Broke hand primer?

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Axis II

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I was barrowing a buddies lee hand primer that's only been used maybe 10 times and the handle snapped. Anyone know if I can get a new handle?
 
I don't think so his is the round tray. He's had it laying around for probably 10yrs
 
I just read the note on the picture from Lee's. It says it won't work with Auto-prime with the round tray priming tool. But will with the XR. Hope that helps.
 
Not off hand. It's silver with the round clear tray and the round part of the handle faces the bottom of the tray.
 
What you have should be in the lower right hand corner of the picture:

Priming%201.png

That is the old style with round primer trays Lee Auto Prime tool. It uses the flat bottom shell holders unique to Lee. What you need to do is call Lee and see is you can still get a handle. The same part on the new version with the square trays will not work on the old round tray flavors, at least I am pretty sure the new version handle won't work. Anyway, give Lee a call on Monday and see what they have to say.

Ron
 
yes ron that's the exact one. what got me is it didn't snap when fully seating a primer it snapped about 1/4 of the way up.

I have to replace the handle or tool for my buddy than get something for myself. I'm torn between safety prime, hand or bench.
 
I am seeing some of the old style on flea bay for sale. I am not sure if Lee still stocks parts for them, I still use mine and it is over 20 years old. Give Lee a call.

As to priming in general? I figure to each their own. I like hand priming and resort to that. When my Lee is dead I'll start using the RCBS in the picture. Anyway, there are plenty of methods for priming and it just becomes a matter of personal preference, sort of whatever works for you.

Ron
 
I went through this about a year ago with the same round tray AutoPrime I'd been using since 1985 or so. Lee asked for the broken "AutoPrime" back and they'd send a replacement for 1/2 off or whatever it was. I sent in just the broken handle in a bubble pak envelope to save postage but otherwise followed their instructions and got a current Auto Prime in return.

No, the new primer lift lever can't be used in my old AutoPrime but the handle can; the lever is too wide to fit in the body of my old one. The trunion between the handle and the lever is the same.
The Lee auto Bench prime has my attention though, at 67 my thumbs can't take this repetitive abuse much longer.
 
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when you guys say lever are you referring to the silver handle you squeeze with your fingers? that's what snapped in half on me. I told my buddy about it and he said who cares just buy him the new one cause he was going to upgrade anyways. I still would like to find a new handle.
 
I had the same breakage years ago and was able to make a permanent repair using golf shaft epoxy to mend the parts back together. It's the glue they use to hold the head on a golf shaft, which is described as high impact bonding. It's very good on metal to metal, or metal to wood bonding. (Think 90-100 mph impact with the ground without letting go.) Of course, heat will break the bonding; that's how you change the heads on the shafts.

Just make sure you have mating surfaces that are perfectly aligned and that they're clean; mix the two parts and apply. Let cure for 24hrs without moving and you should have them held together with some light pressure. The excess can be scraped off with your pocket knife or some other sharp pointy thing.

My repair never failed over myriad uses (10,000s) and is still going strong, as far as I know.
Golfsmith would be one source for the epoxy.

kerf
 
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