progressive pistol reloading with lee dies, brass shavings?

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Kryogen

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When I reload pistol with the lee dies, it seems that the expander die "shaves" the case a bit, because after a few hundred rounds, the shellplate is covered with tiny shavings.

Are lee dies the issue? anyone else?

Are dillon dies better made than the lee dies or it will work just the same?
 
All my Lee expander dies do this, it's never been a problem for me, hasn't seemed to reduce the life of my brass at all and I've got some 44 mag brass that's on there 14th reload.
 
I look at most Lee equipment as 80% finished, kinda like an 80% finished receiver. Once you deburr, polish, and fine tune their stuff, it works quite well for what it is intended for. For the price what can you expect! Try and polish up the crude edges and surfaces and it should stop shaving brass.

My father owns nothing but Lee, and I have a collection myself, I don't use any of it anymore as I have replaced it with other brands. I tend to use the stuff for modified use, however once cleaned up, there isn't much wrong with it.






PS: in Bitumen's absence, I figured I should also state "Lee is garbage, buy Redding" lol
 
Cleftwynd said:
I look at most Lee equipment as 80% finished, kinda like an 80% finished receiver. Once you deburr, polish, and fine tune their stuff, it works quite well for what it is intended for. For the price what can you expect! Try and polish up the crude edges and surfaces and it should stop shaving brass.

My father owns nothing but Lee, and I have a collection myself, I don't use any of it anymore as I have replaced it with other brands. I tend to use the stuff for modified use, however once cleaned up, there isn't much wrong with it.






PS: in Bitumen's absence, I figured I should also state "Lee is garbage, buy Redding" lol
Click to expand...

lol, careful you might be next!
 
Most of my lee equipment works fine, but it's often a bit of tweaking.

Having issues with the loadmaster priming system, and the 223 case trimmer on a drill.
The guide rod when used alot on a drill will heat a bit and wear, therefore cutting cases too long. The 223 rod being also too small, somehow gets eaten and destroyed by the cutter after a few hundred rounds, even at 500 rpm.
Just not for me I guess.

I bought a WFT trimmer for 223, and will give the new priming arm a chance next 9mm reloading session.

I found that the o ring on the arm that is activated by the case, was not lubed and was sticking quite a bit, and I think it produced jams, no primners, or improperly placed primers. Gave it a little bit of silicon lube, and it now glives very smoothly, I think it might work better. We will see if that also does it for the new small primer assembly lee sent me. (I was unable to get the last assembly to work well, whatever I did).

Hand priming all my volume brass completely drives me nuts.
 
Kryogen said:
...the expander die "shaves" the case a bit, because after a few hundred rounds, the shellplate is covered with tiny shavings.

Are lee dies the issue? anyone else?
Click to expand...

Yes, I've had multiple calibers of Lee pistol dies do this to me. I remove the expander, chuck it in a drill and hold it up to some black 800 grit SiC sandpaper for a little while. The shaving goes away.

I also had this happen with a Hornady expander once, but since the expander is not intended to be removed the fix was much more tedious.
 
RCBS expander button below I also have a RCBS primer pocket swager die that is so rough it doesn't expand the crimp, it just pushes the crimp deeper into the primer pocket. :mad:

button_zpseb852950.jpg


You can't beat Lee dies for the price, and any reloader should have a drill and wet and dry sandpaper to smooth things over. I just bought a set of Redding .44 magnum dies and the expander plug does the same thing your Lee dies are doing.
 
"...case trimmer on a drill..." Look into the RPM's of the drill. May be too fast.
"..."shaves" the case a bit..." Nothing to worry about. The case mouth gets work hardened a bit every time you fire and resize. It'll flake a tiny bit. When, not if, you get one cracked neck, pitch that case and anneal the rest.
 
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