Lee Loader

Have been intrigued by the Auto disk, heard good and bad about it with different powders so I began watching on the eBay (hence forth called evilBay for obvious reasons). So I won a what appears to be a slightly used kit that appears complete with a few extras like the adjustable disk and the rifle charging die. I discovered that it can't be used in its current form as a stand alone powder throw which is what I was planning on using it for, initially. I don't have any Lee pistol dies so I couldn't play with it but it did come with the rifle charging die. The rifle die will work with 357 magnum but nothing shorter. The 38 special is just short enough that the disk doesn't quite reach the drop hole all the way. So I took the die apart and did some measuring. The insert is simple enough so I did some simple math and figured out what it would take to work with the little 9mm case.
I installed it and it actuates the Auto Disk as intended using a 9mm case. Success!
I have a new jug of Unique to start working on that apparently is "Improved and cleaner burning". The pound that I just finished is from 1992. The jug that I just opened is from 2009. So I have a good reason to to go through and do a "powder work up". This involves going through and actually testing it in all of the powder measures and see what they actually throw. This means the Lee dippers, old and new, the Little Dandy powder measure, the Uniflow and now the Auto Disk. Every cavity gets tested and the weights recorded. I actually have a form that I use to do this. Now I have to modify it to fit in the Auto Disks's Disk cavities. The nice thing about this is that I can just go to the chart and load what I know has been tested and verified.

So the only powder that I have played with so far is Unique. I have heard that these measures don't work so well with fine powders like H110. I did notice a tiny bit of leakage with Unique, I did tighten the screws down to snug. I did discover a way to change the disks without unscrewing the hopper from the body so that has greatly sped up the process of testing the disks.
You can see the disk is flush with the edge of the body, this is with a 9mm case in the shell holder.

What I like about it so far is that it comes with all of the disks in the kit. With the RCBS Little Dandy, the rotors are $13.50 (local retailer) for a single cavity (OUCH). The disk cavities go up by a specific, measured amount.

Damn Unique.

So you are using the insert from the Rifle Charging Die inside the 9mm Luger Powder Through Expander Die?

cj8281 wrote:What I like about it so far is that it comes with all of the disks in the kit. With the Little Dandy, the rotors are $13.50 (local retailer) for a single cavity (OUCH). The disk cavities go up by a specific, measured amount.

You lost me here, what rotors are you talking about?

It's 3am here on Kealakekua Bay and I've got a stupid headache. So I'll use this responds as a diversion and try to answer the question.

The RCBS Little Dandy powder measure uses a single rotor and there is a bunch of them. Each has a different cavity that can be used to obtain the desired grams of powder. As you know each Lee disk has 6 cavities so not only are the disk less expensive but each disk does the job of 6 different expensive Little Dandy rotors.

Sorry RD, it was really late when I posted that. I don't have any Lee dies with the powder through expander. The die that I have that the Auto Disk powder measure will screw into is the Rifle Charging Die. What I can find on Lee's website now is a Short Charging Die and a Long Charging Die. According to my instruction sheet, it will accommodate a 22 Hornet through a 308 Winchester. I know that my rifle charging die won't work with a 38 special but it will with a 357. I made a new insert that fits inside the Rifle Charging die so I can use it with the 9mm and 38 special. I just had to make the lower section longer to accommodate the shorter cases. I also drilled the center out bigger as I only plan on using it with 9mm/ 38 special cases.

I have an RCBS Little Dandy Powder measure that I have been using on my Turret press. The problem that I have with it is I don't own all of the rotors that I want. The Little Dandy Rotors are $13.50 when sourced locally and on evilBay they can be more, sometimes a lot more. If you bought all the rotors at that price, it would be $378 and that is not including the Little Dandy Powder measure.

The disks for the Auto Disks go up in size a specific amount. You can calculate approximately what you are going to get with a specific cavity on the disks. The Little Dandy rotors are just numbered, 00, 0, 1 up to 26.

Very interested to see the difference if any in the change in density of the powder of the years. Is your autodisk dropping the weights the Lee manual says it should?

I shall let you know when the testing is done.

I ran into a snag, tried running some 231/HP-38 through it and it bound up on the second throw. Checked it with a feeler gauge, .008 clearance on the bottom and .005 clearance on the top. I checked the screws and they were as tight as they could be. I went through and checked all the disks. Amazing how close they all are in thickness. To fix it, I laid half a sheet of 400 grit wet/dry on a flat surface and gently sanded down the sidewalls of the measure, making sure that I kept it as flat as I could. I checked the inside measurements and found that one side was slighty taller than the other so I made them even. Reinstalled the hopper and tried again. No leaks. It did bind up again so I slightly loosened the screws and now it glides (with a little help from some graphite). When I had the hopper off, I discovered that the bottom was scored on one side. I lightly sanded it as well. I am sure this will help when I test H110 as well as MP-300.

Another snag, MP-300 is a very fine powder and with the 2nd to the largest disk, it binds up no matter how tight I go on the screws. The two smaller disks ran fine once I got it tightened down. One of the cavities on the third disk just wouldn't run more than 3 throws before heavy dragging and then binding up (by the sixth throw). One of the other cavities was letting powder through on the bottom side into the center of the disk. Using a micrometer to measure around the cavity, it looks like the inside edge is .001 to .0015 shorter than the front edge. Not sure how to fix it with leaving the guide pins in place. I could fly cut it even and then drill out the pin locations and install roll pins. I started on the last disk last night but after fighting the first cavity I called it a night.
H110 is next on the list. I think it is very close to Mp-300 in size.

With HP-38 I set the clearance with a .002 feeler gauge, with MP-300 it is as tight as I could get it. Going to have to do a bit more investigating to find a solution for this. The concept of this powder measure is great, I really like the design of it.

You must watch out for etching the under-surface of the hopper, once the leakage starts. Powder granules are tough and they will physically cut the plastic. The Auto Disk Pro uses a nylon wiper to help prevent this. The wiper takes the wear and can be replaced.

Once the etching starts, continued leakage requires that the bottom of the hopper be lapped on a very flat surface with lapping compound. The most common surface used for lapping is glass With Clover brand for the compound, a very fine grit.