Been wanting to try.....

[Patriot007]

I use Imperial sizing wax.(Less mess). when expanding any thing. As a rule of thumb. Never use Graphite to expand any thing. I do use it as a neck lube when seating bullets, but that a hole different subject. Trust me on that one.

 

[Richard Jones]

I use Imperial sizing wax.(Less mess). when expanding any thing. As a rule of thumb. Never use Graphite to expand any thing. I do use it as a neck lube when seating bullets, but that a hole different subject. Trust me on that one.

What is your reasoning as to why?

 

[PopCharlie]

My only suggestion would be putting the trim/chamfer step after the sizing with the mandrel. Once a case has been chamfered a fair amount of the bevel seems to remain through the next brass prep or two, and a properly ground pin gauge/mandrel doesn't "care" whether you re-chamfered the case mouth or not. It will provide the same sizing results either way. Although it's probably not a huge deal, I view trimming/chamfering as a step in the brass preparation process after which I do not want to handle the cases any more than absolutely necessary to prevent any damage or distortion to the trimmed and chamfered case mouth or neck. I always trim/chamfer cases as the very last step in the process, then they go directly into a tupperware container for safe storage until they are reloaded.

In fairness, I also use Hornady One Shot lube to re-size cases. I pretty much soak them down in One Shot lube inside and out, so it is natural for me to first resize the case, followed directly by the mandrel step while the lube is still present. That way I only have to lube cases and then clean the lube off once. As you are using two different lube steps for re-sizing the cases and sizing the necks, I can certainly see why you'd want to remove the Imperial before whipping out the graphite.

I thought about doing the trim, deburr, chamfer step after the neck sizing, as you suggest. I will try that next time I load. It makes sence to me.
PopCharlie

 

[PopCharlie]

As a side note, I also weighed the powder charges differently. I weighed each charge on my digital scale, trickled to get the exact weight. Then I weighed the charge on my new Ohaus beam scale. I found that I had to trickle in a few more kernals of powder to zero the beam precisely. Anywhere from 3 or 4 to 15 kernals. Reweighing the charge on the digital scale showed the correct charge weight. I purposely went over on a couple of charges on the mechanical scale. The digital scale showed a heavy charge, by 1 to 2 tenths. It seems my digital scale rounds up to the nearest 10th, but does not round down. Makes sence from a safety standpoint. Im going to use this method for a while to see if it makes a difference in ES or on paper.

PopCharlie

 

[Patriot007]

What is your reasoning as to why?

Simple. Graphite sticks to your expander mandrels and cakes up and sticks to it.. Have you ever noticed that when you pull your expander out of the case neck after expanding. You will see gobs of graphite stuck and compressed to your mandrel. Well,, that left a compression indent in the inside of the case neck. Remember, when you expand,, the idea is to push the imperfection from the Inside Diameter to the outside of the case neck. The last time I checked my Graphite,, it did not flow out of the case neck. It stayed inside the case neck an matted up on the expander and case neck. I do use it as a case neck lube for seating the bullet, But not for expanding anything. I found that Imperial sizing wax works great for this process and it's a heck of a lot easier to clean up. It's like, when I'm building a racing motor and inserting the pistons and rings in the block. I don't use anything abrasive in my lubes to seat the pistons,,, like graphite. In the old days, lol,, we used Vaseline as a lube., Hence, Imperial sizing wax. I will say that opinions vary on this subject, so to each his own. This is how I do it and I'm loving the out come.