Good grief! Is it me or is it Lee?

[Moleman-]

I have a lathe so it's sort of cheating, but when the new soft pins they're putting in Lee dies now fail I take the broken pin and drill it top and bottom for a standard decapping pin cut in half and loctited in. They last longer than the one piece pins but not as long as the older roller bearing pins. If you don't happen to have a lathe or three handy but have a drill press, you can easily make a drill guide. Find a scrap piece of steel at least 3/4" thick (1" is better), clamp it in place and drill a hole half way though with a #9-#8 or 5mm drill bit (13/64" will work but will be sloppy). Then switch to a thinner bit that is the same size as the decapping pin size you want to use small or large and drill the rest of the way through. Loctite them in place and when they need changed, hit the pin with a torch (out of the die of course) until the heat makes the broken/bent pop out. If you do both sides just flip it over.

[WinchesterM1]

Does anyone make good replacement pins for Lee? I'd rather not replace crap with more crap and we all know Lee isn't the Rolex of reloading.

I replaced all my 22 cal stems with Squirrel daddy de calling pins look him up, he is on YouTube, I have t broke one of his ever and I don’t think you physically can!!

[David2011]

Without being there it’s hard to guess why the dies are rusting. Personally, I would clean them up with Scotchbrite, put some Boeshield T-9 on them and move on.

The bent decapping pin is human error. The end is peened so it probably hit something other than primers several times before the fatal incident. Either the case wasn’t lined up correctly or there was debris in the case. The only Lee decapping pin I’ve broken was due to a rock inside the case. When you shoot in the desert that can happen. I ordered several replacements from Lee and that solved the problem. None broken since I have spares on hand. My spares are 8-10 years old so they’re probably still the hardened ones.

I have to agree with what Megasupermagnum said earlier. Lee’s equipment is not junk. They make a few items that might not be great but they make a lot of good tools for very affordable prices. You have chosen to buy quite a bit of their products and chosen to ignore some good experience of others. Don’t get mad at me for saying this. Maybe try slowing down, step back, take a deep breath and review your procedures. It’s a safe guess that most of the contributors here have at least one time in our casting/loading careers had to reevaluate our techniques.

[Omega]

I replaced all my 22 cal stems with Squirrel daddy de calling pins look him up, he is on YouTube, I have t broke one of his ever and I don’t think you physically can!!

They don't break, they bend. I bent two of a three pack finding berdan primed 308s in my brass collection. But they are good replacement pins, the third one has lasted a long time so far.

[wilecoyote]

Does anyone make good replacement pins for Lee? I'd rather not replace crap with more crap and we all know Lee isn't the Rolex of reloading.

these steel pins belong to rolling pin cages. measure the pin dia.
some auto parts store, tech. spare parts or hardware store sells some donor roll pin cages with the same pins inside to use_

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Every now and then it pays to check the tightness of the little cap that holds the pin into the die. If it gets a little loose the pin can wander off center and break.

Good advice already given to buy a pack of spare pins. I doubt if Lee's stuff is being made in China.

Those rusty dies can be rehabbed by using a soft wire wheel. Thereafter, oil is advised. Bare steel needs to be protected.

DG

[docbrown]

The Squirrel Daddy pins do work really well. As far as the rust, a little 0000 steel wool will take that right off and then a light coating of some type of gun oil - Ballistol or G96 CLP works wonders to keep the rust at bay and keep the dies in great shape.

[dtknowles]

They don't break, they bend. I bent two of a three pack finding berdan primed 308s in my brass collection. But they are good replacement pins, the third one has lasted a long time so far.

If you don't over tighten the locking nut when you hit a rock, berdan case or just a stuck primer the pin will back out and not break.

Tim

[imashooter2]

Don’t have any input other than to observe that my Lee Universal decapper has done many thousand crimped primer .223 and is still going strong.

[toallmy]

Get a 5 pack of squirrel daddy pins , you will be in good shape.

[oley55]

I must be holding my mouth all wrong because I bought three replacement pins in anticipation of eventually breaking one. Some years later and who knows how many rounds the original deprimer pin just keeps on, keeping on.

[Scrounge]

Nope, I use this die on range pickup brass before I clean it.

Here's a brand new set of 9mm dies I started using maybe 3-4 weeks ago which MAYBE have 150 rounds through them.

SNIP!

And here are my old set of 38/357 dies I got back in 2014 which have thousands of rounds through them. These have been exposed to the same climate as the 9mm cases, just 8 years more of it.

SNIP!

From my experience living in South Carolina 30-odd years ago, the humidity is usually pretty high there. Get a quart or gallon of EvapoRust or one of the similar rust removal liquids, disassemble each of your dies, and soak them in it for an hour or so. If you're not going to use them right way, at least with the EvapoRust you can let it dry on them, and it will prevent rust until it's washed off. If you plan on using them again soon, rinse them thoroughly in distilled or demineralize/softened water, and oil them heavily. Kroil would be good, but not WD-40 unless you submerge them in a puddle. Remove the oil to use them, then re-oil to store them.

Spent four years at Shaw AFB, back in the late 80's & very early 90's. Wasn't doing much reloading then, but was doing medieval recreation stuff, and rusty armor and swords is not much fun, either.

Bill

[Stopsign32v]

What's the difference between the two?

https://www.squirreldaddy.com/3-Ball...p/sd24-107.htm

https://www.squirreldaddy.com/3-Heat...p/sd24-112.htm

And dumb question, can these be used (and useful) in a universal decapping die?

https://www.squirreldaddy.com/Harden...p/sd24-114.htm

[Omega]

What's the difference between the two?

https://www.squirreldaddy.com/3-Ball...p/sd24-107.htm

https://www.squirreldaddy.com/3-Heat...p/sd24-112.htm

And dumb question, can these be used (and useful) in a universal decapping die?

https://www.squirreldaddy.com/Harden...p/sd24-114.htm

Looks like one just has a ball end, and the last one will defeat the purpose of a universal decapping die, it sizes the neck.

[Geezer in NH]

Mine look like that when I slam into a Berdan primmed case. I buy Universal pins by the dozen from Titan reloading saves time in the long run by the way they are cheap. You also have to have the case fully into the case holder and don't go by the "force' when de-capping

[David2011]

After my previous comment about human error I broke two decapping pins this evening. I was decapping a big bunch of .308 and 7.62x51 brass and ran into two makes that were Berdan primed. The die was a Redding; certainly not the fault of the die. I was also trying to repair some misshapen mouths so I used a resizing die on a few instead of the universal decapper. Looked into a lot of cartridges after the first one but later found about 8 Canadian pieces that were Berdan. That was after decapping a bunch of IVI, also Canadian, that was Boxer primed. The Berdan primed brass was all properly demilitarized.

[wilecoyote]

since 2000, my Lee dies never failed to decap or snap in two (by my fault).
but today I understand that mine are all considered quite old stuff_
if newer Lee dies instead are folding the steel(?)pin, the stuff they were made of has changed,
and/or is not anymore what R.Lee wrote in his book_

[hollywood63]

Might grab a set of these https://www.squirreldaddy.com/3-Heat...p/sd24-112.htm

I like the stuff I've seen off that site before, just never purchased from them.

And don't look back pops out crimped primers nicely ..............as long as the case is lined up of course

[toallmy]

With the hardened squirrel daddy pins you can almost punch a new flash hole in a berdan primer case .
If you take a peak in the case before trying to deprime them - and see the 2 little holes it can save a lot of aggravation especially 223,308,3006 ..........
Besides cases out of alignment in the shell holder - debris in the case ( like a 22 case , or a pebble ) or even a off center flash hole will cause trouble .

[mdi]

Well, I'd guess it's operator error. What was inside the case that the pin hit? Did a Berdan primed case sneak through? Did you have the case in crooked, off center? Did you stop when there was extra force needed, or did you just slam the die down on a case?. I have been using Lee tools since 1970 and a universal depriming die for roughly 12 years. I have bent pins only when there was a chunk of hard tumbling media in the case. I have never found a military primer crimp that was difficult to remove, even WWII brass. I have never found a flash hole so small as to bend a pin either. The case of foreign articles, or small/blocked flash holes is easily remedied by inspection.

My Lee "crap" dies had loaded tens of thousands of rounds, quite successfully even military once fired range pickups (I got "ringers" way before any bent pins). Maybe because of my background (lifelong machinist/mechanic) that I know how to use tools as they are designed?