Lee Auto Disk Measure Vs Lee Scale?

radmacks

radmacks

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I have a digital scale on its way but until then. My Lee scale is balanced to zero properly white showing in the 9 and 1. When I drop charges with the Lee Auto disk and double check them with the scale there all under like a lot under. Tried Win231 and Unique.

Does anybody have any experience with the Auto disk? I guess under is better then over. But now i'm a little loss on what my charges might actually be. I know the vmd changes batch to batch and thats probably what i'm experiencing. Just thought I would throw it out there and see what everyone thinks.
 
I was going to order the adjustable charge bar but it was and still is out of stock. One is in my near future. I made a couple one up to try the out. I weighed them and they were under the max so I should be okay.
 
Throw the chart in the garbage.
Just pick a hole size and weigh the charge. You can move up or down a hole size based on your needs. Down side is usually the hole sizes are .3gn difference between them
 
What's the problem? You only get a very few combinations between min and max for a given cartridge and powder. Try them and shoot them then pick one.

The adjustable charge bar is useful. Also consider the new Lee Autodrum which I have found to be very precise and consistent.
 
The chart is just a guide. Not meant to be gospel. Mine have always been lower.

You can expect to get variations in density from batch to batch of powder, even if at one point the chart Lee sent is equivalent, so always weigh.
 
I had the perfect powder measure and I found it suffered from the same problem it was always under. I guess I'll have to figure out which disk is actually 4.2 and 4.4
 
Kryogen said:
Is the. Ew autodrum better than their perfect powder measure?
Click to expand...

I have not had the need or opportunity to compare and contrast them. For my uses of progressive loading using the loadmaster, the autodrum is much better suited for the range of use (pistol calibers and .223). For single stage press reloading of rifle cartridges, I'm not convinced it would hold an advantage over the perfect.

For volume reloading of plinking rifle rounds I would not hesitate to set the autodrum up on a stand.
 
redruns - What powders are you using in your Lee Auto-drum for 223 reloading and what kind of load-to-load variances are you seeing?

I've been trying to get my turret to load 223 in auto indexing mode and I've had difficulty getting consistent powder drops with the Lee disc kit. I was thinking of the Auto-drum but wondered if it was any better. I think the movement of the turret head causes issues with powder packing leading to inconsistent drops. The small 0.1 grain variations are tolerable in 4 grain pistol loads but these seem to grow to +/- variations of up to 1 grain, even with CFE 223 - a fine ball powder.
 
Pr589 said:
redruns - What powders are you using in your Lee Auto-drum for 223 reloading and what kind of load-to-load variances are you seeing?

I've been trying to get my turret to load 223 in auto indexing mode and I've had difficulty getting consistent powder drops with the Lee disc kit. I was thinking of the Auto-drum but wondered if it was any better. I think the movement of the turret head causes issues with powder packing leading to inconsistent drops. The small 0.1 grain variations are tolerable in 4 grain pistol loads but these seem to grow to +/- variations of up to 1 grain, even with CFE 223 - a fine ball powder.
Click to expand...

CFE 223 and H-335 both ball powders so they work really well in anything. As for variance, I have found it insignificant. 10 charge weights come out bang on, and individual charges can fluctuate by no more than a .2 on my scale (FA digital cheapo). I have found that if there is a weight variance, it is more likely that there is power stuck to some lube in the case. For pistol loads the autodisk could easily fluctuate by .1 grain/4.5 gr W-231 charge depending on how consistently I shook the machine. The charge bar let me adjust the dispense more precisely, but the accuracy was unchanged.

I bought the Autordrum for space savings and the versatility to to handle ball, stick, flake and semi spherical powders. I will be trying IMR 4064 and 3031 with it soon. The internet reports fine results and I am expecting it to throw consistent charges of harder to meter stick powders.

Because of the way the charge is dropped and then the powder chamber filled as soon as the case is removed from the powder charge die, I would expect better results with a turret press and much less potential for increasing the charge by jostling the press or advancing the turret.

At the price point it could be worth a try for you. Purchase a riser to extra elevate the powder measure above the charge die.

EDIT:
When I think about this a bit more, the autodisk also fills the charge hole before advancing the turret. Maybe it won't make an improvement.
 
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Thanks redruns. I think an auto drum is likely worth an experiment. I found a number of YouTube videos and forum posts where folks are claiming +/- 0.5 grain, extreme variance using the auto drum on a turret press.

in your case, using the auto drum with 4064 and 3031, please let us know how it goes. I've had great experience with the perfect powder measure (+/- 0.2 grains) with Varget when used as a bench-mounted measure but had terrible results with 3031.
 
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