Lee crap

'Boo

'Boo

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After reading all the "pro-lee" comments on this forum I said "what the hell" and decided to give the Lee dies another chance.

Thread the Lee collet die into the press and size a case ...........
All seems good except the case neck will not grip a bullet inserted under finger pressure. :roll:

OK then bear down a little harder on the old RockChucker ...........

Still won't grip a bullet so try again with a little more force ...........

The cheap aluminum "cap" on the die damn near hits the ceiling as the threads let go!

OK my opinion on Lee products has not changed, in fact it has been reinforced: They SUCK! LoL
 
'Boo the Lee collet die doesn't have an aluminum cap. The one with the aluminum cap is the bullet seater :? I know I'm a little slow, but if I read this right your trying to size with the seating die :?: :eek: But maybe I'm a bigger dumba-s than I give my self credit for and don't understand what your saying :lol:
 
No. I have a lee neck-sizing collet die that has an aluminum cap. I don't know how old it is as it came to me "used"

I know it made a hell of a loud noise when it let go! I damn near spilt my beer! LoL :roll: :wink:

I will get some pics of the "remains" tommorrow! LoL

BTW, Did you get that BSA Imperial out to the range yet?
 
You're talking about the expander/powder through die, correct? If so, I can't visualize how you managed to do that... :? The Lee expander die has a sliding 'expander' inside the die that rises up with the case until it hits the "cap" that screws into the die if you're not using the Lee powder measure on top of the die...very simple to adjust. I've never had a problem with any of my Lee dies and I use Lee dies exclusively on all my presses.
What caliber were you loading?
It wouldn't be .38 Special by any chance would it?
 
30-06

Note that the threads on the "cap" are pretty well gone.

49lee-collet.JPG


49cap.JPG
 
hmmm. Weird. I must say that i agree with lee dies being on the crappy side as in the fit and finish and crappy steel. But i use lee collet dies and they are the cats ass. I did mind you polish up the collet in a drill press for smoother operation. . The die must have been siezed up with the collet already closed which popped the cap off or the deprimer was too long. I dont know. The die is toast now. I would send it back.
 
'Boo.....Can you post pictures of the sizing "guts" of your die? I can only guess that some of the parts were either broken or missing altogether. One of the hazards of buying a used die.
 
[quote='Boo]Note that the threads on the "cap" are pretty well gone.


49cap.JPG
[/quote]

'Boo,

I have a custom made Lee Collet die that I got for my 270 Wby. Same thing happened to it after just a few rounds, although it didn't actually fly off the die, just kind of rolled out the top.

Called Lee and spoke to one of the engineers there. Can't remember his name, but he was very helpful. Apparently I had it adjusted improperly. He told me that it happens often when people don't read the instructions :oops: , and that the bushing is purposely made of aluminum so that its threads will shear, but the die will not be damaged.

They sent me a new bushing and it has worked slick as can be since. 8)

Ted
 
The "guts" of the die were fine and in fact it looked as if it had never been used. The die was set in the press as per Lee's instructions.

I will contact Lee to see if they will send me a replacement for the cap. If not I will just thread a steel bolt into the die to use as a stop cap! LoL ;)
 
'Boo, I'm no physics major but I do wonder how the force required to squeeze such thin brass back to size can be greater than the force required to strip the threads off a properly adjusted die. Logic dictates that either your set-up was wrong or the die was "modified" FWIW an old tradesman once told me "a bad worker always blames his tools" L.C. dies work very well for me in 30-06, 7 R.M. and 375 H&H, but hey mebbe I'm jest lucky.
 
I use Lee dies to load 30.06 and never had any problem. They are better finished than RCBS and more important give me less bullet run out than the RCBS set I used in the past.

Unless this dies was pevioulsy damaged, the only way to blow the cap off is to apply too much force on the decapping pin. No fired primer is that hard to remove. :|
 
"All seems good except the case neck will not grip a bullet inserted under finger pressure."

I assume that you checked the bullet to ensure that it was the correct size? :? I once bought a box of Noslers that were on sale and they were 0.003" undersize (on average) and would not grip tight without some adjustment on the die. Also the brass neck could be on the thin side. I've run into that on occasion and just tossed them. A good vernier goes a long way in determining the culprit.

As far as Lee dies go, the only problem I've had was full length re-sizing for a semi-auto hunting rifle. (That could have been me because at the time I was not experienced with that type of set-up.) I could not get all the cases to cycle reliably and bought a RCBS set specifically for that rifle. However the neck sizing die from that set works great for my bolt actions, the Lee bullet seaters are the ones still used exclusively and the Factory crimp dies are used for all my hunting and benchrest loads.

BTW, I started handloading with Lee Loaders and still use some of those components as part of my reloading toolbox because they work. It's a hassle, but send the die back to Lee for repair or replacement. Then you will still have a full set to re-sell if you decide to try another brand of dies. :wink:

Cheers!
 
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