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Thread: decapping pin woe and trouble

  1. #1
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    decapping pin woe and trouble

    So what can I use to replace the torqued pin of my Lyman 8mm sizing and decapping die? Will RCBS replacement fit? Or is the $7 Lyman that looks rather different than the existing one the right choice? I also saw what looked like a pin only insert but it looks like my pin is part of the expander button? http://www.midwayusa.com/product/625...-package-of-10

    I want to put the 8mm die back in working order, Need to know what my options are for the Lyman die with a broken pin. I am hoping it is the 10 pack solution. Not the $7 solution

    Had some crimped military 30-06 boxer primed that I wanted to size to 8mm just to see if I could. Broke the primer pin on the 8mm die, then proceeded to bend my Lee universal decapping die pin.

    I have had 223 mil brass that was harder to remove primers on but these 30-06 were just not happening. Two pieces of brass and two damaged decapping pins. I had to take a second look to be sure they weren't berdan. They weren't, and did not look like the hole was plugged with media (lizard litter aka ground walnut hulls)

    I'll talk to Titan about replacing the Lee pin, and the one case came out fine so I guess I proved I can make 8mm but I'm pretty sure I don't want to. And if I do I might want to purchase pins in bulk and remove the expander/decapper rod from the sizing die first.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Lyman used 2 style pins over the years one is a .058 dia with a small square faced head on it the other is a simple straight pin that is held in a collet type set-up. The head type is harder to find and more expensive. The other can be made from the appropriate drill blank cut to length and lightly radioused on the ends. Your die may be the type with the headed pin. If so it will probably need to be purchased.

  3. #3
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    I dug in a little more and took it apart further. I think I need the little pin insert replacement I linked to. But picture is worth... Top is Lyman die pin with expander button taken apart. That small piece third from top and farthest to the left is the remains of the pin that I think I need to replace. (with a 10 pack). Are there different sizes of those little pin inserts?

    Bottom is bent Lee Universal die pin also due for replacement.


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    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

  4. #4
    Boolit Master TES's Avatar
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    Tumble your brass before you try and load it to get all the rocks out.
    If you break a pin find out what head stamp it is to make sure its not berdan primed.
    remove those before loading again or....
    get an rcbs fl die...(cheap)
    extra mandrels (5.00 per)
    extra pins (50 per 13.00)

    Load away.

    You have the headed pin.....get those.
    Last edited by TES; 02-17-2017 at 12:00 AM.
    They call it "common sense". Why is it so uncommon?

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master

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    That is the headed pin. I would buy a couple and then Loose the extras before I needed them LOL

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by country gent View Post
    That is the headed pin. I would buy a couple and then Loose the extras before I needed them LOL
    That is what I love about this site. Good advice that is so easy to follow.

    I'm ordering those headed pins from Midway and they even had the Lee pins on sale for $2.22 each. I'll still be reaching out to Lee to replace the pin that bent. What I found is the die came with the pin nut reefed down so tight it was hard to get loose. Lesson to me, always adjust those decapping pins yourself so you know they are not too tight.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

  7. #7
    Boolit Bub
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    The Lee pins I have bent on beridean primed brass by acedent where replaced with hardened squirrel daddy pins from e bay they where cheaper than the Lee pins and I haven't had a problem with one yet

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    I have been using the Lyman replacement pins that you showed the link of in all my Lyman dies for years , I don't know if they come in different sizes but I have replaced 243 , 30-30 , and 357 deprimers over the years out of the same package .

  9. #9
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by z28z34man View Post
    The Lee pins I have bent on beridean primed brass by acedent where replaced with hardened squirrel daddy pins from e bay they where cheaper than the Lee pins and I haven't had a problem with one yet
    I also have found the squirrel daddy pins to be spot on and hard and cheap and useful, also love the squirrel daddy jig for making 300 brass!
    Rogerdat, I have a set of 8mm dies you can use till you get this figured out! Pm me I don't plan to load any 8mm for a while.

  10. #10
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    Thanks nagantguy! And thanks everyone for helping me get this sorted out.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

  11. #11
    Boolit Master

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    Have you considered using a Lee Decapping die? I use one for the first step in processing all my military calibers, just in case a Berdan case somehow crept in among the rest.

  12. #12
    Boolit Buddy
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    I mentioned this a couple of months ago, I bought some .200" drill rod at ENCO, and 100 .0625"x1" needle bearings. Cost was about $5. Enco is no more, somebody else owns the name; MSC does. You might do a web search for it as well.


    That size rod is what Lee used in the Universal decap die. Cut a 5" length, drill a .0625" in one end and glue a needle bearing in.

    3' length of rod will make 7 tools. But if you bend a pin, just heat up the glue and pull the bent pin and insert a new one. No 1 week wait for a new one to show up in the mail.

    Other thing I do is use that tool and a block of wood with a .5" hole in it, then another hole, .25" centered and thru the block.

    New range pickup goes thru that, I fish around to find the flash hole and drive the primers out with a hammer. That will get the most crimped primers out; jazz the press will gag on.

    If I can't find the flash hole, then it's probably berdan and time to squeeze the case mouth shut; unless you have the berdan primers, then add it to your stash.

    I use a magic marker to mark any brass that is unique; like reduced load rifle ammo. Supposedly reduced loads stretch the brass and you shouldn't use it for full power loads. I still don't understand why this happens, seems the low power would be less likely to screw up the brass....but that is what I've read.

    It's also good for picking your processed brass at the range; then the handful of other's brass will be easy to identify and process. The stuff with your mark you can just run, without it, go thru the whole circus of punching the primer, remove the crimp, and whatever else you need to do.

  13. #13
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    Nice to know I'm not the only one that uses pliers on the case mouth of anything getting scrapped. I am noting the size drills used to make a hand de-capping block I'm thinking there is one of these in my future.

    I will probably go with a combination approach. Lee Universal de-capper and anything that pushes up the rod gets tossed in a do by hand pile. My mistake was not making sure the universal de-capper collet nut was not over tight. If I find myself having to reset the rod and do a whole bunch by hand then I'll just switch to doing all by hand. One or two out of a hundred need hand de-capping then using the press for the other 98 makes sense. 5th or 6th time I reset the rod I'll be getting tired of wasting my time when I could just tap them with a plastic mallet..

    Have lots of ideas now for de-capping 30-06 military brass.
    • Buy pins in bulk I am wondering if grinding down pin on Lee so it just clears the head might help. Seems to me shorter pin would be less likely to bend or break.
    • Squirrel Daddy https://www.amazon.com/Hardened-Stee...squirrel+daddy
    • 1/16" or 1.55mm flat punch and a small hammer.
    • Lee Loader punch. They are a bit expensive on Amazon but I have seen used sets for pretty cheap at gun shows, maybe snag one of those with the de-capper rod.


    I have not had this much trouble with .223 every so often the de-capping rod will get pushed up and the primers require a bit more force to drive out
    So prices range from 42 cents for the insert pins to $2.22 for the Lee Universal on sale, to $5 for flat bottom roll pin punch, to $19 for 3 Squirrel Daddy hardened pins, to $13 for Lee Loader punch.

    I'm also wondering about just using the 30-06 commercial brass to convert to 8mm since it would be easier to de-cap and probably easier to reform too. I just can't get comfortable with the head says 30-06 but it really isn't. On the other hand I don't have a 30-06 to get confused by.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

  14. #14
    Boolit Buddy
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    I have the Lee depriming die, I never could get the absolutely correct torque on the collet. It was either too loose or too tight. That's when I started banging out the primers with my DIY depriming tool. That is a lot faster than running a couple of brass, adjust the torque, and do a couple more.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Blue View Post
    I have the Lee depriming die, I never could get the absolutely correct torque on the collet. It was either too loose or too tight. That's when I started banging out the primers with my DIY depriming tool. That is a lot faster than running a couple of brass, adjust the torque, and do a couple more.
    I fear you are correct that the probability of shall we say frustration and futility is sort of high unless I can find that sweet spot.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

  16. #16
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I made my hand decapper set up up using a 3/16 drill blank and .058 drill blank. I ground a radious on one end and drilled the .059 hole in the other. then turned bushings for .224, .243, .264, 308, .375, .40, and .45 calibers to just slide in the case necks centering the rod. I simply use a little rubber cement to hold them in place for different lengths cases.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    I just use a decapping rod from an old Lee loader kit to beat out stuck primers. It came from a 223 kit. I stack washers and tape them together, set the brass on top and use a hammer to take them out. Lee will most likely send you a free 3 pack of rods. They did for me.

  18. #18
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by RogerDat View Post
    I fear you are correct that the probability of shall we say frustration and futility is sort of high unless I can find that sweet spot.
    I like Lee stuff, but getting the torque correct on a collet is damn near impossible. It's like physics and stuff.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master
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    Idea of short pins is a good one, only need to be long enough to pop the old ones (primers ) out. You can control the depth of the stem to go a little deeper or back the stem (rod) out some. Need to find a happy medium .

    I get my pins (decapping) at shows, in junk boxes or in bulk pack at lower cost. Place them (decapping pins) in a few of the die box (s) that I would see me needing extra pins like 7.62 military , and 223 .

    Seen them last years and years, then the next thing go through a bunch in short order.

    Using nails if you can find a good strong ones.

  20. #20
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    It appears Titan sells the Lee Loader de-capping rods for $3.98 unlike Amazon at $13. The even have the rod and base for $6 and change. http://www.titanreloading.com/case-c...-decapper-base- Sizes for 223 or 30 cal. and others.

    I have a stool modified to be a Lee Loader work table, this could work out well. Not going to order them and pay full shipping on a couple of cards with part on them. Will wait until ordering something a bit more significant. Or a few smaller items.
    Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.

    Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.

    Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat

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