Lee Collet Die help

[SlowMiss6.5]

I’m FL sizing with a Redding body die but struggling to get my Lee collet die to size the OD/ID consistently down the whole neck on this Lapaua 6.5cm brass

What I’m seeing is the red line gets sized to .289, green line to .290 and black line to .291/.292. I’ve seen this on every case, no matter if I run it through once or 10 times through the die. A normal FL die doesn’t do this, all lines will same about the same OD

I’ve tried screwing the die in more and more until I’ve run out of threads. I’ve also tried putting a lot of force on the handle of my single stage press and no luck. The mandrel OD measures all the same. When seating bullets I can feel normal force at first and then very little force because the neck OD is wider as the bullet is being seated

Any idea what’s going on?

 

[eschafer]

I too use Redding Body dies followed by Lee Collet Neck dies and I always find brass a tint bit thicker closer to the shoulder, as you're witnessing.... Always have attributed it to the brass itself....

 

[lariat]

Do this just to get it out of the equation: measure the wall thickness of the mouth at the points you have identified across several pieces of brass just to ensure consistency.

You can get super anal and trim the case wall to uniform the thickness, anneal and size. If it still shows up you know it’s a tooling issue.

 

[Rocketvapor]

Take the die apart and examine each piece.
Insert a case and see where the outer collet touches the case neck. Look through the slots.
The outer collet may be the wrong one or be damaged.
Excessive force can put a groove into the mating parts preventing full closure on the neck.
Note that more force damages die parts. The case floats on the shell holder inside the collet.
Then the collet presses down the neck.

 

[isofahunter]

Clean the die, collet can start to hang up and eventually it won't size at all. Light polish, clean and lube internal parts makes for better results. I clean every 200 cases now. I also run case twice, second time with a quarter turn of case.

 

[JerkyFreak]

Or just don't worry about it. If the rifle shoot like crap, it is not because of this. If it shoots well, then it's no problem.

If it still bothers you, sell your collet and body dies off to someone else and get a SAC bushing die and a mandrel. This will give more consistent results than your current setup.

 

[JerkyFreak]

... I also run case twice, second time with a quarter turn of case.

Lee actually specifies a 1/8th turn. A quarter turn just places force on the same areas of the neck.

 

[straightshooter1]

I’m FL sizing with a Redding body die but struggling to get my Lee collet die to size the OD/ID consistently down the whole neck on this Lapaua 6.5cm brass

What I’m seeing is the red line gets sized to .289, green line to .290 and black line to .291/.292. I’ve seen this on every case, no matter if I run it through once or 10 times through the die. A normal FL die doesn’t do this, all lines will same about the same OD

I’ve tried screwing the die in more and more until I’ve run out of threads. I’ve also tried putting a lot of force on the handle of my single stage press and no luck. The mandrel OD measures all the same. When seating bullets I can feel normal force at first and then very little force because the neck OD is wider as the bullet is being seated

Any idea what’s going on?

As pointed out before, the thickness of the neck gets thicker as you move down from the mouth to the neck-shoulder junction. And . . .as good as Lapua is, there's usually some variations in thickness from one side of the neck to the other. The collet is mashing the neck against the mandrel resulting in a more uniform dimension on the ID than the OD. Don't forget too that with it getting thicker from mouth to neck-;shoulder junction, the spring-back will vary accordingly. Just know that the ID is more consistent than the outside. If you were to turn the necks, as I happen to do, you'd get more consistent OD measurements and more uniform interference (not that would surely make a noticeable difference on paper ).

 

[isofahunter]

Lee actually specifies a 1/8th turn. A quarter turn just places force on the same areas of the neck.

1/8 is right, miss type.

 

[SlowMiss6.5]

Take the die apart and examine each piece.
Insert a case and see where the outer collet touches the case neck. Look through the slots.
The outer collet may be the wrong one or be damaged.
Excessive force can put a groove into the mating parts preventing full closure on the neck.
Note that more force damages die parts. The case floats on the shell holder inside the collet.
Then the collet presses down the neck.
View attachment 8405604

Took it apart and wiped it with a rag and this is what the parts look like. Some wear marks but not ridges that I can feel that would keep the die from working

My ES was cut in half when I went to a regular FL die and I think that’s due to the inconsistent neck tension. Both pieces say 6.5cm so I’d think it’s the right parts?

 

[ma smith]

Lee collet dies have a couple of working 'quirks' you need to keep track of. I'm not sure if these are directly or indirectly related to what OP is dealing with, but its worth mentioning. The inner-sleve galling is kind of more an annoyance than a show-stopper, since 800 wet sand paper tends to refresh the mating surfaces without a lot of drama. But its still an annoyance. The partial sizing of the neck is detailed below, w/ some direct comms from the company.

Lee Collet Die change

I use Lee dies pretty exclusively, especially the collet dies for neck sizing. I just started loading for an old Husky 30 06 and got a new set of dies. After the usually cleaning and polishing of the mandrel, I started resizing some fired cases. I quickly noticed the top of the neck was...

www.24hourcampfire.com

 

[FLIGHT762]

I have the old style Collet Die and do the Body Die & Collet Die routine. What I do and some other reloaders do when using this die is to size the neck, spin the case 180º and size again. It's worth a try to see if you get less runout.

It's also recommended to grease the Collet. I grease mine with Mobil 1 red grease.

 

[lariat]

I have the old style Collet Die and do the Body Die & Collet Die routine. What I do and some other reloaders do when using this die is to size the neck, spin the case 180º and size again. It's worth a try to see if you get less runout.

It's also recommended to grease the Collet. I grease mine with Mobil 1 red grease.

I have done the same. I went down this rabbit hole a while back and started wasting time by testing my case mouth and neck ID with pin gages. What I found was there was consistency with the dies but only when using brass from the same mfr. Some mfrs wouldn’t be consistent, but I could fix most of that with turning the necks to the same wall thickness and annealing. After that I put the pin gages down and test it only when I have to adjust the dies for some reason. It’s kind of a ocd thing, but it did yield what I consider to be useful info.

 

[aprocast]

Measure the inside of the neck using pin gauges, you will find it is uniform as it should be, stop overthinking things, a mandrel pushes discrepancies to the outside where it has no effect

 

[918v]

As pointed out before, the thickness of the neck gets thicker as you move down from the mouth to the neck-shoulder junction. And . . .as good as Lapua is, there's usually some variations in thickness from one side of the neck to the other. The collet is mashing the neck against the mandrel resulting in a more uniform dimension on the ID than the OD. Don't forget too that with it getting thicker from mouth to neck-;shoulder junction, the spring-back will vary accordingly. Just know that the ID is more consistent than the outside. If you were to turn the necks, as I happen to do, you'd get more consistent OD measurements and more uniform interference (not that would surely make a noticeable difference on paper ).

Hard to get good advice like this ^^^ nowadays.

 

[Doom]

The newer LCDs flare the mouth (actually don't size) to make loading easier. Easy to fix with the Factory Crimp die.