Lee Primer Seater Tool

[Ben]

I'm making my grandson, Trevor, a Portable Reloading Kit for 38 Special.
He has everything in the box that he will need.
I had a Lee Primer Hand Tool on my bench that I was not using.
( There is a long unpleasant story that goes along with the tool )
It came with a Jam -O - Matic primer feed tray.
I do hope that Lee isn't selling that one anymore.
It didn't take long to do a surgical castration of the feed tray and relegate the tool to a simple seat 1 primer at a time arrangement. A bit slow, but after the modification , the tool worked much better. Trevor tried it. He had a bit of problem with " deep seating " of the primers.

I decided to rectify that little problem.

• My 1st move was to take a Dremel and a grinding stone and remove some of the powder coat on the tool . This would allow the JB Weld to make a good bond. I planned to JB Weld a short piece of steel drill rod onto the tool. I cleaned the drill rod well and used plenty of JB Weld to make the attachment.
• 24 hours later, I began cutting the " slope " on the stop that would approximate the slope gradient of the handle.
• As we all know, you can take metal off, but putting it back on is tricky. So working slow, stopping and trying to seat a few primers became the order of the day.
• It took about 45 minutes of slow " trial and error " file work on the stop.
• Once the work was completed, it is now impossible to deep seat a primer with the tool.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Nice work and innovative thinking as usual!!

Good job!

CW

 

[Ben]

Kind words !
Thanks,

Ben

 

[Jeff H]

Brilliant, Ben!

That ought to provide some real consistency.

 

[Ben]

If you consider your labor free, it is a very cheap fix and in my opinion a great improvement to the tool.

It wouldn't be an impossible task for Lee to put a 6 mm Allen head set screw in the same place as my stop . Threaded into the tool.

Ben

 

[Trapperscott]

Great solution to that problem. He’s going to be set for a while now.

 

[Ben]

He will be a happy camper.
Thanks,

Ben

 

[Wasalmonslayer]

Trevor is a lucky guy to have a grandfather who would reinvent the wheel for him so he has “great” equipment to produce the safest ammo he can.
Nice work Ben and as usually your pictures are worth a thousand more words!!

 

[richhodg66]

The old style Lees, one at a time with screw in shell holders, are kind of a favorite of mine, I have quite a few set up for the common things I load for.

The ones with the tray always seem to invariably break at the lever, seems like the older ones were stronger.

 

[glassparman]

I actually did do a set screw on my RCBS hand primer tool because I do a lot of Berdan primers and I needed to be able to adjust the seating depth.

Nice job!

 

[Ben]

Thanks, I'll bet yours work out great also.

Ben

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

A question please. You said Trevor had a problem deep seating primers. If there is extra space below a properly seated primer. Wouldn't it be better if the primer is deep seated so the firing pin doesn't use some of its forward force to push the primer deeper?

 

[Ben]

Kevin, this is my opinion, others may see this differently.

For over 50 years of reloading, I've seated my primers level, never a misfire.
Once the primer is seated too deep, I will often times have misfires.
BTW, look at factory ammo, primers are not deep seated on those.

Ben

 

[RicinYakima]

My opinion, others may see this differently.

For over 50 years of reloading, I seat mine level, never a misfire.
Once the primer is seated too deep, I will often times have misfires.
BTW, look at factory ammo, primers are not deep seated on those.

Ben

I used a depth micrometer for my match loads; 0.003" below surface (less than you can feel with a finger).

 

[Ben]

And I assume, that technique hasn't caused misfires for you ? ?

Ben

 

[RicinYakima]

And I assume, that technique hasn't caused misfires for you ? ?

Ben

Never had a misfire on any of my match loads since bullseye pistol in the '70's. I did get a brick of WWSP primers at a yard sale that were about 20 years old and unknown storage. One misfire in every hundred and they were corroded on the surface. Primers are amazingly reliable if the firing pin action is good.

 

[Ben]

That certainly says a lot about your primer seating technique.
Many thanks,

Ben

 

[RicinYakima]

That certainly says a lot about your primer seating technique.
Many thanks,

Ben

I have a "thing" for priming tools and have owned most made from 1950 on. My match loads are done on a positive stop Sinclair hand tool now, but used to use a Lachmiller bench tool. Plinking stuff is with 1st model Lee screw in shell holder tools.