Lee Hand Press Junk

[Geezerbiker]

I bought one 20+ years ago when I lived in an apartment and didn't have a place to bolt down my rockchucker. These days I mostly use it with a universal decapping die so I can decap a lot of cases while watching the tube...

Tony

 

[Pond James Pond]

smart man's reloading kit in a box for range testing.

Fixed it for you!

I think this is a great idea. I've had the same idea but never applied it (not needed to).

In my case it would have been a hand-press with a seating die, a beam scale, trickler and then primed cases, powder and bullets. I'd only use it if I'd done a load ladder and then felt I needed to explore one of the charges further or another load was worth trying.

As I said, it's not been necessary so far.

 

[jetinteriorguy]

That is a pretty ingenious setup there HD. Got me thinking now.

 

[HiBC]

Charging with powder ,checking fill level,and seating bullets require focus .No distractions.

But I agree,other tedious ops can be done in leisurely fashion ,couch,back porch,or catfishing.

Decapping . Then tumble.

Its not the greatest press for sizing,but it works anywhere..Then I cob tumble the lube off.
RamPrime will work,low volume,but I prefer the RCBS hand priming tool.

Easy as eating pistachios.You can do it at the lake.

Its nice sitting down at the bench with a few hundred primed brass if you are a single stage loader.
Charging and seating is the fun part,and its easier to give your best focus to those operations when you are fresh.
And there is something about my fake Krag carbine that makes me want a hand tool.A Lyman 310 would be OK,but the Lee has advantages.

 

[Blindstitch]

Finally found a small gripe about the Lee hand press. The original one I bought has a flush button to release the breech lock. When I saw the new one I thought that little button extension would make it easier to depress which it does. While Using the RCBS locks the button doesn't come back up all the way. So I pulled the old button and put it in the new press.

Doesn't seem to interfere with the Lee nut lock. Glad I have two now.

 

[HankC1]

So I pulled the old button and put it in the new press

How do you remove the button? I look at mine, cannot figure it out!

 

[Blindstitch]

The button is held in place by the spring that helps it push up. Just get out the pliers and pull i straight up. You can also hit the button head with a file and make it flush.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I don't think Lee will be crying over my post. I've made plenty of positive reviews on their products. And I've defended them against the people who say Blue, Green, Orange, the other Red are the only products worth having.

The problem isn't your post, it's the title you gave it. Reading your post, it seems you are asking what to do with a broken part, which is now junk by virtue of being broken and unserviceable. However, the title of your post on the index page immediately suggested to me that I was going to read a horror story about how bad the Lee hand press is.

Go back and read the post title objectively ...

 

[Blindstitch]

And since then I threw out the junk piece. If I had an aluminum welder I would have probably fixed it.

Look at all the people saying it's a great product. I would read this and instantly buy one if I was on the fence. Just got another set of 6.5 Japanese Lee dies in the mail today. The 308 lee dies will be here Wednesday and I don't even have a 308 yet. Or a 444 Marlin which I have Lee dies in the closet for.

 

[Pond James Pond]

My only gripe with the hand-press is that the handles could be made to be a bit more ergonomic to hold on to. Even a rubber sleeve would help.