Please Help - Those with Lee Factory Carbide Crimp

[mellow]

I was taking this die apart for cleaning prior to setting it up. When I unscrewed the adjustment assembly, a cylinder slid out. Now it looks like the edges on one end of the cylinder are thinner than the other side. (One side is tapered)

I assume that this tapered side is the one that faces toward the mouth of the die, but I just want to make sure.

Does anyone know the position for sure?? Anyone want to disassemble theirs for me?? =)

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.

BTW, this is my first time setting up a progressive. The guys at Redding said I should completely disassemble each die, including my Competition seating die, and clean them with Hoppe's No. 9. Anybody else doing this??

[3quartertime]

Just cleaned my dies tonight by coincidence!!!  The LFC cylinder goes thin side towards the die opening.   The tapered cylinder kind of bespeaks the intention of the die as a 'taper crimping die' I believe.  Although it might be used for roll crimping too,  never done that.

I use break free to clean my dies.  May not be the suggested but it seems to work fine.  Just a squirt and a nylon brush then wipe all the excess off.  

A suggestion;  The LFC die only comes with one lock nut.  I like to use two on each die so I use the upper lock ring from the Redding crimp die that I don't use.  I also don't use the o-ring and turn the bottom lock nut over so the threaded part is towards the tool head.  The LFC needs to be almost touching the shellplate to work right and on my 650 in .40 that doesn't leave many threads above the tool head.  Turning the nut over can help some.  

I think you'll really like the dies after you use them a while.  The competition seating die should make working up loads a breeze. Wish I had one!!!

[Steve Anderson]

I've never taken one apart but I throw the lee lock ring away and use the dillon ring instead. 3qt is right, there's not much thread there. Same trick for the U sizing die.

SA