A review of Lee's cheapest press, 90045

[Jbird45]

Here is an unbiased look at Lee's cheapest press. For more seasoned reloaders this review is probably worthless but for beginners on a budget, this may be helpful. I bought this press with my own money, and I am not here to promote or bash Lee, this is just a report of performance and quality from a year of using this press

Why did I buy such a cheap press? Well, a few years back me and my newly wedded wife moved into our first home. As we are renovating our house, things like paint and flooring and backsplashes take priority over a top of the line Dillion progressive press. It is easier to convince your wife for a $30 press, trust me.

That being said, how good is it? Well it does what it is intended to do and does it well. The main shaft, if maintained with some lubricant and kept clean, is smooth, the handle is comfortable and the quick change bushings on top is a nice feature. I use Lee's bushings with the screw to tighten around the die and they never come out of adjustment and are quick to change. I have used this mainly for reloading my .45 Colt, but have recently been doing some .45-70 Gov't. I have found the press can handle both if the .45-70 cases are lubed well, but I feel like this press excels at pistol calibers. There is a slot machined in the shaft for primers to slide out after decapping and I have never had an issue with primers jamming or flying all over. I have decapped hundreds of large primers, but have not tried the small so those may be different.

There are a few negatives though. One is that there is no primer tray to catch spent primers, so you have to drill a fairly large hole in your bench and keep a trashcan under it to collect primers. Not the end of the world, but can be annoying. You might be able to rig up a collection system of some sort, but I never have. Another is the quick change bushings system. As nice as this system is, the bushings for it are not cheap, and if you are buying this press you are likely on a budget. A set of 2 is $10 and the ones that eliminate the lock collar are $13 for 2. When you use 4 dies for a caliber you are looking at $26 worth a bushings. ( I use a Lee 3 die set and a factory crimp die). The other is the size. This press is small. My workspace isn't huge so I don't mind the compactness, but if you reload for .300 Ultra Mag this isn't the press for you.

So, for some final thoughts, would I buy this press again? Yes, but with a few catches. I noticed this press has gone up in price since I purchased it. I paid about $30, and they are no in the $40-$45 range. I feel at $30 this press is a no brainier, but at $43 it makes me stop and think twice. When I started I had a $100 budget and that for me this press, a ram prime, a set of dies, a scale, and a manual. At the time this kept me under $100, but at the moment with current pricing I feel a Lee kit with an O press and all the little accessories is probably a better value.

What I am getting at is if you found this press at $30 or under at a garage sale or gun show this is a good press for the money. I am not claiming it is the most robust, heavy duty, indestructible press ever built, and I do not plan to have it for decades and hand it down to my grandchildren. But if you are loading lots of pistol cartridges or small rifle like .223 or 6.5 creedmoor and aren't in a hurry and don't need a progressive press, if you are seasoned reloader looking for a small lightweight portable package to mount to the bench with some c clamps to work loads up at the range, or are a complete beginner that absolutely cant spend more than $50 on a press, it will get the job done. If you reload a ton of magnum rifle or larger hunting rifle rounds or are looking for a press to hand down to your grandkids, I would look for a different press

Sorry for the wall of words, but hopefully this will help somebody out!

 

[John Joseph]

Lee does a good job at filling it's niche market. I seriously doubt any carefully reloaded cartridge knows the difference.

 

[1KPerDay]

Thanks for the review!

 

[Hokie_PhD]

Great and fair review.

I’ve said many times that Lee makes some good stuff, they make some excellent stuff, and they have a few things that are so so. But for the money they’re hard to beat if you know what you’re getting and understand the limitations and quirks.

Personally, I think with something as potentially dangerous as reloading, starting with a press like this, the new reloader can learn what they’re doing before going to a progressive press. Plus a single stage is always nice to have.

 

[Jbird45]

Great and fair review.

I’ve said many times that Lee makes some good stuff, they make some excellent stuff, and they have a few things that are so so. But for the money they’re hard to beat if you know what you’re getting and understand the limitations and quirks.

Personally, I think with something as potentially dangerous as reloading, starting with a press like this, the new reloader can learn what they’re doing before going to a progressive press. Plus a single stage is always nice to have.

Thank you!

I have a friend who is huge into reloading and he has a big Dillion 650 and an RCBS rock chucker. He tells me everything Lee makes is crap, and he told me I wasted money when I bought this press.

I will go on record an say this press is not a great press. It's not. You are not paying for a great press. But just because it isn't great doesn't mean it doesn't work. This press works and it works well within it's limitations

 

[RealGun]

What press are we talking about? I have come up through much of the range of what Lee offers and have not used bushings except as an option on my cast single stage and a requirement on my Pro4000, Auto Breech Lock Pro. My little cheapy single stage, now relegated to sizing bullets, does not accept bushings. I think what would be needed is lock rings, real ones with a set screw, since dies will be in and out of the press threads. With bushings I think the nuts included with a die set are adequate for keeping a die stationary in a bushing, not mated directly to the press.

p.s. I see from Lee's website pictures that the little press has been revised to include a bushing, with a not-surprising increase in price.

 

[Whiterook808]

Sorry about all that snobbery, I guess it is human nature. You prove him wrong with each stroke of your press! My brother was a low volume reloader and he had one of these, which was a gift from me. I taught him to reload 6.5 Arisaka with it. It met his needs well enough.

 

[WestKentucky]

I had one for a long time and it served me well for most of that time. I cracked the press and tried to repair it but it broke again. I am betting I had about 2000 rifle rounds (.270, 30-30) loaded on it and at least 5000 revolver rounds (38/357). It was nearly new when I got it but it WAS used a bit. Call it about 9000 rounds estimated before that press broke. For the $30 that a new one was then I can’t exactly complain. 1/3 of a cent per round, 1/12 of a cent per stroke.

The 30-30 and the pistol rounds did nothing to crack the press. 30-30 is thin and pistol brasss is straight so neither took a whole lot of pressure to work. The .270 is what did it. .270 also managed to break an O frame challenger press quickly. Seems the little C frame could flex more than the O frame did and the O frame broke earlier (but was pre-abused before I got it).

Presses are crazy expensive for what they are. It’s a hunk of cast iron, some steel linkage, and a little bit of tooling to make it all work. That said, they hold their value well unless it is one that is known to fail like the Lee aluminum presses are, even though they fail after a beating. I see no reason to favor the Challenger press over anything, PERIOD, but the little C frame press is nice enough and compact enough that it can be a good press for a portable bench, a primer popper, or a beginner just testing the water. A permanent fixtured press needs to be a bigger and better press though, with the understanding that you buy the C frame and it’s your baby whereas you buy a Classic Cast or similar press you can resell it later with a similar monetary loss on the used market.

 

[frankmako]

Nothing wrong with lee reloading equipment. Now I don't have much if it. Some dies and cast bullet molds/lead pots. But what I got works just as good as my rcbs/lyman/hornady/dillon stuff. I broke a deprimer pin once and lee sent me a free one. You get what you pay for. Lee cast bullet molds have turn out to be some of the best.

 

[Hondo 60]

Absolutely nothin wrong with the OP's press & opinion.
I have my first inexpensive press & still use it for Odd jobs

 

[whughett]

A small single stage press such as that will always find a use on even the most sophisticated handloaders bench. I Use it for decapping with a Universal de primer before wet tumbling and for priming, I don’t care for the priming system on the Lee Classic turret.
I solved the spent primer problem by mounting the press to 3/4 inch thick board drilling a large hole in the board under the press and thru the bench. A dado allows a 1/8 inch slide to shut off the hole until the presses base is full, several hundred primers.

 

[Charlie98]

I will go on record an say this press is not a great press. It's not. You are not paying for a great press. But just because it isn't great doesn't mean it doesn't work. This press works and it works well within it's limitations

I’ve said many times that Lee makes some good stuff, they make some excellent stuff, and they have a few things that are so so. But for the money they’re hard to beat if you know what you’re getting and understand the limitations and quirks.

That.... and that. I have had some Lee stuff, and I have gotten rid of some Lee stuff. Some of it comes down to personal preference, some comes down to general utility. I had a Lee press... it was below the Challenger, just a C-press, not an O-press... and I thought it would make a dandy 'handy' press, that is to say a small press to knock out primers or size a small batch of pistol brass. I broke it on the 3rd cycle. I understand the need, sometimes, for frugality, but the center of your reloading universe (the press) shouldn't necessarily be the place for it. I don't mean you have to dump the coin on a SuperDoubleExtraMega press (blue, red, or green, etc...) but a reasonable entry-level press will stick around for years.

 

[Highland Lofts]

When I was thinking about getting back into reloading my son bought me that cheap press and it came with the lee book.
I read the book but didn't like how much he slaps his own back.
The press is still sitting up on a shelf. I'm sure they work just fine but it just wasn't for me.
One thing that I noticed is the lee loading data will start a higher charge drop then the Hornady max charge drop posted in the Hornady book.

There are several lee products that I like and use and I have been buying extra stuff just to have on hand. I like the old auto priming tool. I have four of them set up Lg Pistol, Sm Pistol, Lg Rifle & Sm Rifle and I have two extra lee old style suto priming tools.
I like the lee powder funnels. I like the lee bench prime, mine is set up for large rifle primers. I will be buying three more of them and set them up for the other primers.
I like the lyman case trimmers with the cam case lock.
It's all what you like and have the money for and if it works for you all is good.

People bash lee dies, my son started out with a bunch of lee dies. His reloaded 7mm Magnum with his lee dies shoot less the one inch groups at 300 yards.
I have close to forty-five sets of dies, most are RCBS but I have others lee, Hornady, C&H, and a couple of others. Thry all work just fine and they all make better ammo then can be bought in a store.

 

[kcofohio]

I have used mine for decapping, resizing, trimming, and swaging primer pockets on several thousand 223/556 casings. Though it doesn't have the best leverage, it gets the job done.

 

[sparkyv]

Very good and fair review, Jbird45. New reloaders will find this useful.

 

[Starter52]

I found one in a box of used reloading supplies that I bought for $50 at a small gun show in 2012.

I resized nearly 1000 .38's and hundreds of .44's, .41's and a hundred .45-70's on that tiny little press in the first year I owned it.

Eight years later and I still use it occasionally.

 

[clone]

I've had one for close to 12 years, and it has served me well so far. I would guesstimate about 25,000 to 30,000 rounds have been loaded with it. The list includes 32acp, 32s&w, 32s&w long, 32 H&R Mag, 327 Fed Mag, 9mm, 45acp, 223 rem, 7.62x39, 30-30 win, 45/70 gov.

I bought a second one in case it ever broke but it hasn't yet. Might get something better one day but for now its working fine.

 

[Legionnaire]

Good review. I bought one recently from a guy who decided reloading wasn't for him. $20. Bought it to build a portable demonstration kit to introduce some friends to reloading. Haven't tried it with rifle cartridges, but it works like a champ with .357 and .44 magnums.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I bought 3 of those presses in a lot on eBay for 50 shipped. Two permanently hold Lee depriming dies large and small respectively. The last holds my 44 mag Lee FCD. I also have a Hornady LocknLoad and the older Lyman turret with 6 stations.

I have room and don’t like changing dies so I just buy more presses. I could probably have 20 of those presses and be perfectly happy. I know a few guys who load 30-06 on them so it is possible the breakages with larger bottleneck rifle rounds are isolated. I load 30-06 on the Lyman turret.

 

[wbbh]

I've got seven presses including a Lee 90045, all my brass is decamped on the Lee 90045 press. I've got a decapping station with the little press mounted to a board drilled out to let the dead primers drop through. For a while I used the little Lee press to size a couple of thousand 5.7x28 cases. After filling a 5 gallon bucket to a depth of about four/five inches deep in spent primers the ram has a little slop but it's still going strong.

 

[jmorris]

The primer part seemed pretty goofy to me.

I bolted it to a steel plate with a hose barb on the bottom then clamp the plate to the surface I want to use it on.

 

[Skgreen]

He tells me everything Lee makes is crap, and he told me I wasted money when I bought this press.

I disagree with Mr. 650's opinion, and I wish that same opinion was heard far less often than it is,, as,,,, it simply isn't factual.

1. Lee has the uncanny ability to provide some attractively-priced / value-orientated equipment. I am often intrigued by the simplicity and ingenuity exhibited in some of the LEE products. (My 'equipment' consists of several different brands, LEE included.)
2. The number of folks who started their reloading adventure using LEE equipment is far-greater than Mr. 650 would ever care to admit. (Those who truly started with Dillon? Not even remotely close!)
3. If LEE's equipment get you started / keeps you interested in Reloading, you're already "in like Flint" with 98+ % of us here in THR's Reloading Forum. Doing it on a limited budget is just another reason to make that smile just a little bit bigger!!!!!!!

 

[kcofohio]

The primer part seemed pretty goofy to me.

I bolted it to a steel plate with a hose barb on the bottom then clamp the plate to the surface I want to use it on.

View attachment 884791

A little different, but here is my approach to the spent primers;

 

[Jbird45]

2. The number of folks who started their reloading adventure using LEE equipment is far-greater than Mr. 650 would ever care to admit. (Those who truly started with Dillon? Not even remotely close!)

#2 made me laugh. My first car was not a brand new Cadillac, and I'm willing to bet yours wasn't either. I may have the Pinto of reloading presses, it's ugly and not very fast, but it gets me where I need to be!

 

[Jim Bowie]

At one time I used to have four of those presses in a row on my bench, one to resize/de-prime, one to prime , one to flare and charge, and one to seat and crimp.
And yes, Lee products are just fine. The Lee dies are my favorite dies .