Thread: Expander ball coming loose on Hornady precision dies

Hi team,

Looking for some advice here. I have a set of Hornady dies with the spindle lock and each time I run through cases to size and decap, the expander ball seems to come loose. Any ideas or fixes for this, I was thinking a dab of blue locktite might do the job?

Cheers

Leave it loose, you get far less runout in your brass

You also get less runout if you use the expander as a seperate job

Don’t pull it out through the neck after depriming, push the expander down into the brass as a seperate task

Redding expanders are bad for this and the taper is actually the wrong way around and favours the expander being pushed into the brass from the outside in

If your detecting runout in your sized brass that’s two of the largest contributors and fixes….

Originally Posted by Westie

Hi team,

Looking for some advice here. I have a set of Hornady dies with the spindle lock and each time I run through cases to size and decap, the expander ball seems to come loose. Any ideas or fixes for this, I was thinking a dab of blue locktite might do the job?

Cheers

I have the same problem with hornady custom dies. Was thinking about a drop of loctite too.
Waiting for the day the expander ball falls into a case haha

Pretty new to this, the challenge with it loose is that it holds the depriming pin which if loose I imagine can line up incorrectly and break. Would I be correct in saying that?

Originally Posted by Westie

Pretty new to this, the challenge with it loose is that it holds the depriming pin which if loose I imagine can line up incorrectly and break. Would I be correct in saying that?

Yes, it's possible to break the decapping pin is seriously misaligned. A small misalignment shouldn't matter. When you screw in the spindle be looking into the die from the bottom ( where cases inserts ) and stop when it appears reasonably centred and lock it tight there.

I have also experienced loosening of Hornady expander plugs. My solution was to unscrew the assembly and run 2 or 3 twists of plumbers thread tape onto the threads, then a smear of grease, before screwing the expander plug back on. Been working OK so far. Actually, I like the Hornady eliptical expander plugs as I think they open necks more gently and have not been a cause of excessive runout.

I was going to suggest trying some thread tape as well

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Yes, it's possible to break the decapping pin is seriously misaligned. A small misalignment shouldn't matter. When you screw in the spindle be looking into the die from the bottom ( where cases inserts ) and stop when it appears reasonably centred and lock it tight there.

I have also experienced loosening of Hornady expander plugs. My solution was to unscrew the assembly and run 2 or 3 twists of plumbers thread tape onto the threads, then a smear of grease, before screwing the expander plug back on. Been working OK so far. Actually, I like the Hornady eliptical expander plugs as I think they open necks more gently and have not been a cause of excessive runout.

Cheers mate, yeah the expander seems to be the issue, the spindle is new. I think I will give it a go regarding the plumbers tape, have used it to stop suppressors backing off at the range. Cheers!

Originally Posted by Kiwilad2021

I have the same problem with hornady custom dies. Was thinking about a drop of loctite too.
Waiting for the day the expander ball falls into a case haha

That would be a bad day for sure! Ha

If you want to lessen your run out,turn case around when projectiles is half way seated...it works.

Had same problem with my Hornady dies. I emailed them and they said to use Loctite on it. I did that and it's been fine ever since.

You will break off the decapping pin if it gets loose, ask me how I know....