After a good "Quarter Century" my old Lee hand priming tool gave up. It was a good old tool and served me well over the years.
I decided to replace it with another Lee. Of course it was a "New and Improved" model. I do like the new square tray over the old round one but don't care for the "elevator" they felt was necessary.
That aside, I suddenly found that I was experiencing more misfires than I ever experienced in my entire shooting life. 6 in one day. The primer strikes were a little wimpy. I then measured the depth that they had been seated. I admit that I haven't paid a lot of attention over the years, just squeeze until you feel the primer seat and don't crush. Well apparently this new tool either has a longer ram or more mechanical advantage because I found all the failed primers to be seated at least .010" deep.
I tried a few new cases and found it to be hard to "feel" the correct depth with the new tool so I started looking it over.
A "lightbulb appeared over my head". I'll add a stop to the lever that keeps the primer from going too deep. I did some measuring and looked for a logical place to place such a limiting device and settled on the inside of the tip of the handle. It would then be stopped by the boss that holds the "elevator" for the primers leaving the tray. Now what to use for a stop.
In searching around I found that the head of a square head set screw had the proper dimensions (3/8" square). Just sawed it off the threaded portion and then J-B Welded it to the inside of the tip of the handle.
When the J-B Weld cured I tested the seating of some primers. Every one measured exactly .005" from the case head. My plan was to grind off some metal if needed with a dremel tool but no adjustment was needed in this case.
A "Two Bit Fix" for a cheap priming tool. Just shows that one should always keep some J-B Weld around. This "job" didn't take any more than a match head size glob of the stuff.
I decided to replace it with another Lee. Of course it was a "New and Improved" model. I do like the new square tray over the old round one but don't care for the "elevator" they felt was necessary.
That aside, I suddenly found that I was experiencing more misfires than I ever experienced in my entire shooting life. 6 in one day. The primer strikes were a little wimpy. I then measured the depth that they had been seated. I admit that I haven't paid a lot of attention over the years, just squeeze until you feel the primer seat and don't crush. Well apparently this new tool either has a longer ram or more mechanical advantage because I found all the failed primers to be seated at least .010" deep.
I tried a few new cases and found it to be hard to "feel" the correct depth with the new tool so I started looking it over.
A "lightbulb appeared over my head". I'll add a stop to the lever that keeps the primer from going too deep. I did some measuring and looked for a logical place to place such a limiting device and settled on the inside of the tip of the handle. It would then be stopped by the boss that holds the "elevator" for the primers leaving the tray. Now what to use for a stop.
In searching around I found that the head of a square head set screw had the proper dimensions (3/8" square). Just sawed it off the threaded portion and then J-B Welded it to the inside of the tip of the handle.
When the J-B Weld cured I tested the seating of some primers. Every one measured exactly .005" from the case head. My plan was to grind off some metal if needed with a dremel tool but no adjustment was needed in this case.
A "Two Bit Fix" for a cheap priming tool. Just shows that one should always keep some J-B Weld around. This "job" didn't take any more than a match head size glob of the stuff.
