I've been reloading .270 Winchester on the Lee anniversary kit for a while now. I was resizing a batch of cases yesterday, and a couple of the cases started being harder to retract from the resizing die than normal. Figuring maybe I had just been a bit uneven and scanty on lubing the insides of the necks, I yarded on the press to pull the first one out and kept going. The second one pulled the expander out from the die... So I grabbed some wrenches, put it back, tightened the collet, and pulled the expander out of the case by brute force, then took the die apart and cleaned off a bit of gummed up old lube in case that was the problem. But then on reassembling the die, the expander and deprimer are now visibly off-centre. I take it this is not a good thing? Is there anything that can be done about it, or should I buy a new die?
Lee resizing/depriming die-did I break it?
- Thread starter rudar
- Start date
no, you can order the decapper/seperately from higgenson or lee direct- lee charges a considerable whack for shipping across the border- when you get the decapper, pull the one you have out and put in the new one- if the situation repeats, you will have to replace the collet on the end - ie you may have widened the hole in the collet- if not, then you're done- the only thing in all this is the time factor involved waiting for your ship to come in
you can get the part numbers from the lee site- under dies
you can get the part numbers from the lee site- under dies
Well, good ole' Higginson had both the expander and the decapping clamp in stock, so they should be shipped soon, and hopefully here shortly after.
But for future reference, am I doing something wrong? Should I be putting more lube into the case mouths before resizing, or should I be taking the die apart and cleaning old lube off it periodically?
But for future reference, am I doing something wrong? Should I be putting more lube into the case mouths before resizing, or should I be taking the die apart and cleaning old lube off it periodically?
It's almost touching the side, though. It didn't even seem to want to enter the case mouth. Anyway, it turns out it's an older neck sizer, not the new X-whatever one, and I probably have enough brass resized to last me a couple of weeks, so I'll probably be OK until the new one gets here anyway.
Which will also require cleaning occasionally, and to have cases lubed properly. RCBS superiority is evident in some of their products, in others it's RCBS. But they do have a good replacement warranty for the their broken stuff.
shotgunjoe
CGN Regular
- Location
- winnipeg mb
Sounds like you just need more lube inside the case neck, nothing wrong with Lee dies I use them for several calibers.Take the expander out of the die and roll it across a flat surface to see if it has a wobble, if it does you can try to straighten it CAREFULLY, if you mark the button it is screwed.Or just wait until you get the new one and set the old one aside.
