Forster seater die set up

[Aaron47pb]

I followed the instructions and screwed the die in until the sliding die chamber was touching the shell holder, then continued to screw the die in until the sliding die chamber was fully compressed, then backed the die out one full turn, and tightened the locking nut in place. Then I screwed the bullet seating stem almost all the way out, placed a "set up" round with my desired length in the shell holder, and screwed the bullet seating stem in until in contacted the bullet of the "set up" round.

My confusion is that the bullet seating stem is still backed so far out that the sliding die chamber is inside the die sleeve and does not contact the shell holder at all. Does this seem correct?

I am seating 308 A-max at 2.8" so the length is not excessive.

Thanks...

 

[RyeDaddy]

I'm sorry, I'm not fully understanding your description. Pics might help.

In case it helps you, here are a couple pics of my 308 seater set for 168 Amax at 2.835" OAL. I started by screwing the die in as you described and then tightening the lock ring. Then I loosend the nut on the seater stem screw. I set the micrometer to zero and turned in the seater screw (without turning the micrometer)until it contacted a loaded cartridge that was already at the length I wanted. Then I tightened down the the black locking nut on top of the die. This way "zero" is my prefered length, and all changes are in reference to that.

Here is a pic of my standard non-micro adjust 308 seater set for approximately the same length:

 

[rjacobs]

Once you set the die body and sliding sleeve, the sleeve shouldnt move up into the die body. Did you turn the little center stem or did you unscrew the entire top portion of the die? The only way the sliding sleeve can slide "to far" into the die body is if you unscrewed the entire top portion of the die body.

If you take the die apart you can see how it all works. The sleeve and spring is held in place by the large knurled portion of the die body(which can be unscrewed). The seating stem is controlled separately by the little threaded portion with the small lock ring. They move completely independently.

 

[Aaron47pb]

Once you set the die body and sliding sleeve, the sleeve shouldnt move up into the die body. Did you turn the little center stem or did you unscrew the entire top portion of the die? The only way the sliding sleeve can slide "to far" into the die body is if you unscrewed the entire top portion of the die body.

If you take the die apart you can see how it all works. The sleeve and spring is held in place by the large knurled portion of the die body(which can be unscrewed). The seating stem is controlled separately by the little threaded portion with the small lock ring. They move completely independently.

I only unscrewed the stem. The body was not unscrewed. And when I adjust the stem the sliding sleeve moves as well.

That doesn't look right, does it?

 

[buffybuster]

Disassemble the die. The sleeve isn't suppose to be stuck up there. The knurled part and the thread part are two halves; they unscrew. I think maybe you jammed the sleeve too far up.

All the sleeve is suppose to do is guide/align the case to the bullet.

 

[Aaron47pb]

Disassemble the die. The sleeve isn't suppose to be stuck up there. The knurled part and the thread part are two halves; they unscrew. I think maybe you jammed the sleeve too far up.

I'll give that a shot. Just to be clear the sleeve moves with the stem, so if I screw the stem down quite a bit, the sleeve extends beyond the base of the die and it will slide/compress just fine.

 

[rjacobs]

yea the sleeve should NOT move with the stem. I suspect also that the two somehow got jammed together.

I aim for about half sleeve travel. Screw down till it touches then back out till I get about half the travel of the sliding sleeve. 1 turn out usually isnt enough to get half travel of the sleeve.

 

[Aaron47pb]

Thanks all.

 

[Aaron47pb]

Ok I am confused. Given the function of my stem and sleeve combo, I don't understand how adjusting the stem wouldn't move the sleeve.

I disassembled the die. My stem and sleeve:

The stem does not fit through the sleeve. If I try and pull the stem out the top of the sleeve, it does not fit. As a result, unscrewing/backing out the stem reduces the travel of the sleeve. So when I back the stem out to my desired length, it pulls the sleeve up.

Do I have a faulty stem/sleeve?

 

[rjacobs]

The sleeve rides on the threaded portion of the rod. Yea I could see if you were having to back that rod out to ridiculous lengths to get your desired OAL that it WOULD pull the sleeve in to the die.

I havent ever had that issue. This is 308 right? I want to say on my 175g SMK loads the stem is screwed almost half way into the die. And 208g AMAX at 2.800 length is SHORT in .308, most of the guys shooting those in 308 are running like 2.950 to be able to get enough powder in to get any kind of decent velocity. I think 1 guy is loading over 3.xxx

I still think your die is screwed into the press to far. The sleeve moves around 1/2" from full compression to full extension.

Re-assemble the whole thing, screw the die in until you fully compress the sleeve and then back out until you have about half travel of the sleeve, maybe more(as in backed out further). Then re-adjust the seating stem and see what happens.

 

[Aaron47pb]

The sleeve rides on the threaded portion of the rod. Yea I could see if you were having to back that rod out to ridiculous lengths to get your desired OAL that it WOULD pull the sleeve in to the die.

I havent ever had that issue. This is 308 right? I want to say on my 175g SMK loads the stem is screwed almost half way into the die. And 208g AMAX at 2.800 length is SHORT in .308, most of the guys shooting those in 308 are running like 2.950 to be able to get enough powder in to get any kind of decent velocity. I think 1 guy is loading over 3.xxx

I still think your die is screwed into the press to far. The sleeve moves around 1/2" from full compression to full extension.

Re-assemble the whole thing, screw the die in until you fully compress the sleeve and then back out until you have about half travel of the sleeve, maybe more(as in backed out further). Then re-adjust the seating stem and see what happens.

Still no dice. The bullet seats in the stem before the sliding sleeve contacts the shell holder.

Here is a picture of a 2.8" round with 178 A-Max bottoming out in the sleeve with the stem completely removed:

Now here is that same round bottoming out on the stem BEFORE the sleeve:

Thus my confusion...

 

[rjacobs]

ok I take back my 208g AMAX, I read your OP wrong. 178g AMAX...got it now.

Im not at home to pull one of my dies apart and check things out so I am at a loss right now. I would contact Forster on Monday and see if they can give you some measurements or maybe somebody can pull the insides out of their die and measure for you. I would want to see if the seating stem was to short or of the sliding sleeve was to short.

 

[RyeDaddy]

Aaron, that doesn't look right. My dies don't do that. In all my Forster sets the sleeve contacts the shell holder like you are thinking it should and then starts seating the bullet into the case neck. I would call Forster, their tech people are helpful.

Maybe you got a goofed up die with an incorrect seater stem?

 

[rjacobs]

Now that I am home I checked my dies out. I wasnt able to completely take them apart because I run the Ultra dies and they are built a little differently so the micrometer works and I didnt want to mess them up. So I dont have a measurement of the sliding sleeve, sorry.

I load and shoot 175g SMK's. I backed my seating stem WAY WAY out(like a good 1/2-3/4") and dropped a round in that measured 2.845 OAL. It dropped right in to the base like picture 1 in post 11. I then started screwing in my seating stem and I had to screw it in that same 1/2-3/4"(i didnt measure it, it was a lot). With the seating stem backed all the way out, I did indeed pull the sliding sleeve into the die and it wouldnt move, but the round still dropped in cleanly.

So either your sliding sleeve is short or something is messed up with your seating stem(wrong caliber maybe).

Either way you will have to call Forster to get it taken care of. Maybe they have a better answer.

 

[buffybuster]

Ok I am confused. Given the function of my stem and sleeve combo, I don't understand how adjusting the stem wouldn't move the sleeve.

I disassembled the die. My stem and sleeve:

The stem does not fit through the sleeve. If I try and pull the stem out the top of the sleeve, it does not fit. As a result, unscrewing/backing out the stem reduces the travel of the sleeve. So when I back the stem out to my desired length, it pulls the sleeve up.

Do I have a faulty stem/sleeve?

The seater stem part should slide in/out of the top of the case sleeve. It should be a smooth but tight fit but it should slide back the forth. This way the sleeve moves independent of the stem, under the spring pressure.