Does Lee Auto Drum work with W296/H110?

CMV · Apr 22, 2021

Set up the 650 for a run of 300BLK supersonic and found out my Lee Auto Disk - with the disks or adjustable bar - leaks too much and just makes a mess and inconsistent charges. I have a Lee Auto Drum arriving today and plan to try that out for it - before I do, am I going to have same issue or will it handle that fine powder OK?

I haven't tried my Dillon powder measure - I leave it setup on my .223 toolhead and have that stuff exactly how I want it so don't want to mess with it. If that's my only option and only press-mounted solution I own I guess I can.

300BLK supersonic is very low volume for me so I've always done it on turret press and just waited on Hornady dispensing scale to take care of powder. But figured I'd do a large run of 2k or so and never have to load it again. So I have it all set up on 650, but got to a stopping point when I saw what a mess the auto disk was with W296. That surprised me since it does so well with everything else for me, but no amount of tinkering I did made it work with that fine powder

drband · Apr 22, 2021

I use W296/H110 with great success for .44Magnum using the Lee AutoDrum. If you install the drum properly (clean housing, tension screw set tight enough to stop cycling—then back off just enough to allow full powder drop cycling) and then run several loads through it to get everything coated and smoothly operating. I get no leakage at all.
It’s a nice PM at a bargain price.

Clipper67 · Apr 22, 2021

Win 296 works with my Lee Auto Drum. The cavity on my Auto Drum handles that fine powder nicely. Some users have complained of severe leakage with their Auto Dum while using fine powders...Mine has not leaked.....yet

Hooda Thunkit · Apr 22, 2021

There was a problem with the early production drums not handling fine powders well. The early drums are recognized by the smooth, slick finish to the inner (angled) side.

The re-engineered drums have a mottled finish, and handle the fine spherical powders much better.

Most of the complaints that I've seen were with the early drums.

Rule3 · Apr 22, 2021

Yes, pretty much any powder works with the auto drum. Even Unique :scrutiny:

My Auto dics also worked fine with H110. Yep I must have gotten the only one that did per the internet.

Lee PPM also worked and doesn't leak. Gads!!!

unwashed · Apr 22, 2021

Hooda Thunkit said:
There was a problem with the early production drums not handling fine powders well. The early drums are recognized by the smooth, slick finish to the inner (angled) side.

The re-engineered drums have a mottled finish, and handle the fine spherical powders much better.

Most of the complaints that I've seen were with the early drums.

Do you know how early? Mine also leaked when I first tried it, tired everything and got fed up and stopped using it.
Oops, nevermind, I reread your post and yup, mine is the early one. I since bought a hornady auto charge pro.

Hooda Thunkit · Apr 22, 2021

unwashed said:
Do you know how early? Mine also leaked when I first tried it, tired everything and got fed up and stopped using it.
Oops, nevermind, I reread your post and yup, mine is the early one. I since bought a hornady auto charge pro.

If you contact Lee, it's very likely they will replace those drums.

If you are finished with the Lee AD, send me a pm and I may be able to take it off your hands.

unwashed · Apr 22, 2021

Hooda Thunkit said:
If you contact Lee, it's very likely they will replace those drums.

If you are finished with the Lee AD, send me a pm and I may be able to take it off your hands.

Thanks, I'll contact Lee and let you know.

Targa · Apr 22, 2021

Mine drops those powders very accurately but does leak with every pull of the handle.

kmw1954 · Apr 22, 2021

I've used the drum with Ramshot Silhouette, TAC and AA#2 AND #5 all very fine powders and I've spilled more weighing loads than what has leaked from the measure.

Dudedog · Apr 22, 2021

H110 works fine in my Lee Autodrum.
You should be good to go once you get it.

**Brian19** · Apr 23, 2021

My auto drum leaks and also drove me crazy. I believe it not manufactured right. They say you can use a piece of paper as a feeler gage, and this paper should not fit between drum and the housing. Mine fails this test in one location under normal tightening, suggesting imperfect mating of the two pieces, and it leaks,

For fine powders, with the drum out of the housing. I’ll spray the housing with a brief shot of graphite. This allows me to tighten the nut even more, but the drum will still rotate from the graphite lubricant.

As this solves my leaking issue, I now love the auto drum for all powders I use.

I want to buy another as soon as they’re back in stock, and send my current one to Lee for repair, as like I said, I believe it’s manufactured out of tolerance.

In my research of this problem, one person’s solution made a lot of sense to permanently fix it...he used a lapping compound to work the two pieces into a perfect fit. I haven’t tried this since my graphite thing works well enough for me.

unwashed · Apr 23, 2021

Hooda Thunkit said:
If you contact Lee, it's very likely they will replace those drums.

If you are finished with the Lee AD, send me a pm and I may be able to take it off your hands.

I called lee and they are sending me 2 new drums and said they are now manufacturing the drums from about 1.5 years ago, vaguely admitted the problem. Well, in any case I still don't know if I'm gonna use them since I really like the hornady auto charge pro and rarely do large volume to need a powder drop. I'll see when I get the new parts and go from there. Maybe keep it for a back up but will still keep you in mind, thanks again.

**Brian19** · Apr 23, 2021

unwashed said:
I called lee and they are sending me 2 new drums and said they are now manufacturing the drums from about 1.5 years ago, vaguely admitted the problem. Well, in any case I still don't know if I'm gonna use them since I really like the hornady auto charge pro and rarely do large volume to need a powder drop. I'll see when I get the new parts and go from there. Maybe keep it for a back up but will still keep you in mind, thanks again.

I feel like the housing is the problem, not the drum. I have a bunch of drums. They all fail my “piece of paper feeler gage” test in the same location, and it’s in the path of the powder travel. For fine powders like H110 and 2400, if I don’t over tighten as mentioned, it rains powder every cycle.

unwashed · Apr 23, 2021

**Brian19** said:
I feel like the housing is the problem, not the drum. I have a bunch of drums. They all fail my “piece of paper feeler gage” test in the same location, and it’s in the path of the powder travel. For fine powders like H110 and 2400, if I don’t over tighten as mentioned, it rains powder every cycle.

I asked them directly is it true in what I'm hearing about the design causing the problem, I got deflection, so I guess that's an answer.

sparkyv · Apr 23, 2021

I have two and they leak like crazy with H110/W296 and AA#9. I now use the Uniflow setup below for ball powders. I really like the LADPM, and sure would like for it to work like you guys' do.

Targa said:
Mine drops those powders very accurately but does leak with every pull of the handle.

Clipper67 said:
Win 296 works with my Lee Auto Drum. The cavity on my Auto Drum handles that fine powder nicely. Some users have complained of severe leakage with their Auto Dum while using fine powders...Mine has not leaked.....yet

Thanks for this, **Brian19**. I may try the graphite.

**Brian19** said:
My auto drum leaks and also drove me crazy. I believe it not manufactured right. They say you can use a piece of paper as a feeler gage, and this paper should not fit between drum and the housing. Mine fails this test in one location under normal tightening, suggesting imperfect mating of the two pieces, and it leaks,

For fine powders, with the drum out of the housing. I’ll spray the housing with a brief shot of graphite. This allows me to tighten the nut even more, but the drum will still rotate from the graphite lubricant.

As this solves my leaking issue, I now love the auto drum for all powders I use

My 4 sets of drums are not smooth.

Hooda Thunkit said:
There was a problem with the early production drums not handling fine powders well. The early drums are recognized by the smooth, slick finish to the inner (angled) side.

The re-engineered drums have a mottled finish, and handle the fine spherical powders much better.

Most of the complaints that I've seen were with the early drums.

Does Lee Auto Drum work with W296/H110?

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