Lee FCD sizing ring removal?

[Animal]

Hey guys, I just got a Lee FCD for my .45acp. I don't plan to load any J-words, so I'd like to remove the bottom sizing band so that I can just apply a slight taper on the case mouth.

As I understand, this is a fairly common practice with Lee dies and boolits. Is there a preferred method of making this modification? I'd rather ask before I screw something up.

Thanks.

[mdi]

I took my die and disassembled it, left the lock ring installed and placed it in a vise, not tight, just hold it up straight (padding the vise jaws is a good idea). Then from the top of the die I used a long punch and placed the tip on the ring's edge, and punched it out...

[Animal]

sounds simple enough. I'll give it a shot. Thanks

[Animal]

Done and done. Popped it out with a vise and used a worn out drill bit as a punch. Thanks.

[edadmartin]

newbe here, sorry why would you do this?

[jmort]

Because it can size/swage down cast boolits as it was designed for jacketed bullets at SAAMI spec. Over size boolits can get squished.

[DeanWinchester]

For the patient soul, you can turn a piece of wood that'll slip fit into the carbide ring, then grind a relief or two in the wood to carry lapping compound.
Using a DIAMOND lapping compound, a drill and patience, you can lap the carbide open enough so's not swage your boolit.
Using anything other than a diamond based abrasive on carbide is a waste of time.

It took me a couple of hours of piddling and about five wooden lapping mandrills.

[KYCaster]

Lee's taper crimp dies are half the price of the Carbide FCD dies. Why are so many people willing to pay the higher price then alter the die so it functions the same as the cheaper one?

Riddle me this, Batman!

Jerry

[Sweetpea]

For taper crimp, I'm not sure.

I bought one and removed the ring for my .41 mag. Roll crimp with ease.

Brandon

[wbrco]

The bullet seating die (pistol) can also apply a crimp, and you can completely skip the FCD.

[Johnny_Cyclone]

Lee's taper crimp dies are half the price of the Carbide FCD dies. Why are so many people willing to pay the higher price then alter the die so it functions the same as the cheaper one?


Probably because it comes in LEE's 4 die pistol set.

Deprime/Resize die, Powder thru expander Die, Seating Die (yes you can crimp with it) , Factory Crimp Die, (also: powder dipper, shell holder, basic instruction sheet).

Seems buying the 3 die set, and then ordering another standard Seating/Crimp die is more money than the 4 die set with the FCD

Now if you're like me and already have several of the 3 die sets then yes... you can save a few bucks and buy the regular seating/crimp die and set it to crimp only instead of buying the FCD.

One advantage for the folks that have knocked out the FCD carbide ring (undamaged) is that they have a spare carbide ring should they ever scratch or gouge the one in the Deprime/Resize Die.


I think it's mostly they already had the die and through some divine intervention started down the glorious path of the lead boolit. Where upon they decided that in order reach true cast boolit enlightenment they had to cut out of their process that which offends thee and so knocked out the ring.:grin:

What LEE ought to do... :roll: ... is build the FCD like the discontinued LEE Speed Dies and have the carbide ring where it is removable. Though the cost would go up quite some bit[smilie=1:.
However, you could put the carbide ring back in if you needed it and back out if you didn't