Down Hill Since the Auto Prime

B

BBarn

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The original Lee Auto Prime was easy to use and fairly trouble free, though it was subject to wear and breakage. But it was inexpensive to replace. It seems each of the subsequent replacements of the Auto Prime have become more complex in an effort to make it safer, or at least less likely to detonate a whole tray of primers. Unfortunately, the added complexity has added cost and has given rise to more primer feeding issues.

I'm still using the Auto Prime XR (two actually) and have gotten accustomed to the techinque needed to operate the unit with fairly good success. Not looking forward to the day I need to replace them with the New Auto Prime. That very long primer path and goofy folding primer tray look like more potential problems.

I've tried other hand primers with primer trays, but like the Lee models best for one reason. I find the use of the thumb to seat a primer on the Lee Auto Prime models far easier than other models that require you to wrap your thumb around the handle squeeze your hand.

I see a sizable market for a well done priming tool. It seems there is no shortage to complaints about the various models currently on the market. Customers complain about primers getting flipped or jammed up, difficulty changing from large to small primers, difficulty changing shell holders, excessive force required to seat the primer, and premature parts breakage. It seems product liability concerns have driven the designs to a point where they don't perform the intended purpose very well.

In contrast to all the complaints about the various hand priming tools with primer trays, the original Lee Auto Prime seems to have been very well liked. I still have mine, along with the earlier Lee hand priming tool that has no primer tray. They still work, but I have them as back-ups in case the Lee Auto Prime XRs break or wear out.
 
I liked the original Lee auto prime and had one for small and one for large primers.....until one broke. Rather than view the breakage as a problem, it turned out to be a great opportunity to replace it with something much better.

Frankfort Arsenal hand primer is how they should all be built, stainless steel body, adjustable primer depth, includes all the shell holders. I have no problem paying more for better quality.

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Now that's pretty nice looking. I'm guessing you have to feed the primer's one at a time by hand? I've been using a Lee auto prime since they came out came with the large and small primer holder's. Don't recall that shell holders came with it. No idea what a new Lee auto prime runs today.
 
I purchased one of those Frankford Arsenal hand primers soon after they were introduced. It was a major disappointment.

Changing shell holders was difficult and it was very hard to seat primers flush regardless of the depth setting. I promptly sold it after struggling through the priming of about 100 cases.
 
I’ve got arthritis and bought the Lee bench prime. Mounted to a small board and clamp to bench or just prime watching tv in the floor. Quick and efficient.
 
Rembrandt said:
I liked the original Lee auto prime and had one for small and one for large primers...
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That's my setup, and I dread the possibility of breaking one of them, since Lee no longer has repair parts. I don't like the look of the new version with the folding, square primer tray.
 
I am now used to the folding primer tray and pretty skilled with it but have yet to understand the motivation to redesign trays across all of the various primer devices in the line.

I did learn that refilling is much easier and is independent of the shape of the primer packaging by pouring the primers into a round bottom bowl before pouring into the bottom half of the holder for shaking. My bowl is plastic from a set of three from the dollar store. I have a bunch of them I use mainly for sorting brass or managing small parts. Very handy.
 
I use the Lyman E-ZEE hand priming tool. It is solidly built, but has its quirks. For me, a good compromise vs the Lee since the Lyman uses standard shell holders.
 
Filling the Lee primer tray is no problem at all. Open the box of primer's and sit the tray upside down on the open box. Hold to box there and turn the whole thing over, easy as can be!
 
And that goes to the motive behind the design change. There were apparently a couple of incidents of concatenated ignition in the original AutoPrime trays in which one primer going off during seating set off all the others in the tray. That resulted in Lee saying Federal primers shouldn't be used in them and providing lists of primers they had tried and deemed OK and others you shouldn't put more than ten at a time into the tray. The new versions of the design are supposed to be OK with all primers so you don't have to worry about whose primers you use in one. That has made them less convenient to use as far as many customers are concerned.

I don't know whether the new design was "dissing" Federal for past problems by not making enough room for their larger primer packaging. Clearly, that packaging puts a lot of space between their primers because of concern about concatenation, too.
 
Unclenick said:
And that goes to the motive behind the design change. There were apparently a couple of incidents of concatenated ignition in the original AutoPrime trays in which one primer going off during seating set off all the others in the tray. That resulted in Lee saying Federal primers shouldn't be used in them and providing lists of primers they had tried and deemed OK and others you shouldn't put more than ten at a time into the tray. The new versions of the design are supposed to be OK with all primers so you don't have to worry about whose primers you use in one. That has made them less convenient to use as far as many customers are concerned.

I don't know whether the new design was "dissing" Federal for past problems by not making enough room for their larger primer packaging. Clearly, that packaging puts a lot of space between their primers because of concern about concatenation, too.
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I don't see where the design change did anything but make it harder to transfer Federal primers directly from the container to the tray. My method of dumping the primers into a bowl and then pouring on to the front half of the folding dispenser could not be much easier.

Federal primers are de rigueur in SASS, and I have not yet heard of any incident with a whole group of primers detonating. I also know that Winchester now advertises that their primers are more "sensitive".

Your description of such concatenation possibility is curious, in that by the time a primer is being seated, the dispenser is withdrawn by a number of inches.
 
Real Gun,

What you say about inches clearance is true for the Lee Safety Prime, the press priming system for which we also have a current thread going on. This thread is about the Lee Auto Prime. The original Auto Prime hand tool and the Auto Prime II that mounted on the top side of a press via its die thread press priming had a round primer tray whose feed channel allowed the next primers in the feed line to be adjacent to the case being primed and in danger of concatenation. Page 82 of the 2nd Edition of Lee's Modern Reloading has a picture of a sheet steel blast shield mangled by Federal primer concatenated explosion and presents a list on page 85 of which primers they considered safe with the tool and in what total quantity at that point in time (2003). The new ones claim to be safe with all primers.
 
I was a long time user of the original auto prime. It was an engineering marvel. The new redesign was a PIA. I gave the Franklin hand prime tool a chance and I have to admit its a nice tool that works great with everything, rifle and pistol. Its a litle clumsy at first but once you master it works like the old lee's. Try one out.
 
I too have switched to the Frankford Arsenal hand priming tool. I liked the Lee for how you could really feel the primer seating, but it was really tough on my arthritic hands. My wife bought me the Frankford and it's much easier to use, a very well designed and strong tool. I like the loading tray much better than the Lee folding tray which I consider to be junk.
 
I have every hand priming tool Lee has made. I won't go into each one but say the original round tray is still the best. Unfortunately some parts were made with inferior material, mainly the handle. The XR is helpful priming LP because they tend to be a lot tighter and require a really strong squeeze, but for other reasons it is slower to use. I've said it before, I would hate to be a design engineer at Lee and see my great designs made with inferior metal. Every couple of years I'll go on eBay and buy the original round tray kits just to make sure I have plenty of replacement parts. I'll probably be reloading for another ten years so I think I've got it covered.
 
I still have 2 of the original Auto Prime tools, use them for test loads now. Do most handguns on the 550B. The first Lee I bought broke, it cracked where the shell holder fits, pot metal flaw. It needs to be greased or it'll ware out pretty fast, happened to my brother. I got an RCBS tool for Christmas years ago, it also works and uses standard shell holders. Almost anything is better than priming on a single stage press.
 
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