Its up & running now. I will change how I mounted the Safety Prime now that I found an online explanation...I mounted the special washer under the plastic hangar instead of on top. The dispenser works now as is but one does need to pay attention to be certain the primer drops into the cup. I believe(hope) it will be more dependable once I switch that washer to the top.
Truthfully a person could set right to it if you already had your components and load data ready to go. Once you bolt it to the bench and mount the lever (making sure everything clears the bench and press so that you have full movement of the ram up & down you can mount your dies, Safety Prime, and powder dispenser. I knew to get the riser when I ordered my press because I knew I was going to mount the Lee Pro Auto Disc powder thrower.
I also used the Lee 4-die .40 S&W dies so the top of the turret is full & crowded. So you really can't set-up the press without setting your dies for a load. The Lee instructions were adequate since I've done quite a bit of reloading in the past but a total newbie might struggle. Better (larger) photos would go a long way here.
The auto index is great! But I did find it helpful to start the case in station one by guiding it with my pointer finger into the resizing/decapping die. After that it pretty well stayed true thru all for stations. Also, I found you don't lower the ram completely after you've seated the new primer, just enough that the turret turns fully to the next station. And after a couple of cartridges were complete I found myself already getting comfortable with the Safety Prime.
Truthfully if I were indoors instead of my garage I would have just left the powder in the hopper. But because I have a crowded garage the press is in a traffic area and I was afraid I might bump it. Oh well, no worry now...its empty.
(a mistake I hope not to repeat)
The only thing I'm waiting on before I just set down and crank'm out is to test my loads for the two bullets I have. I intend to use whatever cylinder in the disc drops a decent charge and not work with tweaking too much as long as the load shoots ok.
Tried the Lee dipper that came with the die set and it dispenses precisely 5gr of Hodgdon Universal. The .61 cylinder dispenses precisely 5.5gr. of the same powder. As long as that shoots nice in my XDm I'll be good to go. If not I'll try something else. (fingers crossed
)
My greatest hassel of the day is realizing some tools were missing from my tool box and searching up & down and all around the house only to not locate them. They are the last of a set of tools my dad gave me when I graduated highschool and have serve me well for 37 years so I its difficult not to try and find where I've managed to stash them. Went thru attic boxes trying to locate my old loading manuals unsuccsessfully also but found enough info online and with the Lee dies set literature to know these are safe starting loads. Only did a few because I need to make sure they'll fit/feed thru my magazines and drop cleanly into the chamber as well as shoot acceptably before I commence to loading a batch up.
Anyhow, as I went thru the process I couldn't help but notice how good it felt to get back into loading and shooting again.
Regards,
TB