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Thread: has anyone ever polished out the carbide ring on a Lee FCD?

  1. #1
    Boolit Grand Master

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    has anyone ever polished out the carbide ring on a Lee FCD?

    Its a problem. A very nice tool with an ingenious design, but they made that blinkety, blanking ring .002 too small so it sizes the boolits down when you crimp. I have a diamond stone and a lathe, but I'm afraid to proceed because I have never polished a piece of carbide before (at least not to a high shine), and I believe it needs a fairly bright finish.
    All I know it that I had 800 45acps that where bulged from stabbing in unsized boolits and the Lee factory crimp die has made them feed flawlessly in my 1911's. Of course the problem is, that the carbide ring sized the boolit in the case down to .450 which of course leads the living **** out of my barrel.
    I love the design, but that ring has got to open up some.
    Any ideas?
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master

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    Maybe don't use the FCD?

    I like and use Lee products but I prefer the Hornady TC dies for cast pistol boolits.

    Bliksem

  3. #3
    Boolit Master Linstrum's Avatar
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    It would probably take quite a bit of time to polish 1/1000 inch off the radius of a .45 caliber carbide sizing die by holding the diamond stone by hand. I'd try it, though, just run the lathe rpm up as high as it will go, use a little oil and check the diameter every minute or so to get an idea of how fast it is cutting. There are too many variables for me to give a close estimate of the amount of time it would take, but I suspect maybe fifteen minutes to half an hour, depending on the grit of the diamond abrasive and how fast the lathe runs. Just make sure you keep the swarf from the diamond stone off of the lathe ways and out of the chuck.

    rl 1078
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  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    There is a you tube video showing how to knock the ring out of the die.

    take care,

    r1kk1

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    Put the die in your lathe and use a dremel with a green silicon carbide grinding wheel. When I got my first progressive (a Dillon 300) the carbide sizing die I had did not have a good bevel on the throat. A friend had access to a lathe, I bought the wheel, and in less than 5 minutes I had a well beveled throat.

    Go slow and measure often.
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  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I have no problem grinding/stoning out the ring. I expect that operation would only take 15-20 minutes. What I am concerned with is polishing it back to that mirror finish so that it doesn't leave scratches on the brass as they are sized.
    I'm thinking a wooden stick with 0000 diamond abrasive paste is in order, but I dont know. Just wondered if anybody else had walked this road.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  7. #7
    Boolit Mold
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    What about calling Lee? Would they be willing to make the mod?

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by goodsteel View Post
    Its a problem. A very nice tool with an ingenious design, but they made that blinkety, blanking ring .002 too small so it sizes the boolits down when you crimp. I have a diamond stone and a lathe, but I'm afraid to proceed because I have never polished a piece of carbide before (at least not to a high shine), and I believe it needs a fairly bright finish.
    All I know it that I had 800 45acps that where bulged from stabbing in unsized boolits and the Lee factory crimp die has made them feed flawlessly in my 1911's. Of course the problem is, that the carbide ring sized the boolit in the case down to .450 which of course leads the living **** out of my barrel.
    I love the design, but that ring has got to open up some.
    Any ideas?
    Why not just size the bullets properly from the start and not use the FCD to size them down. A thick case will cause even your enlarged FCD to size the bullet down. So it's kinda a flawed plan. Size the bullets properly, use a regular crimp die, open up the chamber a little if your properly sized bullets don't fit your chamber.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
    dragonrider's Avatar
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    Using my toolpost grinder and a diamond mounted point I ground my 357 FCD out .002"
    Took only a few minutes and works very well for me now.
    Paul G.
    Once I was young, now I am old and in between went by way to fast.

    The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
    -- R. Buckminster Fuller

  10. #10
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    OK: forget what has been written above about the methods of doing this, with the possible excetion of Dragonriders method which is faster than mine.

    I actually do know how to do this operation, and have done it on a daily basis at work.

    First: you must make a lap.

    You make the lap out of brass and turn it .001-2 under the size of the existing hole. Then drill a 10-32 in the end and put a big chamfer in the end of the hole for a flat head screw. Then you split the end about 3/4-1" deep with either a slotting saw of you can just use a hacksaw. This makes the lap adjustable so you can keep the pressure on it as the hole opens up. It works similar to an ID collet.

    You need some coarse Diamond compound and some fine diamond compound.

    You will run the die in the chuck of the lathe and the lap in the tailstock and start with the coarse compound and run the lap all the way thru the die ring, and back out. and keep doing this until the hole opens up which should be about a tenth every few passes.

    You need to be recharging the lap with new compound about every 10-15 passes and you will want to remove the dead compound with brake cleaner or something like that. Then add new compound, a little goes a long way. Once the lap gets charged it will go much faster.

    Obviously you need to be screwing the spreader screw into the lap as needed to keep tension on the lap and hole.

    When you get to about 2-3 tenths below your desired hole size then you switch to the fine compound to improve the finish and hit your number on the hole size exactly.

    You will be checking your progress with a small telescoping gage and micrometer. Make sure to take every measurement at least twice to insure the gage is repeating, as it is easy to get bogus readings on a smaller holes like .450 ish.

    Then so on and so on, until you get to where you want to go.

    The diamond compound is available from SPI if your shop doesn't already have it, and a small tube of each will last your entire lifetime with plenty to spare. I have been working on one for 30 years!

    Diamond compound or diamond tools period are the only way to effectively deal with carbide.

    The good thing about doing this operation your self is you can make the ring any size you want (within reason) removing any more than about 3-4 thou will take some time.

    I have done this operation extensively. This is also the way you make a ring lap for lapping an OD except the tool is a hole (or split clamp) instead of a spud. operations are the same.

    Hope this helps you with you quest for true nirvana. Also if you screw up the die you only lost $10 and your time, so it's not the end of the world.

    Randy

    .
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Why not just size the bullets properly from the start and not use the FCD to size them down. A thick case will cause even your enlarged FCD to size the bullet down. So it's kinda a flawed plan. Size the bullets properly, use a regular crimp die, open up the chamber a little if your properly sized bullets don't fit your chamber.
    Colorado4wheel is offline Report Post Reply With Quote
    I know where your coming from, but I have come to the conclusion that reliability is mush more important to me than trying to make sure a long list of sizes and scenarios is covered. I like the FCD because its the final operation and once it is done, that ammo will feed, not if and's or butt's. I carry my cast boolits for personal defense and I want them to feed first and foremost, If I can minimize leading, thats a nice after thought but I can't be having a FTF in the middle of a bad situation.
    Even though the barrel needed a good scrubbing, I fired 600 rounds yesterday and save one that had a bad primer, I had 100% reliability. (dont ever load defense rounds with Wolf brand primers. That's the second dud I have had.)
    As far as polishing the chamber of my pistol, that's an even greater sin than polishing out the factory crimp die. I make my dies fit the ammo, and the ammo fit the gun, not the other way around.

    W.R. hit the nail on the head. That sounds like the right way to do it! I have all the tools necessary too, except the diamond compound. Thank you for that detailed professional explanation. You speak my language.
    Last edited by MBTcustom; 03-04-2012 at 03:17 PM.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master

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    This thread was a few days ago, but I think it's on the same wavelength and would be good for us guys that don't have a lathe or access to one.

    Custom 44 Mag Carbide Die

  13. #13
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Another darn good idea!
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  14. #14
    Boolit Buddy engineer401's Avatar
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    I had the same problem with Lee crimp dies. After receiving no help from the manufacturer, I replaced them all with Dillon crimp dies. I don't believe one should have to modify dies to make them work properly. Furthermore, Hornady, CH and RCBS dies have all worked well for me.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    How about backing off the die so it doesn't crimp as much???

  16. #16
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by r1kk1 View Post
    There is a you tube video showing how to knock the ring out of the die.

    take care,

    r1kk1
    +1 remove it

  17. #17
    Boolit Grand Master

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    How about backing off the die so it doesn't crimp as much???
    I think you are a little confused about what we are talking about. The Lee factory crimp die does two operations at once. It crimps the boolit but it also full-length sizes the case one last time to make sure the finished cartridge will feed in ye 'ol jam-o-matic.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  18. #18
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Have you ever actually had a round from a normal die set suddenly be too big to
    chamber? I have loaded around 300-400 thousand rounds for various semiautos over
    the last 33 years and never got a single oversized round that wouldn't chamber,
    once the process was setup and producing good ammo.

    Now - it is entirely possible to set up so that ALL your rounds can be too big, but once
    everything is set up with a normal die set and LOA and TC are set, if you gage a round
    every 1000 or 2000 you will be fine.

    I think you are guarding against non-existent werewolves.

    Bill
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  19. #19
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I am trying to get away from sizing all my boolits before loading them. I want to cast them TL them, load them, and shoot them. My Lee 6 banger drops them the perfect size for my barrels .453-.4535 I load them unsized in 1970's military brass (I have thousands). The boolits are too big for that brass. They end up bulging the brass so that it almost feeds most of the time. 80% of the time I have to help the slide shut the last 1/8" with my thumb, and every now and then, I get a full fledged FTF. The Lee factory crimp die fixed all of the 1000 rounds that I loaded this way, but it went too far and smooshed the boolits down to .449-.4495. No bueno. I figured that I could continue with my original plan if I could open up the ring so that it sizes the boolits to the correct size inside the case, while insuring flawless feeding.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    The trouble is brass will springback as much as .0025", Lead not so much.

    The trick would be just enough to feed without loosing too much neck tension.
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check