Case sticking on belling/powder funnel

[NicVerAZ]

The Dillon manual claims that this is normal, and that with a good brass cleanup in the tumbler this should not happen (or they say something like that).

I am not sure that the amount of sticking I get sometimes is particularly normal. It happens once every 20 rounds or so, and so far I have no solution than to just push down with a good amount of energy but not too fast so that the powder does not get kicked out of the case.

What would be the solution... brass lube?

I am reloading 9mm, by the way.

Thanks a bunch!

Edited May 15, 2012 by NicVerAZ

[PKT1106]

Its normal. Case lube, by all accounts, helps tremendously. Use a lube that will not harm the powder or primers. One SHot would be good in this instance.

[Too_Slow]

Another common thing is to polish the powder funnel so it is smoother.

Brian

[lilbeauxdawg]

I use a soft wire brush on the powder dropper a little before I start to reload and repeat if the brass starts to feel a little sticky.

lilB

[theycallmeingot]

i haven't tried polishing the powder funnel, but that's a good idea. I did have to polish my lee Factory crimp die before i could use it. it was badly marring the brass when it crimped.

when my powder die sticks too bad, i just grab a handful of cases and give them a few sprays (cases standing up, to get the lube inside the casemouths) with hornady one shot. It is amazing how much it helps.

It really is so easy to lube cases, there is no reason not to. The only reason i don't lube all my cases, is because I forget, until it gets stiff again. putting through 5 lubed cases makes the next 20 or so pulls pretty easy in my experience.

[mike_in_md]

That happens to me when I use brand spanking new Starline brass for 9mm. I asked Dillon a couple of weeks ago if they have a smaller powder funnel that will work with new brass better and they told me that they didn't. They said that the problem would go away after a reload or two. What I end up doing is spray my finger with hornady one shot and then lubricate the powder funnel every 10-15 rounds so that the brass not stick.

I may try to tumble it 1st next time. Perhaps the media will privide some lubricant.

Edited May 16, 2012 by mike_in_md

[cbrconst]

Try the 1050 model powder tube.

[Pat Miles]

New brass sticking is just a fact of life.

New brass has a tiny burr on the inside of the case mouth, this helps cause the sticking. New brass also has brass dust on the inside of the cartridge that helps cause the sticking. Polish the new brass in your tumbler for an hour and you will have less sticking. The burr will be gone after a few times reloading.

Take the funnel/expander out of the machine and polish with crocus cloth and then some polishing compound. This will help also.

The Dillon 650 and the 1050 funnel/expander dies are the same with the same part numbers so spending $$$ on the 1050 unit won't buy you anything except a spare funnel/expander.

Pat

[Jonathan Taliani]

The Dillon 650 and the 1050 funnel/expander dies are the same with the same part numbers so spending $$$ on the 1050 unit won't buy you anything except a spare funnel/expander.

Is this normal? My XL650 powder funnels (exander and belling) are different than my Super 1050 powder funnels (belling only).

On a reread, are you just referring to the powder die that holds the funnels?

Edited May 16, 2012 by Jonathan Taliani

[kalaur]

Try the 1050 model powder tube.

I suggest not doing this unless you're running some sort of expander before flaring. The 1050 gets away with this because you're expanding the mouth of the case as you're swaging the primer pocket.

The Dillon 650 and the 1050 funnel/expander dies are the same with the same part numbers so spending $$$ on the 1050 unit won't buy you anything except a spare funnel/expander.Pat

550/650 funnel/expanders are the same, but the 1050 runs only flare at the powder station, no expanding. As said above, 1050 runs expanding at the swaging station.

To the OP - switch to a 1050 and the problem goes away :-) If you don't want to do that, case lube seems to help, and as your brass gets more and more used it seems to go away. New and once fired brass seem the worst for sticking.

[NicVerAZ]

Thanks for all the help. FYI, this was twice fired brass, not new brass and it had been tumbled 3+ hours in new media.

[Sarge]

I tried the 1050 funnel. Do a search and you will find the thread. Loading 9mm the bullets seat fine without expanding the case on the 650/550. However, the bullet would seat way off center on some loads. Brian himself pointed out that this will not affect performance and he was right. No matter how goofy they looked they all still chambered, fired, and were just as accurate. But I am vain and could not get past the looks of them.

So just last week I came across some newer Win brass that was sticking really bad. I took my 650/550 funnel out and went to the garage and did the following. Snapped a pencil in half and chucked it in my drill. Used a rasp to turn it down until it was a tight fit inside the funnel. I locked the drill on and ran a file on the expander part of the funnel for a bit. then some 600 grit wet paper then some 1200. Removed it and tried it. Repeated 3 or 4 times until It was no longer hanging up yet still slightly expanding the case. Worked great. Everything is centered up, slightly expanded and it runs like there is not even a funnel in the press.

Of course if you have a lathe or machine shop down the street you might save a little time.

And I have the 1050 funnel if you want me to mail it to you to try out for yourself.

[98sr20ve]

Thanks for all the help. FYI, this was twice fired brass, not new brass and it had been tumbled 3+ hours in new media.

You have brass shavings imbedded in the funnel. Polish it with some 600 grit.wet paper. The will go away quickly and it will smooth out. I used to do this every couple months. It seems to get better every time. I haven't done it in years now. But it only takes 5 mins to do it.

[Tornado]

I recently started cleaning my brass with the stainless pin method and started having this same problem. I would get brass galling from the inside of the case to the powder funnel after 30-40 rounds. It would end up taking a lot of effort to pull the case off the funnel. At first I would just polish the brass off with a Dremmel , this did not last long as I was not interested doing this every 50 rounds. I found a post somewhere on the internet where a Dillon rep mentioned that this is common on new cases and that there was no real fix. According to Dillon the slight amount of carbon left on a fired case from normal case cleaning methods acts as a lubricant for the powder funnel.

What has worked for me is to take my vibrating tumbler with some corn cob media and add a cap full of liquid car wax to it; I tumble the cleaned cases for about 10-15 minutes and then load them up. I have not cleaned the powder funnel for several thousand rounds now. As a side benefit the cases go through the sizing die very smoothly almost as good as if they have case lube on them. Every so often I add a little more wax to the cob media, but I have not needed to change the cob media yet since the brass is all ready clean and it has so little run time on it.

You mention you are using twice fired brass. If you do not get every last bit of brass off the powder funnel it will start to build up again in a very short time, using wet sand paper like mentioned should do the trick.

[benos]

I have not heard of the liquid car wax move. Thanks for posting it.

be

[diehli]

Polish the funnel with Flitz.

[njl]

People here (or maybe on GT) have been talking about liquid car wax (usually Nu Finish) in the tumbling media for years. I've done it a few times (liquid turtle wax), but usually ended up with clumps of media+wax getting stuck inside some of the cases...so I gave up on any media additives other than several cut up used dryer sheets. Some also say to cut the wax with mineral spirits. If you have an autoflow tumbler, don't do it...the mineral spirits and autoflow stopper don't get along.

Put the brass in a ziplock bag. Give a little spray of Dillon case lube, close the bag and massage it around. Open the bag and give it a few minutes for the alcohol to evaporate and the brass won't stick to the funnel...and will resize effortlessly compared to non-lubed brass.

[Sarge]

Threads like this can go on forever. Different things work for different folks.

For me:

I use nu finish diluted with mineral spirits in my polishing media and it has NO EFFECT on the cases sticking to the funnel.

I use one shot in a bag as well and it has NO EFFECT on cases sticking to the funnel.

I put the polish in the media and let it run a few minutes to break up in the tumbler and it will not clog cases etc.

I have polished my funnel with everything under the sun and cases still stuck to it.

The only thing that worked was to work the funnel down with a fine file and sandpaper until it no longer sticks in the cases.

[Steve RA]

If you polish it to a mirror finish it will work much better, also, if it is a little smaller it won't expand the case as much which will allow less "push back" which is also a good thing.