Machining Dies......How Hard Are They

[bsekf]

I have several Full Length Lee dies. How hard are they? I want to try making a Body Die out of them using a cobalt drill to enlarge the neck area. Am I leaping over dollar bills to save small change…….again?

 

[Nightraider]

Carbide......

 

[swd]

Sizing dies laugh at anything short of carbide.

 

[Walt Krafft]

After you have messed up $20 of cobalt drills and the die you have, you can go spend the money for the die you need.

 

[rgc54]

Some are very hard. I tried to shorten a Redding sizing die on the lathe with a carbide insert tool with light cuts the surface of the die flaked off. Ruined the die

 

[JFrank]

www.lewilson.com

 

[Fast14riot]

I did just that with a Lee FL die and a TiNi coated drill bit. I also stamped letters into a Lee shell holder with HSS letter stamps. Lee stuff isn't always that hard.

 

[LA50SHOOTER]

I have several Full Length Lee dies. How hard are they? I want to try making a Body Die out of them using a cobalt drill to enlarge the neck area. Am I leaping over dollar bills to save small change…….again?

Am I leaping over dollar bills to save small change…….again? - Answer - IMO YES - Why not just purchase a Redding Body Die ? and be done. - Time would be better spent to pursue shooting or reloading other cartridges or working on projects.

- Ron -

 

[bsekf]

Lee FLR was free, cobalt drill $7.00. Redding Body die $40.00. However most of you say die is too hard to cut with a cobalt drill. fast14riot, sent you a PM.

Thanks you all,

Bill

 

[boltfluter]

A carbide boring bar is your friend. Done it several times, no problem.

Paul

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I use a small solid carbide bar with an insert to open the necks on dies often. I do it on my 300 Norma improved dies if we want to do a 338 norma improved, I do it on 28 nosler to make 30-28 nosler dies, and so on. You want it concentric so you should dial in the id of the die, and bore the neck. I wouldnt drill.

 

[bapayton]

I've used carbide single flute drills, die drills and carbide tipped reamers to open necks for similar purposes as you're describing. Didn't have a problem on the few I did.

 

[TAJ45]

You can get an indication of hardness by trying to mark the die w a file....inexact but may give you an idea .

 

[Fast14riot]

You can get an indication of hardness by trying to mark the die w a file....inexact but may give you an idea .

I prefer using a center punch, dull files can be misleading.

 

[edwardware]

You could always hone the neck open with sil-car paper on a spindle. It's slow, but it works, and it's cheap

 

[mperry]

I did not have any luck boring RCBS dies with solid carbide or carbide inserts. I did not try to drill.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Some are surface hardened like case hardening. Once you get about .005 in theyre soft as butter

 

[Taylor Stratton]

I use a small solid carbide bar with an insert to open the necks on dies often. I do it on my 300 Norma improved dies if we want to do a 338 norma improved, I do it on 28 nosler to make 30-28 nosler dies, and so on. You want it concentric so you should dial in the id of the die, and bore the neck. I wouldnt drill.

Do you indicate it in in two spots inside an action truing jig or truebore alignment chuck just like doing a barrel? Also will the small boring bar leave a good enough finish or do you get close with the boring bar then ream it or use paper to polish the surface?

 

[bapayton]

I'd think a collet would be best but I've always just used the 4 jaw. In the 3-4 inches of total die length i wouldn't think there would be significant enough misalignment to cause any real problem.

A chucking reamer/die drill would somewhat self-align.

I'm open to hearing of my assumptions are incorrect.

 

[INTJ]

After ruining a carbide parting tool shortening a Harrells Dasher die (rookie machining mistake), I was leery about opening a 28 Nosler Redding bushing die to make a 33-28 Nosler die. I bought a $40 solid carbide drill bit--in .375 I think--and drilling out the die on the lathe was quick and easy.

Since it was a bushing die, all I had to do was open the neck up enough to clear the OD of the necked up case. Meaning a drill bit was fine. If that area needed to be precise then it would need to be bored with a boring bar or reamed with a reamer.