Scratches on cases after resizing

[jimborock]

I was resizing some 44 special casings today that I had previously tumbled in corn cob media. I noticed that the die was offering much more resistance than usual. Upon inspecting the resized cases, I saw that there were scratches the entire length of the case, all around the case about 1/32 of an inch apart.

The die was a Lee carbide die. After about twenty minutes of buffing the inside of the die with a bronze brush and some fine steel wool will I was able to resize without scratching the cases. Has this happened to anyone else before and do you have any idea what may have caused it. I can't think of anything I could have done to cause some foreign material to accumulate on the inside of the die.

 

[scrat]

yep

and first welcome to the high road

and now second dirt, only time i have seen it happen There was dirt or some foreign object on one of the cases. Then you sized the case and woops look what happened

 

[ReloaderFred]

It's residue left over from the tumbling process, either very fine dirt or even some polishing compound. Try tumbling in some plain corn cob to remove any polishing compound and the problem will go away.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[PsychoKnight]

Tungsten Carbide was such the rage. Along with leg warmers, big hair, and hairy . . .

Titanium Carbide is it man - at least for now. If you see Titanium Nitride, its probably just nomenclature confusion.

The contact surface is both harder and smoother. Think glass versus poured cement. Fewer nucks and crannies to trap scratch-causing debris. The increased hardness helps prevent the surface from become pitted and scratched itself, reducing the creation of voids for debris to be trapped and scrapped against your outer brass wall.

At least this is what I've gathered so far, but I'm not certain.

 

[bl4ckd0g]

Go disassemble your dies and clean them.

 

[FM12]

This can happen if you resize a lot of nickle cases also...small particles of nickle imbed themselves in the sizing die and scratch the next cases...clean your dies periodically, and especially when you notice scratches.

 

[The Bushmaster]

There's that nickel problem again...Send me all your nickel cases...nickel is much softer the tungsten carbide and I doubt it will embed in the die...

 

[strat81]

Bushmaster is full of it.





j/k
Send ME your nickel cases.
(All your base are belong to us.)

 

[jenrob]

I wouldn't use a buffer. Just use your gun cleaning solvents. Harder or softer over time if you leave them dirty they are going to pit. Erosion the same way water will erode a rock over time

 

[rcmodel]

That can also be caused by brass galding.
Tiny pieces of brass get stuck in the die and scratch cases from then on until you polish it out.

It is especially prevalent with steel dies, but can also occasionally happen with carbide if you don't lube cases at all.

I use One-Shot sparingly on all my pistol cases.
It not only eliminates any chance of brass galding, but makes resizing easy enough for an old man to do it with two fingers on the press handle.


rcmodel

 

[TEDDY]

age

RCmodel:come on RC your not that old.I'm 83








joke;

 

[The Bushmaster]

Right up to my Hazel eyes...Oh darn Strat81...Forgot to mention that too...I use a lot of nickel brass for my outdoor operations...Being into using leather belts and accesories...What you don't send Strat81...I'll take..

 

[FM12]

Bushmaster: I've had it happen in my Dillon SQDB press. Nickle particles ate up some cases until I cleaned the sizer. Now, no more scratches. Go figure!

 

[The Bushmaster]

FM12 See? There's yer problem...You use a Dillon press. As I don't do large volume reloading and inspect all cases before they are resized I catch those that I find the nickel plating starting to flake off. Actually I find very few that have this problem. I resize all my cases that are out of tolerence except 9mm X 19 and .45 ACP. This helps to spot those nickel cases that may be ready for the scrap bucket.

 

[FM12]

You may be right, the one SDB I had trouble with is a loaner, so might have come from the previous operator! Thanks for the reply, Happy New Year!

 

[The Bushmaster]

Stand-by FM12...Here come all the Blue Kool-ade drinkers...L O L