Broken Decapping Die?

[swmass]

Alright, so the pin on my lee decapping/resizing die got pushed up through the die to the top and would no longer push the primer out. In order to tighten the nut on the top and fix the pin, I placed the die in a vice and tightened the nut. The pin is fixed and no longer moves, but I did mess the threads on the die up a bit with the vice, but played around until I got it to work. Now I am wondering if it would be possible to mess up the die by placing it in a vice??? Is it possible that I may have pressed the die in with the vice and messed up the shape? Possibly causing pressure problems...? Would there be a way I could test to see if I harmed the die or am I just over thinking...? Any help would be appreciated, it is an undersized 38 special die and I do not want to have to special order a new one.

Thanks!

[Mica_Hiebert]

Run a case through it amd use calipers or preferably a micrometer to see of the case comes out all miss shaped my guess is its fine but depends on how hard you reefed on it

[dudel]

Lee dies are inexpensive for a reason.

1) less threads on the body
2) on some dies, no flats on the body

Less machining = less expensive dies.

Take a look at other brands of dies. Longer threads (more adjustability in different presses), dies have flats so you don't have to grab the die body in a vice or channel locks. The spindle on Hornady dies is lightly threaded to keep it in place; but not required gorilla torque to keep it in place.

Die could be fine; but my main concern would be the carbide sizing ring if it's a modern pistol die. Those rings are fairly brittle. They don't bend, they break. Rifle dies generally don't have carbide sizing rings; but depending on how much you cranked on the vise, you could have changed the die from round to oval. Run a piece of brass through and then check it for roundness (micrometer or failing that a case guage).

BTW, by cranking down on the collet, so that the decapping rod doesn't move, you've just defeated the feature that saves the decapping pin from breaking should it encounter shell it can't decap.

[markinalpine]

Degrease the pin and collet with something like denatured alcohol , and dust with powdered resin after letting them dry.
Good luck,
Mark

[country gent]

The die body is fairly tough but depending on pressure applied in the vise may now be oval or eggshaped instead of round. The dies still threading into press is a good sighn since outside will mirror inside if sprung or deformed. If it is a carbide sizer then with a good light and maybe some magnification look for cracks in the carbide ring in the start of the die body. With the finish inside the die they can be hard to see. watch and check the first few cases for odd scratches also as this can be caused by cracks also. A good way to clamp a die body is to pick up a 7/8" X 14 thread nut and with a hacksaw split one side or 2 cuts 180* apart, use this as a collet to hold the die. This gives a much more even clamping pressure. if there are enough threads 2 nuts one clamped in the vise and one above jammed down tight does a nice job of locking holding the die body also.

[swmass]

Thanks all, I checked the outside of a few cases with a pair of calipers and they don't seem to be oval, they slide right in my revolver just fine. I'll have to recheck the brass to make sure their aren't any new scratches showing up.. I load my cast full wadcutters so that may help if the cases are a bit off shape.. I'm gonna load a few up when I'm home from work and give it a go tomorrow... Thanks for the help