Thread: Sizing die trouble

So just bought a new set of .222 series A redding dies and the FL die is bloody tight and seems to be stretching and over sizing the neck.

1st case I tried was lubed up with imperial wax and strangely hard as soon as it contacted the neck so I removed and looked and the neck was being for what it seemed like, over sized.
I then tried more lube then less lube, dry lube but no luck. So I full sent it and sure enough, stuck case. Managed to remove it and tried couple different cases to no avail.

Anyone else had this issue or have an idea of what I could be missing?

Cheers

Have you stripped the die apart and inspected everything and reset it up correctly?

Way over working it. Id measure the dia of the decapping rod and give the inside of the die a measure if you've got the gear to do it. You'll end up with 204 brass at that rate

Did you clean the die before first use as per the manufacturer's instructions?

Yea cleaned it all with solvent to remove all the factory crap in it. Initially had the expander ball assembly removed as I'm using a expander mandrel. But tried it with it and makes no difference.

Originally Posted by kayneb

So just bought a new set of .222 series A redding dies and the FL die is bloody tight and seems to be stretching and over sizing the neck.

1st case I tried was lubed up with imperial wax and strangely hard as soon as it contacted the neck so I removed and looked and the neck was being for what it seemed like, over sized.
I then tried more lube then less lube, dry lube but no luck. So I full sent it and sure enough, stuck case. Managed to remove it and tried couple different cases to no avail.

Anyone else had this issue or have an idea of what I could be missing?

Cheers

The ring on the neck of the left case in both pics makes me wonder if it's been inserted far enough into the FL Die. When the FL Die is correctly set into the press that ring would be at or near the bottom of the neck, usually. You might need to reset the decapping stem so it doesn't bottom out and suffer damage inside the case.Could you post another pic of your press setup with a fully inserted case as it would help to tell ? If you're worried about a repeat stuck case ensure that you lube ( with Imperial Wax ) well all the main body of the case but particularly the bottom of the case nearest the case head as that's the most critical area. Imperial Wax lubing should allow you to extract even a tight case. Also, would help you to graphite lube the inside of the neck.

Yea it definitely hasn't gone far enough into the die to size the whole neck. How much wax is too much as I've put a fair amount on already

With imperial sizing wax you need less than a boarding school scrape of butter, 2/3 of 5/8 of stuff all, not even a lick, just run your finger over the surface then run same finger over the surface of the brass. if you can see the wax on the brass it's more than you need and probably too much.

That is when everything is working properly anyway.

Expander too far up in the body of the die so it’s trying to expand while the neck is still within the neck part of the die perhaps. If it’s that, make sure decamping pin is pushed in fully and lower the rod.

Originally Posted by kayneb

Yea it definitely hasn't gone far enough into the die to size the whole neck. How much wax is too much as I've put a fair amount on already

Not much is necessary, only a thin film but it doesn't hurt to have a little too much which might just give you a safety margin initially. Cover the whole case body, but particularly the bottom section. Keep wax off the sloping shoulder so it doesn't cause dents. And, as I said, dry lube the inside of the neck, and the outside also is OK.

Bit of a stab in the dark here but your expander mandrel isn't set so its in contact while it's trying to resize the neck right? I'd try adjusting the decapping pin depth and see how that goes?

Originally Posted by Plinky

Expander too far up in the body of the die so it’s trying to expand while the neck is still within the neck part of the die perhaps. If it’s that, make sure decamping pin is pushed in fully and lower the rod.

Maybe, but if so I would think he would not be decapping cases either if it was that high. So, if successfully decapping the expander is probably positioned OK. But, if the expander is set too high within the die it might cause an issue ... ??

The Expander/decapping assembly wasn't in it initially as ill use a separate Expander die to set my neck tension afterwards.

I'm not sure what the die is supposed to size the neck down to before the Expander ball widens it but the ID of the case mouth was below .210" without the Expander, Just measured with the calipers