I just made a Grafs and midsouth order and ordered a Redding carbite size button kit to try out.

Anyone use one, how do you like it?

fwiw,
I have used them for a few years and cannot recommend them highly enough. I use them as a seperate operation from sizing according to John Barsness's instructions some years back. That said I love the carbide expander balls. Even on my Redding S Type FL Sizers I still use the button to lightly "kiss' the neck on the way out. Have some very low TIR numbers to recommend the practice... Usually .002" and below.

Regards, Matt.

I'm with Matt, I don't lube becks, I clean my brass really well and then size it. I can say there is a lot less drag a consistently a little less runout with the carbide. Tuning dies per the 'Kraky' method, really gets runout to be a non issue for me though.............

I have them in 3 Redding dies & don't really see that much difference is standard dies. As much as I hate to say anything good about Hornady die products their replacement pin/button combo for RCBS dies is great.

What exactly is the Kraky method?

I use them and like them.

If you reload for cases like 7mm Mag and 300 Win Mag that have short necks you probably will not see much advanage. If you reload longer necked cases like Weatherbys you will love the carbide expander.

quote:

Originally posted by Ben Walker:
What exactly is the Kraky method?

Ben, Kraky is a member who posts here, and coached me into what I think is the best method for tuning your dies for minimum runout. I'll try and find his steps and post them for you.

Ben here goes:

Originally posted by Kraky:

My $.02 worth---ALL dies with expander balls need tuning. Think about it....people chase concentricity issues of .003"......a piece of typing paper is .003" thick--what are the odds that the expander is not PERFECTLY centered in a die and can pull the neck off center that little bit??? Pretty good I'd say. Pull the expander stem out of the die (and now is a good time to clean the inside of the die). Run about 5 brass into the die and see if they come out concentric. If they do (and usually they will) you now have to try and get that stem centered on re-assembly. A great way that helps is to put a piece of very concentric brass up into the die to hold the stem in place as you tighten it down. Sometimes this takes 2 people unless you have 3 or 4 hands. AFter reassembly try sizing some brass and check runnout. If not good then do very small turns of the expander stem--probably 1/32 of a turn at a time. Resize some brass and repeat the small turns. At some point I can almost guarantee that you will get GREAT RUNNOUT CONSISTANTLY. (Somehow, someway the expander spindle will hit almost perfect centering in the die body) I have many dies that consistantly make less than .002" runnout after sizing with most of the brass at .001" and less. I own, hornady, redding, forester, rcbs, and lee dies. ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN TUNED and most make fantastic ammo and all make good ammo!! I have never ever got a set of dies from any factory that made as good of ammo as those that I have done this simple work with.

All very interesting. BTW, for any who haven't seen it, John Barsness has had more to say concerning expanders in the current issue of HandLoader (October, 2007).

My question: Should the concentricity of brass be measured on the outside of the neck, or on the inside? Unless the brass has been turned, there will probably be a difference. A tuned expander ball will align the inside. A bushing die will align the outside. Until it is determined which is appropriate (for a standard chamber) and considering the variance in neck thickness, where should we attempt to center the bullet in the case? I would vote for centering the bullet on the inside, but I can't convince myself that it makes any difference in a standard chamber.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

I use Redding Competitiuon dies. The spindles on these dies do not have a long threaded lead. Usually they are fixed via a locking nut. I drilled a hole in the locking nuts in order to put them out of function. The now merely serve as a retainer for the bushings.

The effect is that the spindle with the sizer button is dangling freely in the die. It will therfore self-center in the case neck, after this has (hopefully) been sized to concentricity by the bushing.

Yep I dont tighten the lock nut either, just let the rod with size button wiggle and center itself