Rich 10mm
Member
I actually got back to it last night. When the primer wouldn’t go in smoothly I just chamfered the pocket a little and they go in just fine. Thanks guys.
I'm sure some guys develop a feel for priming on press,
I always take my time, what little of it there is.Yup, and take your time.... it is not a race.
Nothing gets by you.Bob: "I had a problem using method X."
Joe: "That's why I only use method X. I don't want problem. You can get problem using method Y. You should use method X."
Joe's comment is odd.
That would lead most folks to conclude that i mentioned it because the OP had an issue with such a low torque tool, which is what I also choose specifically to try to avoid crushing one (clearly that didn't work for him). Seems relevant to the conversation from where I'm sitting, but since you think it's odd that I added my two cents I'll try to be more normal.
That does make sense.I didn’t say you were odd, just the comment. But I wouldn’t take too much offense at that, as I’m a bit of an odd duck myself.
But even this explanatory response seems premised on some questionable logic. The assumption that “torque” and “crushing” a primer is what ignites them is, I think, wrong. I have flattened quite a few primers with my “high torque” presses, and have never popped a primer. That’s because priming compound generally requires a jolt to ignite, not mere smushing.
As to the notion that a lower-leverage device is less likely to pop a primer, I think that is precisely backwards. First, consider how a lever works. You move the long end a long way to move the short end just a little... but with greater ability to move things. On a press, the handle end of the lever moves several inches to push a primer less than a quarter of an inch. That seating ram is actually moving quite slowly - if inexorably. It will very slowly and calmly flatter a sideways primer. And not pop it. A lower-leverage device, such as a hand primer, is necessarily moving the priming arm much faster relative to the handle/lever motion. that factor alone makes handheld more likely to pop a primer.
That gets compounded by the same phenomenon that makes a dull kitchen knife more dangerous to the cook than a sharp one. Sharp knives cut with minimal muscle force applied to them. They don’t get “stuck” while you build up exertion against them and then suddenly overcome the food’s resistance with a violent motion - but dull knives do.
I asked the OP where his jolt came from. It’s obvious it came from a crimped pocket that he built up force against and then moved/bent/swaged/slipped enough to let the primer and seating arm suddenly jump forward - like a dull knife finally pushed hard enough to get through the food. Like a suddenly moving knife plowing into the cook’s left hand, the primer and seating arm, now moving fast, suddenly ran into the bottom of the pocket or another snag. There’s the jolt, and thence the pop.
Could that have happened on a press? Yes. But a hand primer doesn’t do anything to reduce the likelihood and, instead, probably makes it more likely.
Sounds like a case with a crimp was the cause of you problem, suspected that might have been the caue.When the primer wouldn’t go in smoothly I just chamfered the pocket a little and they go in just fine.
This is probably why.I asked the OP where his jolt came from. It seems obvious it came from a crimped pocket that he built up force against and then moved/bent/swaged/slipped enough to let the primer and seating arm suddenly jump forward - like a dull knife finally pushed hard enough to get through the food. Like a suddenly moving knife plowing into the cook’s left hand, the primer and seating arm, now moving fast, suddenly ran into the bottom of the pocket or another snag. There’s the jolt, and thence the pop.