Why no other auto index turret presses?

[Lost Sheep]

The benefit of the LEE Classic Turret Press is compromise. It will single stage load well. It will load pistol rounds faster than a single stage. It's relatively inexpensive.

Also, changing turrets is a twist and lift, then drop the new one in, align and twist. No tools required and takes less than 30 seconds.

The Lee turret is smaller (two reasons; turret is held at the periphery and it only holds 4 dies).

Lost Sheep

 

[Potatohead]

No problem Potato Appears it is too complex anyway

Emily Litella

"Oh, Never Mind"

LOL!

Actually I think I lied because this may be off topic:

What the hell is auto index? I mean, Im spinning the turret on my LCT by pushing a lever, aint nuthin auto about it from my elbow's point of view

Well, I see now Lefty hit on it above. But i think I didnt understand.

 

[cfullgraf]

L

What the hell is auto index? I mean, Im spinning the turret on my LCT by pushing a lever, aint nuthin auto about it from my elbow's point of view

A more simplistic viewpoint, the turret on a Lee turret press indexes during the operation of the handle. No other action by the operator is required to get the press to index.

A non auto indexing press, such as the Redding T-7 or the Dillon 550, the turret, or shell plate has to be indexed manually, separately from any other operation.

In short, indexing is another step.

Hope this helps.

 

[Potatohead]

No other action by the operator is required to get the press to index

What other action is required to get the press to index on a manual? You're not saying you spin it with your hand are you? You pull the lever again?

Be careful, I think I might be making you all dumber if you're reading this. I think I better youtube this one.


Pm if this constitutes a hijack.

 

[Rule3]

The Dillon SDB is listed as a "Square Deal B Auto-Indexing Reloader" and also as a "4 Station Progressive Loader ". Straight from Dillon, yes I have a SDB. And the shell plate does rotate on its own with every pull of the handle.

pro·gres·sive


/prəˈgresiv/


adjective: progressive

1. happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step.
"a progressive decline in popularity"


synonyms: continuing, continuous, increasing, growing, developing, ongoing, accelerating, escalating;

automatic indexing
The procedure for determining the orientation and position of a workpiece with respect to an automatically controlled machine, such as a robot manipulator, that is to perform an operation on it.

Many of the reloading presses are progressive, but not all are auto-index capable.

The Dillon SDB does both, so yes there are more reloading presses out there that have auto index capability.:banghead:

4 Station Progressive Loader

As Mr Semantics points out, it is a Progressive Press, Not a Turret Press, so it does not matter if it indexes off the phase of the Moon. It is NOT a TURRET press which was/is the original question

Your list of definitions and use of redundant Smiles says a whole lot of nothing.

 

[Potatohead]

"Mr Semantics"

LMAO again. Rule3, you cant say the thread hasnt been entertaining. Im glad he put the pronunciation in there, Ive been having a lot of trouble with that

 

[caz223]

My guess is that Lee wants the low end to get market share.
By the time another company would do the R&D, marketing, and distribution, they would be competing against Lee's progressive press.
Lee has done well to make the auto indexing classic turret.
I would not have predicted it's market share, or it's current level of success.

Hey, there's room at the top for Dillon, Hornady, etc.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

My guess is that Lee wants the low end to get market share.
By the time another company would do the R&D, marketing, and distribution, they would be competing against Lee's progressive press.
Lee has done well to make the auto indexing classic turret.
I would not have predicted it's market share, or it's current level of success.

Hey, there's room at the top for Dillon, Hornady, etc.

Lee mostly makes very good products. They aren't always as pretty as some of the others but most of their presses work very well.

I have no idea why no other company has added auto-indexing to their turret press. Then again, the Redding press uses a turret with 7 stations which will hold at least 2 sets of handgun dies or 3+ sets of rifle dies. If that press had auto-indexing it would be useless for the most part.

I'm just happy Lee has a 4 hole turret press w/auto-index and I'm glad if need be it's so easy to remove the auto-index rod.

 

[Potatohead]

Agreed, It is a fine piece of equipment.

 

[Sam1911]

Terminology...


AUTO:



INDEXING:




PROGRESSIVE:

TURRET:



My gawd, what is so hard to understand about this???

 

[LeftyTSGC]

4 Station Progressive Loader

As Mr Semantics points out, it is a Progressive Press, Not a Turret Press, so it does not matter if it indexes off the phase of the Moon. It is NOT a TURRET press which was/is the original question

Your list of definitions and use of redundant Smiles says a whole lot of nothing.

Simple minds see simple things, redundant smiles represent "FWIW", "to each his own", "take it as you see it".

The SDB was just a representation of the definitions to explain to those that were asking the difference between, Progressive and Auto- Index.

I did not say "this is a auto-index TURRET press" only providing explanations.

I think SAM1911 has the correct answer. :banghead::

 

[Rule3]

Simple minds see simple things, redundant smiles represent "FWIW", "to each his own", "take it as you see it".

The SDB was just a representation of the definitions to explain to those that were asking the difference between, Progressive and Auto- Index.

I did not say "this is a auto-index TURRET press" only providing explanations.

I think SAM1911 has the correct answer. :banghead::

More like simple minds post inane replies, and do not read the original post.
I did not ask for a definition of progressive or auto index, I know what those mean. The only thing you did not quote or post was a link to Wikipedia
Give it a rest..

 

[Sam1911]

Ok guys, let's not get "simple" with each other. We're all friends here, just discussing reloading presses for goodness sake.

If you find the conversation is raising your blood pressure, just walk away. I promise no one will MAKE you participate.

 

[Sam1911]

Why doesn't say, RCBS or Hornaday make one? The Blue guys of course wouldn't as they make Machines[Progressives, I assume you mean]

I'd imagine that they've looked at the market and determined that between their turrets, and their progressives, there's just not enough sales to be made from folks who want an auto-indexing turret to make the investment in a whole 'nother machine or modification of an existing machine, to make it worth the costs.

You've got to design the new machine and/or modifications. You have to arrange for a new production line, or lines, and/or suppliers to make those new things and to assemble them. Have to expand your catalog and website and all your vendors' catalogs/databases to cover your new offerings. Have to train up your sales people and tech support people in how the new ones work, and how they break. Have to bring those new spare parts into your inventory and distribution system. Have to figure out your liability vectors from whatever new mistakes your machine might inadvertently "help" the users make.

I'd guess a company would probably invest about $1 Million in bringing a new machine into the lineup, not even counting the tooling and production costs. You've got to sell a WHOLE lot of $350 presses just to cover the administrative costs of a change like that.

And then you have to figure out just how many of your potential customers WOULD buy this new machine, but WOULDN'T buy your older non-indexing model. Those are your target market. If folks would be happy "enough" with your old model, you're throwing money away to make up a whole new model for them to choose instead. If they would like auto-indexing but are never going to pay more than Lee's prices for one, again, you're throwing money away to make something they won't buy. If your auto-indexing turret costs as much or more than a Dillon 650, 97.34729112% of your potential customers will buy the progressive machine from your competitor instead. You really can't try to support this endeavor based on the sales you'll make to those 2 and 2/3rds of a guy, out of every 100, who wants an AUTO-INDEXING TURRET and won't accept a full progressive, AND will pay your price.

 

[jmorris]

I'll take a crack at the original question.

I think many folks use turret presses with one die at a time and run the entire "batch" through each step one at a time. The ones that do can flip it by hand just as easy as anyone can index a 550. So not a lot of demand for an auto indexing turret.

Adding parts, adds complexity, things that can go wrong and cost. A Redding T7 will run you close to $300 now, if they added auto indexing it would cost the same as some of the progressive reloading machines but offer little or no advantage.

Work is reduced best when shell plates hold many rounds so every operation is preformed at once (although still one after another). An auto indexing turret requires the same amount of strokes per round that a single stage does. So folks that want to reduce "work" wouldn't be in the market either.

So I think cost, lack of interest and offers little advantage would be the top 3.

 

[Potatohead]

Good post Jmorris.

 

[Walkalong]

Closed at OP's request.