A little mod for the Hornady LnL

[alfsauve]

No piece of equipment is perfect.   That goes for reloading presses as well.

One little bug with the Hornady LnL Progressive has to do with powder measure.   For whatever reason it seems to want to turn in the press, just ever so slightly with each operation.  None of the other dies do this, just the measure.    I've tried putting an extra shim under the rubber gasket but that didn't help.  Over the course of 100 rounds the measure will eventually come out of the press.  It doesn't fall, just pops up.  You twist it back in, dump the powder in the current shell and keep going.  Not a catastrophe.   If just reach up after 50 rounds and rotate it back, no problem but it's a nit I wanted to fix.

So, of course coming up with some type of lock was my solution.  First I had to have something to lock onto.   I took an LnL die holder, and using the Michael Bane dreaded Dremel tool with a tiny routing bit, made slots at 6  possible positions.   The first one is a little rough, but the others came out almost perfect.    The red marks are a visual depth guide.  All done free hand, except the location of each slot with was marked in the press.





Then, using the MBDDT with a small drill bit, I made a hole in the press's LnL holder.  Again by hand.




Then, amongst the many seemly random Allen wrenches that one seems to collect, I cut one off and stuck it in the hole.  Voila!  Problem solved.




I'll take the locking ring and turn it down a tad so it doesn't bind with the "key".  ("turn it down" is a phrase meaning I'll stand at my 1" belt sander and manually file it down by hand.)    I may cut the key down a little shorter, maybe even drill the hole a little deeper.   We'll see how this on my next reloading sessions.   Instead of a dedicated key, I could just use this as a storage place for one that actually goes with the press/dies.

[tombogan03884]

Wouldn't a dab of Loc-tite have solved it  ?

[PegLeg45]

Wouldn't a dab of Loc-tite have solved it  ?

Probably not...the part that won't stay locked in is a twist-lock bushing (sort of like locking lugs on a rifle) that the die screws into.
If I'm understanding the problem correctly, after so many cycles of the press, the bushing rotates out of its locked position.

[alfsauve]

If I'm understanding the problem correctly, after so many cycles of the press, the bushing rotates out of its locked position

Yes.

Wouldn't a dab of Loc-tite have solved it  ?

No, you want to be able to twist it and remove the measure.  That's the whole point to the LnL system.

[tombogan03884]

Forgot about that little detail.   

[Sponsor]

[Solus]

They need to make a lock-ring with a little clamping lever

Flip it down it grips, flip it up, it's loose.

[vincewarde]

Progressive presses are complicated things and most have some kind of buggy part.  My Lee Loadmaster works great - except for the priming mechanism which basically hardly works at all.  My solution, and that of many other Loadmaster users, is simply to prime off the press.  When I get home from the range I decap all my brass, clean and polish, then reprime.  When I have a few thousand empties I cast up some bullets and load a few thousand rounds.  So, realistically, I have a semi-progressive press
 

[tombogan03884]

Semi progressive ? Is that like the Boner and McConnell of reloading presses ?

[alfsauve]

So, realistically, I have a semi-progressive press

I do 9mm in two steps.  First run them through the press with just the resizing die so I can chamber check them.  Then run them through again to complete the process.

[blueeyephil]

I've thought of doing something like that myself. But I'd really it to come that way.

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