Advice for new reloaders concerning dies

[Seismic Sam]

As a result of a post on another thread, I thought I would post some information that might be valuable for new reloaders:

When ever you get a new die or a new set of dies, TAKE THEM COMPLETELY APART!!!

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. To make sure all the parts of the die are tight and properly assembled.
A) With resize decapping dies, you want to make sure the decapping pin is tightly screwed onto/into the stem. If it's loose, it may break fairly quickly.
B) Make sure the neck resizing button on bottle neck dies is tight, or you may break off the stem or get other weird effects, depending on the stem construction.
C) For the neck expanding die, if it's a Lyman Type M, you NEED to use red or blue loctite to lock the expander part onto the threaded stem. Failure to do this may result in non-uniform neck expansion.
D) For the seating die, check what shape the bottom of the seating stem is just for your own information. It is set up for round nose ball, hollow points, or other bullet shape? Some die sets come with two seating stems for different bullet noses.

2. The 2nd reason is to familiarize yourself with the parts of the die and how they work. With seating dies you will want to know this, because you may have to clean them when using lubed bullets. In addition, there may be moving parts on the die that you don't initially realize are adjustable, and that will lead to no end of confusion.

[gyrfalcon]

On a side note if you have an ultrasonic cleaner you might want to be careful if you decide to clean a die or part with it. It can remove bluing and plating.

[timwarner]

If you're not afraid of black helicopters, people have been reloading for longer than HammAR has been alive.
Most with dies with a lot worse construction.

Careful is one thing, paranoia is another. But if you reload anything that starts with a 5, you might wanna take extra care.

[hammAR]

.........., people have been reloading for longer than HammAR has been alive...............

Doubt it Timmy,
below is the original reloading manual by Yo Bhang Mi a 12th Century Buddhist,
translated by me into the Lyman 1st Edition Reloading Handbook.....

[Rodentman]

I've found crapola from the die-making process inside dies, like little shards of metal and stuff like that. I take them apart and clean them then coat lightly with oil.

[rugersol]

.........., people have been reloading for longer than HammAR has been alive...............

Doubt it Timmy,
below is the original reloading manual by Yo Bhang Mi a 12th Century Buddhist,
translated by me into the Lyman 1st Edition Reloading Handbook.....

"Lyman"?!

that looks remarkably similar to my Lee manual.

[JoeH]

"Lyman"?!

that looks remarkably similar to my Lee manual.

That's a different "Lee".

[rugersol]

"Lyman"?!

that looks remarkably similar to my Lee manual.

That's a different "Lee".

touche

[LarryFlew]

It does read EXACTLY like a Lee re-loader assembly manual.

[gyrfalcon]

It does read EXACTLY like a Lee re-loader assembly manual.

Checkout the videos here: http://www.leeprecision.com/html/HelpVideos/video.html
And also Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzaPXj4g8D0

Lee documentation is not very friendly.

[LarryFlew]

Thanks - did see a LOT of utube vids so it wasn't hard but would have been going by the manuals which skip every other step and don't mention or show any little things like the spring on the chain or where the hook on the shell feeder connects etc. A real DUH considering how long they have made the same loaders and that at least one person must have complained

[gyrfalcon]

Yeah, they should almost just get rid of the manual because it's so horrible. Making an instructional video and including a DVD with each press would be 100 times better... The only documentation they should include with the press is an exploded diagram and part listing, with warranty info and a DVD that shows how to operate and work with the press.

[rugersol]

Yeah, they should almost just get rid of the manual because it's so horrible. Making an instructional video and including a DVD with each press would be 100 times better... The only documentation they should include with the press is an exploded diagram and part listing, with warranty info and a DVD that shows how to operate and work with the press.

not to git off-topic, and I ain't seen it, but I understand the new Hornady LNL-AP comes with such a dvd. last guy I went to git him set-up, he already set it up hisself ... correctly. so we jest sat 'n bs'd 'n drank beer.

[gyrfalcon]

Yep the LnL-AP comes with a DVD, and a pretty good manual too. I actually haven't watched the DVD but I probably should... I was able to setup the LnL pretty quickly compared to my experiences with a Loadmaster. Lucked out adjusting the pawls for indexing adjustment too.

[rikkor]

I set up my LnL by myself, and it is my first press. The videos are good, but I found that the 'safety glasses intro' to each segment got really annoying.