Looking at the Lee App press...

PepNYC

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Anyone have the Lee App press? Seems to be quite popular. Thinking of getting one but need to confirm a few things and have a few questions I couldn't get answers to from Lee or YouTube.

#1. Can I use all my existing dies from my Lee breech lock challenger press?
#2. Can I get some kind of funnel or Collator for the tubes that come with the App?
#3. Should I get the Lee Universal Case Feeder?
#4. If yes to #3 does the universal feeder come with the 4 tubes and will they work for all calibers or do I need to buy tubes for each one?
#5. Where can I get the Collator?

Is this what I'd need to get going reloading 9mm and 223?

Deluxe APP
Item # 006-90933

Universal Case Feeder
Item # 006-90242

Case Feed Collator
Item # 006-90667

I'm sure I'll think of more questions as the answers roll in. TIA
 
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Anyone have the Lee App press? Seems to be quite popular. Thinking of getting one but need to confirm a few things and have a few questions I couldn't get answers to from Lee or YouTube.

#1. Can I use all my existing dies from my Lee breech lock challenger press?
#2. Can I get some kind of funnel or Collator for the tubes that come with the App?
#3. Should I get the Lee Universal Case Feeder?
#4. If yes to #3 does the universal feeder come with the 4 tubes and will they work for all calibers or do I need to buy tubes for each one?
#4. Where can I get the Collator?

I'm sure I'll think of more questions as the answers roll in. TIA
#1, Yes.
#2, #3, #4 - Get the universal case feeder, and collator. I got both from Midway. The case feeder comes with the four tubes.

I love mine. It works great for decapping semi-auto pistol brass, but the tall brass did not work as well, dropping out sideways sometimes. I made a simple deflector that corrected that problem.

I personally would not want to size rifle brass with it when using the case feeder. The Xpress shellholders don’t grip the rims as well as regular shellholders, so you may damage the rims on brass that are harder to extract. You can use regular shellholders and manually insert the brass just as you would with a regular single-stage, though. Sizing smaller brass, like 9mm and 45 would be no problem.

I’ve tried it out with the primer pocket swage kit, and that works REALLY well. I don’t know that my Dillon swager is going to get used much anymore.
 
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#1, Yes.
#2, #3, #4 - Get the universal case feeder, and collator. I got both from Midway. The case feeder comes with the four tubes.

I love mine. It works great for decapping semi-auto pistol brass, but the tall brass did not work as well, dropping out sideways sometimes. I made a simple deflector that corrected that problem.

I personally would not want to size rifle brass with it when using the case feeder. The Xpress shellholders don’t grip the rims as well as regular shellholders, so you may damage the rims on brass that are harder to extract. You can use regular shellholders and manually insert the brass just as you would with a regular single-stage, though. Sizing smaller brass, like 9mm and 45 would be no problem.

I’ve tried it out with the primer pocket swage kit, and that works REALLY well. I don’t know that my Dillon swager is going to get used much anymore.

Sorry I snuck in some more questions after I posted.

Is this what I'd need to get going reloading 9mm and 223?

Deluxe APP
Item # 006-90933

Universal Case Feeder
Item # 006-90242

Case Feed Collator
Item # 006-90667

And it doesn't sound like you recommend it for rifle brass like 223? Not fond of not being able to resize. How about expanding 9mm and crimping 9mm and 223? Any problems there?
 
Sorry I snuck in some more questions after I posted.

Is this what I'd need to get going reloading 9mm and 223?

Deluxe APP
Item # 006-90933

Universal Case Feeder
Item # 006-90242

Case Feed Collator
Item # 006-90667

And it doesn't sound like you recommend it for rifle brass like 223? Not fond of not being able to resize. How about expanding 9mm and crimping 9mm and 223? Any problems there?
Yes, those are the correct items.

It will work for rifle brass, but you need to use the regular shellholder instead of the Xpress shellholder, disable the automatic case feeder (just disconnect a spring) and manually insert/remove the cases.

You should have no troubles expanding or crimping.

Earlier I said you can use the same dies, and that is true, but if you swap the die out using the breechlock bushings, you may have to readjust the die since the deck height may be different between the two presses.
 
Yes, those are the correct items.

It will work for rifle brass, but you need to use the regular shellholder instead of the Xpress shellholder, disable the automatic case feeder (just disconnect a spring) and manually insert/remove the cases.

You should have no troubles expanding or crimping.

Earlier I said you can use the same dies, and that is true, but if you swap the die out using the breechlock bushings, you may have to readjust the die since the deck height may be different between the two presses.


Ok so just to be clear. I'm gonna run down the things this can do so I understand.

It will speed up the following for both my 9mm and 223:

Decapping
Resizing - Although has trouble with the taller rifle brass
Expanding - 9mm
Bullet seating
Crimping

The manual tasks that would still be required by hand are trimming, priming and charging.
 
Ok so just to be clear. I'm gonna run down the things this can do so I understand.

It will speed up the following for both my 9mm and 223:

Decapping
Resizing - Although has trouble with the taller rifle brass
Expanding - 9mm
Bullet seating
Crimping

The manual tasks that would still be required by hand are trimming, priming and charging.
The real advantage of the APP is the ability to use automatic case feed. The steps where that will help are decapping, expanding, crimping, and swaging crimped primer pockets. If you cast bullets, it can also be used to feed bullets for sizing.

The collator works best with shorter brass, like 9mm, 40, 45acp, and will work with 38spl as well. It does not work as well with 223 as the cases are too long to tip up and into the holes, you must manually drop the cases into the tube.

Seating bullets will be no faster than a single stage, as you don't want to try to feed cases with powder through the case feeder. You will have to manually place each charged case into the shell holder, and then place each bullet.

You can't use a press mounted powder measure with the APP press. With a single stage, you can use a powder-through expander and both expand and charge the case in one step.

Crimping in a separate step, you probably won't be able to use the collator since the way it normally collates the cases depends on the head end of the case being heavier, which causes it to fall into the holes in the proper orientation. That won't happen with a bullet in place. You can still feed bullets into the case feeder by hand, though.

I don't view the APP press to be a complete replacement for a single stage press (or turret press, in my case). I see it as a supplement.
 
The real advantage of the APP is the ability to use automatic case feed. The steps where that will help are decapping, expanding, crimping, and swaging crimped primer pockets. If you cast bullets, it can also be used to feed bullets for sizing.

The collator works best with shorter brass, like 9mm, 40, 45acp, and will work with 38spl as well. It does not work as well with 223 as the cases are too long to tip up and into the holes, you must manually drop the cases into the tube.

Seating bullets will be no faster than a single stage, as you don't want to try to feed cases with powder through the case feeder. You will have to manually place each charged case into the shell holder, and then place each bullet.

You can't use a press mounted powder measure with the APP press. With a single stage, you can use a powder-through expander and both expand and charge the case in one step.

Crimping in a separate step, you probably won't be able to use the collator since the way it normally collates the cases depends on the head end of the case being heavier, which causes it to fall into the holes in the proper orientation. That won't happen with a bullet in place. You can still feed bullets into the case feeder by hand, though.

I don't view the APP press to be a complete replacement for a single stage press (or turret press, in my case). I see it as a supplement.

Good info. Thanks.

It Seems that this thing shines mainly with decapping and swaging. I knew it would be "in addition to" and had limitations and I don't mind dropping powder and seating manually. If it could resize rifle brass using the collator and crimp I'd go for it but it may be money better spent on powder, primers and projectiles for now.
 
Good info. Thanks.

It Seems that this thing shines mainly with decapping and swaging. I knew it would be "in addition to" and had limitations and I don't mind dropping powder and seating manually. If it could resize rifle brass using the collator and crimp I'd go for it but it may be money better spent on powder, primers and projectiles for now.
Depends on how much loading you do, too. I decap all my brass before I wet tumble, and I do a lot of handgun loading, so I really make use of it. If you don’t do a large volume, it isn’t cost effective.
 
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