lee neck expander question

[porthos]

i have a lee neck expander that i use noe expanders in. so far i've used only rifle brass in it. i modified the larger lee tapered expander too 9mm. cut it to .357 with +.005 for starting the bullet. after assembly; i see that the new expander will not go deep enough to flair the brass. the bottom of the die will bottom out on the shell holder. what am i missing here?

[Conditor22]

The lee expander comes with 2 expander plugs, 1 large and 1 small. these plugs are meant to be stacked for use with pistol rounds normally with the point of the top plug going into the adjustment nob.
there is a diagram in the instructions that come with the expander that shows this

https://leeprecision.com/files/instruct/90798.pdf

[Taterhead]

Conditor nailed it. The Lee plugs can be mixed and matched to get the depth needed. Use one or both or none. Can also play with the orientation of the plugs since the pointy parts can go partway into the top of the die.

Of course the NOE plug goes in first.

[porthos]

i know this; but i can't get the 9mm brass deep enough into the die to flair the end. let me back up a bit. i made a "M" plug out of the larger lee plug. i cut it to .356 for case expansion and .360 flair. i can't get deep enough for the flair section. i will probably shorten the die by .250 or make a longer plug

[Evoken]

Put something in the die to take up more space. I bet a 1/4-20 nut would fit in there.
Ken

[1hole]

Technically, Lee's "Universal Neck Expander" isn't a neck expander at all. Instead, it's simply a mouth flaring tool, and a very good one too but I prefer Lyman's "M" die which IS a neck expander that has a short mouth expander section that's just a few thou over normal bullet diameter to help any bullets to get started straight and undamaged. Then it has an excellent mouth flare section that will open the mouths to whatever diameter anyone could reasonably wish.

[porthos]

fixed the issue. cut a piece of .375 aluminum 2.250 long. goes in the hole in the top adjusting screw. then moved the shoulder back on the expander/flair plug in the lathe. it now seats about .250 further into the die