Has this happened to anyone?
I'll email them and ask them if they'll replace it, but I was wondering, is there a better product that won't break?
EVERYONE BREAKS THE HANDLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More cheap Lee potmental crap. Here's an exchange I had with Lee, himself, a while back. I use the Auto-Prime for small pistol primers, but it's horrible for large pistol primers. I keep two Auto-Prime setups, one for large and one for small. I just noticed, last night, that my replaced large prime lever has a bow to it, and I haven't used it much. In a desperate move before a bowling pin match, I shot the bottoms of large primers with case lube to aid in seating. While it did that, the lube fouled several primers.
I bought the RCBS to cure the large-primer problem.
I prime off press, and this puppy is fantastic. Every primer seats properly and easily. If Lee ever makes the lever out of steel, and curves the thing so the edges don't jam into my fingers, I might consider using it, again.
*******************
Sent: Wed 7/16/08 4:30 PM
To: John Lee (
[email protected])
No mashing problems, here. The tool doesn't have enough leverage to mash a primer. On a good squeeze, it just gets the primers to seat to an operative depth. Time has taught me that after loading a box it's necessary to run my finger across the headstamps and cull the high primer rounds.
On .45 ACP, the seating is often so high that spent rounds show scrape marks across the primers.
Thankfully, most of my revolvers have enough clearance between the cylinder and the frame to accommodate the tool's typically high seating.
That's why everyone breaks the levers.
> Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:13:27 -0500
> To:
[email protected]
> From:
[email protected]
> Subject: Re: Bent Handles
>
> At 03:59 PM 7/15/2008, you wrote:
>
> >For John Lee
> >
> >John:
> >
> >Thanks for the call. In response to your conclusion that if the
> >handle on the Auto Prime were weak, you'd see more complaints, have
> >a look at this site. It seems to be a well known problem. Even the
> >users who prefer the Lee to the RCBS admit that the handle is a weak area.
> >
> >
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=329291
>
> If you are bending the lever you are pushing too hard. We talk to
> people all the time that have primed more than a quarter of a millon
> rounds without a hitch. They wear out the connecting rod but never
> break the lever.
>
> Find out why your primers are going in so hard rather than pushing
> harder on the lever. Imagine the improvement to your loads if you
> would stop mashing your primers into the primer pocket!
>
> Read the reviews on the Lee Auto-Prime from the Midway Site you find
> many of those users question how others could break a lever.
>
> Regardless, send in your bent lever and we will replace it at no charge.
>
>
>
> Sincerely
>
> John Lee, President
>
