Lee powder disk measure throwing light

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RTF2

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Hey everyone, I'm putting together my lee turret press tonight, put together a few dummy rounds to try and play around with the dies a little. Then I started playing with the powder, and ran into some issues. The first load I threw was 4.2, (I had the disk set up to throw 4.4, the starting load for .40) then every single load I threw after that was consistently 3.9-4.0. I took it all apart & cleaned it, wiped it out, tried again, first one I threw was 4.4 this time.. Dead on! Then I tried it again, right back down to 3.9-4.0 every time! I'm using titegroup which is supposedly able to flow really well, what's going on? I think the powder is holding up in the white rubber thing at the bottom of the measure that drops the powder. How can I keep the powder from holding up there? Does anyone else ever have this problem? The weather here this evening is quite humid, we're having heavy rain and thunder. Will this effect it? Throwing half a grain off seems like a hell of a lot to me!

Thanks a lot,
Trevor
 
RTF2 said:
Hey everyone, I'm putting together my lee turret press tonight, put together a few dummy rounds to try and play around with the dies a little. Then I started playing with the powder, and ran into some issues. The first load I threw was 4.2, (I had the disk set up to throw 4.4, the starting load for .40) then every single load I threw after that was consistently 3.9-4.0. I took it all apart & cleaned it, wiped it out, tried again, first one I threw was 4.4 this time.. Dead on! Then I tried it again, right back down to 3.9-4.0 every time! I'm using titegroup which is supposedly able to flow really well, what's going on? I think the powder is holding up in the white rubber thing at the bottom of the measure that drops the powder. How can I keep the powder from holding up there? Does anyone else ever have this problem? The weather here this evening is quite humid, we're having heavy rain and thunder. Will this effect it? Throwing half a grain off seems like a hell of a lot to me!

Thanks a lot,
Trevor
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I always throw 5 or 6 powder charges into a scrap case to let the powder 'settle in' before starting to charge my cases for real. Unfortunately Lee doesn't make a powder baffle for their Autodisk powder throwers which I think would help with charge weight consistency. I don't think higher humidity will affect the weights very much. A greater problem is low humidity which can allow static charge buildup in plastic reservoir powder throwers.
 
ted_dent said:
I always throw 5 or 6 powder charges into a scrap case to let the powder 'settle in' before starting to charge my cases for real. Unfortunately Lee doesn't make a powder baffle for their Autodisk powder throwers which I think would help with charge weight consistency.
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Do you ever have to go the next disk size up? I'm not liking the idea of not being able to trust my powder measures. I'm going to have to weigh each charge I think. I wonder if the gun would even cycle at 4.0 grains? I would imagine that it would.
 
Auto disk seems to always throws a little light than what's said in the manual.
Your .40 will cycle at 4Grs I run 3.3Grs of titegroup in my .40s
The case is fine to use.

Wiping stuff down with dyer sheets helps with static, also blasting some of the metal internal parts with static guard will help also.
 
Get an adjustable charge bar. Throw the first charge back in the hopper and tap the case a bunch to get all the powder out. As for using with the expanding die, you can run the case up into it as much as you like. Unless you adjust it then it isn't going to expand any more. If you have the regular auto disk, consider the pro update kit. The pro uses brass thumbscrews for the hopper, a viton wiper to reduce leakage and comes with the charge bar. I was ready to throw my auto disk out thanks to the cracked threads in the hopper and the leakage problems. I'd had the charge bar for a while and I don't use the disks anymore.
 
zuke said:
Is it a brand new measure?
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Yep brand new. And I'll try with just the 4.0 grains first, I'll work it up little by little and load 10 of each!

Also, how particular do I need to be with the COL? on the load data it says 1.130 but I'm getting inconsistent lengths. (1.125,1.128, 1.132, etc. ) I'm using cabelas calibers, they were only $50 so I don't expect them to be 100%, but how particular should I be with this?
 
Nothing has really changed in 30 years. :)

Lee auto-disc always throw light on everything I ever used them for. Use Lee's table as a guide only. Generally it has been my experience that I need to go up one disc size from what Lee says to gert the charge I want, esp in the smaller disc sizes.
 
RTF2 said:
Yep brand new. And I'll try with just the 4.0 grains first, I'll work it up little by little and load 10 of each!

Also, how particular do I need to be with the COL? on the load data it says 1.130 but I'm getting inconsistent lengths. (1.125,1.128, 1.132, etc. ) I'm using cabelas calibers, they were only $50 so I don't expect them to be 100%, but how particular should I be with this?
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Considering the light load, I wouldn't get too excited about the length being off by a few thou. Rather than the caliper being off, I would suspect that the variation is caused by differences in the ogive of the bullet that you're using and thus how it meets your seating die. I doubt you'd even notice the difference.
As the loads get hotter, I get fussier and will pretty much build each round one at a time. But for lower power range or plinking loads, I set up, verify the charge weight and length and then go to town.
 
I find my throws light too all the time. I think they lawyered it up to keep us safe. I have been moving up to 0.46 to get 4.6 grains of win 231 and .043 to get 4.3 grains which should have been .040 according to the chart and my math.
 
The
jethunter said:
Nothing has really changed in 30 years. :)

Lee auto-disc always throw light on everything I ever used them for. Use Lee's table as a guide only. Generally it has been my experience that I need to go up one disc size from what Lee says to gert the charge I want, esp in the smaller disc sizes.
Click to expand...

When I'm loading .40, is it a big deal is my COL is supposed to be 1.130, but is coming out of the dies anywhere from 1.128 to 1.132, is this asking for catastrophic failure? I've got 10 rounds reloaded and they're not all dead on 1.130.
 
Naw - the seating dies isn't pushing on the end of the bullet - where you are measuring, so it may actually be more consistent in seating than you are able to measure when you trust the end of the bullet.
 
RTF2 said:
The

When I'm loading .40, is it a big deal is my COL is supposed to be 1.130, but is coming out of the dies anywhere from 1.128 to 1.132, is this asking for catastrophic failure? I've got 10 rounds reloaded and they're not all dead on 1.130.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's an issue with a light-ish powder charge.
 
I found that on my turret press, the movement of the turret rotation was enough to agitate the powder and create a consistent throw. I do find also that you need to use the next larger hole size to get your desired charge weight
 
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