Lee Deluxe Drum powder measure

[horseman]

Preface to say a few years back I owned a couple of the early models of the Drum measure and was not enamoured with them to say the least. Just didn't have good performance from them. Update today, I've seen the obvious changes made with the Deluxe Drum measure so thought I would try once more as one thing I really disliked about the first was that small tightening thing they had has been changed. Good riddance. New one showed up yesterday and upon dissassembly I also noted the insides of the body and the drums themselves seem to be "better" finished. I also noted the metal gear system has been replaced with delron(?) gears and has a much tighter tolerance as well. After prepping the measure for use I set it up on my LCT to load a few 9mm using Silhouette powder. Silhouette is a fine grain powder and dispences well with the other measures I've used with it. Things I noticed, the drum actuation seems much "crisper" and more positive, not sure how else to describe it, the charge and dispense drum holes match up with the housing consistantly. That was a pleasant surprise as the originals were all over the place in that regard. Setting the drum "tightness" (on this one anyway) was also not as "fiddlely", I screwed the knob till tight and backed off about 1/8 inch, the drums made full rotation easily and no spillage that I could see anywhere and I did over 50 throws and it was basically on the 5.0 gr. charge consistantly. I say basically as a very few in the beginning I had a couple that hit 5.1 on my electronic scale and would bounce back to 5.0 so I knew I was a bit high on the 5.0gr adjustment, move the "key" a small amount and afte that it was 5.0 gr. I compared the electronic scale on every throw with my RCBS 1010 beam scale. Same. I may buy another one, don't need it, but might anyway. Hope it's as good as this one is cause' it's a keeper so far. I would like to do some comparisons with other powders but that's in the future as I'm having surgery Monday and my left arm will be layed up for a few months strapped to my chest.

[GasGuzzler]

I monkeyed with my old style Lee drum a lot when new and it just finally started working as expected. I wonder if I can still make it work after taking a few years off.

[Fyodor]

I have ordered a deluxe auto drum measure together with the SixPack press. I still have to wait to try them both out, but I'm looking forward to. My special hope is that the leakage that I never got totally away on the disk measures might be less. I have two standalone drum measures (one old style and one heavier deluxe version), and they leak way less than the disk measures. But they grind some powder to dust and need regular cleaning. Still not sure what's better...

[horseman]

I have ordered a deluxe auto drum measure together with the SixPack press. I still have to wait to try them both out, but I'm looking forward to. My special hope is that the leakage that I never got totally away on the disk measures might be less. I have two standalone drum measures (one old style and one heavier deluxe version), and they leak way less than the disk measures. But they grind some powder to dust and need regular cleaning. Still not sure what's better...

I'm still using a Pro Disk measure with the micrometer instead of the discs. I have had several over the years and always had very good performance with them. I do take the hopper housing and lightly sand the "feet" on them to tighten the fit between the hopper elastomer wiper and base and it helps. Using fine grain powders like Silhouette and others, I still get a very minute amount of spillage but it's negligible to me. Actually I wouldn't call it spillage it just seems to migrate around the micrometer somehow and ends up as a few specks on the turret top by the dies. I do think I need a new elastomer wiper though.....the Drum measure plan is I will use it for 223/556 loads (and others as well) as I try using the LCT for these. I have never liked the double disk setup on the Disk measure. Currrently I charge those with a Lyman 55 and load on a Lyman Turret press but I think the LCT will work better with the Drum measure. I like trying new/different avenues, keeps me occupied.

[Fyodor]

I also sanded the "feet", and it did help. But the fine, flakey powder that I currently use, still goes under the wiper. After a few hundred rounds it's maybe two or three grains of spillage, so not excessive. But still I'd prefer less.

[horseman]

Did another small test this morning with the Deluxe Auto Drum measure and was again pretty impressed. Decided to try Herco powder this time, Herco is very similar to Unique in both use and "throwability" in a measure. Just turned the "key" on the measure and dropped a couple to see what was what and it was hitting 5.1gr. so just went with that. Same two scales as before. Dropped 10 individual and hit 5.1 8 times and 5.0 twice. Dropped 10 accumlitive into a pan and came up with 50.7..so 5.07 each. Pretty darn close to 5.1 doncha think. did 10 more and total was 50.9 for 5.09 as an individual drop. I know a lot of you probably use Unique so would those numbers impress you with that powder. As I said Herco is not much different so I am very impressed. With my Lyman 55, the Lee Perfect powder measure, or the Pro Auto disc measure +or- a tenth (for .2 overall) is doing good. I know this is a very small "test" but it is very encourging, so did I get lucky or is this newer model just that good???