First try sizing with the LEE APP left me less than impressed

Problems I came across. Now it might be worth noting that I'm sizing LEE 356-102-1R https://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-356-102-1r.html maybe it isn't meant to work with such small boolits.

- Bullets fell at an angle and jammed up the press. Took me 15 minutes or more to figure out the tube holder to slider distance for successful droppings
- Have to drop boolits in one at a time which is time consuming
- Weight of boolits in tube wouldn't allow slider to go all the way to the sizing die
- I had to push the slider forward due to the above issue until maybe 10 boolits were left in the tube then it functioned correctly

Maybe it's a learning curve and I'm not going to give up on it, but I am less than impressed at this point.

I use my Lee APP to deprime before wet tumbling. The slider is a problem and in depriming gets dirty. I need to clean the guides quite often. Make sure the spring that pulls the slider is not twisted, which interferes with the motion of the slider.

Yes I am not impressed with all the plastic or the drop tube mounting arrangement. But mine is pretty quick even with all the problems.

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Originally Posted by wv109323

I use my Lee APP to deprime before wet tumbling. The slider is a problem and in depriming gets dirty. I need to clean the guides quite often. Make sure the spring that pulls the slider is not twisted, which interferes with the motion of the slider.

Yes I am not impressed with all the plastic or the drop tube mounting arrangement. But mine is pretty quick even with all the problems.

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I might use it for depriming before wet tumbling too.

Afterwards I sized in the single stage and it was much more tedious and tiring so I’ll have to look into how to make this work better.

If you can find any way to make it work better. Please post it!
I think that would make a lot of us happy!

Once you use the right size tube and get it setup it sure makes quick work of brass prep and sizing

This video seems to have some good info in it on setting it up. https://youtu.be/YK-1xTzCYv4

It is a learning curve. You need to play with it a lot to get it right, but I've sized 90 grain up to 158 grain 9mm and it works great when you get it right. Watch video, hope it help.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

I have some sizers for my APP, but have not cast anything since acquiring the APP, and thus have not used the APP's sizing function.

The APP, for me, absolutely shines for decapping and then primer pocket swaging to remove military crimps -- the two most unappealing steps in reloading.

At first I did not understand all the pieces that snap together nor how best to adjust the height of the stacking tubes to achieve reliable feeding.

Now that I've used the APP on a variety of brass from 9mm to .45ACP to .38spl to .357Mag to 300BLK to .45-70, I've come to see the importance of fine adjustment and proper combinations of slider adapters and drop tubes.

I think four different diameters of drop tubes were included with my machine. I also bought the 4-up rotating drop tube set with the red funnel on top.

I've found the proper diameter drop tube greatly improves feeding reliability.

Has anyone contacted Lee Precision about this? They may know how to fix it. If they don't, they need to be aware of the problem.

I will say that the Lee APP is the biggest cheap plastic feeling piece of crap and you will feel it is a waste of money.

But when it works! Oooooweeeee it’s worth double the cost!

38-105 swc is too short to feed as well. Ending up single feeding them as well. Maybe one of the members with a 3 d printer has come up with a fix ?

I bought the AAP specifically for easy drop in boolit sizing on the downstroke, but I’ve never used the tubes, dropping the slugs singly by hand. Seems to me that one by one feeding into the sizing die or prefilling the tubes is about the same, with only a bullet feeder really being a lot faster. No messing with tube sizes, the proper slider or possible mistiming of pick up, transfer of release.

My cast round nose 147’s feed well by hand; I just need to cover the receiving container to keep the rare dropped unsized boolit from getting mixed into the sized slugs. 40 to 50 cycles a minute is a easy to maintain pace. The cycle rate of sizing from the tubes can be a lot faster, but that doesn’t take into account the time it takes to pre fill all the tubes.

Just a WAG but maybe a round nose ogive and maybe a bevel base would feed easiest from a tube where the bottom bullet slides sideways off the one above it, and hollow or flat point or a cupped base or FMJ with a prominent lip on the base might have trouble?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevin c

I bought the AAP specifically for easy drop in boolit sizing on the downstroke, but I’ve never used the tubes, dropping the slugs singly by hand. Seems to me that one by one feeding into the sizing die or prefilling the tubes is about the same, with only a bullet feeder really being a lot faster. No messing with tube sizes, the proper slider or possible mistiming of pick up, transfer of release.

My cast round nose 147’s feed well by hand; I just need to cover the receiving container to keep the rare dropped unsized boolit from getting mixed into the sized slugs. 40 to 50 cycles a minute is a easy to maintain pace. The cycle rate of sizing from the tubes can be a lot faster, but that doesn’t take into account the time it takes to pre fill all the tubes.

Just a WAG but maybe a round nose ogive and maybe a bevel base would feed easiest from a tube where the bottom bullet slides sideways off the one above it, and hollow or flat point or a cupped base or FMJ with a prominent lip on the base might have trouble?

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I used tubes on a Star bullet feeder and agree with you. In the end it was not worth the hassle. That was decades ago and things change. If the tubes can be fed with a bullet feeder that will orient the bullets correctly 99.5% of the time it would speed things up. Guys are making decent bullet feeders using 3D printers so thee is hope!!!

BTW, saw a video of a guy who made a small ramp using PVC to direct the bullet reliably into a bullet sizer.
The ramp was about 4" long so it kept his fingers away from the punch. He would pick up a handful of bullets and load them on the ramp one at a time in the proper orientation. It was slick, fast, and cheap. Not sure it would work on the APP but it did on the Star.

I've never sized boolits or even cast them, so I've haven't used that part of the APP's capability. However I have swaged cases and once I learned to follow Lee's directions well enough, I'd rather swage that way than with my RCBS bench swager.....it's mothballed. You just can't beat case feeding for increasing speed to deprime, or swage.

I'm posting a link to a video I posted in CastBoolits that demonstrates. In it I'm using a large hole plate for AmmoMike's little bullet feeder, and am feeding .357 mag cases, in this cases to deprime, but its a simple matter to change a couple of parts to swage cases too. I've even used that same plate to feed LC 556. So even without changing the plate I can do that too.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...=1#post5412883