Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

[DamnDave]

1st off this is a brand new press, just got it last week. The other day i was setting it up for my 223 and noticed that in station 5 the brass is sitting crooked. It's so far off that the brass hits the bottom of the die and won't go in. It looks like the spring is sitting too low against the brass and is pushing it up on that left edge thus making it tilt to the right.

I will be using station 5 for bullet seating. Stations 1-4 seem fine.

Any suggestions?

Here is a video of what it looks like live
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[bohem]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

Mine does the same thing and it's a product of the way the auto-eject functions.

I have not seen a detriment to the quality of ammo that comes out of it because the seating force of the bullet aligns the case head to the press ram.

If it bothers you though you can seat in STA 4 instead, I've done that for a lot of pistol ammo, STA 5 is used for the taper crimp.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

ok. As long as it is normal. I can seat in station 4 for my 223.

For my pistol loads, it will be a crimp and should be fine anyways.

 

[Jumper]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

Nice pics.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

My 9mm shellplate will be here today. I'll try that one and try a process of elimination to see what the issue is. Hopefully it is just an out of spec shell plate and not the sub plate.

I looked at a bunch of videos and asked a bunch of people and it should not be like this.

 

[Rookie]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

Mine has the EZject conversion and I've never noticed that. You might make sure the "spring ring" as I call it, is seating properly in its little trough as it rotates. Looks like it may be riding out. Once you push it in, it should stay. If not give Hornady a call. They have great customer service.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Rookie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Mine has the EZject conversion and I've never noticed that. You might make sure the "spring ring" as I call it, is seating properly in its little trough as it rotates. Looks like it may be riding out. Once you push it in, it should stay. If not give Hornady a call. They have great customer service. </div></div>

I will double check that right now.

I also uploaded a video on what it looks like live.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Rookie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Mine has the EZject conversion and I've never noticed that. You might make sure the "spring ring" as I call it, is seating properly in its little trough as it rotates. Looks like it may be riding out. Once you push it in, it should stay. If not give Hornady a call. They have great customer service. </div></div>

Bah. It is definitely in the little groove it is supposed to be in. It has to either be the shell plate or sub plate that is out of spec.

 

[Fritzcat]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

What case lube are you using to run the rifle brass progresive?

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Fritzcat</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What case lube are you using to run the rifle brass progresive? </div></div>

I do all of my brass prep ahead of time and single stage my 308 rounds. On the progressive I do my 223, but only prime, charge and bullet seat.

I use Hornady One Shot on all my brass though.

 

[1in9twist]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

Imagine my surprise as I was cruising thru the threads and stumble upon such a fine looking roller bearing lever on your press.........

Mine doesn't do that. Something isn't right. Is your shellplate advancing to the detent each time? Is is possibly advancing too far? What happens if you advance the shellplate by hand? Still tilt?

 

[hdbiker1]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

I'd like to know if this fix from EWP on AR15.COM worked for you?

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 1in9twist</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Imagine my surprise as I was cruising thru the threads and stumble upon such a fine looking roller bearing lever on your press.........

Mine doesn't do that. Something isn't right. Is your shellplate advancing to the detent each time? Is is possibly advancing too far? What happens if you advance the shellplate by hand? Still tilt?






</div></div>

hahah I know you!

Yes it advances everytime. Auto and manual indexing shed the same tilted case with 223. I just did a bunch of 9mm. It still tilted, but didn't effect anything as I had my crimp die in there.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: hdbiker1</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I'd like to know if this fix from EWP on AR15.COM worked for you?

</div></div>

I haven't tried it yet. Going to have to run to the store to pickup some double sided foam tape he used.

But from further inspection, the spring on mine starts to creep under the shellplate as it drops down to start the ejection process. So it is low and creeps under making it tilt.

 

[hdbiker1]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

When you do, please let us know. I've noticed the tilt, but it doesn't bother me until I do processing and would like to use a die in the fifth position to expand the neck slightly.

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: hdbiker1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">When you do, please let us know. I've noticed the tilt, but it doesn't bother me until I do processing and would like to use a die in the fifth position to expand the neck slightly. </div></div>

I got this response from Hornady. Going to try it out today.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Take the case retaining spring and find the joint in it. Gently unscrew the spring and carefully stretch it out a little bit. Then put the spring back together at the joint. Sometimes the spring gets a twist in it and the result is cases tipping towards the center of the plate. Taking the spring apart and slightly stretching it out usually solves the problem. </div></div>

 

[DamnDave]

Re: Crooked brass in station 5 on my Hornady LNL AP

Well stretching the spring did not help. All it did was make my spring tension too loose. Good thing I got spares coming on Friday.

BUT. I did get this to work in the end. Here's how I did it.

I noticed that the spring would creep under the shellplate in the 5th station. So basically all I did was push it back out a little.

I used this stuff called QuikSteel that I had in the garage. Must have got it from Walmart. It's easier to work with than JB Weld or Epoxy. Place a dab and smoothen it out some. This took some trial and error to get it the right size. It cuts easy enough with a razor blade.

The shells wobble a little right now because I followed Hornady's instructions on how to fix this issue. Obviously it didn't work. New springs will be here on Friday and should fix that problem.
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