Does anyone use LEE Auto Bench Prime?

[max it]

Hi, My Hand primer is wearing out, at least that's what LEE c/s says. So they offered me a deal on a new one. Do I want the Auto Bench Prime tool?
After I get my RL450 Dillon going all the heavy lifting will be there. But the single stage presses are always my back up. And this is part of that.
Much obliged,
Max

[MUSTANG]

I have lots of Lee Products and have been using them since the 1970's. The LEE Auto Bench Prime is probably their biggest piece of Bovine Excrement sold. But that's just my opinion.

The trays do not feed well, and the feed tray path is notorious for not cycling correctly - at least that's the way it is on the one I have relegated to being placed inside the original box and sitting at the very back of one of my reloading shelves. Wish they would bring back parts for their original Hand Primers (Not a fan of their new hand held either).

[Jack Russel]

I have one and it works well.

[Barry54]

For what it’s worth, the round tray pre stair step Lee hand primer tools sell on evil bay for around the same money (or more) as the new lawyer approved versions.

You might be money ahead selling it instead of sending it back to Lee. I need the hand lever for my original one. The casting broke at the pivot point. They don’t sell repair parts for the old ones.

[MUSTANG]

I have opted for the Lee Ram Prime; use it on my Rock Chucker, Lee, and Corbin presses. It might be a little slower than one of the Tray or Tube Primer feeder models; but I find that I can seat primers in a timely manner (and I get a good feel for seating depth/pressure with the Lee Ram Primer).

325799
Click to see picture.

I like it much better than the RCBS primer arm that came with my Rock Chucker I bought in the 1970's. And I prime many thousands of Rifle and Pistol cases each year with it.

[max it]

Mustang et al, I think I will make my old one work.
what may give out before I do is the Lee Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure. I have the old one of those too. It's the rectangle one, before the current round hopper.
Any quick fix for the screws which stripped out?
Much obliged, Max

[Dancing Bear]

I got my Auto Bench Primer several years ago. Already had the shell holder kit from the lee hand primer. The bench unit just made priming so much easier on the hands. From what I read a lot of the reported issues were from letting the lever slam back instead of following it back. But regardless I had no issues and liked it. Now since I started using the Lee Classic Turret I do most of the priming on that.

[Bmi48219]

I’ve been using an Auto Bench Primer for a long time. Maybe 6-8 years. Up until a few years ago I was priming & loading 10k + rounds per year. Here’s my take on the Auto Prime.
1. Depending on what size and brand primers, the triangular feed tray needs a light tap every 8-10 primers because they can get jammed up. I find it feeds better if I only put 50 primers in it at a time.
2. It has small and large primer dispensers that isolate the primer being set. These are primarily plastic and springs and do fail. I’ve been through six of them, that were replaced under the Lee Warranty. I found that failing to raise the hand lever all the way after priming a case will cause the unit to jamb. Jamb it enough times and the primer dispenser fails because you are trying to force two primers into a plastic slot made for one. Knock on wood, I haven’t screwed one up in a few years, and the last replacements the sent seem to be better designed.
3. I also cracked the end of the frame / unit that captivates the shell holder. The frame is some kind of casting and where it cracked is subject to stress pressure produced by the ram seating the primer. Again Lee replaced the entire casting under warranty.

Yesterday I primed 600 pieces of 9mm in 90 minutes. I lost one spp when it tipped sideways and seated that way. It happens occasionally with spp’s. Still for what I paid ($30.00, plus the used shell holder set I got for $10.00) and the service I’ve got from Lee, I’m more than satisfied with the Auto Bench Primer.
But then I guess I’m easy to please.

[MaLar]

I still have one! I got tired of buying replacement parts and bought the RCBS bench primer.

[fast ronnie]

I use the RCBS bench primer. It has never failed.A little more money, but no headaches. Sometimes a warranty is not a good substitute for quality. I like a lot of things that Lee makes that no one else does. Their universal de-capper is better than any other. Their APP press is phenomenal. I don't like their primers, hand or otherwise. I gave my hand primer away years ago.

[YoungGun88]

Got one last year, and enjoy using it. It does require a little getting used to, as your hand can smush a soft primer cup rather easily if you apply too many ugga-duggas to it! I now primarily prime my pistol brass with the Dillon 550, BUT like this for smaller batches of revolver brass, especially stuff that requires large primers(another reason to get a second 550, harharhar) and eventually rifle cases when I start reloading for rifle. I see this little press as a beneficial tool for someone who might have hand/grasping/arthritis issues, as your palm applies the pressure/leverage instead of your grip strength.

I did the "RCBS tray mod" to it after viewing a guy on YouBoob mention it. A #2 flat file made short work of fitting the tray to the Lee plastic bit. Most of us are comfortable with calipers, this is a good representative project for said skill sharpening for the less experienced ;-)
The RCBS tray holds approx 350-400 small primers, fyi.

Mounted the unit to a small board so I can use clamps to hold it down to the bench with the t-track.

-Dan

https://i.ibb.co/bW2DjCN/Lee-Bench-Prime.jpg

[Moleman-]

Mustang et al, I think I will make my old one work.
what may give out before I do is the Lee Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure. I have the old one of those too. It's the rectangle one, before the current round hopper.
Any quick fix for the screws which stripped out?
Much obliged, Max

They make or at least use to an auto disc update kit #90377 that replaces the break prone square hoppers with the round ones with the shut off valve and rubber wiper. I've bought 3 of them over the years and was looking for another one. Looks like it's listed as disconinuted at Midway, and the ones on ebay are expensive enough that you might as well just buy a new measure. Not sure if you called Lee if they have them, just no longer listed as they're clearly still making all the parts that go into them.

[Mauser88]

LOL, I'm still using my original Lee hand priming tool. I must have replaced every part at least 10 times now.

[deces]

I believe the Lee Auto-Prime II is probably their best priming system devised. Unfortunately, it's been discontinued. You can still hunt them on Ebay.
The bench prime has 2 simple rules to work repeatedly, First is not to press the priming lever too far down, that causes problems with the acrylic elevator. 2, be consistent in your strokes of the priming lever.

[max it]

Now I'm going to use what I have. That means Using Pro1000 to load one caliber.Namely .45 acp,
You know what a 3 hole press looks like.

My Question now is how to setup?
Station 1. RCBS decap/ sizer
Station 2. Powder thru hopper/ expander/ and by the way here is where I need to prime the case. Yes I ordered the new upgrade one from Lee; couldnt help it with 1/2 off [smilie=f:
Station 3. RCBS Seat/ crimp die.
#2 is what I have to think thru; [emoji848]
I want to avoid the priming setup Lee has in press. Too messy when a primer hiccups and spills powder everywhere. I think I will pull case from press after deprime and hand feed primer with new auto prime. Then return it to the shellplate.
Will that work? Do any of you have done this or what?

Much obliged, Max

Sent from my SM-A546V using Tapatalk

[Sam Sackett]

Here’s an option. Clean your brass. Use a Lee Universal die to deprime. Reprime with a hand primer or Lee Ram Prime. Now sep up your Pro 1000 as you suggested, only remove the priming pin from your sizing die in station 1. That way you don’t have to interrupt loading by removing the casing to prime.

[Liberty1776]

Just watched a YT Ultimate Reloader review of this.
https://youtu.be/r5CSkxpomJk?si=-tWvC2uCNHdi_6Gj

I also purchased a Lee Deluxe APP that has priming capability, so before I buy a bench prime, I'm going to try the Deluxe APP. The Deluxe APP does not apply excessive force to the primer. On the other hand, I have seen examples of primers going in sidewise with the APP.

The weakest part of Lee is their priming, IMO. I have the 6-Pack Pro press and it fails to feed a primer just often enough to drive me crazy. A progressive press with six stations has to run PERFECTLY. If something -- anything -- goes wrong, you can't back up and then you forget what you were doing and ... it's bad.

I figure the best way to load progressively is to use sized and primed brass. So my plan is to:
1) deprime
2) wet tumble and dry
3) size
4) prime

Move to the progressive press with powder drop/expander, case and bullet feeders to speed things up, and crank them out.

We'll see how it goes.

[max it]

Just watched a YT Ultimate Reloader review of this.
https://youtu.be/r5CSkxpomJk?si=-tWvC2uCNHdi_6Gj

I also purchased a Lee Deluxe APP that has priming capability, so before I buy a bench prime, I'm going to try the Deluxe APP. The Deluxe APP does not apply excessive force to the primer. On the other hand, I have seen examples of primers going in sidewise with the APP.

The weakest part of Lee is their priming, IMO. I have the 6-Pack Pro press and it fails to feed a primer just often enough to drive me crazy. A progressive press with six stations has to run PERFECTLY. If something -- anything -- goes wrong, you can't back up and then you forget what you were doing and ... it's bad.

I figure the best way to load progressively is to use sized and primed brass. So my plan is to:
1) deprime
2) wet tumble and dry
3) size
4) prime

Move to the progressive press with powder drop/expander, case and bullet feeders to speed things up, and crank them out.

We'll see how it goes.

Sounds like a plan. For me I want the brass clean first. Otherwise this is the way to go.
Good luck, Max

[MaLar]

Here’s an option. Clean your brass. Use a Lee Universal die to deprime. Reprime with a hand primer or Lee Ram Prime. Now sep up your Pro 1000 as you suggested, only remove the priming pin from your sizing die in station 1. That way you don’t have to interrupt loading by removing the casing to prime.

This. I do my reloading just like this no mater what press I use.

[Electrod47]

Got one last year, and enjoy using it. It does require a little getting used to, as your hand can smush a soft primer cup rather easily if you apply too many ugga-duggas to it! I now primarily prime my pistol brass with the Dillon 550, BUT like this for smaller batches of revolver brass, especially stuff that requires large primers(another reason to get a second 550, harharhar) and eventually rifle cases when I start reloading for rifle. I see this little press as a beneficial tool for someone who might have hand/grasping/arthritis issues, as your palm applies the pressure/leverage instead of your grip strength.

I did the "RCBS tray mod" to it after viewing a guy on YouBoob mention it. A #2 flat file made short work of fitting the tray to the Lee plastic bit. Most of us are comfortable with calipers, this is a good representative project for said skill sharpening for the less experienced ;-)
The RCBS tray holds approx 350-400 small primers, fyi.

Mounted the unit to a small board so I can use clamps to hold it down to the bench with the t-track.

-Dan

https://i.ibb.co/bW2DjCN/Lee-Bench-Prime.jpg

Gosh your organized and clean........I'm jealous

[YoungGun88]

Gosh your organized and clean........I'm jealous

Hahaha, this photo was taken before I went down the Dillon rabbit hole earlier this year.
I've since routed two full-length slots into my table top to install universal t-track for holding down presses, and have added a Lee APP dedicated to depriming with a case feeder(and bullet feeder for sizing cast bullets soon).
Keeping the presses mounted on Inline Fabrication riser stands, which are bolted to sheets of 3/4" baltic ply(as shown) actually allows me to keep the bench clean much easier than having them permanently bolted to the table.
I can also keep presses off the bench, on a shelf, if desired, which allows for more breathing room while working.
The bench itself is a repurposed electronics workbench, 30x72 inches with a single riser shelf at the rear.
The white melamine top works well to see things much easier, and allow for easy cleaning. Cost me $150 off the local classifieds. Steel frame and 1.5" thick top. Solid

[Walter Laich]

That sounds like a good, strong support for your reloading

[max it]

So I received the latest LEE hand prime gizmo. And I am trying (doing) some LPP's. It takes some 4 or 5 pulls before one primer comes down the chute. There must be a trick to it?
Much obliged, Max