Please, talk to me about Lee Collet Dies

[Hobie]

Had a young fella, new reloader (2 strikes on the issue of detailed description) come in today and claim he couldn't get the collet die to size (.22-250). I could not see anything wrong with the die. I took it apart, reassembled it and it seemed good to go. PRIOR to disassembly, the collet insert (not sure of Lee's terminology) was fully in the die body. There is no spring to push it back out and only when out can you see the cartridge stamp. So, how do these work? How should they behave when working properly?

[Chuck 100 yd]

I have a couple and IICR the shell holder pushes against the collet and there is a rod that goes down through the die that the collet presses the brass against and the rod determines the
size of the neck rather than having an expander ball.

It sounds like he was expecting it to do something it was not ment to do???

They need a little lube on the collet`s outside and IIRC the friction of the case to collet fit draws the collet back down when the case is withdrawn.

I prefer the old way of sizing bottleneck cases with a two die set for hunting ammo and use bushing dies for target rifles.

[airedaleman]

The Lee collet dies can quite sensitive to brass thickness in the neck and bullet diameter as the collet is squeezing the neck around a mandrel as Chuck100 explained. I had trouble achieving proper neck tension with the .22 Hornet until I polished the mandrel a bit.

[Hobie]

Both comments are useful given his description of the results of use. Anyone else?

[cnjarvis]

Hobie,
As best I remember how mine work it goes something like this:
Both the collet and the die body have conical shaped areas in them. The collet has a convex cone and the die body has a matching concave cone. As you raise the ram and the shell holder contacts the collet, the collet raises into the cone shaped area at the top of the die body. As it does, it squeezes the case neck down against the mandrel which is slightly undersized to allow for some springback thus sizing the case neck.
The collet should not stick up in the die body. There should be approx. ¼” protruding below. I did find that it helped me to polish the top of the collet on my set for 270 Win.

HTH

[Pepe Ray]

Hi Hobbie;
If the die was assembled w/all its parts you should not have been able to make the collet dissappear into the body.
P.R.

[JDL]

I believe that the die may have been used dry, ie. without a case. This probably pushed the neck size part too far into the body and pushed the "fingers" together. Disassemble again and make sure there is space between the "fingers", at least .050". HTH
JDL

[Hobie]

I believe that the die may have been used dry, ie. without a case. This probably pushed the neck size part too far into the body and pushed the "fingers" together. Disassemble again and make sure there is space between the "fingers", at least .050". HTH
JDL

I've done that. How the collet mechanically functions isn't the question for me, but rather what these young reloaders may have done to make it malfunction. Those two "great" minds couldn't figure it out.

[Charles]

The Lee collet dies are some of the best things Lee makes. They can be a significant help in the quest for accuracy. That said, the can be a PITA to adjust properly. They only work within a narrow range. You can also break them pretty easy, buy screwing them too far down in the press. I have done it twice and Lee has repaired them both for me without question.

[Old Savage]

I use Lee Collet dies for all my bottle neck bolt reloading in a variety of calibers. They do not stretch the cases and do not require the use of any lube. The cases actually get a little shorter in resizing. A friend who had all kinds of equipment and who was inclined to such things told me the lowest degree of bullet run out occurred with the Dillion RL 550 press and Lee Collet dies. I always take new ones apart and debur the surfaces and polish the ring that constricts the collet and the surfaces it bears on on the collet and degrease, clean and relube in the process. Produces very consistent accurate ammo.

With fired cases I just take the aloe version of Kleenex and turn the necks clean in my hand and clean the case a bit. I have reloaded some of the cases 15 or more times.

Working properly the spring force of the collet pushes the ring over it back up. Diameter of the rod in the collet controls the sizing limit. If the collet ring is slightly rough and dry they can jam with too much force and improper adjustment.

[Hobie]

Thanks to all...