Somebody please help me with Lee Auto Prime II

gelandangan

After a decade of using Lee Ram Prime,

I relented and bought myself an Auto Prime II..

I thought this would ease up my priming process.

Ok, now that I have the tool, I assemble it on my press
I am using Lee universal shell holder to hold the cartridge..
and.. uh oh..

Could someone tell me what part of the kit support and center the primer
during its travel from the plastic dispenser to the primer pocket in the cartridge? Confused

The hole in the shell holder is way larger than the primer and its ram, Confused

any slight bump or uneven movement would offset the primer from its perch on top of the ram.
Thus it may not be inserted fully centered into the primer pocket.

With the ram prime or built in press priming tool, there is a "primer cup" built into the head of the ram
to hold and center the primer, but this feature is missing from the Auto Prime II.

So, did I received an incomplete kit?
Did I use the wrong shell holder?
is there a trick I am missing?
did I assemble the thingo wrongly?
should I just use it and have faith that it wont go kaboom on me?

slimjim

Sorry gelandangan, I'm of no help. Sure does sound like something is missing. Lee has a two-year warranty so you should be covered. Here is the link to all the parts in the kit if you want to check to make sure you have everything.

www.leeprecision.com/c...4886=90107

wiersy111

I use the regular hand held auto prime and love it. I would think there should be set ups for large and small primers. There is with the hand held set up. I think Bushmaster use the auto prime 2, shoot him a pm and see if he can explain it.

Good Luck!

gelandangan

I did check on the parts received against whatever listed in lee's site,
all parts present and looks similar..

yeah, Bushy have one of these..

Bushmaster

Yup...Read PM and am gathering the requested photos now. Give me a few moments Please...Be right with you...

Bushmaster

O K...Here goes.

First photo: Inventory of parts minus press and shell holders.
Second photo: Order of assembly
Third photo: Assembled with ram up using the large pusher.

Bushmaster · Last edited by Bushmaster on Tue May 18, 2010 7:45 am; edited 1 time in total

And the last two...

Fourth photo: Primer setting on top of pusher. This is a CCI 300 for .45 ACP (in my case).
Fifth photo: Looking down on primer.

As far as guiding the primers to the pockets you will note that the feed tube is chamfered on the bottom side where the primer seating ram (pusher) goes through. Make sure you have both the large pusher (seating ram) and the small pusher (seating ram) and that you have both large (L) and small (S) feed tubes. You don't need special shell holders for this tool. The ones that come with Lee die sets work with the Auto Prime II. I don't believe the ones that come with, or use with, the hand primer will work with the Auto Prime II.

Gelandangan. Please let me know if this works for you. You have my undivided attention on this..

Bushmaster

Guess I should add the completed assembly ready to prime cases.

Aloysius

Bushy, is that press only for show or do you actually use it too? It's so clean...

skb2706 · Member Joined: Apr 10, 2006 Posts: 269

The Auto Prime II takes standard handloading shellholders and not the bastxrd axx ones that go on the hand held model. Even as cheaply made as the Auto Prime II is, its still my preferred method of priming cases.

Bushmaster

Sorry Aloysius. Next time I'll mess up my loading bench for you. In fact it is a mess right now. I shoved everything out of range of the camera.

Lee Auto Prime II "cheaply made"?? I'm not sure about the new ones, but I've been using mine for the last 25 years and the only thing I have replace is the tray [clear] cover (It was kinda yellow and I dropped and broke it). And that was just last year.

gelandangan · Last edited by gelandangan on Tue May 18, 2010 3:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

Thanks for the photos Bushy
I can see that you do go out of your way - climbing on top of your table and stool - to take the photos.
I am truly grateful for that!

I find something odd, my shell holder is the same as yours bushy,
but it seems that the priming hole in the center of mine is way bigger than the one you got? Confused

The hole in my shell holders can accommodate the primer PLUS primer cup off normal priming tools.
On yours it look like the hole fits the primer just right??

Ok, lets try this, if you are priming a case with SMALL primer,
wouldn't there be gap between the primer and the shell holder hole?

Donut Slayer

Not to hi-jack the post, but bushy, is that a lee turret press in the background in the 1 photo?? How do you like it? Been thinking about getting one. And for the record, I have used a lee hand prime for years and love it. Cant see why anyone would use anything else.

gelandangan

Donut, I have used the hand primer too.
But a few years ago, I bought the Lee Hand Press kit

that came with Lee Ram prime,
I found it a lot more easier and consistent to use a press to do the priming.

Donut Slayer

Ha ha, I bought that same kit years ago. I have never used the ram prime. maybe I'm missing something???