Enlarging a Lee Sizer die....

[Abert Rim]

Rick to the rescue -- again. Thanks Buckshot!

[brstevns]

I cast up some bullets, then coat them with valve grinding compound and size them. You can actually feel the cutting action through the press handle.

I will coat 3 or so bullets, and run them thorught the die a couple of times each. That is generally good for a couple of .001's. Rinse the die with brake cleaner when you have it where you want.

Remember, you can't put it back.

Has anyone tried this? I need to open a lee sizer die .285 up to .288

[GhostHawk]

Well for one a second .311 is half the price of a custom. So for the same price now you have 2 dies in different sizes!
There are no standard dies listed above .311 until you reach .314. So if you have an older milsurp like a pair of Mosin's like I do, that slug out at .312 you have a couple of choices.

A Accept iffy accuracy shooting at .311
B Spend more money than I choose to for a custom sizer (Although I'm reading there is a user here who makes sizers to fit reasonably.)
C Or ream out your .311 by stages, and see what changes.

I'm reaming mine out very slowly as I need time to load identical loads, then get out and shoot them, see how they perform.

I doubt I'd ever need a .311 at this point, and if I do it is still cheaper than the other options.

What happens down the road when you want to try a diff. bullet and/or experiment with a .311" die, maybe you get a new rifle and it needs a .311" bullet? Just buy the right sizes and you can try diff. things later.

[GhostHawk]

brstevns I'm in the process. I cut a slit in a piece of 1/4 dowel with a hacksaw. Inserted aprox 1" square of emery cloth. It is I suspect pretty fine.
The first jump from .311 to .3115 went pretty fast with a coarser sandpaper. The emery cloth is slow even chucked into my drill. I also worry about my cheap Pittsburch digital calipers being accurate.

So about once a week I grab the calipers, recheck spec on my slug (Saved, thankfully) then a factory J word, then one of my latest casting. I am definitively up to .3115 and about to go up another thousandth. Empty brass is primed and waiting for charges, bullets are gas checked, sized, lubed, resized (I'm dip lubing each round into hot wax, rerun through the sizer to remove excess lube.) Yes it takes time but its soothing to my soul.

And yes I've almost worked up the courage to put fresh sandpaper in my drill and buzz away for 2 minutes.
All I can say is better to take your time, check often. Can easy take more off, hard to put back on.

[brstevns]

Was wondering if the push thru method would work for the first cut? (so to speak)

[brstevns]

OK as they say ( I got it done) I used the dowel and some 400 grit wet dry sand paper with a little oil on it. It took about 20 minutes to open it up to .288 Test size every few minutes til I got it there. Now I just need to load some up.