Hornady LnL with PhotoEscape powder die & expander?

First topic message reminder :

Hi!

Does anyone have a Hornady LnL press with PhotoEscape's powder die and powder through expander? 

I need help figuring out how to replace the Hornady die.....

Thanks!

Val

I did check an RCBS case activation kit against a Hornady measure and kit.  The vast majority of the parts interchange.  I have NOT assembled a “Frankenstein” system yet, but I see no particular reason not to.  One part that I am concerned about is the drum operating lever as the hole spacing appears to be different.

This might be a bit off topic but I use the Lee powder thru expander die and Lee auto disk on my Hornady LnL AP. In the next stage I have an RCBS Powder check die. The Lee is cheap and much more consistent with the Clays powder that is my preferred 45 powder but it works equally well with nearly any other powder. The RCBS die is easily adjustable to every load and locks you up if a charge is light or over. I can't remember the last time I had a ammo issue since using this setup.

Put the thing together today, after modeling the entire thing in SW, to see if it actually looks like the assy came out. It's pretty close.

Needs a bit more travel in the die/expander assy to get full travel on the measure.

Wes,
Is there a room to rotate powder measure clock wise about half a turn? Or drop it down a full thread step?

AP

I set it with the clamp fixed on the die, dropped the measure in place, and then fixed the clamp on the threads. That should be giving me all the travel I can get out of it.

I haven't tried it with a case yet. The thought being that maybe the drag of the expander will start the measure moving earlier. Which would be unreliable to begin with, I think. But the travel is limited in the die by the extension of the adapter tube past the bottom of the top cap. It's only about .450, as noted before. Maybe the shoulder on the adapter needs to go up a bit, and making it a 45 would help as well.

If you screw the die down more you will get more throw on the powder measure.  Just don’t over do it as you don’t want to “bottom” the rotating drum/metering stem on the slot cut in the body,  loosen the clamp on the die in the press and lower about 1 turn.  You should then be very close.

If I screw the die down more, I can get the drum to rotate further up. But then it doesn't come back down to the bottom to fill.

If I had to take a guess at the problem, it's this: The overall dimensions of the parts are correct, but the ~.110 the drop tube seats into the cone in the expander wasn't accounted for. And that limits the travel to roughly that much less than the Hornady parts as I had them set up.

I measured the extension of the drop tube past the bottom of the cap, when it's seated in the chamfer at the top. It's .560.

Like this:

How about unscrewing stem couple of turns and installing locking nut or something to prevent drifting?

AP

By stem, do you mean the adapter for the LNL measure? Taking it completely out of the measure won't fix it ;-)

It doesn't matter how far the die is screwed in, or where the clamps are on the measure. The measure doesn't activate until the expander moves up to contact the adapter. And at that point, there's only .450  travel left before the expander bottoms out on the cap.

I could crank it down another 100 thou', but I think that would drive the entire flare portion of the expander, and maybe a wee bit more, into the case, and then it probably wouldn't fit into the seating die.

And I don't think it would move the measure any further anyway.

Your problem is that you need to have the retur spring installed (Item #14).  There should be two Item 13 spring nuts installed one on the clamp around the powder measure, one on the clamp arpund the die body.  The spring goes between that.

Wes,
Two quick questions:
1. What is the length of the ramp upward movement?
2. Where do you have lower attachment point for case activation clamped?  You might need to take piece of #12-14 wire, bend it and put on the ledge of lower attachment point.

I don't have LNL, and on my Lee Turret ramp has enough upward movement to push spacer out of the top of the lower attachment point.  So I'm using bar with two screws to limit upward movement.

AP

Here is a better photo of the retur spring and the “PTX” stop bar.  You MUST use the spring which not only returns the measure, but it keeps the whole powder sleeve column in intimate contact.  The PTX stop bar used with a PTX expander allows a much finer control of the expansion and belling.  You can literally dial in the bell you want.  

The spring isn't in place for the photo's. It 'works', with and without, dry running it to experiment with settings (FWIW). I don't run it without when I'm actually loading.

Alex,

1: I'm not sure what 'ramp' is regarding. But I've only had one cup of coffee ...

2: I have the clamp set to bear on the top face of the groove in the die. I don't think it matters, top or bottom, just changes the adjustment a bit. The clamp on the measure was moved to get the play (most of it) out of the linkage.

Watching your videos on the SS press, it appears the measure drum isn't rotating all the way to the bottom of travel. But you're using the standard insert, which has a fatter body than the micrometer version I'm using.

I was initially assuming you had the cone bottom Hornady insert in there. But that won't fit, I think. Is that the .32 'funnel' system?

Yes, if I remember correctly, I did videos with 32 PTU.

AP