Forster benchrest sizer, What !!?!??

[Patriot007]

In the Forster Bench Rest FLS die, make sure that the expander ball is lined up correctly with the vent hole on the side of the die body, if it's not line up properly it will cause hydraulic pressure and either crush or cause the case to stick.
I use a lanolin mix lube also. Also on the Forster Bench Rest die, put a little lube on the expander ball. This helps a lot with relieving stress in the neck of the case. I hope this helps, if not try some Lyman Quick Slick case lube. I use it on Problem cases and it works great. If all that fells,,,, CALL Forster, They have great customer service.

 

[nicholasjohn]

Correction. It is a write-off.

The biggest problem is actually the neck sizing. The case mouth hard stops against the neck sizing part of the die. With force, the case mouth can be made to enter, and on that portion when retracted, there is a very shiny ring around the mouth where it contacted the die.

Looking on the brighter side, I have a working seater from the set.

You might have the expander ball too high on its spindle. They make a point of discussing how the expander ball gets pulled back through the neck while the neck is still supported be the inside of the die, and it may be possible to get it too high. ( Look at the pictures of the cut-away dies on their website to see how this all fits together.) I think this could pinch the case neck between the die body and the expander ball on the way into the die, potentially causing your problem. ( Your comment about the shiny ring around the mouth of the case has led my thinking in this direction.)

Try pulling the whole expander assembly out of the die and sizing a case. If it goes in OK, hold the expander assembly next to the die, and see how high the expander ball is relative to where a cartridge case would be. This is about all I can think of that might be causing your problem.

 

[RD57]

I recently had a similar occurrence with a 270 Win Forster FL resizing die. Extremely difficult to resize fired brass, and after resizing the brass grew .007". Shoulder was way oversized down by .003" (IMO) in comparison with other 270 Win Forster and RCBS Competition resizing dies. Not worth the cost to send back for their inspection as the overall sizing of the shoulder seems to meet Forster's specs (per email question and conversation).

 

[hart]

What Nicholas said. Case may be pinched between expander ball and junction of case shoulder and neck inside die.

 

[bigedp51]

As stated above the expander might be too high and causing the problem. Take the expander off the die and size a case and see if the case binds.

Adjust the expander as per the instructions, if the expander is set too high it can bind and even crush the case neck.

 

[RD57]

On initial setup after cleaning I always resize a piece of old or range pickup brass to see how much neck sizing is done, this is done without the expander in the die. I own 5 other Forster dies that don't have the same issue with over sizing of the brass. Been doing this for sometime now, close to 50 years.

 

[fguffey]

I have a ton of once fired brass waiting for the rifle to arrive, so I decided to start off sizing everything.

I collect dies that keep cases, I have 2 and found 2 shooters/reloaders/ collectors that had 2.

I suggest you determine what qualifies as benchrest dies. I know, we have members that recommend we all do like the benchresters; problem, no one holds them accountable. Bart B. started that stuff years ago and finally he has changed his advise to include full length sizing by moving the shoulder back .002".

I suggest you find a member on this forum that can measure the length of the chamber from the shoulder of the chamber to the bolt face. And then there is that thing about determining the dimensions.

You will not believe this but I was trying to help a couple of reloaders/shooters, one got dizzy and the other one passed out.

F. Guffey

 

[fiftybmg]

In an effort to visualise the problem for myself, I drilled and tapped one of the stuck cases, and put it on an electric drill.

I then put a bit of oil on it, and rotated it inside the die without the decapping assembly. You can see a brighter section towards the web, that is up to where the case could be inserted in the die. Midway in the body, the brass is scored. And that is not the main problem. This is .

As soon as the case mouth enters the neck sizing area of the die, there is a hard stop. Rotating the brass with just hand pressure made a groove in the neck just below the mouth. This tells me there is a sharp ridge in the die, where there should not be. If they want to size the neck so aggressively, it can't have a sharp step like that, and the inside surface of the die must be polished, which this one appears not to be. With this die, every time a case is sized, material is going to be removed from the outside of the case mouth.

 

[cape cove]

Send the above pictures to Forster and see what they will say/do. Explain to them where you live, shipping costs etc. You never know!!

 

[gpo1956]

A knowledgeable friend advised me several years ago to buy Redding sizing dies and Forester seating dies. It's the combination I use to this day.

 

[25WSM]

I have fixed dies that were sticking by polishing them in my lathe. I have some really fine grit papers and it doesn't really change the size of the die much at all. Maybe it just wasn't polished enough or it just needed more for some reason. I know people polish them up with Flitz and a hand drill too.
It's worth the try. Also have you tried to size a brass with the expander assembly out of the die.
Shep

 

[bigedp51]

Your expander is set too high inside the die, just lower the expander until the case sizes smoothly.

If you remove the expander assembly you will see the cases will size with normal effort.

If the expander is lowered too far the neck runout might increase. The Forster die is designed so that the case neck is held and centered in the neck of the die when the expander enters the neck. The expander floats and when adjusted properly the expander can not pull the necks off center and induce runout.

If the expander is set too high it will not let the neck of the die reduce the case neck diameter. Meaning with the expander too high inside the case neck, the case neck diameter is too large to enter the dies neck. And this jams the case in the die.

I hold the expander assembly outside the die and adjust the expander hight until it aligns with the die body vent hole. Then after replacing the expander assembly in the die I fine tune the hight by feel making sure the case neck is held and centered in the die.

The dies instructions covers the expander adjustment in relation to the die body vent hole. If you have problems shine a flashlight on the vent hole and see where the light hits the expander.

 

[th82457]

I agree, adjust expander ball per instructions, problem should be solved. I have a lot of Forster sizing dies and all will stick or crush a case if expander ball is too close to neck portion of die. Good Luck

 

[bigedp51]

You can tell who has Forster dies in this posting and those giving WAGS in their answers.

Forster dies have a better finish than Redding dies and produce sized cases with less neck runout.