Lee Auto-Drum Powder Measure – The ExhaustNotes Blog

Installing Lee’s Auto-Drum Powder Measure

By Joe Berk

After mounting the Lee Classic Turret Press, the next step is to install the auto-drum powder measure on the expander die. This blog focuses on doing so. The auto-drum powder measure is a well-engineered device. As I installed and adjusted the Lee auto-drum, I was impressed with its design and build quality.

The Lee auto-drum powder measure in its carton. As always, the packaging and the included instructions are excellent.

The auto-drum powder measure includes the bottle, the bottle top, two adjustment keys, two quick change drums, the auto-drum tightening screw, and the body.

Lee auto-drum powder measure components.

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In addition to the above, Lee’s Classic Turret Press Kit includes a powder measure riser. It’s used to raise the auto-drum powder measure so it clears the safety primer feed when the turret rotates. We’ll cover installation of the Lee safety primer feed in the next blog.

Lee’s Powder Measure Riser as packaged from the factory.

Lee’s powder measure riser includes the body, the tube, and an o-ring.

The photo below shows the auto-drum body. It’s a die-cast part what includes the auto-drum (the black cylindrical subassembly inside the silver die casting). As the Lee turret press ram is raised, the cartridge case pushes a cylinder in the riser up. The upward movement of that cylinder actuates a lever (the black piece on the auto-drum, which rotates the drum). There’s a cavity in the drum that fills with powder when it is aligned with the bottle. When the drum rotates, the cavity holding powder rotates to align with the expander die, and a fixed amount of powder drops through the expander die into the brass cartridge case below. It’s a clever approach.

The central part of the auto-drum consists of three molded black plastic subassemblies. These are the screw subassembly, the cover, and the drum. You unscrew the screw (shown on the left in the photo below) and the drum can be removed from the auto-drum body.

Lee’s auto-drum body disassembled, showing from left to right the screw subassembly, the body, and the drum.

The drum is where the powder amount is defined. There’s a cavity shown by the red arrow in the photo below. The amount of powder the drum drops can be adjusted by making changes in the volume of this cavity.

A macro shot of the drum. The cavity indicated by the arrow is what determines the powder volume.

There’s a threaded adjustor in the drum that is 0pposite the cavity. The top of this threaded adjustor is the bottom of the drum’s cavity. Screwing it in reduces the powder volume; screwing it out increases the powder volume.

The screw indicated by the red arrow moves in or out to adjust powder volume.

Lee provides two hex keys for making the powder volume adjustments.

The auto-drum hex key used for adjusting powder volume.

The hex key inserted in the powder drum adjustment screw.

There’s a place in the drum body to store the key, or you can simply leave it in the threaded adjustor (which is what I do).

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I decided to use Accurate No. 5 propellant for my 9mm reloads. It’s one of several propellants listed in Lee’s Modern Reloading manual for use with the 124-grain plated bullet, and it’s a powder on I had on hand.

You go to war with the army you have. I had Accurate No. 5. I usually prefer Unique for 9mm, but I use that powder for other cartridges and I didn’t want to use it up. Accurate No. 5 seems to be in stock everywhere these days and I had some on hand, so it was my choice. As you’ll see in a later blog, that was a good move.

Lee’s Modern Reloading book (see our earlier review) had 9mm loads for a plated 124-grain bullet using Accurate No. 5.

I loaded two loads for my initial 9mm evaluations. One was with 5.2 grains of Accurate No. 5; the other was with 5.6 grains of Accurate No. 5.

The Lee safety powder scale, part of the classic turret press kit, adjusted to 5.2 grains.

After zeroing my Lee safety powder scale, I set it at 5.2 grains. I used the Lee dipper to add powder to the scale until the beam balanced. The Lee powder dipper (provided with the Lee 9mm dies) makes a good powder trickler.

Using the Lee dipper to add exactly 5.2 grains of Accurate No. 5 to the scale.

Once I had 5.2 grains of Accurate No. 5 in the Lee safety scale (indicated by the balance beam), I transferred that amount to the Lee drum.

Initially, the powder was well below the surface of the drum. The idea here is to use the auto-drum key to screw in the adjuster until the surface of the powder in the drum cavity is approximately flush with the surface of the drum. This is to get the drum adjustment close to the desired powder amount (in this case, 5.2 grains). This is a coarse adjustment. We’ll dial in the adjustment once the auto-drum is reassembled.

After pouring 5.2 grains of Accurate No. 5 in the auto drum powder cavity, I used the adjustment screw to bring the powder charger level with the drum surface.

After accomplishing the above, I poured the powder into the powder bottle and I reassembled the auto-drum into the auto-drum powder measure.

Next, I removed the fitting and its o-ring from the expander die.

The Lee powder through expander die. I removed the fitting indicated by the red arrow so I could install the auto-drum powder measure.

I kept the o-ring with the expander die fitting. The riser, which installs in the expander die, includes its own o-ring.

After removing the expander die fitting, I replaced it with the Lee auto-drum riser.

The riser is included in the Lee classic turret press kit.

The riser includes three pieces: The riser body, an o-ring, and the cylinder.

The riser installed in the expander die.

After installing the riser, I then threaded the auto-drum powder measure into the expander die as shown below.

The auto-drum powder measure screws into the riser above the expander die. The black thumbwheel tightens the auto-drum powder measure in the riser.

The auto-drum powder measure installed on the riser and the expander die. With each upward press stroke, the cartridge case pushed the riser cylinder up, which pushes the auto-drum’s lever, which rotates the drum and drops the powder through the die into the cartridge case. Clever, indeed.

The Lee auto-drum powder bottle and its cap are what hold the powder. The cap is a red molded plastic piece with an on-off valve at its base. The cap’s valve is closed after adding powder to the bottle or removing the bottle from the auto-drum powder measure. It is opened after the bottle is installed in the auto-drum powder measure. When closed, it prevents powder from spilling out of the bottle when the bottle is removed from the powder measure.

The auto-drum powder measure bottle cap and its open-close valve (the black drum at the cap’s base). The valve rotates to open or close.

After adding powder to the bottle, threading the bottle top onto the bottle, and closing the cap’s valve, we can invert the bottle and place it on top of the auto-drum powder measure. There’s a raised rib on the bottle cap valve and a groove in the auto-drum die casting to align the bottle with the auto-drum powder measure.

Accurate No. 5 powder in the auto-drum powder measure bottle.

The auto-drum powder measure bottle with its cap installed.

The auto-drum powder measure bottle cap valve has a raised rib that fits into the auto-drum body. This axially aligns the bottle with the body.

The body notch that accepts the bottle cap valve rib.

The auto-drum powder measure installed on the expander die. The arrows show where the bottle fits into the auto-drum body.

At this point, I placed an empty cartridge case (with a spent primer) in the shellholder and fully raised the ram to run the cartridge case into the expander die. This expanded the case mouth and actuated the auto-disk powder measure to dispense approximately 5.2 grains of Accurate No. 5 powder into the case. When I lowered the ram, I could see the case with powder in it. Note that I used a cartridge case with a spent primer only because I was setting up the auto-drum powder measure on the press. Ordinarily, in the normal operation of this press, the cartridge case would have a new primer in it.

A cartridge case that has been expanded and charged with powder.

Remember that my initial adjustment was a crude one, accomplished by screwing in the auto-drum adjustor to bring the powder level approximately level with the auto-drum’s surface. The next step is to dial in the auto-drum cavity adjustment such that the auto-drum dispenses exactly 5.2 grains of Accurate No. 5. To do this, I took the powder in the case (shown above), poured it into the Lee safety scale pan, and checked the weight on the safety scale.

Pouring the cartridge case contents into the Lee safety scale pan.

I found that I was a little bit under 5.2 grains of powder. I expected this, as I couldn’t get the auto-drum cavity completely full of powder for the coarse adjustment described above. I made an adjustment to increase the amount of powder dispensed by turning out (i.e., unscrewing) the auto-drum cavity adjustor by a quarter of a turn.

The initial charge was a bit light, as will typically be the case when dialing in the auto-drum powder measure. I increased the volume by turning the volume adjustment out with the hex key.

After an attempt or two at adjusting the auto-drum, I had the dispensed powder amount exactly where I wanted it: 5.2 grains.

I am impressed with the Lee auto-drum powder measure. I like the fact that it automatically dispenses powder with each stroke of the press handle if there is a cartridge case going into the expander die, and I like that it can be infinitely adjusted. Older designs used fixed (i.e., non-adjustable) cavities that dispensed fixed power amounts. The infinite adjustment feature of this powder dispensing device is a better approach. I also like that the cartridge case remains directly in front of you after the press is lowered (unlike a progressive reloader, in which the cartridge case may be on the other side of the press when it is charged). With the Lee classic turret press kit and its included auto-drum powder measure, you can see that each case has been charged with powder and that you have not inadvertently double-charged the case. And, if anything is not as it should be, you can easily remove the cartridge from the shellholder, correct the problem, and continue. On a progressive press, this is much more difficult to do.

This brings us to where I want to be in today’s blog. So far, our blogs described mounting the bench plate, installing the press, intalling and adjusting the first two dies (the resizing die and the expander die), and adjusting the Lee auto-drum powder measure to dispense precisely the amount of powder required. Tomorrow, we’re going to cover installing the Lee primer feed and making final adjustments to the bullet seating and factory crimp dies. Stay tuned.

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Here are links to our earlier blogs on Lee reloading equipment:

Lee Classic Turret Press Kit
Lee Bench Plate
Lee’s Modern Reloading Manual
Lee Safety Powder Scale
Lee Classic Turret Kit Unpacking
Lee .44 Magnum Dies 1
Lee .44 Magnum Dies 2
Lee .44 Magnum Dies 3
Lee .357 Magnum Dies

Lee Classic Turret Press Kit 1: Unpacking

By Joe Berk

We’re writing a series of blogs on the Lee Precision Classic Turret Press Kit, and this first one focuses on unpacking and taking an initial look at the kit. I think the YouTube kids call this a “reveal.” I’ll just call it unboxing and seeing what’s in the box. I thought I could do a single blog on the Classic Turret Press Kit, but there’s too much included in the kit and too much that’s new to me to handle in one blog. We’re going to instead do a series of blogs: One on each item that’s included with the kit, a blog on setting the press and dies up, a blog on reloading with the Lee equipment, and a blog on how the ammo reloaded with the Classic Turret Press Kit performs. There’s a lot here. You’ll get a feel for just how much in this initial blog on the Classic Turret Press Kit.

Here’s the picture on Lee’s website for the kit, which Lee advertises for $380.

The photo above shows everything set up, but the photo doesn’t do justice to the excitement associated with getting this kit, taking everything out of the box, and opening it. Nor does it convey what I expect to be the satisfaction I’ll experience with using the Lee equipment. That will be the subject of future blogs. Think of this first blog as Christmas morning. That’s what opening and unpacking the Lee kit felt like to me.

ExNotes blog readers will recall that good buddy Jose left a comment on one of our Lee Deluxe 4-die set blogs. Jose told us about his Lee turret press. He wrote a guest blog or two for us here on ExNotes and he is a Ruger No. 1 aficionado, which means he stands tall with me. After reading Jose’s comments, I had to check out the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit myself, and after poking around on Lee’s site a bit and seeing what the Lee kit included, I knew I wanted one. I specifically wanted to set it up for 9mm using Lee’s Deluxe 4-die set. I’ve been using older 9mm dies from various die makers, and my reloads would sometimes jam. With my old dies, the crimps were inconsistent, and I knew from my experience with Lee’s .357 and .44 Magnum Deluxe dies I wouldn’t have that problem with Lee equipment. I have the Lee Deluxe handgun die sets in 38 Special/357 Magnum, 44 Special/44 Magnum, .45 Colt, and .30 Carbine, and the ammo I reload with those dies is exceptional (better than anything I loaded with other manufacturers’ dies). I use Lee dies for several rifle cartridges, and I have more than a few other bits of Lee equipment. I’ve been pleased with all of it.

Lee advertises that their Classic Turret Press Kit includes everything needed to start making ammo, except for the dies and, of course, the components (brass, powder, primers, and bullets). I have plenty of components, and the thought of wringing out the Lee gear, writing about it, and testing the ammo in a couple of my favorite 9mm handguns checked all the boxes for me. This will be a fun project and I want to share the excitement with you.

I placed my order with Lee for the Classic Turret Press Kit, the Bench Plate Kit (something I saw on their website that appealed to me), and the 9mm dies. It all arrived a few days later, well packed in a single box. I was impressed with how fast it arrived (it shipped during the holiday season) and the packaging. The Lee folks have done this before; it’s first class customer service.

This is the right time of year to open a box full of goodies and examine the contents. I was a kid on Christmas morning. This was fun!

When I opened the outer container, I saw my 9mm Deluxe 4-die set and the Lee bench plate.

As I mentioned above, I’m a firm believer in Lee’s Deluxe dies. I can’t wait to put these to work making 9mm ammunition for my SIG P226 Scorpion and Springfield Armory 1911.

The idea behind the Lee Bench Plate is that it’s a quick detach/attach mount for a Lee press. It’s not included with the Classic Turret Press Kit (it’s priced at $39 on Lee’s website), but I like the idea of being able to quickly remove the press from my reloading bench. You’ll get a complete report on setting up and using the Bench Plate in a future ExNotes blog.

After unpacking the 9mm dies and the bench plate, I pulled out the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit. This was like one of those Russian dolls. I was peeling the onion and enjoying it.

When I opened the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit, I found the Lee Safety Primer Feed, a tube of Lee Resizing Lube, and the Lee Case Conditioning Kit.

The Lee Safety Primer Feed (shown in the two photos below) is a device I have not used before. I’ll explain how it works in a future blog. I have three other Lee priming devices and I’ve been using them for decades with no problems. The Lee Safety Primer Feed sells for $30.

Lee includes their Case Conditioning Kit (see the photo below) with the Classic Turret Press Kit. The Case Conditioning Kit consists of a primer pocket cleaner, a case cutter and locking stud, and a chamfer to bevel the case mouth after it has been trimmed. I have not used these tools from Lee before; it will be interesting to see how they perform. I have other equipment that performs these tasks, but I had to buy those items separately. With the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit, it’s all included. The Case Conditioning Kit lists for $12.98 on the Lee site.

I won’t need the Lee Resizing Lube shown below because my new Lee 9mm dies include a carbide resizer (which negates the need for case lubrication). Not having to lube the cases is a good thing. On rifle cases, though, lube is necessary, so I’ll put the lube to good use on those. The price for Lee’s Resizing Lube is $5.98.

The Lee Classic Turret Press Kit includes Lee’s Modern Reloading manual (a sizeable book, comparable to the manuals from Hornady, Speer, Sierra, and other reloading component companies), and a Hodgdon reloading pamphlet. I’m looking forward to reviewing the Lee manual. I’ve been reloading a long time, but I still learn something new every time I pick up a reloading manual. If you were to buy the Lee Modern Reloading manual separately, it sells for $40.98. Lee also includes the Hodgdon Data Manual with the Classic Turret Press Kit. I’ve seen the pamphlets from Hodgdon before; I’ll take a look at this one and share my impressions in a subsequent blog.

Next out of the box was Lee’s Auto-Drum Powder Measure. I’ve used an older Lee version of this device. I’m not familiar with how the new one works, but I’m looking forward to finding out. The Auto-Drum Powder Measure is infinitely adjustable. That’s a good thing. The older version used a charging plate with discrete increments; infinite adjustment is a much better way to go. The Auto-Drum Powder Measure automatically charges the case with with each stroke of the press. If purchased separately, the Auto-Drum Powder Measure sells for $55.00.

Lee includes a Powder Measure Riser in the Classic Turret Press Kit (see the photo below). This is used with the Auto-Drum Powder Measure to position the powder dispenser above the priming mechanism (it allows adequate clearance). The Powder Measure Riser sells for $9.98 on the Lee site.

There’s a balance beam scale (the Lee Safety Powder Scale) in the Classic Turret Kit. This is a standard reloading scale. The Safety Powder Scale is $46.98 on the Lee site. You might wonder: Why use a simple mechanical scale when there are digital scales and digital powder dispensers? The reasons are simplicity, reliability, and cost. I have friends that use digital scales, and they report inaccuracies induced by nearby metal objects (have any of those on your reloading bench?), slow operation, and of course, much greater expense. For me a simple balance beam scale works best; it’s what I’ve been using for 50 years. The Lee Safety Powder Scale is new to me, and I’ll report how it works.

At this point, I had one more box to open, and it contained the Classic Turret Press. Lee lists the Classic Turret Press at $220. Like everything else in the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit, the Classic Turret Press was well packaged.

The Classic Turret Press is massive. It’s beefy, it’s heavy, and it looks to be well built. What you see below is the press, along with the operating handle, a spent primer catch tube (a nice touch), the four position turret head, and the hardware required to assemble it.

So there you have it: The Lee Classic Turret Press Kit. You might have noticed that I listed the cost for each item above separately, along with a link to the appropriate Lee page. I thought it would be interesting to sum the prices and compare the total to Lee’s Classic Turret Press Kit price:

At Lee’s price of $380 for the Classic Turret Press Kit, it’s a good deal compared to buying the items separately. But Lee goes a step further. They recognize that retailers often sell the individual items and the Classic Turret Press Kit at lower prices, and Lee states on their site that you can find lower prices by visiting a Lee retailer. One of the best places to find lower prices is Amazon. I encourage you to explore Lee’s website, and to take a look at Lee gear on Amazon.

This project is going to be fun, folks. Keep an eye on the ExhaustNotes blog as we put the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit through its paces.

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There are many more shooting and reloading stories on Tales of the Gun. Hope on over and take a look.

In the spirit of complete disclosure: Lee liked our blogs on the .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum Deluxe 4-die sets and they asked us to similarly review the Classic Turret Press Kit. Lee provided the kit to us at no charge. But rest assured: That won’t color our judgment or what we report. You will get the complete story, warts and all.