1050 - expander die vs. Lee "U" die?

[bgary]

I'm finally working through setting up my new-to-me RL1050 for 9-major.

Station 2, I have my Lee "U" die.

In station 3, I *started* to set up the Dillon Expander die. If I understand it correctly, the purpose of the expander die is to "slightly expand" the inside of the case and provide support inside the case as the swage-rod comes up to swage the primer pocket.

Two questions:

-- does the expander die, by "expanding" the case, effectively "un-do" the goodness of the "U" undersized sizing die?, and

-- is the expander die necessary, if I'm not swaging primer pockets?

I'm leaning towards leaving that die in the box, but... thought I'd check with the benos experts, first.

B

[L9X25]

Bruce,

One more thing to think about is that the SDB, 550 and 650 expand the case mouth and neck slightly at the powder station. The 1050 powder funnel usually does not have the neck expander and merely flares the case mouth slightly. If you have a piece of brass that has been slightly deformed, the 1050 expander can fix that before it gets to the powder die.

[Merlin Orr]

The expander thing at .352 is not larger than the stock dimension of the case. The U die is too make sure the brass in not over spec...not to make it smaller than spec. I can't see it hurting anything.....

I do run the expander thing in all of my presses.. For no reason other than I saw no need to remove them whether the swag was hooked up or not. (all of mine are)

[Nik Habicht]

Bruce,

I don't run a U-die, I run the standard Dillon resizing/depriming die. My crimp die is the Lee Factory Crimp Die, that seems to straighten out any potential resizing issues for me. My expander expands, and my swager swages. I've only loaded about 15-20,000 9mm rounds on the 1050, and haven't had an ammo related jam in all of that time.....

[bgary]

Thanks for the info, guys...

My setup on the 650 was

1 - Lee "U" die

2 - Dillon powder die with KISS belling insert

3 - KISS bullet dropper

4 - Redding competition seating die

5 - Lee FCD

My thought is (was?) to basically replicate that setup on the 1050

1 - (case feed)

2 - Lee "U" die

3 - ???

4 - (priming)

5 - Dillon powder die with KISS insert

6 - KISS bullet dropper

7 - Redding competition seating die

8 - Lee FCD

I *will* be swaging primer pockets at some point, but at the moment I'm using all same-headstamp commercial brass, so the swaging is superfluous for now.

EDITED TO ADD: the genesis of the question is that, when I started setting up dies, it seemed to take a fair amount of effort to drive the expander into a case that had just been sized with the Lee "U" sizing die. Don't know if that amount of effort is "normal", or if it is making the expander work harder because the case is now "undersized".

Thoughts?

B

Edited May 16, 2008 by bgary

[D.Hayden]

Bruce.. I leave the swagger in.. it'll give you an indication, if the primer gets 're-sucked' back up into the case on the decapping stage.

[Nik Habicht]

Bruce,

you are lubing the cases, right? I've noticed as I've progressed from the SDB to the 650 to the 1050 that the number of stations really increase the effort without lube......

...other than lube, I believe the combination of U-die and FCD to be overkill. Of course I shoot primarily Glocks, but I only use the FCD in .40, and my 35 has a Bar-Sto tube.....

If you have the time, produce some rounds with the U-die, and some without. Measure, and shoot -- see if you notice a significant difference?