There are quite a few reviews claiming that it's better to buy the equipment individually, instead of buying this kit. While I agree that you will probably end up replacing a few items included in this kit, it is still a great value when bundled. For example (prices at time of purchase), I paid $190 for this kit, shipped to my door. Of this kit I use the press ($100), the pro auto-disk ($42), riser ($7), safety primer feed ($23), and the load data manual ($20) = $192. I paid less, and got the scale, case lube, primer pocket cleaner, cutter, lock stud, and chamfer tool for free, if you want to think of it that way. I do not use these components currently, but I have in the past. They do work, albeit very slowly, but they will get the job done in a jam. So I do not feel as though it's worthless to have these extra tools around the shop. Generally, in the world of reloading, you will pay extra for two features: speed and precision. These "extra" tools that came with my Lee kit are simply slow. I'll go on to give my impressions about the individual components included in this kit. If you want the short summary, here it is: This press is great for loading pistol ammo, at about 100 rounds an hour. Caliber changes are quick, easy, and cheap. If you're loading lots of pistol and a few rifle calibers, this press can handle that, but rifle loading is much slower. If you're looking to just load precision rifle ammo, consider a single stage press. You will have the brass off the press so much for trimming, uniforming, and weighing super precise charges (beyond the ability of the pro auto-disk), that it really negates the speed advantage of the auto-indexing turret. If you're looking to load much more than 100 rounds an hour, consider a progressive press.



Classic Turret Press: This press really holds up to it's reputation. The base is a sold piece of cast iron, housing the large 1.125" ram. The pillar design is necessary to hold the 4-hole turrets by the edges, instead of in the center. Turrets held by a bolt in the center are prone to flexing more and stressing the center bolt. The pillar design also allows Lee to use an auto-indexing rod, which rotates the turret to the next station each time the ram is lowered. When loading handgun ammo, this is quite a convenient feature. For rifle ammo, I tend to remove the indexing rod and advance the turret by hand. The turrets have notches in them that click on to a detent ball located on the press. This makes it obvious when you're at the next station, so no guess work is involved. The turrets themselves are quite beefy in design, and made of aluminum. A slight amount of play is in the design, to allow the turret to be swapped and rotate easily. It's a non-issue because the play can be taken out of the system with proper die adjustment. My main complaint with the press is that the linkage, as beefy as it is, needs to be adjusted every few reloading sessions. By having the lever on the side, a slight twisting force is applied to the linkage, causing it to loosen a tiny bit with serious use. No biggie, just tune it up when you're lubing the ram. Another small complaint is that the primer arm on my press is showing significant wear. The way it is designed causes it to use the base of the press to force the primer arm in to position and brace it for pushing the primer in to the primer pocket. After about a thousand rounds, the primer arm developed a scar which caused a hiccup I could feel in the lever handle. Eventually it wore smooth again, and the part is only $7 to replace. The ram is hollow, to allow for spent primers to drop through to a clear rubber tube for capture, or directed in to the trash. I never use this, as I have a cheapy Lee single stage press, specifically for depriming brass before it gets wet tumbled. Depriming is nasty and I prefer to keep the soot off my main press and out of my lungs (do this outside if you can).



Pro Auto-Disk + Riser: This powder measure has proven to be quite consistent for me. The main mechanism seems to be a clever design that works well. However, the hopper portion feels like cheap plastic. That's because it is. The plastic hopper portion consists of 4 pieces: hopper ($6), valve ($5), wiper ($1), and the screw that holds it all together ($0.50). Even though it feels quite cheap, I have not had any issues with mine so far. Even if I did, you can see that replacement parts are quite cheap. This powder measure works by filling a preset cavity in a disk. As you pull the lever, the case rises in to the mechanism and through springs and levers, the disk is moved from under the hopper and dumps the powder charge in to a hole over the case. As you lower the lever, the disk cavity move back under the hopper to fill with another charge. You will read all sorts of praises and complaints about this powder measure. Like I said, the hopper portion feels cheap, but it works well for me. I'm not trying to win a reloading press pageant, I just need reasonably consistent charges for my ammo. This it does for me with no problems. It is worth noting that you are limited to the preset cavity volumes in the 4 disks provided. One cavity might hold 4 grains of TiteGroup, and the next size might hold 4.5 grains. This is an exact problem that I had, so I drilled and tapped a set screw in the larger cavity. By adjusting the set screw I can dial the charge down to 4.2 grains, my competition load. The preset disks top out at 1.57cc. If you need more powder than that allows, Lee sells a double disk kit, allowing you to stack disks for greater charges. I have it, it works okay. I also have the adjustable charge bar, which works okay for medium to large charges (skip it for small pistol charges & rifle charges beyond about 25 grains). There isn't really much to say about the riser. It's simply to allow the powder measure to ride around on top of the turret without contacting the safety primer feed. It works exactly as it should. If you're not priming on the press, you don't need the riser.



Safety Primer Feed: The primer feed is another Lee product which receives a lot of criticism as well as praise. For me it is a lot like the hopper on the pro auto-disk. It feels like cheap junk, but it works just fine. At first it was difficult to open the plastic cover to put primers in it, but it's broken in enough to where it's easy now. Primers are easily flipped by moving the primer feed side-to-side before putting the cover back on. It hangs off the front of the press, almost in the way, but it's not. During the sizing/depriming step, with the ram up, you tip the safety primer feed till it contacts the primer arm, and keep pushing it till the end of the feed clicks forward and drops a primer in the primer arm, located in the ram. I see people complaining that it drops primers on the ground, and I can honestly say that has not been an issue for me. It works fine, with the exception of what I said about the primer arms interaction with the press. Mine has worn a little excessively. It's only $7 to replace it, and it still works fine, but it's just something to consider.



Lee Manual: The first half of the manual is a lot of history on Lee products and information about how to use the equipment. Sprinkled in there is a lot of Lee telling you why the competition sucks and how his budget products are better than anyone else's. This is mostly the false ramblings of an old man. But let's get to the meat of the book. It has reloading data, which is why most people own it. The data is relevant at the time of this review. Because Lee is not a powder manufacturer, he has to get permission from them to use their data. So you will see certain brands of powder that have given him permission, and no information on those that did not give him permission. I have about 7 reloading manuals. I recommend that you get yourself 2 or 3. This one is a decent place to start.



Case Lube: I used it a few times, but it was slow to apply by hand. I now use Hornady One Shot case lube and it works fantastic. Whatever you use, just be sure that it doesn't taint the powder and primers, otherwise you'll have to spend time removing it from your cases. Lee and Hornady lubes do not taint the powder and primers.



Safety Powder Scale: I played around with it a little bit, had a good laugh, put it back in the box, and use a digital scale. I recommend you do the same, unless you love living life in the slow lane. And that's fine too. It seemed to work reasonably well for what it's worth, but it's just too tedious and slow for most folks.



Primer Pocket Cleaner: I used this a bit before I started wet tumbling. It works fine for a step skipped by most people. Now that I wet tumble my primer pockets are clean and there is no need for this tool. But it works.



Cutter & Lock Stud: Probably the cheapest way to trim brass. The cheapest way that I know of anyway. You will need to buy the other half of this tool, which is dependent on the caliber you are planning to trim. Once you buy that part for $5, you screw the depth guide in to the cutter, and attach the shell holder to the lock stud. Viola! You have the cheapest and slowest way to trim brass known to man! You can speed things up by chucking the lock stud in a drill. I've done this and if you get a little too fast the shell holder will let go of your case. But it does cut a very consistent length. And most importantly, it works.



Chamfer Tool: After you've trimmed your rifle brass (not many people trim pistol brass), you'll need to remove the burr left by the cutter. This little hand tool is slow, but it works. I usually try to use a drill or my brass prep station for anything that I can. Otherwise, this is a very slow, portable backup.



**UPDATE: It looks like Lee is now including the Auto-Drum instead of the Pro Auto-Disk powder measure. This could solve the problem of not being able to dial in precise charges when using the set disk cavities. I have no experience with this measure, but it looks promising and has been getting very decent reviews. It also looks like Lee has updated the primer tray on their Safety Primer Feed. I don't have any experience with this piece yet either, but it's worth noting that my review is of the older parts.