Poor Fit - Seating Stem

[Ben]

I had a set of Lyman 30 -06 dies, the seating stem made " a ring " on the nose of my 311291 bullets. While probably not serious enough to have much affect on accuracy ( or anything else ), I still found it objectionable.

The remedy was to do the same thing that I do to Lyman top punches that fit poorly ..............Use slow curing JB Weld.

I coat the nose with a coat of Brownell's Acra-Glass release agent, degrease the inside of the seating stem with Brake Cleaner, fill the nose of the seating stem with JB Weld, fit the two together and align them properly and put them in compression for 24 hrs.

Many of you have heard of this, some may have not seen it, so I thought I'd post the " before and after " of this project.

Ben

[downwind]

I have done the same, but have used hotmelt glue.

It works well and can be changed for different nose profiles very easily

Great when testing different bullets/loads.

Change over only takes a matter of minutes

"Try it = You'll Like It"

THANKS_DOWNWIND

[LUBEDUDE]

Have been "too busy" to do this, which translates, too lazy. This inspires me.

Thanks Ben!

[Ben]

Let us know how it works for you.

Ben

[462]

For me, JB Weld works much better than hot melt glue

What Ben has described and shown applies to top punches, as well.

[Ben]

462 :

You're RIGHT ! ....... JB Weld ( slow cure ) is some good stuff for making a cast bullet nose punch or seating stem fit the bullet correctly. I'm sold on it. The " before and after photos " in the OP pretty much speak for themselves.

Ben

[Baron von Trollwhack]

This is the kind of effort that must be made if excellence in casting, loading and shooting is to be be achieved. Keep it coming, Ben

BvT

[Ben]

I just ordered five of these seating stems( Lee Part # SKU: SB1999 ) for my Lee 06' and 308 Win. seating dies ( @ $2.00 ea ). When they arrive, I'll " custom fit " them ( with the JB Weld procedure ) to my many varied .30 cal. cast bullet styles.

Ben

[PacMan]

I also use JB Weld on punches and seating stems. I no longer mold them to the profile of the bullet nose and make them all flat except for the Star top punches meant for seating gas checks. Dont have to change them out for differernt nose profiles and works as well if not better.
But then again i only load for handguns using cast.

[geargnasher]

I end up with a bunch of extra Lee seating stems, many of them for the rifle calibers are the same within each caliber class, so no problem with permanent fixes. I engrave the boolit mould # on them after modifying.

I use the JB Quick myself, and use my single-stage press and a "dummy" round to do the forming by leaving the press handle down to keep pressure on it while the epoxy sets up. I've used JPW and Pollier paste wax (in an aluminum tube) as a release, but the Acraglass release would be better because it adds some thickness and would prevent boolits from sticking from friction-fit during the seating process. I've also done the same thing with top punches for boolits that weren't flat-nosed, for all flat nose boolits I use either of the two sizes of Accurate Molds flat top punches.

One would think that Lee boolit seaters and Lee boolit moulds would have something in common, but those are the combinations that give me the worst ogive/nose punch fit usually.

Gear

[462]

Besides their M-die, another nifty feature of Lyman handgun dies sets is their inclusion of RN, WC, and SWC seating stems, that match their moulds.