Lee Auto-Drum Review

[dragon813gt]

deleted

[mac60]

First off - thank you for taking the time and effort to put that together. I think it's a fair, non-biased review. Kind of disappointing though - I had plans to get one sooner or later.

[Gunslinger1911]

Hmmmm With the 3 or 4 T&E's I've seen so far, seems to be a discrepancy in the quality of the measure. Unfortunately, not unheard of with Lee products.
I had no issues with WC 820 (very fine grain).
I'll try some 296 today.

[flashhole]

In case others are not sure what it is ... here is a link.

http://www.titanreloading.com/lee-autodrum-powder-measure

Dragon, nice review and thanks for sharing. Any chance the powdered graphite could be the reason for the leak? How do you think it would do with stick powders?

[Artful]

Thanks for the review - how disappointing - wondering if after breakin things will improve.

[Silverboolit]

I just used mine for the first time today to load some 6.5 Creedmoor's. I used H380 and H4350. Both seemed spot on after adjusting for weight. I only loaded 20 each, weighed every 3rd charge and was within +-.1 grain with either powder. I used a turret press and I think that the movement of the turret help in the consistency of the throws. So far, I like it. Did not notice any binding, or leakage. I did leave the disconnector hooked up. Mine did not have any oils in it. I wiped it off and wiped a thin coating of graphite on the drum and housing along with a little on the gear on the inside. I did not use the riser as I did not need it. Time will tell, but first impressions are that it is good to go.

[Silverboolit]

Could a person install a powder baffle into the reservoir? That may take some of the weight factor off the charges especially with fine grained powders. .

[Silverboolit]

Dragon.. I realize that you used an electronic scale. Did you try to use a beam scale?? I thought that this was interesting and did a little experiment tonight, my results:

2400 powder- 13 weights w/ PACT scale: average 33.98 Lo- 33.7 Hi- 34.9 hi/lo deviation - 1.2 gr

Reddot powder- 17 weights w/ PACT scale average 17.79 Lo- 17.5 Hi- 18.1 hi/lo deviation -.6 gr

Redot 10 weights w/ RCBS 5 0 5 average 17.51 Lo- 17.4 Hi- 17.6 hi/lo deviation .2 gr

H4350 8 weights w/5 0 5 average 36.08 Lo- 36.0 Hi- 36.2 hi/lo deviation .2 gr

H380 9 weights w/5 0 5 average- 37.93 Lo- 37.8 Hi- 38.0 hi/lo deviation .2 gr


I can live with .2 gr difference in a thrown charge. You may want to return your measure to LEE for replacement.

[VHoward]

That is what I am thinking. Return it to lee for warranty replacement. The one I got is spot on. I used Accurate Arms #9 in my test of the measure. Target load was 12 grains. I dispensed 10 charges and got one 11.9 gr charge, two 12.1 gr charges and seven 12.0 gr charges. I then dispensed 10 more charges and weighed them all together and got 120.1 grains. I did get a little leakage, but not enough to worry about, it was less than what I normally get with the Dillon measure that sets on my XL650 now. There is an after market powder bar to go in the dillon measure just for extra fine powders to eliminate the leakage, but the Lee Autodrum is half the price. It was worth it to me to at least try it.

[BNE]

Great write up. I had thought about buing one, but I'm glad I didn't wait. I have been happy with the Lee Pro Disk auto measure. Hopefully they can fine tune this one in the near future.

[blackhawk44]

Received mine Tuesday. Set it for 2.7gr. of Bullseye. Threw 10 charges and weighed the total. First trial total 27.1gr. Second trial 27.2gr. Third trial came to 27.1gr. For my purposes, I'm happy.

[VHoward]

Yes, I adjusted the charge weight. Out of the box, it threw a 5.4 gr charge. I adjusted it while it was full of powder to 12 grains. I also cycled half a hopper of powder through it and it still was throwing consistent charges.

[Mike67]

I just loaded 50 rounds of 7.62x54r yesterday with H4895 stick powder. I ran several charges and weighed my set goal was 36.2 grains it was +/- .1 grain in my testing. The night before I ran tests for my .303 British load 38 grains and got similar results. Of course I bought this for loading stick powders in rifle cases on my LCT press. No crunching like my RCBS uniflow. I will have to do some of my own testing with WC820 it leaked badly in my Pro Auto Disc.

[daboone]

I received the Auto Drum PM and the additional set of Quick Change Drums from Titan Reloading. I washed all the parts with TSP and blow dried them with a DataVac. No prepping with graphite was done, but the hopper were rubbed down with a used drier sheet. Before starting each set of measurement with each new drum and powder the unit was cycled with that powder 10 times. (Fine tuning the grains measurement took place during these cycling's)
These measurements were done with the unit mounted on a 550B cycling the case thru the sizing station and then advancing that case to station #2 the powder station. The Lee powder thru expander die or the Lee rifle powder dies were used.


Unique set for 4.0gr:
1- 4.1gr
2- 4.1gr
3- 4.0gr
4- 4.0gr
5-4.0gr
6-3.9gr
7- 4.1gr
8-4.1gr
9- 4.1gr
10- 4.0gr


Unique set for 10gr:
1- 10.1gr
2- 10.0gr
3- 10.1gr
4- 10.1gr
5- 10.0gr
6- 9.9gr
7- 9.9gr
8- 9.9gr
9- 10.0gr
10- 10.1gr




Bullseye 4.6gr
1- 4.6gr
2- 4.5gr
3- 4.6gr
4- 4.6gr
5- 4.5gr
6- 4.6gr
7- 4.6gr
8- 4.5gr
9- 4.5gr
10- 4.5gr


2400 set for 26.3gr:
1- 26.2gr
2- 26.3gr
3- 26.2gr
4- 26.4gr
5- 26.3gr
6- 26.3gr
7- 26.5gr
8-26.2gr
9-26.3gr
10- 26.3gr




IMR 4895 set for 44.8gr
1- 44.8gr
2- 45.1gr
3- 44.8gr
4- 44.9gr
5- 44.8gr
6- 45.0gr
7- 44.9gr
8- 44.7gr
9- 45.0gr
10- 44.9gr




IMR 4350
(Used the same drum as above for the IMR 4895 and it's adjustment for this set of measurements of IMR4350)
1- 38.2gr
2- 37.9gr
3- 38.0gr
4- 38.2gr
5- 38.2gr
6- 38.1gr
7- 37.9gr
8- 38.1gr
9- 38.4gr
10- 38.3gr


I felt the activating and reset of the measure was smoother than the Dillon PM. The Auto Drum's chain reset as it come out of the box needs some work for the 550B. I used alligator chips to fine tune this chain reset and it's not ideal. Any suggestions welcome.


I had no leaking of any powder tested.

[Gunslinger1911]

Something I noticed while running this test - rotor / drum, whatever, is not cycling all the way open ( dump mode) maybe 3/4 rotation. Still getting good numbers though. Ran the die down till just touching shell plate, rotating maybe 85-90 %. Dillon 550 by the way.
Doesn't seem to be an issue. Something I'll keep an eye on with other calibers - may have to mill off bottom of charge die.

Ran some more 231 through today.
Started low,
5.4
5.4
5.3
5.4
5.4
5.2
5.4
5.4
5.4
5.4

Then opened 'er up, lots of turns, had to be most of the way out (anybody check if drum can screw all the way out ?) I'll check after loading some ammo.

27.9
27.8
27.9
27.8
27.8
27.8
27.9
27.9
27.8
27.8

OK, now crank it back down, didn't remove powder - let's give it the acid test.
4.2
4.3
4.1
4.1
4.2
4.2
4.2
4.2
4.2
4.2

I'm still happy.
I'm loading some 9mm and 45acp today, I'll probably check every 10-20 charges, at least at first.
I'll rerun repeatability test after a few hundred cycles.

[Casting_40S&W]

"dragon813gt"

This new measure sure is the cats meow, here is what I found out.

I noticed the leakage on your measure is on top of the slider. This could only happen if the powder is working its way past the small end of the drum and out the opening for the gears. My measure does not leak a bit with 296, which is the same as H110. I loosened the drum quite a bit with the clamp knob and after a few cycles the powder appeared just like your photo.
I tried tightening the clamp knob but then the measure would not return. Now I am pissed my measure basically doesn’t work any more. I turned off the hopper and loosened the drum and emptied the measure. I removed the drum and found the 296 just about everywhere. I cleaned with a blast from my air compressor and reassembled with light pressure on the knob and checked the clearance between the body and drum using a piece of paper as a feeler gauge and instantly found the problem the drum had too much clearance to the metal body The drum appears to align perfectly in the pickup position.
I left my paper “feeler gauge” between the drum and body and tightened the knob until I had good drag on the feeler gauge. I must say you have to tighten the knob tighter than you think you should to get a good fit. Interesting, with the drum tightened with zero clearance it does not seem to make it back completely to the pickup position.
I refilled the measure and it is happily recharging my 357 Mags with no more leaks. I have weighed the charges on my Lee scale, which is annoyingly sensitive, and the charges don’t vary 1/10 with my 15-grain charge.
I haven’t asked Lee but I don’t think the measure was designed to rotate the drum all the way back to the pickup position stop. Probably something to do with the disconnector thingy on the measure.

I think if you clean out your measure and snug up the drum you will have luck with the H110

[Casting_40S&W]

I find it hard to believe that the drum isn't supposed to rotate back enough so the "charge hole" is not completely before the wiper.

I'm glad others are having good luck w/ it.

Your powder measure must look just like mine then. When you stare down the barrel of where the hopper goes in, with the small drum, half the opening is exposed.

[1bluehorse]

Have had my Lee Auto Drum measure for a few days now and while I haven't used it for loading, I do have it set up on a SS press and have been testing it with different powders and calibers. At first I was pretty pleased with it but the more I've used it the less impressed I am. Mine's is leaking finer powders (H335 and H110) a bit, not real bad, but annoying none-the-less, and mine leaks around the bottom between the housing and plastic "cone". Ordered a new elastomer wiper (free) to see if that may help (?). The powder charges are a bit more "erratic" than I would like also. Maybe it will get better with a bit more "break in", we'll see. So my recommendation at this point is a "maybe" buy.

[jetinteriorguy]

Have had my Lee Auto Drum measure for a few days now and while I haven't used it for loading, I do have it set up on a SS press and have been testing it with different powders and calibers. At first I was pretty pleased with it but the more I've used it the less impressed I am. Mine's is leaking finer powders (H335 and H110) a bit, not real bad, but annoying none-the-less, and mine leaks around the bottom between the housing and plastic "cone". Ordered a new elastomer wiper (free) to see if that may help (?). The powder charges are a bit more "erratic" than I would like also. Maybe it will get better with a bit more "break in", we'll see. So my recommendation at this point is a "maybe" buy. I used mine for the first time today and have had almost the same results. Using H335 for my AR mine also leaks at the bottom of the cone/body as well. Although in my case it's throwing nice consistent charge at least. For now I cut off the bottom of a plastic cup and taped it under the leak to catch the powder. It's Mickey Mouse but at least it prevents the mess. Hopefully it works better with other powders or I can figure out how to stop the leaking, or someone can figure it out.

[1bluehorse]

Received the new "wipers" from Lee and after installing a new one in the Auto Drum it's back to working o.k. with no leaks. Also when I disassembled the rotor after finishing up with some H335 there was no powder inside the rotor whereas before there was. So, the new wiper seems to have fixed the previous problem. How or why the one that came with the measure was "bad" I have no idea. Good luck fella's....

[tomf52]

Got mine today and set to loading five different batches of powders. All metered with excellent consistency. Responded nicely to adjustments. Coarse or fine grain didn't matter. No problems whatsoever. A nice piece of equipment at a very fair price. And no, I have no ties to Lee.

P.S. - No leaks either!

[VHoward]

Mine leaked a little. I contacted Lee and they are sending me a replacement wiper no fuss. That's a first for me. Always has been a fuss to get warranty service out of Lee for me, but not this time. I have always given Lee equipment a try. If it works, I keep it. If it doesn't and I can't get any satisfaction from Lee, then I return it for a refund. Or sell it on ebay.

[jetinteriorguy]

I did a little test, after loading 300 rounds of .223 @ 25 grains of H-335 I emptied and weighed the powder in my little catch cup and ther was a little over 68 grains in it. This is just from the main leak, not counting the very small leak coming from the body of the powder measure. This is pretty disappointing, I'm going to contact Lee and see what they say. Other than this I do like the way the measure works, I was putting the brass on my digi scale, zeroing it and then checking it after filling the shell case and it never varied by more than .1 grains with most of them right on the money. I did this for 50 rounds and decided that's good enough to just go ahead and load all 500.

[jetinteriorguy]

Had a pleasant surprise today. I loaded up a couple hundred 148 grain wadcutters with 2.7 grains of Bullseye. Absolutely no leaking whatsoever and the charges were spot on. The only two things that changed were switching to the pistol rotor and Bullseye. Later I'm going to retry the H-335 using the pistol rotor to see if it works any better, especially if it will go as high as 25 grains of H-335. If this works good I'll just order some more rotors and set one up permanently for my .223 loads. Hopefully this weekend I'll get time to try some other powders with the rifle rotor and see if any of them work better. If I can't get anything to work with the H-335 it's no biggy, both my Lee PPM and my Lyman 55 work great, I'll just leave the Lyman set up permanently for .223.

[jetinteriorguy]

So I tried my experiment using the small pistol rotor with the H-335. It worked perfect, definitely plenty of volume for .223 and it didn't leak a bit. I dropped about 50 loads and they all weighed at 25 grains. So at least in my case the problem with the H-335 was with the large rotor. So the next experiment for me is to see if I can use the large rotor with some of my pistol powders. I have a pretty good assortment. Green dot, HS-6, HP-38, Titegroup, 700-X, 2400, Accurate #5&9, Red Dot, Autocomp, Unique, and TrailBoss. As long as I can find a couple of these that will work with the large rotor I'm more than happy with this powder measure.

[flashhole]

Good post, that's my interest, charges for 223 and smaller cartridges.

[jetinteriorguy]

I finished the next step in my testing, fairly encouraging results. First the powders that didn't leak and dropped consistent charges. These are Trail Boss, HS-6, HP-38, Autocomp, Titegroup, and 2400. Next are the powders that leaked a little but dropped consistent charges. These are Accurate #5&#9. Then last are the ones that didn't leak but dropped inconsistent charges. These are Green Dot, Red Dot, 700-X, and Unique. Pretty much powders of the same type and consistency fell into each of these groups, except for Trail Boss which is in a type all its own anyway. My next test will be to try the ones that either leaked or were inconsistent with the pistol rotor and see what happens.

[farmerjim]

I have been using the lee auto-disk with the double disk kit to load 223 with 26.3 grains of varget on a classic turret press. I found that the pro auto disk would give consistent charges with single disks but would vary more than I liked when double stacked. It leaked a lot single or double.
I ordered mine before this thread started, but did not try it till today.
I like Varget in the 223 because the higher charges for the 55 grain bullet fill the case into the neck, and any charge that is off much can be seen and dumped before seating the bullet. I set mine up removing the down stroke verification device, and adjusting the drum with a weighed 26.3 charge of Varget. I cycled about 15 charges through the measure while adjusting the drum to 26.3 grains. I then weighed 10 charges, cycling the turret through all 4 stages in a normal reloading cycle.
My results are as follows:

1. 26.3
2. 26.4
3. 26.2
4. 26.3
5. 26.5
6. 26.2
7. 26.3
8. 26.3
9. 26.2
10. 26.4

There were no leaks.
As others have noted, my drum does not return fully after throwing a charge. There is a large amount of slop in the linkage to the drum.
I believe that the vibration of normal loading on the turret is causing the charge cylinder to fully fill even though the top of the cylinder is not fully exposed.

The auto drum works much better than the auto disk for charges that can't be achieved with a single disk.

I am satisfied with my auto-drum.

[mwells72774]

Sounds like stick powders seem to work best from what I read. Has anyone using stick noticed of there is cutting or crunching on the grains?

[farmerjim]

Sounds like stick powders seem to work best from what I read. Has anyone using stick noticed of there is cutting or crunching on the grains?

Only about 25 charges, but no, not at all.

[VHoward]

Got the replacement wiper today. Will have to test it out.

[VHoward]

Well. This measure I got is still leaking even with the new wiper installed. Don't think there was anything wrong with the original one. This was with AA #9 powder. I did test it out with some IMR 7828 powder I have for 300 Win Mag. It did OK. The charge remained with in +/- 0.1 gr with an occasional 0.2 gr +/- from the target. There was of course no leaking and there was no cutting of the sticks. This measure was inexpensive and will work for my rifle reloading, so it will be kept.

[jetinteriorguy]

I've been able to do more testing on my Autodrum and have come to these conclusions based on my experience. Larger flake powders like 700-X, Green Dot, Unique,etc. don't leak but aren't very consistent either. And this is in both the pistol and rifle rotors. Medium ball powders meter well and don't leak in either the pistol or rifle rotors. Fine ball powders meter well but leak badly in the rifle rotor but meter great with no leaks in the pistol rotor. I haven't tried any stick powders because I don't use them much. This is using my method of prepping the equipment. Basically I wiped down the measure and rotors with alcohol to clean any oil etc. off, then sprayed them down with an aerosol can of graphite to make things flow smoothly. I usually spray the inside of the hopper too but this time I just wiped it down with a drier sheet to eliminate static. For me as long as I use the Autorotor within its limitations I love it, it won't replace having all other types of powder measures but for the cost and the amount of performance it delivers its a bargain and well worth adding to the bench. Between the Autorotor, the Lee PPM, the Lee Pro Disc, and my good old Lyman 55 I've got everything pretty well covered.

[sparkyv]

deleted

Why was post deleted dragon813gt?