Interesting evening with my Lee Auto Pro Disk measure

[TeamPrecisionIT]

Hello everyone,

For starters, I think this is a great measure and I use it for reloading all of my pistol ammo.

However, I mainly use it with the micro charge bar instead of the discs, since it allows me to change calibers/charges without having to take it apart at all - just turn the screw in or out.

But I got the itch yesterday evening to try using the discs since they seem simple enough - a hole that slides, right? Well it turns out that they actually drop about .3gr less in charge then indicated in the table in the Lee manual.

As an example I was doing this with Win 231 for my 9mm powder puff loads of 4.5gr and yet with the .43 VMD cavity it was only dropping 4.2gr. I ended up having to move up to the .46 VMD cavity in order to get a 4.6gr charge.

It also leaked quite a bit more then the micrometer charge bar, as well. Needless to say the micrometer charge bar is back on there and things are back to normal. I am glad I never even started with those discs. And for the record, the micrometer charge bar only leaks about .5gr of powder for every pound I have run through it, which is more than acceptable to me.

Do you guys have similar experience with this measure or not?

Damian

 

[Funshooter45]

Yep, pretty much the same. It was no big deal to use the next bigger hole with the disks though. I have tried a lot of powders through the disks and I only use the disk chart as a starting place to experiment with. For some powders I have to go up 2 sizes.

I usee the adjustable charge bar more often than not. It's nice to be able to fine tune it to exactly what I want rather than having to settle for something that is 0.1 or 0.2 gr above or below.

There are a few powders though that actually behave more consistently when using the disks instead of the adjustable charge bar. And some of them work even better when using the double disks and using 2 small skinny cavities rather than the same volume in a fat shallow cavity.

I have heard people complaining about leakage with the Auto Disk. For some reason it's never been an issue with mine.

 

[Redhat]

Leakage has never been a problem with mine. I also have the charge bar and haven't noticed a difference between it and the disks except loading small charges of powder.

As to the accuracy of the Lee tables, I seem to recall that in the instructions for the powder measure it stated that the cavity sizes they provide would only get you close due to variances in densities between different lots of the same powder.

What I've been doing is when I reach the desired charge I write the disk number down in my load data, same with the charge bar.

 

[Brian10]

One thing I can note is that you don't have to take it apart to change discs. Simply move the arm all the way up and it will disengage the disc. Insert a new disc and you are done in 5 seconds.

I've only used mine with Clays powder, and I do get minor leakage.

 

[LiveLife]

I found that after filling the hopper on the Pro Auto Disk, I need to put back the 3-4 throws/drops to allow the powder to settle before I get accurate/consistent charges. I always weigh the first few drops after this "settling" charges to verify the weights.

Most powders will be off .2-.3 gr from the chart, especially larger flake powders.
For me, small flattened ball powders like W231/HP38 drops more consistently, often less than .1 gr variance charge-to-charge.

Also, new Pro Auto Disk needs to be broken in with lubricant. Some use graphite powder, but I find running W231/HP38 first will put a nice black coating on the wiper and disk surface for smooth operation and more consistent drops. If your Pro Auto Disk is older and not throwing consistently, inspect the condition of the hopper wiper and replace as necessary.

 

[Hondo 60]

Haven't had a real problem with leakage.
It does leak, but it's such a tiny amt.
(never weighed it - too small to weigh)

And the holes in the discs don't drop as shown in their chart.
You have to begin by weighing a few.
Once the powder settles (4-5 drops) then they're pretty consistent.

 

[1SOW]

bds +1

The teflon wiper fixed mine when it started leaking. I emailed LEE and told them it was leaking they sent a wiper free of charge. No questions asked and they didn't reply to the email, just sent the wiper.

Mine was pretty accurate with Win 231 and drops were very consistent.

I've had nothing but trouble with the charge bar with inconsistent drops. I won't use it.
If I have a load that won't fit the disc holes, I modify a disc hole. Discs are $5.