Lee die problems in a progressive.??

[codefour]

I recently bought an auto index RCBS Pro 2000..!! Late Birthday present to myself. I love the press.. It just works well..

Now my question. All of my handgun dies are RCBS carbide, except my .38/.357 dies. They are the Lee Carbide four die set. Previously, I only used them on a single stage. On a single stage, they were ok. The seater die makes this weird grinding noise when seating jacketed bullets. The bell/flaring die sticks. IMHO, the Lee dies are just not as smooth as the RCBS carbide.

So, I dialed in the Lee .38 dies into my Pro 2000. I loaded 200 rounds his morning. Every 25 or so rounds when I loaded a new APS strip, I noticed there were little brass shavings all over the shell plate and shell plate assembly. I had to finish off the five cartidges in the shell plate and brush off the shell plate and assembly to remove the shavings. I did not want brass shavings in the press. I did not have this problem with any of the RCBS die sets.

Is this common with Lee dies used on a progressive? Yes, I rechecked my dies and they were installed as described in the Lee instructions.

Or, should I just buy a new set of RCBS dies? The Lee dies were given to me as a gift anyway.

 

[Red Cent]

Used Lee Precision for years and years and years. Ain't nothin' matter with a set of Lee dies,no matter what you hear IM honest O. All three 650s have Lee dies. I use the RCBS Cowboy sizing die for the 38s. Big mouth, doncha know.
Weird stuff with yours. Never heard that before.

 

[Diablo Slim]

lee dies

I use lee carbide dies in my lock and load with no problems
but I shoot all lead bullets

 

[Uniquedot]

I had this problem with rcbs dies before switching to lee dies. I never asked questions or investigated so i can't offer an answer, but i suspect it may have been my adjustments.

 

[rfwobbly]

Mr Code -

Your setup depths will most definitely have changed between the 2 presses. Especially critical depths like the belling. So if you simply screwed the dies into the new press using the old lock ring settings, then you would indeed be in for a surprise. Lack of belling would explain the crunching noise you hear during seating.

It is not clear on reading your post whether the brass shavings are appearing during the priming operation, belling operation, or seating operation.

 

[snuffy]

It is not clear on reading your post whether the brass shavings are appearing during the priming operation, belling operation, or seating operation.

As RF said, you have to investigate where the brass shavings are coming from.

The lee expander has the reputation of sticking IN the neck of cases. The solution is to remove the expander, then polish the part that creates the bell, and the entire expander. Polish, but do not remove metal, it will be junk if you do.

The grinding is probably coming from the lee factory crimp die,(FCD). You have excessive belling if it is catching on the way into the FCD. I have to bell more when loading oversize lead bullets. Then I too get a grinding noise as the shells enter the FCD. That is most likely where your brass shavings come from.

 

[codefour]

Thanks..

Well, I read all of the posts and went and did some investigating. I did not simply use the same die settings as my Rock Chucker. I completely reset each die when I installed them.

Snuffy, I am going to polish the expander die like you mentioned to get rid of that irritating stick. I know Lee designed it into the die to help powder fall through, but it is annoying.

I was loading some left over Berry's Bullets so I had to bell the cases a bit more than usual. I usually only shoot jacketed. The Berry's require a decent belling to seat properly.

Then I learned it was the Seating die that was causing the shavings. I decreased the bell and swithced to a Hornady XTP and the problem went away. Thanks for all the responses and getting me back on track.

 

[mdi]

Inspect some finished rounds and see where the shavings are coming from...