Thread: God Bless the "El Cheapo" Lee powder thrower

I don't understand why some have so much hate for Lee, all my reloading gear is Lee and works well, admittedly there's no way the hand press can handle full length resizing but as all my brass has been through my 243 neck sizing is more than sufficient and I've got access to an RCBS for full length sizing for any once fired brass I've acquired from others.
As for powder, the Lee powder scoops have been just as accurate as using a powder thrower, I just have to recalibrate between different batches of powder. Max variance has been .3 of a grain.

Lee gear is fine, with a few exceptions. Their balance beam scales are notoriously bad. Everything else works. Dies are fine, particularly the collet die, and turret presses are the business.

Their powder droppers work, but im glad I ended up upgrading

The balance beam scale is vastly improved by placing a couple of cheap, old 20c coin size, rare earth magnets from Mitre10 etc on the chassis other side of the pointer. The poise take a bit of figuring out and dont suit gnarly fingers too much but the scales are very accurate..i reserve mine for loading at the range. Nothing wrong with them for a beginner and $65 vs a couple of hundred and they will still last a lifetime. Horses for courses and the wallet dictates.

@woods223
Here you go mate, I have a replacement here for you. No charge just pm me your address.
I agree LEE makes some good kit. Had this for many moons but don't use one anymore as I tend to get it done with a 3 way trimmer these days.

Originally Posted by johnd

@woods223
Here you go mate, I have a replacement here for you. No charge just pm me your address.
I agree LEE makes some good kit. Had this for many moons but don't use one anymore as I tend to get it done with a 3 way trimmer these days.

Attachment 289960

Borrowed a real old one of these from a mate. Was impressed with the cutting quality so bought one for myself, even though I've got K&M and CH ones. Mine was shit. Disappointing.
Otherwise I am a happy owner of quite a bit of Lee gear. Collet dies, case trimmers, crimping dies, 12g shotgun whack-a-mole.
The good thing is Lee stuff is generally available here but in times of shortage here I have purcheased off Titan Reloading.
I would rate Lee above Hornady.

Originally Posted by Jhon

The balance beam scale is vastly improved by placing a couple of cheap, old 20c coin size, rare earth magnets from Mitre10 etc on the chassis other side of the pointer. The poise take a bit of figuring out and dont suit gnarly fingers too much but the scales are very accurate..i reserve mine for loading at the range. Nothing wrong with them for a beginner and $65 vs a couple of hundred and they will still last a lifetime. Horses for courses and the wallet dictates.

Spot on. And most scales improve with stronger magnets

The lee plastic spoons are plurry handy it of kit too.they are in effect the original type of powder thrower. Unless I'm doing a batch of fifty plus load I don't set up thrower,just happy to use spoons and trickle up last tiny bit.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

The lee plastic spoons are plurry handy it of kit too.they are in effect the original type of powder thrower. Unless I'm doing a batch of fifty plus load I don't set up thrower,just happy to use spoons and trickle up last tiny bit.

I fid this the other day, for some reason my Lee thrower was throwing 2206H loads that varied by 2gr and I couldn't be bothered figuring it out then and there.
So grabbed my dippers and Hornady scales and weighed charges, trickling the last couple tenths.
Easy as

That's how the Lad and I are reloading art the moment too.

I made a dipper that holds 24gr of the powder we are using, and we usual have to trickle up a tiny amount.

We are using Lee scales too. A magnet on the back has made a big difference to those.

A powder thrower could be in our future, but when you are only doing 50 at a time you don't really need one.

Originally Posted by Zedrex

I don't understand why some have so much hate for Lee, all my reloading gear is Lee and works well, admittedly there's no way the hand press can handle full length resizing but as all my brass has been through my 243 neck sizing is more than sufficient and I've got access to an RCBS for full length sizing for any once fired brass I've acquired from others.
As for powder, the Lee powder scoops have been just as accurate as using a powder thrower, I just have to recalibrate between different batches of powder. Max variance has been .3 of a grain.

I FL size 223, 222, 7x57mm, 6.5x55Swede, 22-250, 308, 30-30, 30-06 etc with my Lee Hand Press. Seated, I put the lower handle on my left thigh (being right handed) and use both hands on the top handle to close the press. Doing 10-12 at a time is fine. More than that I'd want a thigh protector. I have difficulty closing the handles just pushing them together one hand on each.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

The lee plastic spoons are plurry handy it of kit too.they are in effect the original type of powder thrower. Unless I'm doing a batch of fifty plus load I don't set up thrower,just happy to use spoons and trickle up last tiny bit.

I'm not even trickling, just one pass through the powder with each of the two scoops that give me 42.5gr of 2209 (swiping across the top of each scoop) Interestingly the chart included with the scoops gave me a different combination of scoops to achieve my measure than what I'm actually using, checked on scales the 3 scoop combination suggested was, from memory about 2 grains over........

Originally Posted by Jhon

I FL size 223, 222, 7x57mm, 6.5x55Swede, 22-250, 308, 30-30, 30-06 etc with my Lee Hand Press. Seated, I put the lower handle on my left thigh (being right handed) and use both hands on the top handle to close the press. Doing 10-12 at a time is fine. More than that I'd want a thigh protector. I have difficulty closing the handles just pushing them together one hand on each.

Ok, what's your secret as I was putting so much pressure on the handle I feared it was going to break, I also had to put my foot on one handle and pull on the other with both hands to retract the case after I'd decided it wasn't going to let me full length size it....obviously could be user error and yes I was using case lube

Originally Posted by Jhon

I FL size 223, 222, 7x57mm, 6.5x55Swede, 22-250, 308, 30-30, 30-06 etc with my Lee Hand Press. Seated, I put the lower handle on my left thigh (being right handed) and use both hands on the top handle to close the press. Doing 10-12 at a time is fine. More than that I'd want a thigh protector. I have difficulty closing the handles just pushing them together one hand on each.

I have put plywood inserts into the handle so as to lock the hand press into a vice.

Originally Posted by flock

I have put plywood inserts into the handle so as to lock the hand press into a vice.

Can you post up a picture please? I'm having trouble visualising how that might work as there's no "in" on the handles on my hand press

Originally Posted by Zedrex

Ok, what's your secret as I was putting so much pressure on the handle I feared it was going to break, I also had to put my foot on one handle and pull on the other with both hands to retract the case after I'd decided it wasn't going to let me full length size it....obviously could be user error and yes I was using case lube

So after posting that I went and had a go at a handful of cases....worked fine...so now I'm like...wtf?