New Lyman 45-120 dies left score marks on my new brass!

[smoked turkey]

I recently purchased new Lyman 45-120 dies from Midsouth Shooters. They were out of stock on the 45-120 brass, so I placed an order with BACO for 80 pieces of Jamison brass which arrived today. I ran a wet patch through the sizing die and proceeded to set up the new dies in my RCBS Rock Chucker press. After lubing a case with Imperial Sizing Wax, I ran a case partially into the sizer die. I did notice that the case required quite a bit of force to size the new brass. It made me think I had not used enough lube on the big case. I used my fingers to apply lube as I always do. I did FL size the case. The new die left about one inch long score marks that can be seen and felt with a finger nail on the top of the case. I can see an area in the top of the die that appears as though it is not polished out as it should be and appears as a ring when viewed from the bottom end of the die. I plan to call Lyman with this problem and will report back what the results are. I am thinking that Lyman should want to examine the dies and make any corrections that are required in order not to leave score marks on this beautiful, new, expensive brass. What would you do if this were your problem?

[Boolit_Head]

Sounds like a flawed die, I'll bet Lyman makes good on it.

[montana_charlie]

You might try cleaning that diw with the same kind of stuff you would use on a cruddy rifle bore.
It shouldn't hurt the die, but it might remove some 'crusty stuff' left over from the manufacturing process.

[country gent]

if you gan get the use of a bore scope look in it and see what the finish actually is. Anything scoring brass should be visible in the bore scope. Knowing this can give a direction to procede. It may be a sharp edge left where the radious meets the actual die portion.

[Lead pot]

Brass is not much different then Aluminum it can cause galling if you use poor lube or not enough. Get a little 4-0 steel wool on a chamber mop and use a little oil and polish the die out using a drill motor at slow RPM. This will not hurt your die and it might solve your problem.
Had to do this when I loaded a lot of pistol cases.

[bigbore52]

I would second polishing the die inside first up but use some toothpaste on a cotton wool mop driven in your hand drill - slow speed....jam a big hunk of it in to polish it working it up and down - it won't touch the metal but I find that will show any grinding marks easier after you shine a light in than just oil so you can see ....make sure you thoroughly clean it out though when done....could be left over tooling marks but either way, shouldn't be there to start with and I'm sure the manufacturer will come to the party if it needs fixing.....good luck.

[smoked turkey]

UPDATE ON NEW LYMAN 45-120 SIZING DIE
Thanks all for the positive comments on polishing up the die. I called Lyman customer service this morning and I am very happy to report that I got a very positive response. The customer service rep first suggested I return the die set to Midsouth for a replacement, or return the die to Lyman for service or replacement. I suggested they send me a new FL sizer die body and I return the die to them in their package. After a small conference with the supervisor she returned and said that the supervisor was going to send a replacement die body and I could dispose of the die body I now have. I call that good customer service. The lady was very pleasant and I got no hassle at all. So I expect in about six days or so to receive a replacement. I will try to polish out the machine marks after I have the new body in hand just to see if I can make it totally serviceable. Thanks for the suggestions on how to go about doing this. I had thought something like really fine emery paper in a dowel rod with light oil as a lube.
I did the original post because I hear various stories about customer service from different manufacturers and wanted to draw attention to this situation whether good or bad so that we all can use these results in our future buying decisions. For me I think Lyman responded in a very positive manner and they deserve future business from me.

[bigted]

I agree with the Lyman customer service ... I have an electronic powder dispenser and the circuit board went south awhile back ... a phone call was all that was needed and I sent it back from Alaska and they repaired it and returned it free of any charge .... has worked like a charm ever since.

I hope that Lyman continues with this service as we all need a good company to deal with when getting goody's to play with.

cool report and thanks for sharing this with us.

[Ed in North Texas]

My Lyman .50-70 die set had an M expander die which would not allow a .50-70 case to enter the die body without swaging the case smaller (well, about 1/8" of the first case before I stopped trying). E-Mailed Lyman customer service and they said send the die back. Sent the die back to Lyman and they replaced it with a correctly dimensioned die.

Their customer service is OK, but I'd prefer my experience with Lyman products back in the '60s - no problems.

[smoked turkey]

Follow-up to original post and my post # 7. I reported that Lyman stood behind their sizing die and sent me another without any hassle on my part other than a phone call to them. I would like to report that this story had a happy ending. Unfortunately the new die even though better did also produce some score marks on my brass but not as bad as the first one. Both full length dies required considerable force to size the big case. I decided the best thing to do was to hone the inside of the die using a mop loaded with fine grinding compound. I have done a couple of sessions at the drill press on lowest speed. The die is much improved and re-sizing is considerably easier. I plan to do one more session and I think it will be satisfactory. I am just not sure Lyman has the polishing process down as good as another die maker. I think their customer service is good but product quality is not on a par with RCBS who I normally use. This is just my opinion from this one experience. I do have one other set of dies that are Lyman and did not have this problem with those.