Lee autodrum powder dispenser sticking

[ras_oscar]

About 2 months ago I was loading 45 ACP with 800X and the drum started sticking in the dispense position. I tried loosening the drum so much that the powder started leaking. I had to lightly tap the charge body with a hammer to get it to release. I finally contacted Lee and they sent me a replacement dispenser body. After a couple months I went to the reloading bench to resume my efforts and after a half dozen test charges the same problem came back. Any ideas? I have reloaded several thousand rounds using of this powder in the past.

 

[Growler215]

My guess is that your issue may not be with the "dispenser" body. The Lee Auto Drum has an extremely strong return spring. Just try pushing it to the dispense position when not installed on the bench by pushing up on the actuation tube and you'll see what I mean. Hella stiff spring.

So my guess is that you might be getting binding in the sleeve that rides up and down in either your flaring die or an optional riser if you have one installed between your flaring die and the powder measure.

How old is your Auto Drum? I know the first gen ones had some stupid button that had to be manually pressed after each throw to enable it to cycle again, supposedly as a safety feature. They got rid of this on the newer version.

 

[ras_oscar]

I started with the autodisk and switched when the autodrum came out.

 

[guzma393]

I had a lee autodrum do the same thing. I suspect it has something to do with the plastic parts that link the charging lever to the drum. Since powder drops are critical in reloading, I opted to just buy another lee auto drum and move on, and compare them side by side hoping to diagnose the old one.

One thing I noticed was there was a considerable amount of play between the old drum vs the new drum when twisting the drum by hand. I found out that the plastic linkage arm was worn, and caused the drum to not reset properly (did not like to swing all the way up) and looked like it wanted to walk out of the charging lever. I alleviated this by putting a plastic shim to remove the play and a screw to prevent the linkage arm from walking out. All seemed well, but I find myself not trusting the old auto drum for full progressive loading and opted to just reserve it for single stage loading only.

 

[ras_oscar]

Did you ever investigate replacing the connecting rod? I recently purchased a replacement powder drop as well. I'll be a bit sad if it's as simple as replacing the connecting rod, since I returned the powder drop to Lee in the stuck position, and they simply unstuck it and returned it to me. It charged exactly 4 cases before sticking again. I took it apart and manage to get it unstuck, but reliability is worth more to me than the $40. I was thinking the gear sector might be sticking and bought a tube of dry graphite to lube the pivot socket. When I took it apart in the stuck position, the drive hub came out easily so that isn't the problem

 

[guzma393]

Did you ever investigate replacing the connecting rod? I recently purchased a replacement powder drop as well. I'll be a bit sad if it's as simple as replacing the connecting rod, since I returned the powder drop to Lee in the stuck position, and they simply unstuck it and returned it to me. It charged exactly 4 cases before sticking again. I took it apart and manage to get it unstuck, but reliability is worth more to me than the $40. I was thinking the gear sector might be sticking and bought a tube of dry graphite to lube the pivot socket. When I took it apart in the stuck position, the drive hub came out easily so that isn't the problem

So, funnily enough, I had an incident where my old one started sticking again but for the weirdest reason. First reason was the connecting rod wearing out to the point where it wasn't resetting properly (which I did not replace, but serviced it with a shim made out of a ziptie), and second and most recent reason was that the bottom "arms" of the autodrum chassis that retain the mounting nut started to stretch out more than usual to the point where the autodrum was tilting along the charge die and throwing something out of alignment when in the "throw/compressed" position, seizing the drum and getting stuck in throw position. Upon closer inspection, the bottom arms of the dispenser body that holds the mounting nut that screws on the charging die were stretched out and even showed signs of wear in comparison to a newer auto drum I had at hand. I took off the mounting nut and charging sleeve and squeezed the arms back together to spec using a bench vice and that seemed to have done the trick.

I suppose a replacement dispenser body would be the complete fix, but I think there's only so much you can do to these until 1 or a combination of things start wearing out, and you start questioning its reliability. I will either be scrapping and replacing it the next time I run into another incident or keep updating this post, haha.

 

[bigjohn]

What type of powder? Is there any static in the container?

 

[ras_oscar]

IMR 800X there eas no signs of static on the powder dispenser