Something's Gotta Give

[Rule3]

A baffle on the Auto Drum pretty much will do nothing. There is enough powder in the neck of the unit to act as a "buffer" baffle
I have several extra rotors I keep set for different powders/loads and change the out regularly. The measure is damn accurate.

But this thread has so much in it, who knows what the issue may be, Electronic scale variation would the first "variable I would verify.

 

[Skgreen]

Clays, and I switched to that from Unique because I was having all sorts of measuring/throwing problems

Please try another powder before becoming any more frustrated than you already are..
I still use Clays for a few things, but I don't run it through my LNL - AP any more,,,
When using Clays today, I revert back to charging as a single step with loading blocks and a RCBS Uni-flow.. I can just ~power through~ the snags that way, and even then, it isn't 'uber-precision' throws,,,
.

 

[StanDe]

D B Cooper

I load on a Lee Classic Cast turret and have been using the Auto Disk powder measures with pretty good success. I load a lot of 9mm using Accurate Arms #7 which works well in my firearms. I wanted to try the Lee Auto drum so the wife got me one for Christmas, I conditioned it best I could, filled it with AA#7, and tried loading some 115 gr. FMJ. The throws were all over the place and so was the powder. I sent it back to Amazon for a refund. Well I still thought the things should work. I know many use them successfully so I should be able to also. I bought another, this time from Midway. Conditioned this one but filled it with BE-86 and loaded 100 rounds. Just got a small amount of spillage and it threw very accurate charges so thought OK, now I’ll try AA#7. Quit after 30 rounds. Still very accurate charges but too much powder leakage. I picked up as much of the spilled powder from the 30 rounds as I could and weighed it at 5.1grains. Fortune Cookie 45 says with fine grain powder keep trying other drums till you find one that doesn’t leak. I wonder how many it would take? I wrote a letter to Lee asking for suggestions, we’ll see what they say. I run my turret the way it was designed to be run and I think the jarring of the powder in the measure is a benefit. The Auto Drum was almost always on the money with an occasional 0.1gr. one side or the other of my target load with the two powders I was using. Well, I’ll keep trying but I just may have to use the Auto Disk with the AA#7. We’ll see.

Stan

 

[Tilos]

D B Cooper

I load on a Lee Classic Cast turret and have been using the Auto Disk powder measures with pretty good success. I load a lot of 9mm using Accurate Arms #7 which works well in my firearms. I wanted to try the Lee Auto drum so the wife got me one for Christmas, I conditioned it best I could, filled it with AA#7, and tried loading some 115 gr. FMJ. The throws were all over the place and so was the powder. I sent it back to Amazon for a refund. Well I still thought the things should work. I know many use them successfully so I should be able to also. I bought another, this time from Midway. Conditioned this one but filled it with BE-86 and loaded 100 rounds. Just got a small amount of spillage and it threw very accurate charges so thought OK, now I’ll try AA#7. Quit after 30 rounds. Still very accurate charges but too much powder leakage. I picked up as much of the spilled powder from the 30 rounds as I could and weighed it at 5.1grains. Fortune Cookie 45 says with fine grain powder keep trying other drums till you find one that doesn’t leak. I wonder how many it would take? I wrote a letter to Lee asking for suggestions, we’ll see what they say. I run my turret the way it was designed to be run and I think the jarring of the powder in the measure is a benefit. The Auto Drum was almost always on the money with an occasional 0.1gr. one side or the other of my target load with the two powders I was using. Well, I’ll keep trying but I just may have to use the Auto Disk with the AA#7. We’ll see.
Stan

To reduce what you call spillage (I call leakage), to tighten the seal/disc gap I filed the shiny surfaces in this pic flush with the disc.
You can see the track of the seal across the disc too.
This put more pressure on the seal/disc juncture and ended any leakage I had:

Here's a pic of the "wiped clean" contact pattern on the seal:


Notice the Lft to Rght difference in the pattern on the seal, I attribute the to the offset screw that holds the hopper on, putting offset pressure on the top of the seal.
Same for the Lft to Rght track variation on the disc, more contact on the side marked .43 than the .30 side.
What I do to disc measures,

 

[Dudedog]

VMD
Clays is listed as .146
Unique is listed at .13 last Unique I used was closer to .11
AA#2 is listed as .102 my jars are right about that #
Titegroup is listed at .084
HP38 is about .09
CFE-P is about .075

So 5gr of each takes up
Clays .73cc
AA#2 .51cc
Unique .55cc at my computed VMD for my last lb
Unigue .65cc at listed VMD
HP38 .46cc
CFE-P .38cc
Titegroup .42cc

So AA#2 is more dense than Clays but less dense than say HP38/Titegroup/CFE-P (even though it is smaller pieces)
So while AA#2 is much finer than HP38 it takes up more space in the case
I said bulkier I should have said less dense.

 

[StanDe]

Tilos
Actually my Auto Disks are doing great, It's that darn Auto Drum and AA#7 that's giving me fits.

 

[kmw1954]

StanDe, I load AA#2, AA#5, HP-38 and Ramshot Silhouette with my Auto Drum and have been using it on a Pro1000 were leakage causes havoc. My unit was an early one and I had all sorts of difficulties with it including leakage. The black plastic drum when I first got mine was very smooth and shiny. Within the 1st year I had sent it back to Lee twice. the last time it came back the drums had both been worked and were no longer shiny. It also no longer leaks. Lee has changed the drums because of the leakage problem so are your shiny or dull?

 

[armarsh]

...No such luck. I'm ALL OVER THE BOARD with this thing. It is throwing plus or minus 4-5 tenths either side of zero on every single charge. I can't make it throw right.

...Static could be a problem, and I do have dryer sheets for that purpose, however, I thought of it only the context of the powder measure, not the scale.

Clays, and I switched to that from Unique because I was having all sorts of measuring/throwing problems with Unique. (And it was incredibly dirty. ...

Get a small bottle of graphite. https://agscompany.com/product/graphite-lubricant-powdered-bottle-1-13-oz-card-hardware/ Put a generous squirt of graphite in with a small amount of powder and cycle it thru until you can see a film on all parts that contact the powder. You can use the Unique for this. Keep or toss the powder - a little extra graphite won't hurt anything. Graphite is the best thing in the world for making powder flow. It is a dry lube and reduces static. There is already some on your powder from the manufacturer.

I would not use a crazy fast powder like Clays in a cartridge with a heavy projectile like a .44 SP or Mag. If you want to make some target loads I think you would be much better served by a medium-fast powder like 3N37, Longshot, AA#5, WSF, (I would say Unique but...) or many others.

Actually If you graphite your powder measure and just use a little hotter load of Unique to clean it up you will probably be where you want to be. One thing to remember about the nasty hard to measure flake powders like Red Dot, Unique, and Green Dot is that the difficulty in metering powder seldom affects the performance of the cartridge.

 

[StanDe]

kmw1954: The two drums that came with my Auto Drum are dull looking and the surface is somewhat rough. I did work them over a bit with graphite, maybe that wasn't the thing to do although they seemed to leak less with the BE-86 after I did that. AA#7 is very fine powder but it measures out OK with the Auto Disk. I hate to send stuff back but apparently it worked out for you. I have an email in to Lee, we'll see what they have to say.
Stan

 

[Tilos]

Tilos
Actually my Auto Disks are doing great, It's that darn Auto Drum and AA#7 that's giving me fits.

Oh, OK...misread your post, sorry

 

[Eddietruett]

I have no problem with my Dillon 650 giving consistent drops as long as I don't use Unique. It won't drop correct in my Dillon no matter what, but in my other Lee Turret presses, I have used the auto drum a good bit. They seem to work for me great until they get around 5k drops through them and then tend to get inconsistent. I was buying at least one a year. I went to the Auto disc and problems were solved. Of course, you have to match the disc up to the powder and sometimes it is just off from what you wanted to load. I have not tried the pro disc that can be set but I've heard nothing but great things about it.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I have no problem with my Dillon 650 giving consistent drops as long as I don't use Unique. It won't drop correct in my Dillon no matter what, but in my other Lee Turret presses, I have used the auto drum a good bit. They seem to work for me great until they get around 5k drops through them and then tend to get inconsistent. I was buying at least one a year. I went to the Auto disc and problems were solved. Of course, you have to match the disc up to the powder and sometimes it is just off from what you wanted to load. I have not tried the pro disc that can be set but I've heard nothing but great things about it.

Interesting. I've got probably 3k rounds loaded through mine. But I have had issues with mine pretty much since the beginning. I hope the short service life you're experiencing is uncommon. I do need to attack the idea of static in the system before I go on much further with it.

 

[StanDe]

Well, I emailed Lee Saturday concerning my issues with the Lee Auto Drum powder measure knowing they wouldn’t they get back to work till Monday. This morning I had an email telling me they would be sending me a new elastomer wiper to install. Shortly after that I got another email saying it had been sent. That kind of response to a customer, no matter how minor, is something I really appreciate. Sunday I finished the box of 9mm I was loading with the Auto Drum, cleaned up the mess and switched over to the Auto disk and loaded another box and quit for the day. No mess with the Auto Disk and AA#7. I must say though, the Auto Drum was very consistent as was the Auto Disk. If I can cure the leakage from the Auto Drum I will really like this thing .Absolutely simple adjustment. I have two old Herters powder measures I have used for years but they are a PIA to adjust.