pro 1000 pre 93 ?

[randyrat]

I have a pro 100 with the powder measure thingy made pre 1993 from what i can figure.
It's been sitting in a box on the floor of my gun room for about 3 years.
Decided one day to get it up and running.

I tinkered,cleaned and fixed a couple things and it works!

BUT How the heck or what are the numbers on the "powders disk" how do you read them?????

I hate to run a few and measure and run some more and measure more.

I've never seen one of these and i don't have any instructions. I found some pictures on the Lee site, but the only reference was to the universal/variable charge disk.

[Bill*]

The numbers correspond to the charts that come with Lee die sets. They are also listed in Lees reloading book, I believe they're listed under the column called "Autodisk". If you email Lee support, they might send you what you need.

[GrizzLeeBear]

Is it the Autodisk? The instructions are on their website under "Instructions". Heres a link to their pdf:

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/AD2302.pdf

Also note that you MUST check what the disk cavity throws with a scale. The instructions will get you close to a given powder charge. However, some cavities throw very close with some powders, but others may be off by a couple of cavity sizes for a given powder charge.
Once you get the right cavity for your chosen powder charge I have found that the disk measure is pretty consistent with most powders except very small charges of large flakes (like under 4 grains of Red Dot, 700x, etc) or with long stick powders like 3031 or 4064.

[dragonrider]

The numbers on the disks are cubic centemeters. You need to use the charts from Lee to convert to grains of a specific powder. Kind of a pita but it works.

[randyrat]

Hot dog! I have it turning out ammo. I guessed at which one to use for 3.5 grs of bullseye and i hit it on the first try.
I'm impressed with a machine that looks like it was made in china and assembled in the back room of Walmart. I tested a number of rds for weight and that measure comes out very accurately

[Gee_Wizz01]

Those little Pro 1000s can crank out some decent ammo once you get them figured out. Just keep the primer chute clean and waxed, fill the primer tray as soon as it gets low, and stop and clean up any powder that gets in the primer system. Also watch the powder measure, it goes empty quick.

G

[randyrat]

YES i had to stop and clean powder out of the priming system,it wouldn't allow a primer to slide through. I caused that screw up.
I was just short of taking a hammer to it.

I still don't trust it yet completely, I need a light to see positive proof that there is powder and the right amount of powder is in each round. I refuse to have a squib ,they ruin your day.
It is going much better now and I save time by having one press ready to go in a flash for 45 acp plinkers.

[Moonie]

I had a pro1000 years ago for pistol cartridges I was loading at the time, .357, 44 and 45acp. Loved that machine. When i got back into reloading I figured if the pro 1000 was good the load master would be better and load rifle cartridges as well... Not quite, some things are better but the priming system on the loadmaster is certainly not up to the same standard as the pro 1000.

Been thinking about getting another pro 1000 for my pistol cartridges.

[Elkins45]

My experience is that the Pro 1000 works best with large primer rounds. There's just too much tolerance in the system for 100% reliable feeding with small ones.

I used to keep a little hook I had bent from a paper clip on my bench. I would hook it into the slit in the primer feeder chute and give the primer column a nudge to make sure one had slid down onto the seater post. As long as I did that it ran like a top.

[Cowboy T]

The Pro 1000 also works well with small primer rounds. I have one set up for .38 Spl, which gets the most use. That press has between 15K and 16K rounds on it right now.

The key is to keep that primer feed mechanism clean. I don't wax it or anything else, but I do clean it thoroughly with solvent, followed by warm, soapy water and a day to dry. I use an old toothbrush to scrub it good 'n' clean.

A good detailed strip-down, clean, and reassembly every once in a while keeps these presses very happy. I do mine when I start to see primers getting fed sideways, a clear sign of a dirty primer feed mechanism.

[randyrat]

I found keeping the primer shoot full is more important then the tray. Every 2- 4 rds i give the tray a little shake to fill the shoot( cleaning it at this point would probably would help).

Mine is a pre 1993 so it didn't have the spring set up for the powder pull string/cord, i put an inline spring in the cord to prevent it from breaking.

[gebudjr]

I was given three from a good friend of mine. I also had primer issues from the beginning. I completly disassembled and cleaned and now runs with no problem. As others have said keep primer tray full.

[JIMinPHX]

I find that there are two things to watch on that press -
1) Be careful not to double charge your powder. It's not too tough to do by accident if you stop the press in the middle of a cycle to fix a problem. The older powder measure system with the rectangular powder hopper is more likely to throw a double charge than the new round hopper type. It's not impossible to throw a double charge with the new system, it just isn't quite as easy to do.
2) keep an eye on that primer feed (as has already been said)

I also like to measure my first two powder charges & also my last powder charge out of a batch of ammo, just to double check.

Those issues aside, I've been using a Lee 1000 for more than 20 years. I've put well over 50,000 rounds through it. As long as I do my part, it makes a lot of good ammo pretty quick. When I was trying to set a record, I managed to get 400 rounds in an hour, although I usually load at about half of that speed & exercise more caution.

[Bill*]

I keep a can of compressed air with a nozzle tube (computer keyboard duster) and hit the primer chute and seater stem area about every 500-1000 rounds and it never gives me trouble anymore. Hope this helps