Lee Perfect Powder Measure

[chkunz]

I have noticed a lot of favorable reviews for this powder measure and the reviews normally say that this is a very impressive measure for the money. It is recognized as being cheesy but it reportedly works surprisingly well and is reported to be very impressive with stick powders. I happened to see one on the shelf yesterday and for $24 I could not resist buying it to see for myself. I have looked it over and it is a typical Lee product, they give you a lot for your money including innovation. It has some great design features like the way that you can shut off the powder flow and remove and empty the hopper. It even has a micrometer adjustment for volume in cubic centimeters with a table that relates to many powders that allows you to get close to a starting point on your setting. It also comes with a "stand" that is very austere but works, other measures charge more for a stand than the Lee measure total cost. I set it up for 41 grains of IMR 4895 and threw ten charges with a ES of ~0.2 grains. Not a statistically significant sample but enough to tell me that the design definitely reduces the variation in charge weight over more expensive measures (I have five in my reloading room including the Harrel's). For the price it does not have to beat anyone, just equal to be competitive. I am not sure if this measure will work its way into my reloading operation or if I will give it to a new shooter down the road. I could leave it set it up for 41.0 grains of 4895 and use it for half of my reloads and not have to make any adjustments. If you are helping a new shooter who is on a budget get into reloading, this is the powder measure to recommend. If you have $24 to blow, buy one and play with it, then pass it on, you will get your moneys worth.

 

[michaelnel]

I sure agree. I have bought many measures including a ~ $275 Harrell's, and the cheap little Lee PPM works as well or better than any of them, especially with stick powders. A heck of a value for $24!

 

[jonbearman]

They(lee) came out with a version with a cast steel body and beefier looking at a retail that is very affordable and has all the attributes of the 24.00 unit.

 

[cjmac]

With ball of flake powder it will leak like hell !

 

[cjmac]

I use a hornady measure. About 70$

 

[s4s4u]

ES of ~0.2 grains

Two tenths of a grain seems a bit excessive to me. My 55's will drop most powders within a half of a tenth or less.

 

[dieselmudder]

mine came with my Lee challenger kit. it does work well for extruded powders, and leaks a small amount with small flake pistol powder, such as power pistol. seems to handle larger flake like Unique just fine. but its true downfall is small spherical. after about 5 throws of H335 its like trying to crank a screw type jack. i plan to visit the LGS tomorrow to pick up a Hornady LNL measure, but i will keep the PPM on the bench as well.

 

[savagedasher]

With ball of flake powder it will leak like hell !

Oh yes Larry

 

[rain164845]

With a tension adjustment off the Philips head on the side, it won't leak anymore, but it isn't nearly as smooth.

 

[michaelnel]

My 55's will drop most powders within a half of a tenth or less.

I don't believe you.

 

[chkunz]

My 55's will drop most powders within a half of a tenth or less.

I don't believe you.

I agree, the Lyman 55 was my first powder measure that I bought in 1965 and it nor my Harrels or any of my powder measures will do that.

 

[chkunz]

I use a hornady measure. About 70$

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. What is you point?

 

[chkunz]

With ball of flake powder it will leak like hell !

The instruction that came with the measure talks about this and there is an adjustment but I did not check out that feature, only the use of stick powder which was favorable.

 

[dieselmudder]

With ball of flake powder it will leak like hell !

The instruction that came with the measure talks about this and there is an adjustment but I did not check out that feature, only the use of stick powder which was favorable.

ive played with the adjustment. its only a few degrees of a turn of the screw to go from smooth to tight. i ran about half of a hopper of powdered graphite through before i ever threw the first charge. and after about the first 150 rounds, (so probably 250-300 throws) took it apart and cleaned it, then reassembled and ran the powdered graphite again. the rotor fits into the body like a cone, which gives the tension adjustment, and the body has a rubber strip like a squeege the the rotor passes over after filling the measure. which is probably why it does so well with extruded powder. but i beleive this rubber strip also causes the body to be out of round to the rotor, which is why it doesnt play well with small powders.

 

[s4s4u]

My 55's will drop most powders within a half of a tenth or less.

I don't believe you.

Lie, I do not. You are welcome to come watch.

I should clarify, most of the powders that I have tried will perform quite well. Some powders won't pour worth a hoot through any measure.

 

[chkunz]

My 55's will drop most powders within a half of a tenth or less.

I don't believe you.

Lie, I do not. You are welcome to come watch.

I should clarify, most of the powders that I have tried will perform quite well. Some powders won't pour worth a hoot through any measure.

First let me say that I accept your report as honest but I am wondering why your results are so much different than the experience of others. I can get ball powders like 2520 near what you report for several throws but occasionally there is an outlier probably due to the inconsistency in my throwing technique for that charge. When I average in the outliers I am probably closer to a tenth variation than your half a tenth. This is absolutely my best case. I will say that the Lyman 55 is an excellent measure and if you adjust the cavity for the optimum shape for the powder and charge you are throwing plus use a consistent operation it will do better than most measures in its price range. I was reporting on the Lee PPM and I gave it a stick powder as a test and my point was that for $24 it did as well as the Harrels with stick powder plus some other nice features. I did not try a 2520 type ball powder in the Lee PPM. Maybe I will do that and report back on my findings. Take care.

 

[s4s4u]

stick powder

I have not tried 4895, but will agree on stick powder. I do use Varget and have to throw low and trickle up. That is the only stick powder I will use, mainly because of its versatility. Most of my reloading is done with H110, lil gun, titegroup, true blue, etc. All of which measure well.

Perhaps it is "all in the wrist" as they say ;-)

 

[chkunz]

I ran the test with ball powder and also discovered a significant error in my previous number that I quoted for the stick powder so let me start over. For the stick powder I got an ES of 1.15 grains with a standard deviation of 0.34 grains and with ball powder I got and ES of 0.15 grains with a standard deviation of 0.044 grains. I have never paid much attention to this before since I throw a low charge and trickle up. The only advantage of the lower extreme spread for this procedure is less trickling. Anyway the Lee PPM appears to work as well as my more expensive measures and has a couple of nice innovative features and I would still recommend it to a new shooter on a budget. I think it will serve him well and he will still find a use for this measure when he later has five powder measures like I do.

P.S. I only did ten data points with each powder, more data points would not reduce the ES for the stick powder but might reduce the standard deviation.

 

[s4s4u]

If 4895 meters like Varget I understand the SD there. With the small stuff my 5-10 stays right in or near the white, but with Varget it can go completely off the black. Wonder which is worse. Not trying to disparage the Lee measure, in fact I have a bud who has one on an older 1000 that works fine. It looks like 4895 runs pretty near Varget on the clock so I might have to check it out if I can't find the usual. They have 4895 at the local, but haven't seen Varget for some time.

P.S. If you give the handle of a 55 a little jiggle on the downstroke as you go through the "cut zone" it will improve your drop consistancy. If you just ram it down some kernels get can cut and then pop other kernels out of the chute. Once you get the timing down it doesn't really take much longer.

 

[Ghansen]

I just threw 25 loads @ 28.3grn of VV N133 and except for those that didn't feel right anyway (about 3), they were all within a few granules +/- or ON the mark according to my 5-0-5 scale. Not bad!