NOE plugs, neck concentricity.

[sparky508]

I have become obseesed with both neck and bullet concentricity. Expander ball being the obvious cause of it, as removing it gives most of my cases, minus surface imperfection, an almost zero indicated run out. With the expander ball removed, I have to open the necks up to relieve some of the neck tension, so I ordered some of the NOE plugs for my until now, useless Lee universal expander die for 22, and 30 cal. I suspect that the wall thickness will show up after opening the necks with an expander plug, but that can be measured and accounted for. (Turning to clean up necks is my next obsessive compulsive reloading disorder…..)

Question is has anyone used these or M dies and verified that the did not induce any additional run out in their necks? I know that folks have had great luck with the Lee collet dies, and with the super high end Redding n Forester bushing dies, but for 12 bucks I thought I would give this a dance.

Rounds working with are .223, .308, and 300WM. Using VLD bullets.

Thanks all.

[zomby woof]

With the case all the way up your FL sizing die, move the expander ball up to touch the case then back it down half a turn. This way the neck is always in contact with the sizer and expander. This will help the concentricity. Of course you have to remove the primer in another step now. It works.

[sparky508]

With the case all the way up your FL sizing die, move the expander ball up to touch the case then back it down half a turn. This way the neck is always in contact with the sizer and expander. This will help the concentricity. Of course you have to remove the primer in another step now. It works.


Have o rings on which helps, put another in between where the rod lock nut threads on, that helped a bit more. Keeping them down to around .002" now. But still chasing that almost perfect neck.

[firebrick43]

If you really want concentricity then take your dies and lap out (brass laps from msc)the neck area to be the correct neck tension. Of course then you need to use one brand of brass(or neck turn) as brass thickness would change tension.

[EDG]

I think the Lee collet neck sizing guys might show up and say you can correct all your you problems with that die. But that die cannot replace all the other dies that I currently own for calibers that Lee would never manufacture.

1. Large chamber necks contribute to eccentric neck sizing because they require the brass be sized so much.

2. Sizing bushings or FL dies with little radius or lead in taper can make brass turn a sudden corner when it is sized leading to it moving off center.

3. A long tapered expander can minimize the tendency of the neck to drift when being sized.

4. FL dies that reduce the neck more than necessary promote eccentric necks.


A. Lap your FL die neck out so it sizes the case neck a minimal amount.
B. If you use a top down expander like an M die plug - make it as long as possible and taper it so that it is self guiding.
C. If you use an internal expander (expander ball) make it long like an early Lee expander and put a long taper on it too. You might have to make your own expander and abandon depriming in your FL die to make room for a little longer expander.

[sparky508]

Lots of different options, including modifying the dies. Was thinking about using a lee collet neck die as an additional step to keep em dialed in, but thought I would give this a dance. Specially with .223 brass, as I can when doing a large run of it, decap, size and trim in one pass of my LNL, with the Dillion trimmer.

Received my NOE plugs today, great shipping by the way, ordered them Tuesday and here they are on Thursday! I got a 30 and 22 cal plug along with the pistol calibers I load, so even if this doesn't work out, I wont be lost anything. Ill be giving these a work out this weekend, see how they go.

[catmandu]

sparkey508,
I'm curious on how things went with your idea of using the Lee Collet neck die and expanding with the NOE expander plugs.
Did it negatively affect concentricity? Did you buy expander's at boolit OD? 1 th over?

Basicially, how did it work out for you?

Paul in WNY

[sparky508]

I need to get back on that and see what happened. I think mostly, it was due to the way I prep my 223 brass on my progressive that soured the whole plan.
1 Decap
2 Size and trim with Dillon trimmer
3 Open the neck on the 5th station.

The brass tends to tip and not enter the die straight on the 5th station, (LNL AP) so if your not ever watchful, and guide it in, you blow up the brass as it goes crooked into the die.

The other calibers that I solely prep on my single stage, I cant remember if it worked out or not, or if I ever even got that far.

So that being said, thanks for the reminder, now I have something to do!!

[popper]

Mine work fine but I wish he would do 0.0005 steps vs 0.001"