Expander ball off center
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It's been awhile since I've asked a dumb question, I figure it's time again.
So I just shelled out the cash for a widden die set. A full length .308 sizer and seater. The polish on the inside of the die body looks great and I'm impressed with how they're packaged with a bump gauge and pin retainer. Forester should take note.
So last night I was preparing some brass for some load
development, and in accordance with most die instructions, I went to clean them, and as I was screwing the expander ball and stem back into the die body I noticed it was revolving around inside the die as if it were bent."Surely this can't be" I thought, so removed the stem and inspected it carefully. It seemed straight, so I reinstalled it only to have it go in again as if it were bent.
I went and inspected my other dies, they all seem to do it, to varying degrees, and I guess I never noticed.How concerned should I be about this? Clearly it's not enough for me to have noticed it before, but I did pay considerably more for these dies and feel like they should be better than that.
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Mine appears concentric. I don't have a lathe, but it doesn't look like it is out by much.
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The stems are suppose to "float" in there. Depending how tight a guy has them cranked in, they might get off center.
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I found the same thing with my Redding die. It was the first decent set I purchased so I was a bit disappointed since I only found the issue a few weeks after purchase and wouldn't be possible to exchange it. I resorted to placing a thick o-ring between the body and the stem in hopes that it would freefloat enough to not pull the case mouth off centre. I did orientate the the stem to be as close to centre as possible. At this point I have decided to pick up a universal decapping die and a seperate expanding die and remove the expander ball/pin assembly completely.
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@orkan
So leave it "looser" and let it "float", roger that.I need to sand and then polish the expander ball still. I wanted to make sure it didn't have to go back. I'm actually kinda annoyed by how rough it looks
