The sizing stem I got with my .225" die measures at .220" This leaves too much of the base unsupported and causes a crescent shape in my gas checks. I contacted Lee about it, but they said its supposed to have a .0025" clearance on all sides. I don't understand, but it is what it is.
Anyone here do custom seating stems? I would like to see if a .224" would do the trick. I made a stem of sorts by taking a piece of brass and sanding it down to .224", but it is incredibly hard to get the end of it absolute perpendicular to the rest. Without that the checks seat crooked. I am about to the point where I am going to buy myself a lathe and be done with it all.