Got my K&M neck turning tool recently and have started experimenting with old cases to get the feel of it. This is not for a tight neck chamber but rather a desire for cleaning up what is considered to be marginal brass only offered by one maker (300Rem Ultra mag).I have been been using a K&M expando-iron first and then turning them on the neck cutter slowly with a hand drill. I have two questions:
1)What is the typical amount of metal removed from cases before they clean up? With my cases it seems to be approx .002" 2) What is the most amount you will cut at a time without overheating or galling the brass? I am using ATF to lube the brass while cutting.
Posts: 896 | Location: Austin,TX USA | Registered: 23 January 2001
I turned 50 pieces of 300Rum brass for a tight necked wildcat two nights ago. I used the Forester hand held neck turner and cordless drill to spin the cases. A couple drops of Butches gun oil on the pilot and cutter about every five pieces. There was no galling of the brass and it never got to hot. I have tried other lubes but all except for tap magic and Butch's gun oil end up over heating. Most are either to thick or to thin. I was removing all the brass in two passes (push it from the mouth to the shoulder then back and repeat once more). The finished neck thickness was .011" per side.
[This message has been edited by txhunter (edited 12-21-2001).]
If you can get your cases to clean up in .002" great thats not alot of brass to remove. Also brass tends to resist cutting so you need to have the cutter very sharp. and getting a cutting fluid that works with brass is a little difficult, Rapid tap is good along with tap magic but you may find that good old bacon fat works well and it's cheep Kerry
------------------ If you can't hunt, fish. If you can't fish, Hunt
Ultraman--I have the exact same set up. You are 100% correct at removing about .002". If you can set slightly less and still touch about 95% ofthe case mouth that's fine. You do not need anything to lube the cutter. Just make sure the mandrel on which the case rides is lubed. I use imperial sizing wax on a q-tip. About every 5-8 rounds dab a little on the mandrel and everything will work smooth. There will, or should be, no heating of components. You should be able to do about 100 rounds in an hour while watching tv!!. And yes--in a factory weatherby (with freebore) i think I have improved accuracy by doing this. I consistantly have loaded rounds under .002" with about 70% at .001" and under with neck turned rem brass and forester full length sized brass.
I forgot I did use some Imperial size die wax and it worked well. I preferred the ease of having the lube in a bottle. Trying to smear some wax on the pilot/mandrel was a little messy.
One word of advise is to go slow, not so much on the rotation but on the feed rate. Be consistant, other wise you can end up with high spots.
[This message has been edited by txhunter (edited 12-21-2001).]
I can't imagine anything easier than an occasional dab of the q-tip--just need to hit one side of the mandrel cause the case will work it in smooth as you spin it. Then, do a real light brush to get any left over chips out of the case mouth and you can go right direct to your favorite neck die (or full length die) and the inside of the case neck is still lubed for the expander ball.
How do your get the sized brass to go over the mandrel on the cutter?? Most mandrels I've seen recomend opening the case mouth with a slightly oversized mandrel. OR, I've even cut on cases that were once fired and not resized. A snug fit works best but, I can't imagine even being able to get sized brass onto the madrel of most tools.
The mandrel Forester uses usually will work with sized brass. I just checked and the 270cal mandrel measures just over .275" and the 30cal measures .306". The brass is a snug fit.
