Thought I'd start a " living with the Pro1000 " thread.
For the price it's not a bad press but to work well they need a lot of tweeks to run right IMO. Lee should have done most of them but I'll give them some credit, they did upgrade the retention of the primer lid. They have a lot of good info on their website but left things like these out.
I hope this info will help new owners avoid many frustrating nights and if anyone else has any tips please feel free to add.
First, when setting up your press use a sturdy bench, what about 75% of people think is sturdy - isn't.
Second, Never assume the factory adjusted or tightened anything on this product - they didn't.
This is my current 1000 - in .40S&W.
These are items that I would consider esential, to Lee you don't need one and the other is an option. Dillon lube works great and dramatically lowers the effort needed to run the machine, it's cheap and lasts a long time. The case funnel is also cheap and speeds things up big time.
Primer issues are one of the bigest headaches with the Lee product, you can do two simple things to eliminate these problems. One, never run low on primers. As soon as the tray is empty refill it, it will not work with only 10 or 15 primers in the feed tube. Second, The notches Lee puts in the upright do not aggetate the primer tray enough. To solve this I wrapped .045" wire in each groove ( tried orings and thicker wire - this works best IMO)
The next problem depends on your caliber, I had a 45acp press that did not have this PITA. The bullet feeder ( in 40 anyway) spits cases all over the place no matter how you adjust it. It appears Lee only makes one sized feeder and at the end of the day the hole is too big. I solved 95% of feeding issues by epoxying a piece of copper tubing into the feeder and then reaming it to size. This has worked great but if a case was squished bad it won't feed through ( rarely happens).
Another recent problem I encountered was getting random high primers. This is what I found was causing it and how to correct it. Spent primers can collect under the press and if gone unchecked can keep the carriage from going all the way down. Also if the tail of the chain is too long it can get up under the press and cause the same problems. The solve; clean away the primers under the unit and keep a short tail.
The wrong way;
The right way;
Another thing that bothered me was how the plate that holds the dies was allowed to float a bit in the unit. To me this was unaceptable, so I fixed that too. I replaced the bolts that hold the press together with studs ( you need one longer than the other two) and tightened down a nut on each. This let a good portion of stud still useable so I bent some fender washers and three more nuts to exert pressure on the die plate, Nothing moves now and the press seems to run better.
Another simple hint, he bullet seat die isn't a vernier style, so what. If your changing your case OAL ( Assuming you know where it was) just use the tail end of your calipers to tell you how far you need to adjust. You may be suprised at how well this works
One other item that I came across was the adjustable charge bar. For larger loads it works great but for smaller loads/ fine ( dense) powder charges not so much. With smaller loads the cavity becomes eliptical in shape and doesn't expose itself that well to the powder measure. The discs work far better for this as the are always centered under the powder measure. IMO if your after a weight between two discs just ream one out untill you get what you need.
And lastly for me is don't forget to lubricate the ram, linkage pins and spindle. Use some cardboard or paper to eliminate overspray, I have found a product called "Lube-it" works great.
For the price it's not a bad press but to work well they need a lot of tweeks to run right IMO. Lee should have done most of them but I'll give them some credit, they did upgrade the retention of the primer lid. They have a lot of good info on their website but left things like these out.
I hope this info will help new owners avoid many frustrating nights and if anyone else has any tips please feel free to add.
First, when setting up your press use a sturdy bench, what about 75% of people think is sturdy - isn't.
Second, Never assume the factory adjusted or tightened anything on this product - they didn't.
This is my current 1000 - in .40S&W.
These are items that I would consider esential, to Lee you don't need one and the other is an option. Dillon lube works great and dramatically lowers the effort needed to run the machine, it's cheap and lasts a long time. The case funnel is also cheap and speeds things up big time.
Primer issues are one of the bigest headaches with the Lee product, you can do two simple things to eliminate these problems. One, never run low on primers. As soon as the tray is empty refill it, it will not work with only 10 or 15 primers in the feed tube. Second, The notches Lee puts in the upright do not aggetate the primer tray enough. To solve this I wrapped .045" wire in each groove ( tried orings and thicker wire - this works best IMO)
The next problem depends on your caliber, I had a 45acp press that did not have this PITA. The bullet feeder ( in 40 anyway) spits cases all over the place no matter how you adjust it. It appears Lee only makes one sized feeder and at the end of the day the hole is too big. I solved 95% of feeding issues by epoxying a piece of copper tubing into the feeder and then reaming it to size. This has worked great but if a case was squished bad it won't feed through ( rarely happens).
Another recent problem I encountered was getting random high primers. This is what I found was causing it and how to correct it. Spent primers can collect under the press and if gone unchecked can keep the carriage from going all the way down. Also if the tail of the chain is too long it can get up under the press and cause the same problems. The solve; clean away the primers under the unit and keep a short tail.
The wrong way;
The right way;
Another thing that bothered me was how the plate that holds the dies was allowed to float a bit in the unit. To me this was unaceptable, so I fixed that too. I replaced the bolts that hold the press together with studs ( you need one longer than the other two) and tightened down a nut on each. This let a good portion of stud still useable so I bent some fender washers and three more nuts to exert pressure on the die plate, Nothing moves now and the press seems to run better.
Another simple hint, he bullet seat die isn't a vernier style, so what. If your changing your case OAL ( Assuming you know where it was) just use the tail end of your calipers to tell you how far you need to adjust. You may be suprised at how well this works
One other item that I came across was the adjustable charge bar. For larger loads it works great but for smaller loads/ fine ( dense) powder charges not so much. With smaller loads the cavity becomes eliptical in shape and doesn't expose itself that well to the powder measure. The discs work far better for this as the are always centered under the powder measure. IMO if your after a weight between two discs just ream one out untill you get what you need.
And lastly for me is don't forget to lubricate the ram, linkage pins and spindle. Use some cardboard or paper to eliminate overspray, I have found a product called "Lube-it" works great.
