Educate me on decapping pins

[Blanket]

U joints pins come in different diameters as well, they also make nice pin punches.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I have on several occasions made decapping pins for my RCBS dies using 4D finishing nails. Cut them so as to keep the head, touched them to a grinding wheel to square them and then hardened them by heating red and quenching in water. They worked well. With Lee pins they are I believe actually roller bearings and not pins....its tough to break them to start with...I never have so have not had to deal with the problem. LLS

[JM7.7x58]

I broke two pins this morning trying to deprime a bunch of once fired 30-06. Turns out a few of them were Berdan primed. Wasn’t expecting that. It was military crimped so I just assumed that the first pin broke because of the crimp. So I took a pin from another RCBS die I had and then promptly broke that one too.

Bike spokes it is. I would never go and buy them for this purpose, but I did have a few laying around from the last time I did some wheel truing and broken spoke repair. Both the RCBS and the bike spoke came in at .070”, the bike spoke is tough stuff but still softer than the real RCBS pins(you can tell when you file it). I made them as short as possible.

It got me through the rest of the NON-BERDAN primed brass.

JM

[country gent]

Decapping rods can be straightened but it is a painstaking job that can be a slow process. a cee block is needed preferably 2 vee blocks. A good flat surface and small press. In the vee block find the highest centered point of the bend and straighten by pushing this into the vee block down. keep working this way until your close then work between 2 blocks slightly over bending to account for spring back of the rod. A lathe makes this easier to do sometimes. you have to find the highest center point of the bend or you make an s shape instead of straightening. If you only have one vee block use shim stock to raise ends and press in middle, this actually works pretty good since it give a controlled over bend. On most decapping rods I have found .010-.020 over bend takes care of spring back

[Winger Ed.]

For the ones that are commonly available, I just buy a bunch.

For a couple bucks, it isn't worth driving anywhere, or digging around to chop off drill bits, jewelers screwdrivers, etc.
Especially to replace one of the new generation ones with the head on them.

One time I replaced a 'U' joint on the truck, and the old needle bearings were perfect for one brand of die,
so I cleaned them all and threw them in the reloading cabinet.

[JM7.7x58]

Country Gent,

Can’t straighten something that is broken in two pieces. Truth be told I bent, then straightened, then broke in half, then broke another in half.

As far as straightening goes. A hammer (used for jewelry work) with a polished face and an oak block (end grain pointed up) will give you similar results. Tap until a straight edge held to the pin shows no light.

JM

[JM7.7x58]

Ed,

All my dies are older RCBS. I’ve got a 50 pack on order.

JM

[Winger Ed.]

Ed,

All my dies are older RCBS. I’ve got a 50 pack on order.JM

Wow. If I had that many, I would have no fear of the occasional Berdan primer.

[GhostHawk]

I've only broken one pin, it was a Lee. So I bought like 5 replacements and the Lee universal decapping die.

Never had to touch one since. I do keep one in a 2x2 block that I ran a step drill into each end. Makes a handy tool when I just need to do one. Or on the couple of occasions when I managed to squeeze a sm rifle primer in sideways. One tap and they always go off, I just hold the pin with a pair of pliers and nothing gets damaged or hurt.

Nowadays I do most of my de priming with a FA hand unit. Can't get enough force on it to break that pin on a berdan primer. Pull it out, look, see the 2 holes, throw it in my scrap brass bucket and get back to it.

[44magLeo]

In Lee's book Richard Lee stated that they spent some time trying to build pins for there rods. It cost way to much. With a bit of research they found that Universal joint needle bearings were better than any they could make and suppliers make billions of those buggers every day, so they could be bought cheap.
So they use universal joint needle bearings as pins.
I think if you asked around at a few repair shops that work on rear wheel drive vehicles you might get a few old universal joints just for the asking. They just throw them out.
Leo

[jem102]

Hobby shops usually carry K&S music wire. It comes in lots of finely spaced diameters and is already spring tempered. Easy to cut with a Dremel cutoff disc, inexpensive and comes in 36" lengths. Also available on Amazon if you don't have a local hobby shop.

David

This stuff works great and is carried by hardware stores as well. I find a lot of other uses for it as well and always keep several diameters in the loading room.

[rbuck351]

Recently I tried a Lee universal decapper in a Bonanza coax and because the coax uses the die to center the case in the shell holder it didn't center and broke the pin. Not thinking about why it broke, I stuck my second Lee decapper in the press and promptly broke it as well. Looked through my junk I found some military cleaning rods for the M16 which mic the same as the Lee decapper rod and a few old u joints one with.070 pins. I had looked on the Lee web site and found I could get a new rod free for $5 shipping. Second one was $3. So $8 for two. After building one from an M16 cleaning rod, I took the two with broken pins and installed pins in the other end. I have an HF mini lathe on my loading bench just for projects like this. Took about ten minutes to have three new rod/pins for the decapper.
Stop buy an auto repair shop and see if they will save you some of their wore out u joints. If not for primer punches they make good small pin punches for removing pins from guns.