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

[TAJ45]

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

And then how hard was the punch hit? Hardness of punch?

 

[Taylor Stratton]

Not that critical, your just making clearance. Nothing will touch the spot you machined.

Maybe were taking about different things. For a FL sizer die without a bushing is what I have. So it would be sizing the neck. Were you just creating clearance then letting the bushing do the sizing? Not sure if what I wanna do would be feasible. Any way I could convert my non bushing die to a bushing die then?

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Then in that case you would want to dial in that die in 2 places inside to keep the neck straight.

 

[RegionRat]

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?

Depends on the processing they used and the material. I don't recall all the different brands and hardness numbers but some of them I recall were PH hardened only to about 45 Rc, but, some were case hardened and ran all the way up into fifties and low sixties Rc.

 

[AlNyhus]

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?

Best bet for this is a carbide chucking reamer. You can usually find used ones on ebay in the size you need.

I recently used one to open the neck on a Redding f.l. die that I modified to take a bushing. You can click on this link and take a look:

Die project

This is a die project I just finished for my Browning B78 chambered in 6MM Jet...which is basically a .065 short 243 Ackley 40 degree case based on the rimmed 307 Winchester. 307W (lt)/ fireformed 6MM Jet (center)/243W Ackley 40 degree (rt) Since this is a falling block action and...

forum.accurateshooter.com

 

[Fuj]

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?

I'll do a quick check with a file. If it skips, Carbide or grinding, and I prefer
grinding using a Dumore once it's all indicated. I also like to do a low temp
metal cast first......A little while back, I was working on a die body neck when
my son had an idea. He brought out his set of small engine valve guide laps.

 

[Fast14riot]

And then how hard was the punch hit? Hardness of punch?

Using a 7oz hammer and a Diston center punch, likely around Rc58ish. The letter punches I used were from harbor freight, not anything exotic. The die was not much harder than cold rolled. An automatic center punch would mark it also. The Lee die was not very hard at all.

 

[paulT]

Was hoping to do something simlar with a rcbs full length die and reduce the neck sizing diameter by 5 thousands and hopefully keep overall run out to current half a thou measurement, Which meathod would be best to remove 5 thou from neck sizing portion of die, Thanks.