Dillon 550 Expander Dirty or Damaged?

I loaded some 45 last night to test in my guns and the cases were hard to get out of the expander (Dillon).  I read online this could be because of milling marks and I should just chuck it up in my drill press and polish it.  I'm a wood guy, not a metal guy.  Want to make sure I don't ruin any tolerances.  Based on the picture, is this correct?  If so, I would appreciate a little guidance on grits to start with.  I need to reorder some 3M paper for sharpening my chisels.  I imagine that will work, but I'm not concerned with tolerances sharpening those.

Or if it's trash, let me know!  I have only loaded about 5-10k rounds with it.

I do wet tumble and read how that makes things sticky.  I also do not use One Shot or other lube.

Thanks!

Sorry, forgot to attach.

Soupy44 wrote:Or if it's trash, let me know!  I have only loaded about 5-10k rounds with it.

I do wet tumble and read how that makes things sticky.  I also do not use One Shot or other lube.

Thanks!

IMO, it is result of your brass cleaning process.  No pan intended, but your cases are "too clean" resulting in brass galling with material used for making funnel.  Old Double Alpha Academy's funnels were made out of stainless steel, which is typical material that is galling with brass.  However, looks as you are using Dillon OEM funnel.  If correct, just clean tip of it.  All it does is belling the cases, and that part of the funnel appears to be fine.  You also might want to check your sizing die, - it might be undersizing cases (sizing to smaller ID that is necessary).

AP

Greetings,

Your expander appears to have Brass galling.

Mount the expander in a chuck and while spinning clean away the welded on Brass with a piece of 0000 Steel Wool or a fine ScotchBrite pad.

AP is correct. Brass can be cleaned too clean.

Cheers,

Dave

From the Dillon 550 manual page 12:

Be aware that new brass will often “stick” on the powder funnel or cause resistance on the upstroke. Cleaning the brass in a tumbler should help.

This also applies to wet tumbled brass, some people run their brass in a dry tumbler with polish after wet tumbling to prevent this.

Use some very fine polish or stainless steel wool to clean up the surface of your expander.  Just clean it up, no need to go overboard.

Wipe down every so often with a small patch with just a drop or 2 or Kroil.

Keep an eye on the expander and if it starts again, go back to step 1.  

Use lube on your cases, even with carbide dies.  You will appreciate the difference in many ways.

CR

Yuck. Your expander deserves some lube as does your sizing die. A can of OneShot lasts a pretty good long time. Toss the cleaned cases in a shoe box, spray and shake. Repeat once or twice based on what you feel in the press stroke. Doesn’t take a lot and it dries pretty quickly.

Had some 600 and 1200 grit sitting around, no idea what for. Was light with the 600. Got all the gunk off.  Lube from now on it is!

Wet tumble with some liquid car wash/wax. A couple ounces should do.

Bill

I had that same problem  and found out that if you take a lube pad with some sizing lube on it and just hit the open end of 45acp case on it and twist a little it goes in sizer and on the expander plug easy and no galling been doing this for near 40 years on Dillion Square deal.