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Broke the de-capping pin on my Lee decap die yesterday. Had to order some spares, In the meantime I pulled the decap rod out of the die, put in in the lathe and used a drill bit that was .002" larger to drill the hole. I put an RCBS decap pin in the hole with some Comet Flux (Brownell's) applied a bit of heat and solder, and presto, I'm back up and running. Will have to see how long it lasts, but so far, so good.
Been doing similar for years only with red loctite. They don't seem to last as long as the original "needle bearing" type pins, but do last longer than the current soft one piece pins that have been with the past few die sets I've bought.
I have quite a few of the Lee decap pins for that reason. I HATE Berdan primers. When I break a pin I set it aside. When I have a small collection of broken/worn out Lee parts I mail them to Lee and they send me replacements :)
Not all of us a fortunate enough to have a lathe :(
Got a drill press? Before getting a lathe I fixed the straight ones by drilling a shaft sized hole halfway though a 3/4"-1" section of steel (aluminum will work in a pinch) and without removing the piece from the vise, switch over to a smaller pin sized drill bit and drill the rest of the way through. The result is a drill guide that will let you fix the decapping stems with even a cordless drill.
the decap die from fw arms might take care of all decapping problems . I got one but haven't tried it yet.
I buy 2 dollar rat traps from the local hardware , actually useless for catching rats ,but the spring wire makes great replacement decapping pins .
https://www.squirreldaddy.com/3-Heat...p/sd24-112.htm
The lee pins seem to be made of a vastly inferior steel to what they used to be but I still like the simplicity of the universal decapper so I may have to try some of these.
I have broken a few but its easy to fix, no lathe, no fixtures, just a vise and steady hand. File the end flat and center punch it lightly. Drill a hole about ½ deep and straight as you can. I use drill rod or hardened piano wire and loctite in-place. Works great, did it for my Harvey Deprimer and its doing great! Just radius the end of the tip when done. Chuck it in the drill and sand it round.
Squirrel Daddy decapping pins are the best. Will go straight through the head of a berdan without bending or breaking. Been torturing one on my Lee universal decapping die for a couple years and it is still straight as an arrow.
https://www.squirreldaddy.com/Decapping-pin-s/336.htm
Agree about Squirrel Daddy pins. I order 2 five months ago and haven't broken one yet.