Lee Classic Turret - broken turret

[Arbor]

Hi,

I recently got a Lee Classic Turret press, and have reloaded some .223 and .308. After resizing about 500 rounds of .308 brass, I noticed that the little nubs on the turret that hold it in the press are breaking off. It's mainly the one on the .308 resizing side, but also the nub that gets the most force from neck sizing. There are big cracks in the turret itself, just above the nubs. It looks like the nubs are close to breaking off completely.

Has anyone else seen this before? Any idea why it's happening? Could it be that I adjusted the sizing die in a hair too far and the end of the stroke is putting too much pressure on it when the shellholder bottoms out?

Thanks

P.S. I ran across a site a few weeks back that was selling various bullets and powders. It was all on one very long page. I remember he was selling 8lb kegs of military surplus powder. He was also selling pulled bullets from 7.62x54r, some of which had been resized to .309. Anyone know what site that was?

 

[Steve in KC]

never mind the 'why'...call lee and get a replacement!

 

[Redhat]

No I've never seen that either. I load .270 and .30-06 with no issues.

As previously mentioned, call Lee and let them make it right.

 

[Arbor]

I will call lee, I'm sure they will replace it no problem. I was just curious to see if anyone else had this happen. Maybe I got a defective turret?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I resize 30-06 brass with the Lee Classic 4 Hole Turret Press all the time and I have never had a problem. It's possible your guess of the dies being improperly adjusted is correct. If you are pushing up on the turret with enough force that just might break it. You should not be putting any pressure on the turret itself, if you are the die is too low.

 

[RippinSVT]

Like Arbor said, call Lee, they have excellent customer service.

 

[EddieNFL]

Might be a good idea to determine why so you don't crack the next one.

 

[snuffy]

I've heard it said that some people can break an anvil with a rubber hammer!

This is probably the case here with the turret being under too much pressure from below by a miss-adjusted die. The lee presses will NOT "cam over". They operate to a positive stop. Arbor, when lee replaces that turret, adjust the die up until the shell holder makes hard contact with the bottom of the die when a shell is being resized. Any more than that is only going to stress the heck out of the whole press structure.

 

[ranger335v]

Snuffy, you are right! I was reading and thinking that would require a gosh-awful amount of ram pressure.

Some people can break the top strap of Rock Chuckers, etc., too, cam-over or not. ??

 

[Arbor]

Honestly, it's not like I was really yarnking down on it. And I did follow the instructions for adjusting the die...

I didn't push any harder on the handle at the end of the resizing stroke than when I was neck sizing, which seems to take quite a bit of force.