Hornady LNL AP broke...

[mud99]

This is my first post here on these forums - I have been lurking for the past year or so, finally decided to set up an account to share an experience. So hello!

Today, the spindle on my three month old Hornady LNL AP broke in half while loading some .223, I've attached some photos.

I will be calling Hornady in the morning to see if I can get a new press, i've had quite a few other issues with this press already.

I've heard this is a common failure point - does anyone have any idea how common, and should I be worried it will happen again?

 

[ReloaderFred]

Welcome to the forum.

Hornady will repair it, along with any other issues you've had with it. They're good people and will make it right.

I've got about 30,000 rounds loaded on my LNL press, and had about 375,000 loaded on the previous Pro-Jector press. Hornady rebuilt the Pro-Jector at no charge. The only issues I've had with the LNL is the shell retainer springs getting kinked, but I fixed that problem with a Dremel Tool and Hornady sent me replacement springs at no charge.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[twohightech]

There were a few of us around the 1st of dec that this happened too as well. Took 11 days to get the replacement drive hub. I had a pawl that broke with me loading 9mm last weekend.

 

[777TRUTH]

Like twohightech I was one of the few that it happened to in December on a brand new press.

I opted for Hornady to send me the part. Received it in 4 days, maybe a thousand 9mm rounds later I have no issues with it.

 

[john16443]

mud99 - this happened to my press that I bought in December as well within an hour of unboxing it. I returned it directly to Cabela's and bought another that has worked well ever since. All of the above posters presses also appear to be fine since the part has been replaced.

Could you post the serial number for your press? There's another thread where we are collecting serial numbers and purchase date information. http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=630486

There is definately a trend here and Hornady knows about it.

 

[DCoke]

Let Hornady know....they will replace the hub free of charge. Yours has a dark area which appears to have been a bad casting. On mine it was the nipple that broke off on the hub. Called Hornady and two days later the part was in my mailbox.

 

[twohightech]

My drive hub has been good but then the pawl broke it had a shell get smashed at deprimmer #1. I removed the brass and still had a stuck spot with the ram then i removed the shell plate the ram would not go down with out some force and the pawl broke? I have scince DEC got a case feeder and 2 bullet feed dies for it so guess I'm stuck with it now. I asked for some new case springs and he said that he would ship me some. It's really a good press just got to get some bugs worked out and learn it's week points. Fred what did you do some buffing to help with the case spring?

 

[Blue68f100]

what did you do some buffing to help with the case spring

I don't quite know what your asking here. On the original LNL with the wire ejector you had to polish the spring and base so it would not bind up. Even doing that it still binded on small brass like the 9mm. 38/357 was not a problem with it's wider base. It still does not hurt to lightly hit the base where the brass runs with some 1200 grit paper to knock off the roughness.

As for the springs I have finally learned how to keep from kinking them. I have the brass feeder on my press too and use to eat the springs on a regular basis. What I have started doing is when the press in not in use I remove the the shell plate and spring. Or at a min unload the spring so its still under the shell plate at the brass feed area but not any where else. I only slip it over the shell plate when I'm ready to reload. Where I was kinking mine was when I did not do a full stroke and the brass pusher foot/shell plate would hang it because it was not down in the base groove. Removing it when not in use and only installing it once the brass feeder was setup saved me from kinking them.

When a primer is not fully ejected is what causes the ram not to lower more than 2/3 travel. Which can happen when the primer is stuck to the ejector pin or the ejector not set quite far enough down. The ones that stick on the pin are hard to find a fix for.

 

[Striker Fired]

Hornady had a certain batch of poor casting.All those that broke are close in serial numbers,I've got one that had a newer serial # but mine is good,other have older #'s and thiers are good,it is just a certain number range that the broken shafts are common.By now Hornady should know what #'s are involved.

 

[cfullgraf]

When a primer is not fully ejected is what causes the ram not to lower more than 2/3 travel. Which can happen when the primer is stuck to the ejector pin or the ejector not set quite far enough down. The ones that stick on the pin are hard to find a fix for.

Right, a primer that is not fully ejected will bind up the Hornady progressive press. Yanking on the handle to pull through the jam will only lead to damaging the press.

Under normal operation, the press should operate smoothly and with little effort. It does not take much operation of the press to feel what is the normal effort should be. If the effort rises dramatically, solve the problem before continuing. Or, put Hornady's customer service number on your speed dial.

I am still using my original case retainer spring after two plus years. I probably should replace it as it is kinked extensively. It still works but if a kink is in the wrong place, it will knock the case out of alignment with the die. The way I load on the press, it is not an issue for me. i separate resizing from loading and do them at different times.

I can see if you reload straight through from fired case to loaded round, a good, straight spring would be more important.

As Blue68f100 said, minimizing handling of the spring can reduce the chance of kinking.

 

[ReloaderFred]

twohightech,

Under the shellplate, in the base of the ram, there is a trough, or groove, which the case retaining spring travels through. On some of the bases, they just ran a mill and made the groove, but didn't taper the transition points at the end of the groove. This left a sharp edge where the spring rose to retain the next case, and the spring would get hung up on that lip. I took a Cratex tool in my Dremel Tool and polished the entire groove, and reshaped the transition point at the end of the groove to provide a smooth path for the spring to travel on. This solved the problem of kinking the springs and breaking them. When I called Hornady, the tech told me that was the cure they suggest for the problem.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[showmebob]

[When a primer is not fully ejected is what causes the ram not to lower more than 2/3 travel. Which can happen when the primer is stuck to the ejector pin or the ejector not set quite far enough down. The ones that stick on the pin are hard to find a fix for.]

The primers that stick on the pin are a real pain. That is they used to be! What I found is that the primers were sticking on the shoulder of the pin right where it just starts next to the straight part of the pin. The cure for me was to just file off a little of that edge making the tapered part of the pin a little longer. Didn't have a single incident since modifying my pin. Problem solved.
Another tip: take a small piece of paper towel and push it down through the spent primer tube to clean out the dirt. Use the fiberglass primer follower as a pusher, works great. Having this tube makes a difference on my press.

 

[Sommerled]

I've got 3 LnL presses. One is 11 years old. No real problems when tuned up properly and lubed. Well over 100K total now that my son and sons in law use them. S'pose one could get a defective casting. Stick with it and don't force anything. Hornady will make it right.

 

[mud99]

As an update, hornady is sending me a new drive hub. The serial number for my press is 36045

 

[mud99]

Hornady LNL AP broke again...

I received my replacement drive hub today and it broke on the first round.

I noticed when I received it that the metal was not cast uniformly, and their was a band of discoloration halfway up the cylinder. So obviously, we are dealing with a manufacturing defect, it is doubtful it was designed to break.

I was paying more attention this time to the hub since I had just installed it. It broke while lowering the handle to pull a .223 round out of the sizing die, under very, very mild pressure.

I think the metal is fine under compression but has no tensile strength, and can't deal with any amount of pull, such as removing a round from the sizing die. This explains why my press had no problem for several thousand rounds of 45ACP, but failed almost instantly once I started loading .223.

My guess is that Hornady is still shipping the bad drive hubs while they await new ones.

 

[777TRUTH]

I think the metal is fine under compression but has no tensile strength, and can't deal with any amount of pull, such as removing a round from the sizing die.

That is exactly when and where mine broke. If I am not mistaken all the broken drive hubs snapped on the up stroke like yours.

In my experience Hornady has excellent customer service and products with extremely poor quality control.

I am sorry for your poor experience with the LNL. After I did some fluffing, buffing and mods I am pretty happy with the press, I think you will too.

Any chance of you boxing it up and exchanging it for a new LNL?

 

[Blue68f100]

Sorry to hear you got a bad replacement part. It does appear that they have received a bad lot of parts. Give Horandy a call. And tell the CS that it had the discoloraton on it and I assume that is the area it failed at. Some of the techs will pull parts them self and inspect them prior to shipping.

I've done FL sizing of Rem 7mm Mag so I know they can handle some high load, But again I was using the Imperial Sizing wax which made it size like a 357 round.

 

[Striker Fired]

I'm a fan of Hornady and frankly that is simply B.S.,They had better get thier act together on this because it has been going on for several months now and there is no reason for, <replacement parts nonetheless< to be defective also.Anyone writing a complaint letter that can be signed by a bunch of us owners to inform them how dissapointed in them we are?

 

[thorn-]

I agree with StrikerFired.

I'm a huge Hornady fan/supporter/evangelist/freak. But this situation with the hub spindle is getting far out of hand. Getting ONE bad part - that's life. Getting ANOTHER bad part - to replace the first defective one - that's really, really difficult to understand.

They should seriously check their inventory records, account for all the hubs from that time period, and destroy them. It's great that they'll ship a replacement for free, but after awhile this is simply going to really harm their reputation as a quality source for reloading gear.

thorn

 

[Master Blaster]

In my experience Hornady has excellent customer service and products with extremely poor quality control.

Yep, some folks get lucky though and don't have a problem, they will be along soon to tell you, you are the problem not Hornady QC. Hornady QC sucks, and I suspect if your measure parts on their presses you would find a wide variance in the tolerances. That why some folks get lucky and have zero problems and others have many issues. My issue is with the powder measure and small volume pistol charges. I solved it though by putting a Dillon measure on my 2005 lnl, my squibb and inconsistant charge problems disappeared.
Sorry for your troubles I am sure Hornady will eventually make it right, but it truely Sucks to get a new press and have it break twice due to the same defective part.

 

[mud99]

Hornady is sending me two new drive hubs. Well see what happens

 

[mud99]

I haven't received my new drive hubs from Hornady yet, but I decided to make my own out of 7075 aluminum today.

The base is thicker than hornady's drive hub. The top key is made by drilling a 1/8" hole all the way through the piece, and inserting a roll pin into the hole.

The bottom keyway is the opposite end of the 1/8" hole, filed slightly to make a square-ish keyway

I tapped the top hole with a 1/4-20 thread. Slightly smaller than the thread hornady uses, but still plenty strong. I will be using a brass bolt to give the press a failure point other than the drive hub.

 

[777TRUTH]

Great work Mud99!

Good luck with it.

 

[WR Monger]

My LNL drive hub also broke, just received the part. Have a question how do I replace it, no instructions with the part?

 

[Blue68f100]

You have to pull the pivot pin on on the bottom where the indexing is at. Then bull it out the bottom. The parts blowup at the back of the manual will show you.