Hornady LNL Powder Measure Drum Sticking

His channel is actually one that I actually have watched regarding the Hornady LNL AP, yes, thank you. I do not mind him being long winded (if I have the time to watch), but the challenge with that is to find specific things in his videos, haha! I did a lot of fast forwarding to find the info that I was looking for. It was, of course, good information from a knowledgeable and credible source. There are not a lot of those on YouTube, haha!

 

Lady Luck is not finding me very attractive with this press. Today I had the powder measure working great. Then I added powder and it got stuck again. Well, I guess I better clean and lube it with a different product this time. I go to remove it. I turn the lock ring with the bushing, and it keeps going around more than the 1/8 (or 1/6?) of a turn. The bushing's bushing was threading out with it. I managed to get it in another station to test, but the primer is not being picked up after the sizing and decapping die. The decapping pin of that die had lurched upwards, so I had to fix that. By this time the shell plate and underneath is filthy with powder that has fallen from my tinkering with it.

Right now I am back to testing the flaring of the case where it is (it worked for 75 rounds until the point where everything went kaplooey all at once). After that, I'll use non-chlorinated brake cleaner to clean the rotor and frame (4th time?), and maybe and then use some brand name Hornady One Shot to lubricate it.

I also am going to have to contact Hornady about the bushing's bushing that has threaded out of the tool head.

I was so excited to get into the big leagues with this press. I'm not there yet. I have to shake off this bad luck somehow. Maybe it's the ghost of Richard Lee messing with my press since I bought a Hornady progressive!

 

I know that if I call them they will want me to have used One Shot, so that's why I wrote that i will use that. I was using a Teflon spray which is essentially the same thing as One Shot, but now I will go with the brand name for Hornady's troubleshooting sake (if I have to contact them). Thanks for writing.

 

I'll start with "Reading instructions is blasphemes!"

The powder measure is a separate unit and can function as a "stand alone" unit or added to the LnL or other presses! That explains the instructions.

Go back and reread the instructions carefully you'll get it adjusted correctly.

The Hornady is the "gold standard" of powder measures and can be found on many "blue presses" in precision rifle neighborhoods!

 

I do not actually think that there's anything wrong/broken with the powder measure. I just have to learn some new tricks with it is all.

It does not help that I have had a simple string of bad luck setting up the press is all. First was the pawls were not set properly from the factory (despite Hornady making a big deal about how perfect they are out of the box), then case feeder needed tweaking because pawls were off. Then the powder measure was binding, which I thought i had resolved three times now. Hornady states that it came all assembled just needs degrease and lube, but I put the case activation linkage in the wrong place as that's how I received it. Now it's in the correct placement. I still have to lube the rotor to prevent the sticking (hopefully just one more time) with the One Shot. Then one Female LNL bushing that threads directly into the tool head loosened itself out so I had a hard time getting the powder measure unthreaded from the LNL bushing (that's what I wanted to contact Hornady about - maybe it needs loc-tite?). Then the depriming pin lurched up from my resizing and depriming die. The biggest pain in the neck is powder spillage, as you know, it's very sensitive to strewn powder underneath the shell plate (from the powder measure problems that I have been working on). And I have been doing a lot of testing of everything in between. All of that has sucked up a lot of TIME. I am looking forward to saving myself TIME once I get this baby running like it was made to do.

I just have to keep with it and persevere.

 

I've never lubed either of my L-N-L powder measures. Cleaned, polished, yes. Only problem I've had is with metering inserts binding. One of them was even defective (hex was too large to move freely in the slot), and Hornady sent a replacement insert.

 

That's helpful, thanks for writing.

 

When you clean the powder dispenser this time, make sure you take it apart and not just spray lube on it. Make sure all of the surfaces are clean of oil. The Hornady One Shot Cleaner/lube is a dry lube (wax). Another option for lubing when you have it apart is to use some paste wax on the surfaces. Make sure you buff the wax to give you a glossy finish. I've used Redding Sizing wax in the past and works just fine. I was having a corrosion problem with mine and ended up putting a copper flash plating on the rotor. This worked great, no more corrosion and runs supper smooth. It's been close to 20 yrs since I did this and have not needed to lube since.

If the insert has come unscrewed it may just need to be retighten, if the threads were not damaged. These are normally tighten using a bushing/die to drive the insert.

Question on sticking dispener/ptx. If the ptx is sticking in the brass, this normally cleans up with some polishing of the ptx. Most of the PTX dies I have from Hornady have the M style expander. This is made worst if you wet clean your brass with SS pins and use Dawn. Switching to wax based cleaner will help, wax as a dry lubricant. If the inside of the case is not clean ( with powder residue) will work as a lube.

 

Ive found that OneShot is actually useful for doing pistol brass!! Makes everything run better. Ill take the RCBS PTX over the Hornady though. I had nothing but issues with it over expanding the cases as its such a fine adjustment.

I also strip the paint out of the inside of my drops, sand smooth, polish and wax them. Makes cleanup a little easier, and seems to make them more consistent. Could just me being over zealous though.

 

I lube my pistol brass, too. It makes sizing go SO MUCH quicker and easier than without it. I originally bought One Shot for rifle brass, but I tried it one day for pistol brass, and loved it.

Over the past few years I have been using a Teflon spray (WD40 Dry Lube which is Teflon spray) to save a couple of bucks over the One Shot; it works great. However, I got some One Shot again yesterday from a friend, just so that I can follow Hornady's exact instructions. I still have to try the last steps that I mentioned in an above comment. I needed a break from the press for a couple days, to tell you the truth. I hate to say it that way, but I find it better to work on things like this with a clear head (rather than doing it while frustrated).

 

It's hard for everyone else to follow exactly what I have done to try to resolve this, so please trust me when I tell you that I have done everything properly, followed instructions and good advice, and then tried the same things again several times, last working on it today. It still sticks. I checked the width of the slot where the metering insert moves up and down, and at this point I believe that either the slot is not wide enough near the top, or the hex bottom of the metering insert is too big from the factory. That actually happened to someone who wrote a comment on this post. So, I plan to call Hornady when I can make the time to do so.

I'll update whenever I make that call (not sure when).

Thank you for your help.

 

If anyone wants to see the rotor get stuck, here is a short video of it in action. In the video I manually lift the rotor and gently push it to the equivalent of the top of the ram stroke. No case is in the die, but the behavior of the powder measure is the same. The metering insert does not touch the top of the slot, per the instructions, but is this all because I have the rotor go up too high? (P.S. I know that I said I planned to call Hornady but I wanted to ask this last question. Thanks!)

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/trlfqlS2HLc

 

Interesting
If you measure the gap, is it getting tighter at the top?

 

Do you mean to the left and right of the metering insert? If so, yes, the width of the slot is about 0.030" thinner near the top. I was trying to record the space or lack thereof in the video. I took the video just before I had to walk away from the press until a couple days from now, based on my schedule. Therefore, I did not have time to remove the pistol metering insert and measure its width. Nor did I have time yet to measure the width of the rifle metering insert as a comparison.

 

Not sure about anyone else but when I click on link it isn’t the video of LNL.

 

Video worked for me.

The first thing I noticed is the return spring is missing. This must be on for the rotor to return to the down position.

The 2nd thing was the actuating arm is not running parallel to each other. This is minor and should not cause the problem but may effect smoothness.

 

The return spring is there, I'm not sure why you do not see it.

 

I did not try any other powder. I use Universal universally (haha!) for all but one of my pistol calibers. Pistol caliber loading is the sole purpose of my buying this press.

 

Dump the powder out of it and take the metering insert out of it and cycle it without the insert. You may have to hold the drum in place but it will still indicate if the metering insert has any bearing on it.
If it still has the problem than you know it's the linkage.
If it is still doing it, put the insert back in and take the stop bar off the side of the measure, put spring back on and see if it sticks then.
If it is I would check the to screws at the top of the linkage these are lock screws and nuts, and one may be binding at the top if they are to tight.
If you follow this you should know by know what area is causing the problem.
If non of this works than ask Hornady for a shipping label to send it in and have it fixed or replaced.

 

Great tips, thanks, I'll do that within the next couple of days.

Side note: I was actually wondering if it was the linkage bars sticking together when vertical, but I figured out that it was not. I put a tiny bit of grease between them and the problem was still present.

Looking forward to trying your simple tips, after I ruled so many other things out. Getting there...