"Cleaning up" a 310 die

[HeavyMetal]

Currently working with a theory on case neck tension in 38 special target loads.

I have an old 310 die set for one of my Lyman truline;s that I plan to open up a few thousandths of an inch in an effort to reduce the amount of sizing the die does to the brass.

Not having done this before I'm thinking 600 grit and polish lightly and slowly in my lathe, the basic slotted stick routine.

Unless someone thinks a finer grit is needed or has any experince with die "polishing"? I'm going to get this done this weekend.

Ideas gentleman?

[Gary51]

If you can find it try using Micro Mesh also can be called Poly Sand (used to remove scratches and polish aircraft windows) and start with 1000 grit and if you want a mirror finish use some 2500 or 4000 grit to finish the job. Micro Mesh is sold on rolls and costs a small fortune and lasts a long time. Also good for making a stainless steel weapon look like a nickle finish!

[Catshooter]

Six hundred will give you a nice finish in a lathe, but it'll take a long time to remove a couple of thousanths.


Cat

[HeavyMetal]

I figured I could get a good finish with 600 grit and that it might take me awhile.

The other option is to try to take a super light cut and then polish the die out. I think the die may be hardened? If so I won't cut it with HSS tooling I do have carbide boring tools and I may just give that a try as I will want to take out at least 3 to 4 thousandths of an inch.

[Shiloh]

I would use something slightly more course and then finish with 600# followed by crocus paper.
I have some paper for platinum jewelry work that goes into the microns. THis is overkill.

I opened up an undersized Lyman die this way, and turned a LEE die into a slightly oversized die the same way.

Shiloh

[HeavyMetal]

Got lucky and found 600 1200 and 2000 grit paper at my local Ace hardware store!

Bummer they were out of 800!

3 hours with a split dowel of Pine and I got what I wanted! Minimal sizing of the brass and, with a 357 expander plug, just a little more pressure than I can exert, comfortablely, to seat the full wadcutter boolit!

I plan a trip to the range soon to try these in my 52!

[shotman]

need to watch the brass with wad cutters. +p will tend to bulge .You may have to polish the die with rubbing compound so you done get and scratched brass

[HeavyMetal]

So far the 2000 girt has produced a finish better than the original .

You are correct about +p brass as well as any brass that has a cannalure higher than midway up the case!

Case cannalures will serrate boolits real fast as well as making them smaller in Diameter.

Doing research on waddcutter loads and what to watch out for when loading them!

[ktw]

3 hours with a split dowel of Pine and I got what I wanted! Minimal sizing of the brass and, with a 357 expander plug, just a little more pressure than I can exert, comfortablely, to seat the full wadcutter boolit!


Thanks for the thread. It's a good idea.

You have inspired me to experiment with opening up some of my extra 310 sizer dies.

-ktw

[TAWILDCATT]

gentlemen you dont read the posts HE said a 52 and S&W is the only one and +p will do more than bulge the case in a 52.it will blow the back off.the charge is 2.8
bullseye.trust me the 3.2 will blow.:coffee:[smilie=1:

[HeavyMetal]

Ok Just to Add to my thread:
I planned to enlarge the inside diameter of an old 310 38 special sizing die. The idea is that the current crop of sizing dies overly reduces the case diameter during resizing for cast lead wadcutters.

The game plan is to use a batch of once fired Federal match HBWC case's for this experiment. These have a case cannalure about half way up the case from the rim and just touch the base of a flush seated 35863 DE wadcutter.

By reduceing the amount of sizing done to the case I get two things: less working of the
brass and and less working of the boolit when seated provided the correct size expander plug is used to match the boolit diameter.

In this case the expander plug is .357 boolits are sized .358. with just a slight amount of belling I can push start the boolit into the case. Because I'm using almost pure lead for these boolits the concern over deforming them during seating was very real!

With this set up I do not have that problem.

The federal brass was cleaned trimmed and primer pocket reamed prior to loading. The load was the classic 2.7 of Bullseye, a Standard CCI small pistol primer and the 35863 DE wadcutter boolit.

The boolit was seated flush with just enough crimp to put a very slight roll on the end of the case. Since my 52 will feed empty case's I didn't think it necassary to go overboard on a crimp which is one more thing that can deform boolits when fired.

I will get to the range soon and see how these perform.

If things go as projected ( whoa baby) The next step is how do I actually get this idea to work in a production setup?

The 310 die is doing what I want but not as fast as I'd like. The down side of this die is lubing the case's then cleaning them again before continuing to load.

I know some shooters don't have an issue with case lube all over everything during loading but it bugs the snot out of me!

So if things go right I may contact Lee about a group buy on a carbide sizing die that will be specifically for loading 38 special wadcutter boolits. I may also ask about a complete die set with expanders for 357 358 and 359 diameter boolits.

This may not be the place to ask but is anyone interested in a die set like this?