Anyone use the 21st Century neck turner? And some neck turning questions.

[TheGerman]

I'll be honest in that I have always been one of those that thought neck turning was just nit picking and unnecessary, assuming you have quality brass.

Well, here I am looking at neck turners primarily because I realized that I have probably 50k pieces of sorted, once fired 5.56 brass and after checking neck wall thickness on them to determine what bushing I need, I've noticed that even for the same head stamp of different lots of the once fired, the thickness is all over the place. Unable to force myself to load shit ammo, I now need to turn necks, so I might as well be set up to do it for all the calibers I shoot.

Was looking at the 21st Century neck turning lathe and was curious if anyone has experience with it, and any PROS or CONS. It seems like something I could simply bolt down on my brass prep block and just switch out the parts to whatever caliber I want to turn, crank up a drill and go.

A few questions about neck turning:

- How do you determine what thickness you want to turn necks to? Is there a rule of thumb for brands like, turn 223 Rem brass to X, or do you just pre measure brass and turn it to something like .001 under your lowest range of thickness?

- Of the neck turning kits I've looked at, they all seem to mention or incorporate a die with an expander mandrel. I'm trying to figure out how this would go into my process. On my current case prep toolhead, I have a universal decapper as well as a Dillon FL sizing die with the Dillon trimmer attached to it. Normally then on my loading toolhead I'd have a Redding neck die with a bushing it it, but if I am using a mandrel instead, do I even need the neck die , or vice versa, can I just skip the mandrel and use the neck die with the bushing instead?

 

[Sheldon N]

If you're thinking about neck turning 50k pieces of once fired 5.56 brass you need to come to your senses, stop and have a beer, then order another MRAD.

Don't do it man, just don't.

 

[culater]

I agree with SheldonN your going to waste your time with that deal. If it where for your bolt gun neck turning could make sence if you trying to get more consistent neck tension. I just did 500 for my 308 and that took a while to do. Beside that Just resize them, load them, shoot them, and repeat.

 

[Milo 2.5]

+ to both the above, life as you know for the next 3 years is over while you turn necks, buy 4k of the same lot and run it.
If you must buy, the turning head will serve just as well in a vise, the lathe is cool. 21st Century, K&M make good stuff, I do believe the k&m case holder way easier to operate though, and yes, cordless drill a must.

 

[Steel head]

I use the 21st century neck turner.
I use an expander mandrel to push inconsistencies to the outside of neck so they get cut out

Thats a silly amount of brass to turn.
I'd do batches of 100-200 pieces and run them till they're dust.

Many factors as to what the cut should be.
I don't run a super tight chamber that I need to match the neck to.
I just give then enough cut to get even thickness on the neck and no more.

 

[TripleBull]

Don't do it man, just don't.

But if you do, post up a time lapse video.

 

[TheGerman]

lol I'm not doing 50k at a time. I just have a ton of once fired 5.56 I got for free. I also have a metric ton of 55g componants and 2 Dillons. So if I needed to, I could technically just make enough ammo to retake Paris.

I don't plan on doing more than a few 100 at a time, if that. My main questions were if the 21st Century setup was good/too pricey for what it was, etc and I've never turned necks, nor used a mandrel before so I'm trying to figure out where in the process this goes. I'm also not about to try and sort all of this random brass by measuring neck diameter either, so simply turning them to a standard size is probably the best route.

I'm assuming from what I've read (could be totally wrong) that you can use the expander mandrel to round out the case mouth as well as use it to 'prep' the case neck are for turning.

So here's my question: Right now on my prep toolhead, I have the decapper die and a Dillon FL size die (bumps the shoulder) as well as the Dillon trimmer. When I run a case through this, I need to hit it with a neck die with bushing on my loading toolhead to give it proper neck tension but not mess with the shoulder again. If I put the expander mandrel in the prep toolhead, after the decapper and (before or after?) the FL size/trim, and then take that brass to turn the neck is that A. the right spot to do it and B. do I then simply load as usual afterwards with a neck die and appropriate sized bushing?

Or what would the best way to go about this be?

 

[TripleBull]

You could get an earful about neck turning if you hung out with the benchrest crowd. Assuming the brass is headspaced and trimmed right, I'd guess that neck turning is a minor part of the handloading quality picture. I've read about specific situations where the necks were thick and the chamber tight, resulting in high pressure. I bought the 21st Century lathe because it fit into the plan to do minimal sizing on my brass for ELR. Turning my 223 necks is not on the agenda.