Lee sizing die bad?

[Tackleberry41]

Set of Lee 450 dies I bought of Midway work fine. Dies Lee generally are not an issue to return. They are used to it. Molds, yea forget those, they always say your doing it wrong, even tho other brand molds you can cast fine with.

[DougGuy]

Dies Lee generally are not an issue to return. They are used to it.

When more than one person sends in a die, with brass that the die would NOT size, and specific measurements taken from the die with pin gages and tells Lee the EXACT problem that the die is suffering from, i.e. the neck portion .001" smaller than a known good die, and rougher than a cob, and Lee denies the customer's diagnosis and sends the die back in the same shape it was in when it was sent in to them, it's PLAIN TO SEE THEY DON'T CARE.

[mjwcaster]

OP made the right call.

I have to agree with DougGuy.

With my 380 sizing die I was told by some I was wasting my time and money returning it.
But I wanted to give lee a chance.
Got sized brass returned with my provided bullets in them.
The bullets could be pushed flush into the case with finger pressure.
Pete said the die was fine, within spec, ok with the .355 commercial plated bullets I provided.

I still get mad over this, not that they wouldn’t make it right, but that they spent the effort to try the dies, the results were unmistakably dangerous and they sent the piece of garbage back.
What happens when an inexperienced reloaded gets these same dies back and because Pete from Lee says their fine they actually use them, with the resultant overpressure event due to bullet set back issues.

If they didn’t want to replace them, they could have at least pointed out the safety issue with the mixed headstamp brass I provided (a mix of the major manufactures).

When it comes to wasting my time and money I get upset. When it comes to safety I get, well I just can’t say it here.

Not my last lee purchase, but definitely my last return. And I try to steer away from them if possible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[airone46]

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."

Great proverb!
Like the Italian joke I've already published:
"Two old friends, John and Tom, meet after a long time." John asks the other:
How does your wife love? And Tom: Mah! There are some people who say WELL !, and some others say BAD! "

I have already reported my problems with Lee in the post "Lee Precision or LEE IMPRECISION": I do not add anything else not to disrespect to the Moderators who have closed the post (I reported myself that it was appropriate to do it!), And because only very few have understood the real reason of my post (it was an IMPRECISION on how to assist customers, and not a mechanical IMPRECISION), and because I have nothing to add. I join the group of people who have had a bad experience on Lee ASSISTANCE.

I think that if Lee products were the same as Redding products (for the quality of materials, workmanship and service - replace a piece considered defective by the CUSTOMER has a cost!). At this point the Redding would have closed for a long time!
A faulty product can always happen! When GOD created Adam, he realized the mistake, and created EVA!
And I do not think Lee, Redding, ..... Chevrolet, Ferrari, Rolls Royce etc. be superior to a SUPREME BEING !!!

The assumptions in the marketig are only three:
1) - An item is badly designed: its production must be completely eliminated!
2) - There was an error in the processing of a piece (or group of pieces): only the defective items should be eliminated!
The first hypothesis is difficult to occur!
It is easier for the second hypothesis to occur: at this point it is necessary to see how much the defect occurs,
The higher the percentage, the better the product! But to establish this it is necessary to examine thousands and thousands of specimens of the same item! And at this point I do not think that this kind of investigation can be done in a forum.
Only the manufacturer can do it, which must also be honest in saying VERY with the percentage of defective items!
3) - A good marketing policy is finally to assist the customer even in cases where the customer has no right to any assistance. Example: the customer loses a piece of an article. The producer has the DUTY to provide the lost piece, but for a fee. But there are MANUFACTURERS who do it for FREE! That customer will never abandon that producer!

I have so many Lee articles: paid little (if they are compared to the price of other RCBS items, Redding, Hornady, CH-4D), but they work honestly. Only twice have I had problems. Once with a bullet sizer (I already talked about it in another post) and another time with a mold (loss of lead between mold and sprue, eliminated after bringing the mold to a repair shop at my expense).
In both cases I expected something more from Lee!

[mold maker]

Every co hires bean counters and quality is the first thing affected.

[JoeJames]

Every co hires bean counters and quality is the first thing affected.

Not every company, but the Winchester 1964 massacre does come to mind.

[GregLaROCHE]

You can save quite a bit of money buying Lee products and most work OK, but I have a few items I wish I had never bought. Almost all my dies are from awhile ago, when Lee wasn’t really in the picture. Now that I’m getting into casting I started by buying Lee molds. I then had to buy an RCBS mold, because Lee didn’t make the caliber. When I got the mold, the moment I held it in my hand, I could tell there was a difference. The same was true when I started casting with it. You get what you pay for.

[GregLaROCHE]

I forgot to mention that all Starline brass should be annealed before you use it. That probably isn’t your problem, but is good to know.

[jmort]

Wrong

"How can I soften case mouth to allow case to properly seal when using black powder in 45-70, 45-90, 45-2.6 (45-100) and 40-65?
1.) Be aware this is not always necessary. Only if cases are extremely dirty and a lot of unburned powder is consistently found in chamber would you need to anneal.

2.) First place case in proper container filled with approximately 1 inch of water so head of case is submerged in water. (Reason is you only want to soften mouth of case and not head area as this can ruin strength at base and primer pocket where case must remain rigid to handle pressure.)


3.) Next heat case mouth (approx. top 1/2 inch of case) uniformly just to where it begins to turn a dullred and then knock over in water. A propane torch is usually used for heating device. MOST IMPORTANT: Remember if case gets too hot they are ruined and there is no way to make hard again. So, try a few out and get a feel for the proper color and softness required for your application. If they get bright red, you probably went too far."