Some case prep notes:

[Bart B.]

The standard expander ball is .001 under bullet diameter and larger ones can be ordered and honed down.

Which bullet diameter is the reference for a 30 caliber expander ball? I've mic'd 30 caliber bullets from .3069" to .3092".

 

[Cowtownup]

LOL, yeah I know what you mean.. I'm assuming they mean .001 under caliber... .308 - .001 = .307...

 

[BoydAllen]

On the O ring under the lock ring, Lee lock rings have a built in O ring. For those that do not want to check their die setting every time this can be a pain, since the Lee ring tends to get moved on the die when taking it off, and there is no hard stop to reference when installing a die on a press, but I have seen slight improvements from using them.

On lock rings, I have a number of them that have been faced truer than they came. A piece of round stock was threaded in a lathe, and while still in the chuck lock rings were installed and faced, on one side then the other.

When I am expanding cases, either in a FL die, or with an expander die, I lube the inside of my neck. It takes longer, but I am not doing any volume reloading. One thing that seems to work well for this is offered by The Woodchuck Den, Resize Case Lube. I apply it with one of hard tipped industrial type, wood shafted Q tips that he sent with it. It just takes a little, and It says put until I am ready to remove it (brush in drill wrapped with patch).

For the few calibers that I still use my old RCBS one piece dies for, I skip the expander ball because I find that I get much better concentricity expanding with a die and mandrel.

I have several neck turners, three old simple, very touchy to adjust Sinclairs (two given to me by friends that had upgraded), a K&M that has a carbide mandrel, a Stiller (similar to the Nielson), and most recently a PMA Tool, complete with several mandrels and expanders, some carbide, some not. Since I have made a fair number of 6PPC cases from Lapua .220 Russian cases over the years, and have done some experimenting with all sorts of methods, I can say with some authority that the long taper, carbide expander that PMA makes for expanding up to 6mm is the very best that I have used, and the only one that, with very careful technique and adequate lubrication, I have been able to preserve the runout of untouched .220 Russian brass with. The trick is to be mindful of the amount of force that you are putting on the press handle while expanding the neck. When you feel it start to stack up to a certain level (learned by trial and error) you reverse the handle to the point where the mandrel is not touching the ID of the case and then go again. By doing this carefully two or three times on each case, your will avoid cocking case necks, which has the benefit of a more even cut on the shoulder when turning.

Getting back to the turning tool (the PMA), it is unique. Adjustment is made, through its full range, by moving the mandrel rather than the cutter. The adjustment is done with an 80 tpi thread and the adjustment knob is large and well marked, the smallest divisions denote difference of .0002 and they are far enough apart that it is easy to split the difference to hit .0001. The backlash issue is handled by a coil spring. The axial position of the mandrel is easily adjusted by a an Allen head set type screw for those that use the shoulders of their mandrels to control length of cut. The standard cutter is Carbide. ..very nice tool, a ground up design effort, that works.