Mark 7 Apex 10 Complete Assembly and Setup
Welcome back to Jim's Armory. In this one, Jim swaps the workbench for the workbench he just built and unboxes, assembles, and sets up the Mark 7 Apex 10, a multi-stage reloading press. It's his first time running a multi-stage setup, and he walks through the whole process station by station, sharing what worked, what confused him, and what he'd change. Here's the full rundown of getting the Apex 10 up and running.
Unboxing and First Steps Jim starts by noting this isn't a sponsored video - he bought the press himself. Inside the box he finds the instruction manual, a priming tube assembly, an accessory kit, a universal hold-down die, a mechanical powder measure, the press core, standard priming components, and the case feeder. The zip tie meant to hold the machine in the box during shipping had already broken off, though the box itself arrived undamaged. First real task: using an 11/16-inch wrench to raise the machine up, then installing the leveling feet with a bit of grease (Jim uses gun grease, since that's what he has on hand) and attaching the handle, whose hardware he finds hidden inside the press rather than in the accessory kit.
Bolting Down and Case Feeder Setup Jim marks his mounting holes 6 inches and 2½ inches apart, drills with a 7/16-inch bit to give the 3/8-inch bolts some clearance, and confirms the handle has room to swing before tightening everything down with a 9/16-inch wrench and 5/16 ball-end hex. From there he moves to the case feeder, which arrives already set up for 9mm. Setup includes attaching the bowl and plate, adjusting the drop tube and case feeder spring assembly (choosing the smaller of the two included, since the instructions don't specify which is for pistol), and clearing out some leftover machining debris he finds inside the components.
Pro-Tip: If your case feeder runs backward and keeps jamming brass, check the direction - Jim's arrived from the factory running in reverse, and once he corrected it to run clockwise, it worked perfectly with zero further adjustment.
Dies and Powder Measure The powder measure comes as a separate, unlabeled assembly with no instructions of its own, so Jim has to work out by feel how the parts fit together. Once mounted, he dials it in to throw his target charge, checking it on a scale until he's within a fraction of a grain. For depriming, he notes that the Pro die set's resizing die can also deprime, but you actually need the included universal spring-loaded decapping die separately - the resizing die's decapping pin gets removed and used in a later station instead.
Pro-Tip: Buy extra replacement decapping pins ahead of time, since this station relies on them and they're an easy thing to need on short notice.
For primer pocket swaging, Jim sets the hold-down die and swage rod by feel, then verifies pocket depth using a go/no-go primer pocket gauge. He also demonstrates how the press feeds primers automatically from the tube into station four, only picking one up when a case is present to receive it.
Sizing, Priming, and Case Flare With the resizing die installed, Jim checks primer seating depth against a known-good CCI and Magtech round using calipers, then fine-tunes the seating depth using the small Allen screw between stations two and three - adjusting no more than a quarter turn at a time. The flare die comes next, with the manual offering little specific guidance; Jim tests it empirically, checking that a bullet will drop freely into a resized, primed case before locking in the flare amount.
Powder Charge and the Powder Check Alarm Jim dials in the powder measure by throwing small charges and weighing them until he lands on his target charge weight, then locks the adjustment. The powder check alarm proves to be the most frustrating station: sizing terminology in the manual is confusing (the "small" size for 9mm is actually the largest physical size), his unit is missing a set screw called for in the instructions, and dialing in the alarm to correctly flag empty and overcharged cases takes several attempts - with an overcharged case scattering powder inside the press when tested.
Bullet Seating and Crimping The bullet seating die impresses Jim - it's straightforward to set up and has a micrometer dial that tracks precisely with overall cartridge length, which he confirms with calipers against his 1.125-1.145 inch target range. The crimping die is trickier; the instructions don't yield the expected result on the first pass, so Jim uses a reference bullet to get a feel for initial contact before fine-tuning against his own loaded case and comparing case mouth diameter to a factory round.
Verification and Test Run Before running rounds through, Jim checks completed cases against a Lyman go/no-go gauge for headspace, confirming they sit flush within the min/max marks and don't protrude past SAAMI spec. He then loads primers and cases to run a full ten-round test batch, spot-checking powder charge, overall length, and crimp along the way. The first rounds off the press measure right on target for both length and case mouth diameter.
Final Thoughts After roughly eleven hours of setup across two days, Jim comes away impressed overall, despite some rough edges: the unlabeled powder measure, an unclear crimp die process, and what he calls his outright dislike of the powder check alarm, which he plans to replace once he installs the Mark 7 Auto Drive kit. He's already got a Double Alpha Academy Mr. Bullet Feeder Gen 2 and the Mark 7 X-Prime system waiting in the wings, but wanted to learn the manual version of the press first. He also plans to eventually split brass prep and loading across two tool heads rather than running everything in one pass.
Stay tuned as Jim keeps building out the Apex 10 with the auto drive, bullet feeder, and X-Prime upgrades - subscribe so you don't miss the next stage of the build.
