Need advice on crimp die crimp die

[USMC87]

I have a set of Dillon 45 acp dies that I use on a 550B press, Yesterday I was loading NOE 230 gr rn cast bullets and noticed I was'nt getting enough bell on the case mouth. I re adjusted to where the bullets would easily go in the brass and took back off again. After just a few cases the ram would stick in the up position and was hard to get back down, I noticed that the brass was scratched where it was going in the crimp die about a 1\4 inch down. I am guessing that the bell is too much and scratched the inside of the crimp die, If this is the case how do I smooth out the inside of the die and it still funtion properly?

[EDG]

Is there a chance your cases are belled so much they are causing the hang up in the crimp die.

Why don't you clear the 550 of powder and primers and cycle brass through it looking for the problem?

Look for anything loose on the expander die and reset it to your satisfaction.
Then check your cases when fed into the seating/crimp die.

I have over expanded brass before and had it get closed a little when it entered the crimp die. However I never damaged the seater.

You might remove your crimp die and look inside to see if it is actually scratched. If it is all it takes to smooth it up is 320 or 400 grit silicon carbide paper to polish. However the polishing needs to be done while the die is spinning in a lathe.
If you can find a mandrel to thread the top of the die onto you can sometimes spin the dies in a hand drill.

[r1kk1]

In the 550 manual, Dillon suggests setting up the powder through expander so that the case mouth has approximately .020" flare.

Take care

r1kk1

[gloob]

edited to add new information:

I just went through a seemingly similar problem with my new Lee 40SW taper crimp die, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. And it had nothing to do with the amount of flare.

When using my thicker cases and cast bullets, the brass was wedging and scratching in the die body. You could see a scratch pattern on about the last 1/4" of so of the case mouth, as well as some scratching over where the base of the bullet was sitting.

I pulled the die out and tried pushing a loaded round in by hand. Most of the cartridges would plunk in, but some barely get in the die before getting stuck. The die body was simply too narrow, starting about halfway into the die. At first, I thought the die was just too small for cast bullets. But as I investigated deeper, some of my brass was, indeed, too thick to use with cast bullets in my particular gun; when I set the crimp to just enough for easy chambering, much of my ammo was barely getting any crimp, if at all. But some thicker cased rounds were getting an excessive crimp... back off the crimp, and the rounds would not chamber. So this "problem" was kind of fortuitious for me.

Still, the die was a little too small and too rough. I selected the thickest cartridges that would easily chamber in my gun with a mild crimp, which were mainly Fiocchi cases, and I chucked them up in a Zip Trim chuck and spindle adaptor in my cordless drill and used them to lap the die with chromium oxide buffing compound and mineral oil. Gradually, I could fit the lapping round farther and farther into the die. When it was all the way in, I kept the round moving in/out, so as to not reshape the crimp ledge, just occasionally kissing it. I rotated in a fresh cartridge after a minute or so, for 4-5 cartridges. I took care to make sure the cartridges weren't getting hot and kept the die pointed in a safe direction, lol. This took care of the roughness and scratching/sticking.

When I am crimping my ammo, if I feel any resistance as the cartridge goes in/out the die, I now know to set those rounds aside for disassembly; I run these through the FCD so I can pull them easily. The brass is just too thick for shooting cast bullets in my gun. My crimp die essentially doubles as a case gauge. It's like an FCD, except instead of "fixing" the problem and smooshing every round, it only touches the problematic rounds (and it "fixes" them, enough to pass the plunk test, but I rather pull them due to concerns of swaged bullets and fouling).

The worst offender is S&B brass. When one of those goes into the die out of the blue, it feels like the press is hitting a brick wall! Second worst, so far, is FC. I never noticed any of this business when I was using my seating die to crimp. I thought any variation in crimp was largely due to case length! So my new taper crimp die just might help me sort out the last teeny bit of fouling I have been getting in 40SW. The variation in case wall thickness in 40SW brass is HUGE, and my gun apparently has a tight chamber at the case mouth (and it's a Glock, lol).

So in the length of a couple of weeks, I went from thinking my Lee taper crimp die was destined for the trash can to considering it awfully useful.

[USMC87]

I appreciate all the information and the tips you guys provided, I will re post with the results but that will take me a while to do as I am very busy lately. Thanks USMC87

[Love Life]

When I set out to do a large run on the progressive, I will lube a handful of cases and set them to the side. If the press starts to get clunky, then I run one of the lubed cases through and it usually clears things up.

Just because it is a pistol case, doesn't mean the process won't benefit from a little lube.

Using SS cleaned brass that had not been run through a corn cob/polish ended up pulling the carbide sizing ring out of one of my Dillon 45 ACP sizing dies. The brass after SS cleaning is essentially butt nekkid and very much benefits from being tumbled in cob/nu finish to retard tarnishing and ad just enough "lube" from the NU-Finish to ease the process as well.

[USMC87]

OK guys, Thanks for all the information. I took my crimp die out of the tool head and cleaned it up with 320 grit sandpaper, I ran some empty cases through the 550 and found that the flare on the case mouths were way to much. I readjusted the flare and set the crimp and now she is running smooth as silk. I am going to do as Love Life said and keep me some lubed brass to feed through every now and then. Thanks again.