Wearing out Carbide dies??
- Thread starter Shooter ----/
- Start date
If the die is ruined, the Lyman dies caught my attention in that they use Tungsten Carbide in their dies. As far as I know, which isn't a whole lot about metals, Tungsten Carbide is pretty much the hardest material out there. If that is the case, then I would believe that they would like be the most likely to stand up to abuse be it foreign debris or shell holder contact or what have you.
Any thoughts on this?
Any thoughts on this?
Same stuff that Lee is using in their dies.
Carbide= Tungsten Carbide here.
Sounds to me like you got some crud jammed in the die, at some point. After that...
Yeah. Use a wee bit of lube.
IIRC the ring of carbide around the entry of the die is responsible for the sizing. If you look close you can see it, it looks darker than the steel. For the most part, the steel should not be in contact with the case, I think. If there are any burrs in the steel that raised the surface up, you can always try a bit of 320 grit wet or dry sandpaper. It won't touch the carbide, but should knock down the raised bits of steel.
IMO, you got nothing to lose trying it. Unless you are gonna go the warranty replacement route. But I'd try polishing out the chunkies myself.
YMMV.
Cheers
Trev
Carbide= Tungsten Carbide here.
Sounds to me like you got some crud jammed in the die, at some point. After that...
Yeah. Use a wee bit of lube.
IIRC the ring of carbide around the entry of the die is responsible for the sizing. If you look close you can see it, it looks darker than the steel. For the most part, the steel should not be in contact with the case, I think. If there are any burrs in the steel that raised the surface up, you can always try a bit of 320 grit wet or dry sandpaper. It won't touch the carbide, but should knock down the raised bits of steel.
IMO, you got nothing to lose trying it. Unless you are gonna go the warranty replacement route. But I'd try polishing out the chunkies myself.
YMMV.
Cheers
Trev
Polished the markings out only half hour before the jam.
Not sure that Carbide and Tungsten Carbide are one in the same.
Removed stuck case and inspected the carbide ring by touch and it feels like it is cracked it several places.
Is it possible that I had just the exact amount of water in my ultrasonic cleaner to hit a resonant frequency in the carbide to cause it to fracture?
Not sure that Carbide and Tungsten Carbide are one in the same.
Removed stuck case and inspected the carbide ring by touch and it feels like it is cracked it several places.
Is it possible that I had just the exact amount of water in my ultrasonic cleaner to hit a resonant frequency in the carbide to cause it to fracture?
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Believe what you want, I guess. Or do your own homework.
Got a magnifying glass and a decent light. Get a good close look at it that way.
If you can see a crack, it's done like dinner. Carbide is hard as heck, but brittle too. If you rammed a case in too far or otherwise strained it enough to swell the steel of the die a wee bit, that could be all it took to break the carbide ring in the die. Buy a new one, that's all she wrote.
Could be there was something stuck to a case, maybe a badly set up press, or just a random blowout caused by one too many stacked up tolerances when the die was made. Every maker throws a few duds, or we'd never get to hear about how good some company's warranty service is, would we.
Lee dies are about as cheap as cheap gets, when it comes down to prices. Whether they give value for your money, I'll leave for you to decide, but if it was use/abuse that caused the breakage, you'd be as pissed, and as broken, with anyone else's dies too, like as not.
Broken carbide ring= fishing weight.
Trash it and move on.
Cheers
Trev
die
Your die is toast, several things can shatter or crack your carbide sizing ring. Dropping it on a concrete floor does it so does hard contact with shell holder, regardless it is junk if you can feel the cracks.
Tungsten carbide is in fact, the same as Carbide, we just drop the Tungsten when refering to it. There is no such thing as Carbide alone, so any time you read Carbide think Tungsten Carbide.
You can contact Huntington in Calif and I believe you can buy individual Tungsten Carbide sizing dies from them. Carbide dies should be treated like your wife's best crystal, for in reality it is almost that fragile. I have several sets but a set of 38/357 has sized, for a fact, something over 250,000 cases and they still come out smooth as glass, nary a scratch.
I would never recommend tumbling your dies in any substance. When I have felt the need to clean dies either carbide or steel all I have ever used is Brakleen spray and a soft cotton cloth on a plastic brush. Anything more than this is probably causing damage to the die, ie steel brush..320 grit sandpaper, REALLY? Would you take 320 grit sandpaper to your scope lens, because this is the kind of damage you are doing to the inside of your die.
If you were to damage a die by somehow getting a bad burr in the die (abuse is the only way I can think of) the only acceptable repair is to replace the die, not go at it with a drill or dremel and some 320 sandpaper.
Deep scratches in your brass is inviting disaster, either handgun or rifle.
Douglas
Your die is toast, several things can shatter or crack your carbide sizing ring. Dropping it on a concrete floor does it so does hard contact with shell holder, regardless it is junk if you can feel the cracks.
Tungsten carbide is in fact, the same as Carbide, we just drop the Tungsten when refering to it. There is no such thing as Carbide alone, so any time you read Carbide think Tungsten Carbide.
You can contact Huntington in Calif and I believe you can buy individual Tungsten Carbide sizing dies from them. Carbide dies should be treated like your wife's best crystal, for in reality it is almost that fragile. I have several sets but a set of 38/357 has sized, for a fact, something over 250,000 cases and they still come out smooth as glass, nary a scratch.
I would never recommend tumbling your dies in any substance. When I have felt the need to clean dies either carbide or steel all I have ever used is Brakleen spray and a soft cotton cloth on a plastic brush. Anything more than this is probably causing damage to the die, ie steel brush..320 grit sandpaper, REALLY? Would you take 320 grit sandpaper to your scope lens, because this is the kind of damage you are doing to the inside of your die.
If you were to damage a die by somehow getting a bad burr in the die (abuse is the only way I can think of) the only acceptable repair is to replace the die, not go at it with a drill or dremel and some 320 sandpaper.
Deep scratches in your brass is inviting disaster, either handgun or rifle.
Douglas
carbide
I doubt the quality of the original product is at fault here, mishandling on the other hand.............Most people do not understand how brittle and fragile tungsten carbide is until such a mishap. All you have to do is snap the shellholder against it once and it's toast, you're looking for another $50 die !!!!
Douglas
God, I love guns and gun people !!
I doubt the quality of the original product is at fault here, mishandling on the other hand.............Most people do not understand how brittle and fragile tungsten carbide is until such a mishap. All you have to do is snap the shellholder against it once and it's toast, you're looking for another $50 die !!!!
Douglas
God, I love guns and gun people !!
NShunter1254
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia Canada
There's the problem.
You're only supposed to use 25 year old single malt scotch in your ultrasonic if you clean Lee tungsten carbide dies.
Actually the scotch doesnt really clean the die.
It just gets you used to the idea of spending money on quality stuff.
YUP. 320 grit wet or dry.
If he's got spalled up bunch of burrs inside the die, it's not going to make anything worse, could knock them down enough to use the die in the meantime. Not gonna touch the carbide with the wet or dry, and the carbide ring sizes the case.
But it sounds more like that carbide ring is bust. So, more along the lines of really really cleaning the scope, when it has a crack across the lens. At least, as far as fallacious comparisons go.
Cheers
Trev
lol thanks for all the comments guys!
The die had several thousand brass run through before this mishap.
The die was not dropped by me and the ram is aligned nicely.
I would guess that it is very likely that the shell holder hit the die or an upside down case.
I have no problem buying a new die, I thought I would post here to get some opinions on the whole situation.
The die had several thousand brass run through before this mishap.
The die was not dropped by me and the ram is aligned nicely.
I would guess that it is very likely that the shell holder hit the die or an upside down case.
I have no problem buying a new die, I thought I would post here to get some opinions on the whole situation.
