Lee Loader

Midsouth billed me for the swage kit, bench plates, case feeder yesterday so maybe it'll all ship today or Monday. I received the collator from Amazon already but no sign of the one from eBay.

klr wrote:I noticed that the shell holder has a lot of slop in the swage die. That allows the shellholder to move enough to misalign the brass with the swage die ram. I'm going to try to insert a piece of plastic to reduce the slop in the swage die. Otherwise, It looks like I need another riser to have one modded for swaging and one modded for depriming. At this point, it looks like the APP is not the best for .223 processing. Hopefully 9mm brass and sizing cast bullets will be more forgiving of it's tolerances.

klr wrote:This morning I gave it another shot. I measured the shell holder and found that one side was .005" narrower than the other. I marked the thin side with a diamond file and made sure it faced the direction I want the brass to go. Next, I inserted a piece of hdpe cut from a rubbing alcohol bottle into the slot of the swage die that holds the shell holder. The piece was .028" thick. The piece was positioned to move the shell holder toward the front of the press. The shell holder can still rotate easily.

These two changes repositioned the brass enough for the swage die to work smoothly now. About one in 50 pieces need a little nudge to allow the swage ram to go in.

Interesting. I think I will back up a bit and do a deep dive into the 25 Auto tools, starting with the slot through the X-Press shell holder.

klr wrote:At this point my shoulder is shot and I need to take a couple of days off.

I understand that. After all the 25 Auto stuff last weekend and multiple hogs with the 303 British and 12 Gauge, my shoulder isn't functioning well.

I'm also going to try Collet Die Sizing on the APP this weekend. I need to pull some 35 Rem cartridges that were loaded on the Classic Turret, same problem as all the other cartridges that ran through a Collet die on that press. I think the little bit of play in the turret head, with pressure on only one side of the turret, delivers some type of bend/lean to the case. Same problem as the 303 British, 300 Savage, and 7.62x39; they won't chamber and if they do, you cannot close the bolt. I had only used the Collet dies on the Challenger, moving them last year to the turret, and all hell broke loose. I never had a problem with them before.

Ranch Dog wrote:
I'm also going to try Collet Die Sizing on the APP this weekend. I need to pull some 35 Rem cartridges that were loaded on the Classic Turret, same problem as all the other cartridges that ran through a Collet die on that press. I think the little bit of play in the turret head, with pressure on only one side of the turret, delivers some type of bend/lean to the case. Same problem as the 303 British, 300 Savage, and 7.62x39; they won't chamber and if they do, you cannot close the bolt. I had only used the Collet dies on the Challenger, moving them last year to the turret, and all hell broke loose. I never had a problem with them before.

Well that's no good. I have collet dies for 223 and 308 and was planning on using them on the turret. Let me know how it goes.

I have the LCD for 7.62X39, .223 Rem, .30-30 Win and use them on the LCT so I am interested too.

Dang I wish my swage kit and bench plates would get here!

Okay, I think I have the Collet die thing worked out. Its a long post, but can be read here: https://www.lee-loader.com/viewtopic.ph ... 929#p30929

It boils down to what is meant by "shell holder contact" in the instructions.

Ranch Dog wrote: It boils down to what is meant by "shell holder contact" in the instructions.

So I take it that contact means hard contact after all slop has been removed. Makes sense.

Think of how fast resizing will be with a collet die in the APP press.

klr wrote:

Ranch Dog wrote: It boils down to what is meant by "shell holder contact" in the instructions.

So I take it that contact means hard contact after all slop has been removed. Makes sense.

That's what I will take it to mean.

klr wrote:Think of how fast resizing will be with a collet die in the APP press.

Yes, it would be but I like it to be the first step of my rifle reloading on the turret press. All the conditioning has taken place and now is the time to uniform that neck. This is followed with a primer via the Safety Prime as the ram returns to the base. Then on to powder charging, etc.