Hornday lol ap issues

[mwhite49]

I have a new press and already sheared a pawl off. I replaced it but now I notice a large amount of slop or play In the ram/shell plate . Is this side to side play normal? I would hope not. Really noticeable when handle is about halfway through the travel, I can move the handle side to side which in turn moves the shell plate.
Thanks for any help.
Mike

[dannyd]

Call Hornady tomorrow that’s not right and I don’t know how explain it.

[ReloaderFred]

Call Hornady and they'll take care of it for you, just like dannyd said. I've had excellent service from them, but you'll want to call this week, since the following week most of the techs will be at the SHOT Show.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[omgb]

The only way to shear off a pawl is to use brute force when something is not running smoothly. Your press is going to take an overhaul by Hornady. Call them and be honest. They will fix it.

All of the progressive presses are tricky. They are a different breed for single stage presses where brute force rules the day.

[OS OK]

The only way to shear off a pawl is to use brute force when something is not running smoothly. Your press is going to take an overhaul by Hornady. Call them and be honest. They will fix it.

All of the progressive presses are tricky. They are a different breed for single stage presses where brute force rules the day.

"ding-ding...there's your answer"

You gotta treat these Progressives like you would a fine Woman...it takes a gentler touch and you have to mentally stay about 3 jumps ahead of them! ... :bigsmyl2: ... well, that is, if you don't want trouble!

[HangFireW8]

The only way to shear off a pawl is to use brute force when something is not running smoothly. Your press is going to take an overhaul by Hornady. Call them and be honest. They will fix it.

As omgb said, Hornady is totally willing to do it for you, but the cost of shipping may give you pause. As for requiring an overhaul by Hornady... Maybe. I was able to re-time a Pro-Jector after I damaged a pawl, and bent a roll pin. (It happened after brute force... trying to remove a stuck 308Win case. A lesson learned, I'll never do that again.)

Anyway, the Pro-Jector and the LnL have essentially the same bottom end, so re-timing it is possible. However it took a lot of tech support from Hornady, and time and patience on my end. Not everyone is so patient, or mechanically inclined.

[mwhite49]

I spoke with Hornday this morning and they are paying shipping both ways. I explained what happened. When you look at the index ratchet it is touching the side of the frame. So something is bent, maybe the drive shaft.
And this was over a stuck 308 case also, well lubed too.
Thanks for the help.
Mike

[ReloaderFred]

That's great! I love it when a company supports their equipment and puts customer service first.

Fred

[HangFireW8]

mwhite49,

That's great that they are standing behind their product.

That's a funny coincidence about us having the same problem with the same case. Just curious, what lube were you using? For my stuck 308 case was using Hornady's spray lube. I must have gotten a bad can or something, as others have had good luck with it. Once the wet evaporates, it seems like there's nothing left.

[mwhite49]

I used the Hornday spray lube too. When it comes back I'll use my Rock chucker for resizing and not use station 1 on the LOL AP. But all pistol cases I'll use the full press.
I also use Imperial case lube.

[dannyd]

Use the on pistol cases runs way better

[omgb]

I use mine on 3006 and 45-70/45-90 all of the time without a hitch. I did use the Hornady lube for a while and then switched to the Dillon lube. I liked it so much better I knocked it off using liquid lanolin and alcohol. The Hornady lube comes in two types, a n aerosol can (good lube) and a water based pump squirt bottle (bad lube). For the future, remember, If you stick a case, don't try to pull it out with the press. Remove the die and then pull the stem from the die and using a slim punch or rod, drive the case out. The advance mechanism on a progressive press won't tolerate so much force.

As to depriming, go ahead and use your LNL. Just make sure you use a good decapping die. This should be easy-peasy for the LNL with good lube and non-crimped primers.

[1browski]

I have processed 1000s of rifle brass on my LNL AP and have never had an issue. I have never tried their spray lube before but instead bought one quart of 15/50 synthetic motor oil. It lasts forever. Hopefully your press will be returned fairly quickly and get up and running again. To be able to remove your die with a stuck case in it would you just be able to thread your die down and through the top of your press? It looks like it would work that way from just looking at it.

[MyFlatline]

I broke a pawl on mine very early on, and no, I did not horse it. They did send me a new one for free tho.

[mwhite49]

Hornday must get a lot of broken pawl calls so when my press was shipped they added an extra pawl just in case.

[MyFlatline]

Hornday must get a lot of broken pawl calls so when my press was shipped they added an extra pawl just in case.
Funny, I asked for an extra and he said there would be a charge. I said never mind. Go figure..

[jamesp81]

I have a new press and already sheared a pawl off. I replaced it but now I notice a large amount of slop or play In the ram/shell plate . Is this side to side play normal? I would hope not. Really noticeable when handle is about halfway through the travel, I can move the handle side to side which in turn moves the shell plate.
Thanks for any help.
Mike

No, lots of slop in the ram / subplate is definitely not normal.

I know it's a typo in your thread title, but I find calling it the "Hornady LOL AP press" to be incredibly appropriate, because I LOL every time I think about how much money I sunk into this thing, and I don't mean haha funny either.

The LnL AP is a decent press, but it is not nearly as good as the hype says it is. I definitely would not buy it again if I were doing everything over. Since I've owned it has had the following issues: 1) failure to eject finished cartridges due to jamming against the ejector (worse with rimmed cartridges) 2) failure to align cartridge cases with the sizing die mouth (worse with straight wall pistol cartridges) 3) tips cartridge cases over trying to feed them into the shell plate (worst with 357 Magnum and 5.56 cases) 4) ejects finished cartridges such that they fall across the shellplate rather than into the finished cartridge bin (mostly 5.56 rounds) 4) the case feeder is poorly suited to 357 magnum and struggles to feed them to the v-block on the subplate without weird binding issues or double and triple feeds 5) cases dropping from the feeder tube occasionally bounce off the subplate and land on the floor somewhere and 6) it constantly seats primers visibly above flush.

I think I may have partially solved the ejection issues by getting a new subplate from Hornady. It happens less now, but not never. I recently glued a washer down under the primer ram which is supposed to fix the high primer issue; I have not tested it since I made the modification. Case tipping when feeding into the shell plate can supposedly be helped by putting stick on felt pads under the v-blocks that push the cases into the shell plate. I have not tested this yet either since doing it.

Basically it has never successfully ran more than 20 rounds in a row without a stoppage, and it usually doesn't get that far on most days. I hope Hornady helps you out with your issues.

[Moleman-]

Never had as many issues with my 23 year old projector press since I got it. About 9 years ago I had to adjust the pawls as it wasn't advancing the shell plate far enough, but that was after loading 50-70K rounds. My main stoppage on that press is using all of the primers and having to swap out the primer tubes. I've got two big and two small primer tubes, but wish they held more. Probably a good thing they don't as by then it's a good spot to add powder to the measure if needed. For lube rcbs liquid is hard to beat. For high volume 223 or 308 runs I'd use a rcbs lube die which do wear out over time. Shame they didn't make them with easily replaceable felts in them v/s having to buy a new die every time.

For the high primer issue, can you screw the ram stop on the bottom side of the ram head in slightly to adjust it?

[mwhite49]

I received an email this morning that the press was delivered.

[1browski]

I just loaded 500 9mms yesterday on the LNL AP. The only hitch I had was a primer getting stuck or hanging up after size/depriming. It happened about 5 times. The first time I just started clearing the brass off the stations until hearing the primer drop. Once it had happened the second time I just checked that first. The retention spring on shell plate is nice to have. Before I started using my press, I did watch a 5 part series of videos on tips. I did do all the recommendations to hopefully insure there was no problems. So far so good.

[Moleman-]

1browski, try lowering the decapping stem slightly. When my progressive press does that it's usually a sign the decapping stem has slid up inside the die a bit.

[1browski]

Thx. I did adjust it a little down. I just forgot to mention it. I was bored and didnt want to load em all at once, so going to load the other 500 today.

[ReloaderFred]

I've only got about 80,000 rounds on my LnL, mostly .38's, 9x19 and .45 acp, plus a few thousand .45 Colt. It runs as smooth as can be, and always has, but I don't prime on any of my presses. When I'm ready to load, it's with sized and primed brass, with the primer pockets cleaned, and every primer set to .004" below flush. I did wear out the old Pro-Jector at somewhere over the 350,000 round mark, but Hornady completely rebuilt it for free, and a friend is now using it.

Most of the issues with any progressive press are with priming, either feeding primers or seating primers. I chose about 500,000 rounds ago to not put myself through that aggravation any longer, and started priming off press. Life has been much easier ever since.

Hope this helps.

Fred