. its still in use and i dont have a problem with it at all.

[jcwit]

i bought the tumbler they made. its still in use and i dont have a problem with it at all.

Just looked up the tumbler

http://www.amazon.com/SmartReloader-VBSR005-7-SR737-Tumbler-Nano/dp/B004ZIO2FM

$34 plus coin plus shipping

For a few dollars more and $5 bucks shipping you could have one made right here in the U.S. of A using American workers & not be supporting the chi com's

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shooting/Reloading/Tumblers-Sonic-Cleaners-Scales%7C/pc/104792580/c/104761080/sc/104661180/Cabelas-Model-400-Vibratory-Case-Tumbler/731767.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Ftumbl ers-sonic-cleaners-scales%2F_%2FN-1100197%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104661180%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat1047 92580%253Bcat104761080&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104792580%3Bcat104761080%3Bcat104 661180

[country gent]

I have made some observations on equipment, I look it over good and try and research before I buy, especially the lower priced goods. Saving a few bucks and fighting with it or replacing in 5 months to a year isnt saving any money. Theres inexpensive and theres cheap there is a diffrence. Lees tools are pretty much inexpensive they work function and most of all last. May not have knurls and fancy finishes but thats okay. Ceap is inferior materials poor desighn lack of quality control. A big diffrence there. If an item is way cheaper than the competitors it raises a flag to me. Ive looked at Smart reloader over the years and always questioned the quality I could see feel handling them.

[glockmeister]

Thanks for the heads up on this brand of equipment, Never heqrd of it and now I'll know to steer clear of it, thanks very much. I prefer to keep USofA folks gainfully employed whenever possible so I buy Made in The USA whenever and wherever I can. Thanks again, John.

[gunoil]

the only way to have a lee loadmaster is to go to mikesreloadingbench.com

He has saved the loadmaster, l have 9 of his mods. I was about to sell loadmaster.

[skeet028]

Yep..junkie stuff for sure.. But heck even the New RCBS RC IV is cast in China..but is line bored here.. Some of the Lee presses are made here in the US as are the Redding. The Loadmaster is, in my opinion, a ***. I have a new one here I've never set up and never will. Bought the darn thing thinking of doing 38s on it.Should have sent it back directly after opening the box but didn't. I ended up buying and using a CH Mark IV inline. gonna sell it too as I need no more 38s...for a Looonnnggg time. Loaded 4 5gal buckets of ammo. Never shoot 'em all I am sure. SmartReloader isn't

[jmort]

"Some of the Lee presses are made here in the US..."

Wrong, all of the Lee Precision presses are made here.

[Reddirt204]

A mate has a smart loader press, it uses a bushing type set up (similar to Lee??) he borrowed a set of hornady dies from me and couldn't get them to screw into some of the bushings!! Some worked and some didn't, sort of sums up the quality control vs price

From what I've seen I won't be buying a thing that is painted yellow..

Cheers

Reddirt204

[Lead Fred]

Been reloadin since 1961, and have never heard of smart stuff. So I have to figure its fly by night or cheap **** like Lee.

Either way.Ill stick with my 1/2 century stuff, when Im gone, My Grandson will still be suing it.

[Teddy (punchie)]

Been reloadin since 1961, and have never heard of smart stuff. So I have to figure its fly by night or cheap **** like Lee.

Either way.Ill stick with my 1/2 century stuff, when Im gone, My Grandson will still be suing it.

like Lee that what I did say, but I guess they are making some very nice equipment for the money.

[altheating]

I bought one of them cheap yellow digital scales to put in my range box. I now use it to weigh arrow tips not powder. It will tell me if the arrow tip is 100 grains or 125 grains, that's all its good for. I won't use it for weighing powder, hell it is barely good enough to sort out 47 grain hornet boolits. If you buy quality stuff the first time you never have to replace it!

[eljefeoz]

I just bought an evilbay powder thrower, seemingly a Lee PPm clone. Got the mail yesterday, and found it to be a Smart reloader SR 400.well, I am not going to be using it as a primary or secondary. More to see how a 12 buck powder thrower works.

[mdi]

The little SMART C press lists de-priming, bullet lubing, and bullet seating on the box. It does not list sizing brass. ;-)
The one I have doesn't have good enough leverage to successfully size/deprime a .38 Special case, in carbide dies. The ram was so sloppy I had to guide each primer into place when using a Ram Prime. I cleaned the press very good, re-lubed and it still felt "gritty". Bullet sizing the same; ram so sloppy I had to guide each bullet up into the die...

[rbstern]

A few years ago, Midsouth was selling a Smart Reloader kit (press, tumbler, tools, etc.) for a really low promotion price. I decided to try it to see what the quality was like. My experience:

The little C press was absolute garbage. The ram was so sloppy, it couldn't get a case into a die without hand guidance. The Nano tumbler was ok. The one concern was motor heat. I mounted a fan blade assembly from a defunct computer fan on the motor shaft, and that problem was solved. Still works after considerable use. The digital scale worked very well. Found it to be reasonably accurate and repeatable. Gave it to a friend who still uses it. The gem of the kit was the case prep tools (pocket cleaner, neck chamfer tool). They are actually quite good. Still use them.

I called the company to complain about the ram alignment. They sent me another press, no questions asked. The second one was much better, but the leverage does suck. Would never use it to size anything.

Bottom line: There are a few items that are worthwhile, but it's generally a poor quality line that beginning reloaders looking for value should skip in favor of Lee equipment.

Some of the bits and pieces are fine for experienced tinkerers with particular needs in mind.

[DRNurse1]

LOL. Saw a table full of this stuff at a recent gunshow. Sold it all the first day and had more for the second. I had never heard of them, but one pull on an empty press convinced me the prices were WAY to high for me. Now I am really glad I stayed away and did not steer any newbie reloaders that way.

[LeftyDon]

It pains me to admit that I own a SmartReloader ISD powder scale dispenser. I bought it some time ago, about went I decided I needed better reloading equipment and long before I joined this forum. I think it was just before we moved to NY state and until just recently it sat in it's box. This past year (2013) has been a tough one for me. I was doing a lot of sporting clay shooting until the knees got the better of me. So I've had both knees replaced, one in the spring and the other one in December, and so reloading has been a when ever there's time run off a few rounds. Shotgun shells have been all purchased and hulls given to a friend for now. For most of the reloading I just used my Lee on press powder dispenser and a scale to set the charge weight. However, I've got to load some rifle rounds and wanted to see if the ISD would do the trick. So far all I've done is run a few test charges through the thing and using some Youtube videos tried to change some of the speeds to improve the drop to drop consistency. . Speed change setpoints are not covered in the limited manual and so the videos helped set the trickle settings. I got it to dump consistent charges. But were they correct weight? I'm still working on that. My RCBS test weights showed a lack of accurate readout vs. the RCBS weights. Since I'm just starting 3 times a week PT for the knee, time has prevented me from making up the chart of real weight vs. readout. Hopefully I can get to this before the spring. But as with all reloading equipment anyone buying one of these should not assume that digital means accurate. Had I known more about this product I might have passed on purchase.

[plainsman456]

The tumblers were on sale when they first came on the market,so i bought 2 for small batches of brass.

The first one lasted 3 runs(about 3 hours) and the motor seized up.

I had a bud of mine find some new bearings and put them in,the armature was fried as well.

I took the other one apart and checked the bearings on it and they had no lube at all.
Put the new bearing in and it ran for about 4 months before the armature went bad as well.

I now have 2 Lyman 1200's and they have been running for 5-6 years.

You get what you pay for.

YMMV

[nightal]

I bought the Smart Loader Press, last summer on sale from Sears, $18.99 delivered to the store near me. looked really good, until I saw how the RAM went through the casting, no Bushing, sleeve, in the casting,not very tight, it wobbles all around.I just keep it loaded with Wheel bearing Grease, that helps. the top only accepts the Die, it is threaded only for the Die itself.
I bought it because it looked like a Lee knock off, and the Price, of course. it works,it accepts all Shell Holders, it's heavy, okay for decaping, resizing, my straight wall cases,9MM. 10MM. .45ACP. It's nice to have a second press, as bad as it is.seems solid, strong,it just needs a Bushing on the Ram.

[ACrowe25]

Never really heard or seen anything from them. I like my fair share of LEE stuff and have no reason to purchase any lesser quality reloading stuff (which LEE is without a doubt--- that's another story. Not saying it doesn't work... just saying it is not built like others!)