Problems with brand new Lee Loadmaster

[WhiskeyDigger]

Greetings,

I am new to reloading, and purchased a Loadmaster Press. After careful adjustments, I have it working fairly well, however when pulling the handle down for operation, the central cylinder(I'm not sure of the part names), rotates a little, and as such the shell plate indexer comes off the guides,and the shell plate doesn't rotate properly,and puts the turret out of alignment. I did not see how I could tighten this anywhere, to prevent this from happening, but again, I'm new to this. Any suggestions?

[sparky45]

I've had (4) Lee Loadmasters in the past and they ALL needed "fine tuning". The RAM (that's the part that you describe as turning) has a nut on the distal end that tightens all that stuff, you might check to see that it's snug. There's a member here that is fantastic in tuning a Loadmaster (jmorris) and has posted a video of his Loadmaster after tuning it up. Good luck; and welcome to the forum.

[toallmy]

The screw at the bottom of the ram - ( draw bolt ) is used to adjust the alignment , not the top - see page 7 of the instructions ( alignment of the carrier to the turret )
2 things to look at are "carrier out of adjustment " & " indexer improperly installed ".

[1bluehorse]

Greetings,

I am new to reloading, and purchased a Loadmaster Press. After careful adjustments, I have it working fairly well, however when pulling the handle down for operation, the central cylinder(I'm not sure of the part names), rotates a little, and as such the shell plate indexer comes off the guides,and the shell plate doesn't rotate properly,and puts the turret out of alignment. I did not see how I could tighten this anywhere, to prevent this from happening, but again, I'm new to this. Any suggestions?

The "central cylinder" is called the ram. There is a 7/16 bolt at the bottom of the ram to tighten the shell plate "platform". Adjust the "flipper" on the index rod per instructions and then tighten the bolt at the bottom of the ram. Make sure to loosen the bolt on top that holds shell plate when you do this. DO NOT tighten the bottom bolt to tight, snug is good.

[WhiskeyDigger]

Thank you all so much for your help. I also contacted Lee Precision, and they are shipping me a wave washer, after describing the problem.

Where do I find these videos by jmorris, that you mentioned @sparky45 ?

[jmorris]

Page 9 of the manual.

https://leeprecision.com/files/instruct/LM3231.pdf

Shows where the draw bolt is (at the bottom) but is less than ideal at explaining the carrier adjustment. Once you get it right the first time, it’s going to make sense forever. Photobucket ruined a lot of content I uploaded over the years, moving a pertinent video to you tube now.

That didn’t take long, the black plastic part is the “flipper” and must contact the bumps in the frame as well as the diagonal portion of the casting, like this.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5dxwk4MimA&feature=youtu.be

If you don’t know what the parts are called they are labeled on page one of the manual linked above. “Carrier” is what Lee calls the casting that is rotated and subsequently tightened to the ram, with the draw bolt, when in the proper position.

Must do full and complete strokes and the flipper must make it all the way to both the inside and outside of the casting, riding over the “bumps” at either end of the stroke.

When the carrier is all the way up, the flipper must hit the bump at the top and rotated enough, clockwise, for the bottom to ride down the angled gusset in the frame, pulling it and the indexer towards the outside of the frame.

Then as the carrier reaches the bottom, the flipper must be turned counter clockwise by the bump on the outside, before being pushed in by the “lever” the ball is on.

[jmorris]

Once you can get them to index 100%, Make a few other tweaks, you can make them fly.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9pjmuHAkBU