dc.fireman
Member
I think I've spoken to JimKirk and Walkalong, and possibly rcmodel and Snuffy in the past about the Lee trimmer (cutter shaft & case length gauge type).
I'm having an issue with it - I have three of the shafts - I've never had an issue with the 30-06, or the 30-30.
Today is the first time I used the one I have for .45 ACP, and I had a few problems:
I'm using it with the cutter and caliber 'stud' chucked into my drill press as I have in the past :
1. My first issue - I needed to trim my brass. The Lyman manual calls for a trim to length of .888", many of my cases were in the .894-.896 range.
The cases (which I had just resized) wouldn't even slide all the way on to the gauge/pilot. It's seemed like the pilot diameter was too large. I first remedied this by spraying a little Dillon case lube on the pilot.
This helped for two or three cases, but then the lube would get hot, and sticky, and simply worsen the problem. I used a small bit of fine grit sand paper, and with the press running, smoothed out the pilot. Now I could get the cases to actually engage the blades on the cutter stud.
2. I thought everything was going well, until I went to mic a few of the 20+ cases I trimmed - the lengths are all over the place - the shortest was .897, and the longest trimmed down to .892. I can't seem to figure out why this is happening - The small pin on the bottom of the pilot is just barely peened - the tip might have shaved off .001" or so. It wasn't even enough material to flare the tip of the pilot, just remove the rounded tip.
What gives with the variations on the case lengths?
From my reasoning, this should work just like a mini lathe, only turned vertically, instead of on its side.
I can see how an out of spec pilot wouldn't let the pilot slide smoothly into the case mouth, but that shouldn't affect the overall lengths - the pilot tip simply butts up against the shell holder, and acts as a
stop. Any ideas what's going here? It has me utterly confounded.
3. I didn't bell any of the casemouths for my 230 gr. LRN cast bullets - only deburr and chamfered. Upon seating them, I am occasionally (every 5th or 6th round) getting a small sliver of lead shaved off of the side of the bullet - about .25" in length, and probably the diameter of a human hair. Is this acceptable? I know I probably should bell them in the future, but the bevel base seems to go into the case just fine on most of them.
Here's a link to the tool I'm referring to:
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=476992
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=880062
I'm having an issue with it - I have three of the shafts - I've never had an issue with the 30-06, or the 30-30.
Today is the first time I used the one I have for .45 ACP, and I had a few problems:
I'm using it with the cutter and caliber 'stud' chucked into my drill press as I have in the past :
1. My first issue - I needed to trim my brass. The Lyman manual calls for a trim to length of .888", many of my cases were in the .894-.896 range.
The cases (which I had just resized) wouldn't even slide all the way on to the gauge/pilot. It's seemed like the pilot diameter was too large. I first remedied this by spraying a little Dillon case lube on the pilot.
This helped for two or three cases, but then the lube would get hot, and sticky, and simply worsen the problem. I used a small bit of fine grit sand paper, and with the press running, smoothed out the pilot. Now I could get the cases to actually engage the blades on the cutter stud.
2. I thought everything was going well, until I went to mic a few of the 20+ cases I trimmed - the lengths are all over the place - the shortest was .897, and the longest trimmed down to .892. I can't seem to figure out why this is happening - The small pin on the bottom of the pilot is just barely peened - the tip might have shaved off .001" or so. It wasn't even enough material to flare the tip of the pilot, just remove the rounded tip.
What gives with the variations on the case lengths?
From my reasoning, this should work just like a mini lathe, only turned vertically, instead of on its side.
I can see how an out of spec pilot wouldn't let the pilot slide smoothly into the case mouth, but that shouldn't affect the overall lengths - the pilot tip simply butts up against the shell holder, and acts as a
stop. Any ideas what's going here? It has me utterly confounded.
3. I didn't bell any of the casemouths for my 230 gr. LRN cast bullets - only deburr and chamfered. Upon seating them, I am occasionally (every 5th or 6th round) getting a small sliver of lead shaved off of the side of the bullet - about .25" in length, and probably the diameter of a human hair. Is this acceptable? I know I probably should bell them in the future, but the bevel base seems to go into the case just fine on most of them.
Here's a link to the tool I'm referring to:
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=476992
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=880062