Just broke two de-capping pins!!!! ARRRGGGG!!!!

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Telum Pisces

Telum Pisces

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Yep, broke one and then put the backup in and it broke on the next case as well. Lee pins should have slid up and they did. But apparently not enough and bent them over. Looks to be a batch of military primers that were hard in there! Now I have to wait till parts arrive to finish a job I wanted to be done with tonight!
 
Sucks. I’ve been there done that. Are all the parts of the die tight. I realized when I broke a couple it was because the decapping pin was lose within the die.
 
If you have a lathe, or a steady hand :), you can drill a hole on the rod of Lee decapping pin and epoxy a steel pin in. I did that and use it just fine. If the pin bent, just melt the epoxy and put a new pin in.
 
If you are using a universal decapping die, make sure the brass is perfectly situated in the shell holder. If it’s slightly off, you will be break the pin as it won’t be perfectly lines up with the flash hole. I’ve never broken a pin on a sizing/decapping die because it aligns itself, but I was breaking pins when I first started using a universal decapping die because of misalignment.
 
I have a few extra Lee pins if you need some. Shoot me PM and I'd be happy to send them out to you. I've bent a few myself, and now I use a Lyman universal decapping die, haven't had that issue since.
 
call me old fashioned but IU use 1 of the lee hand held decapping rods you smack with a hammer to remove the primers in all my rifle cases before I tumble them.

The only time that tool has ever failed is from operator error.

I have yet to break 1 of them. Heck years ago I was doing up a batch of range pickups and ended up with a case with a primer that just didn't want to come out. Gave it a couple hit with a 20oz eastwing & nothing. Got out a 2# ball peen hammer & gave it a pretty good hit. The rod went down as it was supposed to but when I tried to pull it out it wouldn't budge. Ended up having to use 2 sets of vice grips to get it out. Turns out it was a berdan primed case & I drove the decapping rod thru the bottom of the brass case.
 
bersaguy said:
I have a few extra Lee pins if you need some.
Click to expand...

Need to know what one the OP bent. They can be different, their collet die and various caliber expanders are different from one another.

6C3424C1-F015-4C7F-B3AC-5D115B70101B.jpeg

The universal, pistol ones and calibers that do not have the expander are all the same though.
 
jmorris said:
Need to know what one the OP bent. They can be different, their collet die and various caliber expanders are different from one another.

View attachment 975990

The universal, pistol ones and calibers that do not have the expander are all the same though.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes...fair enough. Didn't think about that. I just take the pins out of my Lee 4 die sets (all pistol calibers) and the pins all look identical when they're out. The pin most closely resemble the the second from the left it the above photo, but the collet looks like the other three
 
That one is out of their collet die, it squeezes the case mouth to the arbor for sizing. Some are pretty close to the universal/pistol pins (right) but not as long.

9B1870C9-2E29-4FFB-9CBB-BF00A6CE96DC.jpeg
 
Well there you go, learn something new everyday. Yup, the ones I have are the ones on the right. So, with the rifle calibers, or anything other than the pistol/universal dies, hand priming before sizing wouldn't be an option I take it.
 
You can still deprime before. I suppose you could still prime before sizing but I don’t do that for anything much less rifle brass that might have to be trimmed after the sizing operation.

Their universal deprime die uses the pistol stem and is just a bored out 7/8-14 thread, open for most any round that can be loaded on a regular press.

The die on the left is one of them.

9E352BDA-D991-42C7-81B0-02413860DA77.jpeg

One can also remove the expander decapping pins from their rifle dies or use the pistol/universal one as well but the neck will likely be sized under proper dimensions, because an expander is not drawn back out to open them back up. However, an expanding die, like the Sinclair on the right can be used just to expand and can give better results than an expander drawn back out of the mouth. If they don’t have one of those they could also return the expander, even though the decapping pin is broken off so it can do that portion of the job once the brass is deprimed.

Depending on what the op has and is decapping there are ways to keep going while waiting on a replacement.

Using a rifle decapping/expanding stem won’t likely have any effect if used in pistol dies. A 223 decapping stem/expander is not going to touch the inside of a 9mm or 45 ACP case, that’s for sure.

So your generous offer might be all the OP needs to keep going, even if it happens to add another step.
 
Last edited:
HankC said:
If you have a lathe, or a steady hand :), you can drill a hole on the rod of Lee decapping pin and epoxy a steel pin in. I did that and use it just fine. If the pin bent, just melt the epoxy and put a new pin in.
Click to expand...


If you have a lathe or drill press you can turn it back to diameter and continue to use. Have also used the one from squirrel.
 
Thanks everyone! It ended up being a Berdan primed case in the mix! In this mix of brass, I've had .22 cases, .380, 38 Super and a few other odds and ends. It was batch of range brass that was supposed to be sorted. It was mostly sorted!!!!

Lee offers a free replacement if you send it in and wait. Or you pay for shipping for a free one to get it faster. It was over $8 in shipping and I ordered a few more off amazon for $6 or less with free shipping. Got some for my sizing die and the universal decapper as well so I'll be prepared next time and not have a stoppage in the middle of 1000+ cases!
 
jmorris said:
Need to know what one the OP bent. They can be different, their collet die and various caliber expanders are different from one another.

View attachment 975990

The universal, pistol ones and calibers that do not have the expander are all the same though.
Click to expand...


I bent both the universal Lee decapper one and the one in my Lee sizing die for 9mm. Apparently both on a Berdan primed case.
 
I broke a Lyman pin a while back on a bright shiny brass 30-06 case.
Lyman sent me a free replacement if I remember correctly.
Only it wasn’t a brass case, it was a steel case and you guessed it, the steel case was also berdan primed!
I use a magnet now!
 
+1 on the Squirrel Daddy pins.

I think I first heard about them here.

I bent one Lee .223 decap/expander pin and had to cut another in half while removing a stuck case with the RCBS tool, then bent and split a pin in the universal decapper.

Got three Squirrels, put one in the universal decapper and no looking back.

That thing eats berdan primer brass for breakfast!

It'll punch right through the brass without much effort.

I've learned to feel whether it's just a tough crimp or berdan now, but that Squirrel just doesn't care either way.

(I've also learned to be careful about lubing rifle brass and also to remember to change into the -correct- shellholder before proceeding...:D)
 
I broke a pin on my Lee Universal Depriming die a few years ago. Rather than wait on Lee I just ordered a few from Midway. The Squirrel Daddy stuff sounds good but I didn't know about them back then. When I broke mine there was a piece of pea gravel in the case. The pin hit it and rolled off of the curved surface.

Everybody is talking about how tuff the Mighty Armory die is and I might be tempted to order one if I didn't already have a Lee die. But you can buy 3 Lee dies and a few extra pins for the cost of one. I've been happy with the Lee die and I'm not a big Lee fan.
 
Telum Pisces said:
I bent both the universal Lee decapper one and the one in my Lee sizing die for 9mm. Apparently both on a Berdan primed case.
Click to expand...

The good news is that you know what “too tight” is on the collet.

I understand it’s repetitive to reset the thing but it beats the average speed of zero for a few days.
 
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