jetech
Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2012
- Messages
- 54
I decided to give Lee dies a try. When I took them apart to clean prior to use I was a little disappointed in the quality but gave them a try anyway.
The internal threads on the seater dies (both 9mm and .40 S&W) were galled as if no cutting fluid was used or the tooling was dull.
The problem with the seaters is they will not hold a setting. I had variation from 1.097 to 1.83 with a target of 1.090.
I could see the center adjustment moving up and down when the press lever was moved.
I tried several ways to get the adjustment to lock in place but nothing worked. I think it is a combination of poor threads and that goofy O-ring on the adjustment.
The die used to bell the case is another poor quality tooling. When the press ram is lowered the die is supposed to grab slightly to jar any powder loose that didn't fall into the case (if you dump powder through the die). This die requires quite a bit of force to lower the ram, so much that when it does release it will shake the entire bench. The inside of the cases are getting scratched up from this die.
I am sending both of these sets back and replacing them with RCBS.
Anyone else finding this? It may be possible I got a bad run of dies.
The internal threads on the seater dies (both 9mm and .40 S&W) were galled as if no cutting fluid was used or the tooling was dull.
The problem with the seaters is they will not hold a setting. I had variation from 1.097 to 1.83 with a target of 1.090.
I could see the center adjustment moving up and down when the press lever was moved.
I tried several ways to get the adjustment to lock in place but nothing worked. I think it is a combination of poor threads and that goofy O-ring on the adjustment.
The die used to bell the case is another poor quality tooling. When the press ram is lowered the die is supposed to grab slightly to jar any powder loose that didn't fall into the case (if you dump powder through the die). This die requires quite a bit of force to lower the ram, so much that when it does release it will shake the entire bench. The inside of the cases are getting scratched up from this die.
I am sending both of these sets back and replacing them with RCBS.
Anyone else finding this? It may be possible I got a bad run of dies.