I did mine on a sunnen pin hone.How are you honing them? I'm very mechanical. I do have a drill press. I do not have a lathe.
I did mine on a sunnen pin hone.How are you honing them? I'm very mechanical. I do have a drill press. I do not have a lathe.
I used a sunnen, LLB 1660.https://www.sunnen.com/Catalog/Honing/Honing-Portable-Hones said to work well on revolver cylinder throats?
I do plan to get Lee to make me a slightly smaller mandrel for the custom Collet die they built me. It's just not giving me enough neck tension. I think part of the reason is that I turned some of my necks down too far or may be getting a little too much spring back. Or a combination of the two. I'm paying a lot more attention to that with the Lapua brass I'm using now. My loaded OD is .291. That is with.264 diameter bullets. I'd like to size back to .289 consistently but some of my outside IDs wind up at .290-.2895, possibly a touch more. But I just discovered the issue and with all that's been going on I haven't been able to work through it yet.. I still would like to remove or hone my FL die to somewhere in the .288-.2885 area and reduce the diameter of my expander ball to keep from working the brass so much during initial sizing and conversion to 6.5-05. I actually tried one of my 270 dies with the expander ball removed but it doesn't quite take the necks far down far enough. It would have been great if it had.The one thing you don't want is a FL Die that sizes the neck way down so that whatever means you use to expand back to something near your target diameter works the crap out of the brass.
How many don't even know/measure what you dies are doing to your brass?
Use bushings, hone, whatever brand of die, you don't want to work the neck down several thou then back up each time you size.
I have a few different FL dies in the 22 cal calibers that work the necks down but like the Redding Body die that doesn't touch the neck. Then stick something in the neck, mandrel, pin, ball, to finalize neck I.D.
I like the Lee Collet Die and seem to get nice repeatable neck tension.
Neck I.D., bullet diameter less your desired 'Neck Tension', seems to be the dimension most are after.
You can approach that from the inside or the outside.
Relying on neck O.D. and your neck thickness to give you a correct I.D. requires extremely consistent neck thickness.
Occasionally I need to use a small base die for my AR (22 Nolser). I used a 0.248" Carbide Reamer then some fine paper 2000 grit to soften the leading edge of the neck area and polish the inside.
I don't neck turn and variations in neck thickness prevents getting good results from final sizing from the outside.
Took a while but found it!Post the video please.
Yes, thanks. I'll go fix the post.I know you meant Lee Collet Neck Sizing Die instead of the Lee Factory Crimp die.
I have used Rick Averill's method to do several dies and I'm very happy with the results. I just use a small rechargeable drill to hold the lap and hold the die in my hand. I think this is a good method as it allows the die to pretty much float, which helps it stay aligned, and you get a lot of feedback in the feel of it. I use lapping compound that I got from Brownell's, best cutting seems to be the 125 grit for some reason. Then I finish it with 2 finer grades. Main thing to learn is to be patient and check your progress frequently. You can overdo it without realizing it.Exactly what I was looking for. I actually have a Lee Collet I can use for a mandrel if need be but I don't get consistent enough results sizing with the collet for some reason.
Thank You Sir! I ordered 220 grit which should cut fairly slow and help me creep up to the proper size. Plus I have lapping compound for scope rings in the shop Just not sure what grit.Pretty sure I used a 9/32" expandable which can be expanded up to 15%, which would be... .323"?
McMasterCarr no. 4548A14 and 4548A54 replacement barrel in case the included one wears out (not likely on just one die).
It's been a couple years ago but if I remember correctly I opened mine up to like .293-.294.
Get a pin gauge for the dimension you want to hit and hone, check, hone, check, hone, check. Then if needed expand the lap just a little bit and repeat. Creep up on it. At least for somebody like me it would be easy to overshoot![]()
I used a .25 lap that I turned down on a lathe, if you dont have a lathe available II would like to lap a 223 die to .246-.248. Which of the following lap tools should I purchase from this link?
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I will likely buy pin gauges for .246..247,.248 and work up until satisfied.
1/4”, reduce the size of it a little then lap. Just as recommended above.I would like to lap a 223 die to .246-.248. Which of the following lap tools should I purchase from this link?