Lee FL die expander slipping

supernova

supernova

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Has anyone had issues with the expander/decapping pin slipping in a Lee FL die? Here's a little background info on my issue:
The die is a brand new Lee .308 FL
It was disassembled, degreased and reassembled dry.
The collet clamp was tightened very tightly
Brass is once fired federal .308 that has been cleaned and lubed with Lee lube INCLUDING inside the neck
The expander is a little over .307" major diameter and nicely polished
The brass sizes smoothly all the way up and breaks free of the die body easily but it pulls the expander out of the collet before the expander enters the case neck. The first time it happened I thought "crap, I didn't tighten it enough" so I cut the case off the expander and reassembled with significant torque, more than I use with my .223 die. Tried again, same thing. Cut the case off and torqued it until the threads began to strip. Pulled the expander right out. I tried lubing the expander itself as well but same old story. I wrote to Lee and explained all this and told them the collet cannot be tightened any more. It is beginning to strip and further torqueing will permanently damage it. The CS guy said, and I quote: "I suspect that you may need to tighten the Collet Clamp more. It needed to be vary tight" His words and spelling... I replied with a recap of everything I told them in the first place and they didn't bother to respond.
So my question is has anyone else had this issue and possibly found a solution? I'm concerned Lee won't stand behind their product.
 
supernova said:
Has anyone had issues with the expander/decapping pin slipping in a Lee FL die? Here's a little background info on my issue:
The die is a brand new Lee .308 FL
It was disassembled, degreased and reassembled dry.
The collet clamp was tightened very tightly
Brass is once fired federal .308 that has been cleaned and lubed with Lee lube INCLUDING inside the neck
The expander is a little over .307" major diameter and nicely polished
The brass sizes smoothly all the way up and breaks free of the die body easily but it pulls the expander out of the collet before the expander enters the case neck. The first time it happened I thought "crap, I didn't tighten it enough" so I cut the case off the expander and reassembled with significant torque, more than I use with my .223 die. Tried again, same thing. Cut the case off and torqued it until the threads began to strip. Pulled the expander right out. I tried lubing the expander itself as well but same old story. I wrote to Lee and explained all this and told them the collet cannot be tightened any more. It is beginning to strip and further torqueing will permanently damage it. The CS guy said, and I quote: "I suspect that you may need to tighten the Collet Clamp more. It needed to be vary tight" His words and spelling... I replied with a recap of everything I told them in the first place and they didn't bother to respond.
So my question is has anyone else had this issue and possibly found a solution? I'm concerned Lee won't stand behind their product.
Click to expand...

tighten it till it strips or breaks or works, take pictures and send them the response they gave you.
 
I guess I'd have them dead to rights, I'm just worried they won't do anything. I sent them another email so if they don't reply in a timely or positive manner then I'll do just that.
 
Pull it apart and make sure that the hole in the clamp is fairly tight on the shaft as it could be oversized(or an undersized pin). If it fits tight I'd rough up the expander pin to give it greater friction. Following that make sure that the cuts in the clamp allow free tightening and aren't defectively small(unlikely). The last thing I can think of is that the threads cut into the top of the die bottom out too soon and don't allow full tightening of the clamp in which case taking some length off the clamp may help out as I believe the clamp is the part that is tapered(mine all have a bit under 1/4" of thread sticking out on the clamp).
 
I purchased my Lee reloading gear about a month ago. My first case through pulled the pin out of the collet. I managed to get that out of the case without too much work. The top of the pin, where it goes into the collet, felt very smooth, almost as if there was oil on it. Before reassembling, I used the emery cloth to clean up the top of the pin. I was not shy about tightening the collet, I did not strip the threads or do any damage though.

I took this apart to clean it up a bit last night. I put the pin and the die in the tumbler for a bit, left the collet on the bench. Put it back together and no issues with the 50ish rounds I loaded last night.

If there is an issue, can you exchange it where you purchased it?
 
I had the same problem with a set of 270 dies. I managed to fix it for now.

First I now use a little case sizing lube on the expander ball and it pulls back thru the case neck a lot easier. Just put a little around every 3rd case mouth before sizing,
Second my original expander rod broke. I bought a new one for about 7 bucks. I noted there is an area on the shaft that is smaller in diameter, That is where it needs to be clamped on. True make sure you degrease that rod really good before installation.

Good luck.

It works great now
 
Can you turn the collet a little more? If you can then it wasn't tight enough.

Yes I had mine slip too. I just kept tightening until it wouldn't slip anymore.
 
Loctight the expander ball/decapper shaft into the clamping collar thing, That's what I do, never an issue and I've been able to get it apart when I need to, blue is usually fine, red if you gotta.
(Don't loctight the threads! That's not nessisary)
 
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Lee finally responded to my emails and they say the collet is stretched out. I don't follow that but they said they're sending a new one. It really can't go any tighter, a couple threads are starting to split and there was swarf left in the threads from stripping. I'll scuff the pin and try opening the slit in the collet to get it working (hopefully)
 
Had the same issue with used dies I picked up on the ee, pieces of #### but that's another storey.

I ended up degreasing every thing and rouphing up the shaft with some 60 sand paper.
 
Put the section of the stem that sits in the collet into a vice's jaws.
Tighten the vice.
Vice jaws dimple the surface of the stem, and give the collet something to grab on to.
Then you only need to tighten it red-face tight, rather than blue-face tight.
 
Rory McCanuck said:
Put the section of the stem that sits in the collet into a vice's jaws.
Tighten the vice.
Vice jaws dimple the surface of the stem, and give the collet something to grab on to.
Then you only need to tighten it red-face tight, rather than blue-face tight.
Click to expand...

No kidding, best advice yet.
Use a mirror to get the face color just right too.
 
Lol I thought you had to hold your tongue just right. I roughed it up with 320 emery and opened the slit with a zipcut. Lube on the expander and inside neck. Tightened it until I felt the threads stretching, right before they strip. First one went great! Second one pulled that f**king pin out. I'm thinking I should just buy a real die from a good brand like RCBS. I like the Lee one piece expander/decapping pins better but that idiotic collet could stand 2 more minutes of R&D. I wonder if Lee's customer service thinks I should go RCBS, Redding or Hornady? I should ask.
 
Ha! Fixed the damn thing. I put a tape line on the expander shank to mark where the collet sits then chucked it up in the drill press and cut 6 or 7 grooves in it with a hacksaw blade. Scuffed it with 40 grit and degreased it again. I cleaned the swarf out of the collet threads and put a little anti-sieze on the threads. I thought I had some pipe dope but couldn't find it. At any rate the anti-sieze worked great and let me tighten the collet another full turn or more without feeling like it was going to strip. That cheap hooker didn't budge. I even sized a couple without lube in the necks and pulled down quite fast on the downstroke. No movement. F**k you expander. So there's another idea for those having this issue.
 
Rory McCanuck said:
Put the section of the stem that sits in the collet into a vice's jaws.
Tighten the vice.
Vice jaws dimple the surface of the stem, and give the collet something to grab on to.
Then you only need to tighten it red-face tight, rather than blue-face tight.
Click to expand...

Rory McCanuck, very good smart advice, I bet your almost as intelligent and good looking as I am. ;)

If Rory's method doesn't work then tighten the collet nut until the threads start to smoke and then give the nut two more full turns. :evil:
 
Rory McCanuck said:
Put the section of the stem that sits in the collet into a vice's jaws.
Tighten the vice.
Vice jaws dimple the surface of the stem, and give the collet something to grab on to.
Then you only need to tighten it red-face tight, rather than blue-face tight.
Click to expand...

A bubba knurl. Love it.
 
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