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Neck turning for success.

Alex Wheeler

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Since there is always so many questions about this topic I wanted to share my process that has always produced excellent results for me. I set up my tools a little differently because I played with all of this stuff when I started turning and found it did make a difference.
The first thing is neck fit on the mandrel. You want this snug. The reason is that any play will transfer into thickness variation. I like a neck that you can not just push on and off by hand. In many cases I will turn brass straight out of the box. I find the carbide turning mandrels from Sinclair fit a lot of virgin cases just right. Because of this fit, you need to lube every case and you must use a carbide or coated mandrel to prevent galling. I have used FP-10 lube from the start and its worked great. You can get a little too tight, but it pretty hard to do. If you see galling or your tearing up the inside of the neck your too tight or the mandrel is rough. If your turning necked up brass, it will get pretty snug when you push through the donut. But it eases up when you cut it.
Because of this fit, you will be producing some heat. So you want to set the turning tool on a cold pack in between cases. Measure every 5th case neck or so and when you see one .0001" thicker, you need to slow down a little and let the tool cool. As the body of the tool heats up and expands it will cut thicker.
The cutters edge also plays a role. I uses HSS and put a small radius on the angle transition from the neck to shoulder. This helps cut a smoother finish with less grooving. I also break the edge slightly. A razor sharp edge is not desirable. It cuts too freely and if the neck fit is not right it will cut a thin spot. You want to dull the edge just slightly so the tool pushed the neck into the mandrel. I am just talking about dragging some 1500 grit along the edge lightly a couple times.
I hold the turner in my hand and try to push against the back of the mandrel with my thumb as to not cock the cutting tool. Let if float freely with a light hold.
With these methods I have no problem keeping necks to where I can not measure the difference with my .0001" ball mic. Loosen up the fit and sharpen the cutter and .0002" or worse is not a problem to find.
Hope this helps.20231130_063215.jpg
 
Not too fancy, I made it with hand tools and a file before I even had real machine tools. The cut and try method seemed crazy from day one!
Since there is always so many questions about this topic I wanted to share my process that has always produced excellent results for me. I set up my tools a little differently because I played with all of this stuff when I started turning and found it did make a difference.
The first thing is neck fit on the mandrel. You want this snug. The reason is that any play will transfer into thickness variation. I like a neck that you can not just push on and off by hand. In many cases I will turn brass straight out of the box. I find the carbide turning mandrels from Sinclair fit a lot of virgin cases just right. Because of this fit, you need to lube every case and you must use a carbide or coated mandrel to prevent galling. I have used FP-10 lube from the start and its worked great. You can get a little too tight, but it pretty hard to do. If you see galling or your tearing up the inside of the neck your too tight or the mandrel is rough. If your turning necked up brass, it will get pretty snug when you push through the donut. But it eases up when you cut it.
Because of this fit, you will be producing some heat. So you want to set the turning tool on a cold pack in between cases. Measure every 5th case neck or so and when you see one .0001" thicker, you need to slow down a little and let the tool cool. As the body of the tool heats up and expands it will cut thicker.
The cutters edge also plays a role. I uses HSS and put a small radius on the angle transition from the neck to shoulder. This helps cut a smoother finish with less grooving. I also break the edge slightly. A razor sharp edge is not desirable. It cuts too freely and if the neck fit is not right it will cut a thin spot. You want to dull the edge just slightly so the tool pushed the neck into the mandrel. I am just talking about dragging some 1500 grit along the edge lightly a couple times.
I hold the turner in my hand and try to push against the back of the mandrel with my thumb as to not cock the cutting tool. Let if float freely with a light hold.
With these methods I have no problem keeping necks to where I can not measure the difference with my .0001" ball mic. Loosen up the fit and sharpen the cutter and .0002" or worse is not a problem to find.
Hope this helps.View attachment 1497871
Good write up Alex.
Also, I have found that the hardness of that particular brand of brass and tool pressure required to cut, determines how you have to set up the cutting depth. Not all brass will turn at that same setting and may need to be readjusted to obtain the exactness required.

DJ
 
Thanx! Helpful.

What's kept me from neck turning is at least threefold: (1) Time needed to do it (2) cost of tooling up (3) I already get 0.35 - 0.45" groups at 100 yd - and that's good enuf for me. I don't compete benchrest - more a PRS / F-class type of mixmaster comps. It remains to be seen if my 5-15th firing of a individual cases will be as accurate as my 1st to 5th.

So I'm wondering... what kind of addtl accuracy does neck turning get ya? From say 0.50" grp sat 100y to....what?

Thanx
 
Last edited:
Thanx! Helpful.

What's kept me from neck turning is at least threefold: (1) Time needed to do it (2) cost of tooling up (3) I already get 0.35 - 0.45" groups at 100 yd - and that's good enuf for me. I don't compete benchrest - more a PRS / F-class type of mixmaster comps. It remains to be seen if my 5-15th firing of a individual cases will be as accurate as my 1st to 5th.

So I'm wondering... what kinf of addtl accuracy does neck turning get ya? From say 0.50" grp sat 100y to....what?

Thanx?
You can only answer that question for yourself.
Just when we think that something is written in stone, a shooter comes along and wins the NBRSA Group Nationals, and the Tack Driver, with a no neck turn chamber.
 
Same here Alex, particularly the snug mandrel fit to push everything to the outside and just a better job overall. Yes, gotta keep it lubed and consistently about the same temp. I use a gel pack like used for sore muscles/joints to lay the cutter on each time. I'd rather just not turn necks at all though. Lol!
 
You can only answer that question for yourself.
Just when we think that something is written in stone, a shooter comes along and wins the NBRSA Group Nationals, and the Tack Driver, with a no neck turn chamber.
Thanx for an honest answer. :) And honestly, I'm not likely to try neck turning hoping it might help. I got into serious hard core brass prep and annealing cuz I *knew* it would help.

Maybe I'm just lazy. :)

If I were competing BR, I'd def get into neck turning. But... :)
 
View attachment 1497907

This stuff is my favorite for neck turning. Smells great. It's slippery like an icy sidewalk and super thin.
I use a concoction I had left over from bullet making lube. It works quite well. Anhydrous lanolin and Cool Tool, IIRC. It's been around for several years. A little goes a long way. It's similar to Redding sizing lube in terms of feel and consistency. I put it on a hot plate to keep it just liquid and dip each neck, lubing id and od at the same time, fwiw. Again though, rather not do it at all. I'm accumulating more no turn reamers and chucking reamers. Doing one today.
 

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