I suppose it could cause damage. What’s holding you back from fixing your Lee expander plug so it doesn’t cause flex?
Lee’s expanding & taper crimp dies
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I suppose it could cause damage. What’s holding you back from fixing your Lee expander plug so it doesn’t cause flex?
I thought I read this tug was by design?
kmw1954
Member
I use 5 different sets of Lee Pistol dies on three different turret presses and I haven't had a problem on any of the weak Lee Presses. Guess same can be said about the thousands of other presses and die sets sold over the decades.
No, it’s a flaw. Lee has issued Tech Tips and instructions to reduce the tug, but they don’t work, long term.
I came up with a permanent solution a number of years ago and would be happy to share if you are interested.
Absolutely!
LOLBELL
Member
If the Lee dies are causing flex in a Redding Turret press the flaw is in the press.
Where might these Lee Tech Tips be found? Have you shared your permanent solution with Lee. I’m sure their engineers would like to know.
No, I do not think the Lee die tug will damage your Redding Turret Press. I doubt if anything you are strong enough to do with the handle will faze that press.
And your die may work fine with your cases. It seems to be a sometimes thing on an excessive pull by the die. If you can order the plugs directly from Lee they are $3.50 from Lee. If you buy the whole die they cost about $13. So it is a cheap experiment to polish one and see if it works better. A little tug and bump is good. A lot of tug is too much.
And your die may work fine with your cases. It seems to be a sometimes thing on an excessive pull by the die. If you can order the plugs directly from Lee they are $3.50 from Lee. If you buy the whole die they cost about $13. So it is a cheap experiment to polish one and see if it works better. A little tug and bump is good. A lot of tug is too much.
Have you ever gotten your finger caught in a Chinese finger trap?
The design flaw in the standard Lee plug is the 1/8” long straight section before the plug’s tapered expansion. When the case is flared, and the loading press ram starts to go back down, the straight section of the plug and case act like a Chinese finger trap. This is the cause of your “tug”, or the cause of excessive extraction force when using a Lee expander.
You can fix your Lee die for free.
The expander plug is titanium carbide based on grey color and spark color when grinding. Using a grinder or a grinding wheel, remove the 1/8” straight section. Put outside radius on your grind. Use lapping compound or steel wool to polish the expander.
The expander plug on the left is a Lee 380 ACP plug, unmodified. At the bottom of the plug you can see the 1/8” straight section and transition to flaring taper which does the work to flare the case mouth. The tip is also dull grey color and not polished.
The expander plug on the right is a Lee 38/357 expander plug, modified as described above. You can see how much I ground the 38/357 expander plug tip by comparing it to the 380 expander plug. Your new radius should transition into the flaring taper section, as shown. The tip is shiny because it was polished.
Simply polishing the tip, and not grinding, is good for about 10 to 20 cases, and then sticking will occur again, in my experience.
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If that tug can damage a Redding press, you should get another press. Seriously.
Thanks!Have you ever gotten your finger caught in a Chinese finger trap?
The design flaw in the standard Lee plug is the 1/8” long straight section before the plug’s tapered expansion. When the case is flared, and the loading press ram starts to go back down, the straight section of the plug and case act like a Chinese finger trap. This is the cause of your “tug”, or the cause of excessive extraction force when using a Lee expander.
You can fix your Lee die for free.
The expander plug is titanium carbide based on grey color and spark color when grinding. Using a grinder or a grinding wheel, remove the 1/8” straight section. Put outside radius on your grind. Use lapping compound or steel wool to polish the expander.
The expander plug on the left is a Lee 380 ACP plug, unmodified. At the bottom of the plug you can see the 1/8” straight section and transition to flaring taper which does the work to flare the case mouth. The tip is also dull grey color and not polished.
The expander plug on the right is a Lee 38/357 expander plug, modified as described above. You can see how much I ground the 38/357 expander plug tip by comparing it to the 380 expander plug. Your new radius should transition into the flaring taper section, as shown. The tip is shiny because it was polished.
Simply polishing the tip, and not grinding, is good for about 10 to 20 cases, and then sticking will occur again, in my experience.
Have you informed Lee of this?
No.
I thought of sending Lee the information, but honestly I don’t want to get involved in Lee’s business. It’s what I do for a living, machine design, and it would feel like work to me. But I enjoy helping other people on this forum, so that’s where I decided to leave it.
I’m sure Lee would be interested and they would likely fix their product if they had the info.
Their engineers are building to a price point.
Problem solved! Patent your design and offer it to Lee for $$$.
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We’ll see. This is virgin Starline brass I’m flaring.
Hope it works out. I too, have used virgin Starline brass (.44mag) and never had a problem after 1x loading. It is noticeably smoother on the 2nd go round. Clean, new brass in clean dies (even carbide) is sticky.
A fairly common observation here.
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