Lee Powder Drum

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choppertime

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Mar 8, 2016
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Thumbs up on this powder measure! got 1 to try to do varget powder works perfect no cutting the powder no leakage and consistant throws for loading my ar10! I have 2 550b's the powder drop for pistol is perfect.but for extruded powder not so hot and I no in the manual it says not a good measure for extruded powder....to bad Dillon cant come up with a powder measure to do varget,AR Comp ect...without giving a powder shower when you lower the ram.....good job on this powder measure Lee Precision!!
 
This powder measure throws more accurate charges than my RCBS measure. Make sure you take the double charge safety off. Mine started throwing no powder at all because of this device. Good thing I look in each case before putting the bullet on.
 
Hi guys.
Welcome to THR both of you. ( 5 and 12 posts)
Lots of great people here. :)


I think the Lee Autodrum is a winner. Can't beat the price.
I am happy with all my Lee equipment.
Glad the measure is working well for you.
 
Lee did a great job with this measure. I have two in service. I dedicated one to the Small Drum and one to the Large Drum.

It is a good idea to rinse the insides of the Auto Drum in very hot tap water to remove the residual machine oils before putting it into service. Some have reported powder clogging because of the oils.

I also have a Lee Classic Powder Measure. The brass drum with the micrometer adjust on the Classic works with the Auto Drum. Factory Sales sells the brass drum separate. I may pick one up to use for large rifle charges.
 
I also have a Lee Classic Powder Measure. The brass drum with the micrometer adjust on the Classic works with the Auto Drum. Factory Sales sells the brass drum separate. I may pick one up to use for large rifle charges.

With the same good results as the plastic drum? If so, I might be interested in a different brass drum too. :)
 
Yes, very repeatable.

Factory Sales has changed their name to FS Reloading. The part is now listed as out of stock.
 
I cant wait to upgrade to the Auto Drum. I'm actually exited about it. Not that the Pro Auto Disk is that bad. But it doesn't work well for small drops with certain powders using the adjustable charge bar and the pre-sized holes in the disk aren't the best for going .1 gr in certain powders.

The Lee Perfect Powder measure was good about adjustments and that feature i like in the Auto Drum.

Granted there are issues I've read about in the aforementioned thread on the Lee Auto Drum as far as linkage and things but I'm still ready to take it dancing.

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
 
I'm new to the reloading hobby but stumbled onto a thread about the accuracy of the Auto Drum. I bought one and never looked back! Very accurate, easy to work up loads, I can't imagine measuring powder any other way.

So I bought a few of them!

IMG_20160309_201045265.jpg
 
Welcome fellas to THR, and SARuger... :eek: WOW! Must be an awesome unit; that photo is the best product testimonial I've ever seen. Will definitely be sticking w/ Lee products if/when I move up to turret or progressive press. :)
 
I'm glad everybody else seems to like theirs, I have both the drum and the autodisk, currently the drum is collecting dust. The way the powder hopper just pulls right off the measure body leaves much to desire and the measure holds a lot of powder in between the drum and the powder cutoff. I put the powder measure and a lee powder measure riser on top of my powder through die and the drum wont fully actuate unless I put a washer in between the measure and the riser. The thing is a powder magnet as well, between the manufacturing oils left behind and very severe static. I tried to push a drier sheet down the powder drop and it got hung up inside so badly that I had to use a hammer, wooden dowel and 20 minutes to get it out before discovering the bottom drop tube simply pulls out. now I have some damaged plastic inside the very difficult to disassemble measure.

In short, I had a number of bad experiences with the thing and have found it to be no more accurate than my pro autodisk. The only advantage being that you can hit the points that the disks don't cover; however, I'm happy with the weights the disks give me. I originally bought it to be able to accurately throw 35-45gr charges of lilgun, w296, aa1680(all fine ball powders which should meter accurately) for 500s&w. I get variations up to 1 whole grain which is not acceptable... back to the scale and dipper method... Another reason I bought it was to more accurately meter unique and 700x. It does just as good(bad, +/-.3gr) as the autodisk

As for the brass drum- I recall youtuber fortunecookie45lc having issues with that drum in lee's new overpriced cast powder measure.
 
I just got one.While adjusting it for the flare on the case I broke the plastic piece attached to the body.I don't know if I did something wrong or not.I screwed the Pro Disk off screwed the drum on. It was flaring the cases too much.About the third adjustment it broke.I've been watching some of the videos the drum seems to move easily. On mine you can't move it sometimes when the cavity is up at the opening and the teeth in the gears are as far as they can go.I'll give Lee a call tomorrow.
 
Did you guys clean the measure before putting it in service? Sounds to me like more operator error than anything else. It's a simple mechanism and when set up correctly it throws repeatable and accurate charges.
 
Mine was cleaned and graphite.I tried it again when the drum cavity is up it binds you can not move it with the connecting rod.Drum in, drum out makes no difference.I have eight of the disk measures other than having to do a little bit of sanding no problems.On this one its like the teeth get tight or bind.
 
You have to do away with the safety feature too, that will cause erratic loads due to short throws..
 
Got my powder measure back from Lee fast service and no charge.It would have been really fast but USPS sent it to Baton Rouge Louisiana for a visit.When I got it back I found what caused it.I was adjusting the flare on the case without the powder drum in. If the gear selector works out just a little bit it locks the measure up. With the drum in and tightened it can't move out.So it was operator error on my part.It didn't take much force to break the plastic so if you operate yours without the drum in be careful.
 
Not really any reason.I just screwed the disk measure off and screwed the drum on just ran a case to check the flare.
 
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