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How do you guys open up or enlarge a Lee bullet sizing die. I assume most of you don't have a Sunnen hone in your garage. I was thinking about a flex-hone in an electric drill with WD-40 or motor oil for lube. Has anyone tried it? Did you get a fairly straight hole?
http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/115/...l/4424ap1s.gif
from:
mcmaster.com flexible-hones
they have them as small as 4mm (0.055")
:castmine:
Sure they work fine. Its just that most dont spend the money for something you dont use that offen. I f you get the fine one may take a little longer but wont have to buy 2
IIRC there is a good article over at Castpics on one good way to do it.
Gear
It's really pretty simple, no need to buy a hone. Use a steel, brass, or aluminum rod smaller than your sizer hole, with a slit in one end (cut it with a hacksaw). Put the rod in your cordless drill, and wrap a strip of emery cloth around the end (start it in the slit) so it is a tight fit in the sizer die. Spin that at moderate speed in the die until it is the right size. Many lee dies need this anyway. 120 grit works fine. It breaks down as you go, and polishes the die nicely. You can use 240 grit if you want to go slower; no need to go finer than that, 240 grit leaves a fine smooth finish in the die after it breaks down.
There was a thread a few weeks ago on doing it with valve grinding cmpd on boolits and pushing them through. I have done it and it works pretty good.
I do it like Yondering only I use a wood dowel.
I use Yondering and Will's method with a wooden dowel. My only comment is to use a lot of oil and push the abrasive in and out while honing, like they do when they hone a cylinder in an engine block so that the "scratches" are at 45* and not circular. It helps keep hole uniformly round throughout its length to prevent tight and loose spots and allows the abrasive and metal particles to work their way out of hole and not gum up things.
I started with a wood dowel, but found they kept breaking, so I switched to steel. I start off with a pretty tight fit though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Will
This method also makes it possible to polish the tapered "throat" of the die.
I also use the rod with 120 grit emery cloth. Make sure it's a good tight fit if you have a fair amount to remove. I actually have had to hone just about all my Lee sizing dies because the hard boolits would sometimes hang up even when only sizing down .001.
I opened up a Lee .285 to .3015 in about 30 minutes with a split rod and a hand drill. I started with 320 grit, went to 600 grit and finished with crocus cloth.
Wood dowel works also, just have to be a little more careful. A nail allows some additional stress in the form of pressure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Will
Shiloh
use a borebrush wrapped with 600 grit the brush gives outward pressure and use a little oil
i was suprised how long it took to just go .001 bigger
I use the Buckshot method- wrap some abrasive cloth on a cleaning rod and roll the die back and forth on your thigh. Very fast.