Any reloading pro's near Cleveland?

[William Davis]

Steve has it, fresh factory shell, run the crimp die down until it touches. Use it as a starting point with your shell. Go for too little crimp, no "mushroom" then gradually increase until it's right.

It helps to mark your crimp die somehow. On a P-W I use a label maker, run a tape with hash marks around the die. That way I can see how much I am adding or taking away from the crimp as you adjust the die. 1/8 turn-2/8 turn 3/8 turn etc. otherwise it's possible to go too much, not enough, never hitting the right spot. The right spot may be as little as 1/16 turn. It's a fine line.

William

[Paul Harm]

Maybe this will help. The roller and cam have to be adjusted to get a good shell. You didn't say, but I'm assuming you're using a 650 or 600jr.
The roller will not touch the cam (or at least not have any force put on it by the cam) at the very bottom of the stroke. BUT, more cam means the cam will touch the roller and apply force to it longer (further down) in the stroke. The cam has a fairly sharp shoulder or lobe on it. When you start down with the press the roller rolls on the cam (because this part of the cam is circular) and the outer (plastic) part of the die is pushed down by the cam and roller. Until you get around 1/2-3/4 of the way down, everything I have said so far remains true regardless of where the cam is set. However, the cam is rotating as you come down. Eventually the cam rotates to the point when the roller goes past the shoulder on the cam. Past this point the cam is no longer circular. As you come on down the cam puts less and less pressure on the roller. But, the center punch will come on down because it is fastened solidly to the top of the press. If the roller gets past the shoulder of the cam too early in the stroke you will end up with the punch coming on down on the center of the crimp and this tending to squeeze the top of the shell outward. But the plastic part of the die is not coming on down, which means it cannot prevent the top of the shell from flaring outward. It takes a lot of fine tuning to get this just right. There is a reason why Mec adds the final taper die to the Grabber and 9000. Having a separate die that is used strictly to get some taper makes things a lot simpler.


Most people do NOT have straight in their minds what the CAM actually does. There are all kinds of convoluted beliefs as to what it actually does.

Adding more cam, (Lowering it at the adjustment slot), causes the crimp die to lower slightly at the near bottom of the stroke. The die has a taper at the top of the die, that when pushed lower, will in fact push the flare at the end of the hull inward, closing the hole in the center tighter, and usually will eliminate the flare and in fact may leave the end of the hull slightly rounded.

SO, in most cases, a properly adjusted CAM will reduce or eliminate the flare on the end of the hull, and probably leave it slightly rounded.

When adjusting the crimp station, the CAM is the LAST thing you adjust. Adjust the crimp starter first, then adjust the seating stem to get the proper depth. When you are getting a correct fold of the crimp petals, and the correct depth set, THEN adjust the cam to eliminate the flare. NOTE The cam adjustment should be set at least 2/3 of the way up, while the other adjustments are being made. Then, and only then, lower the cam enough to eliminate the flare.

[William Davis]

Good Advice, I know very little about Mec's, don't know how you would mark the cam to monitor amount of adjustment, but on a P-W same thing Crimp is the last thing you adjust.

Willliam

[Paul Harm]

A pencil line on the cam. I've never marked it, just loosen the Allen head screw and move the cam a slight bit and retighten the screw. What I just posted came from a different web site. There were two different replies of someone having the same problem. Some of those guys have been reloading with Mec's for many years and seem quite knowledgeable. I've learned a lot over there [www.shotgunworld.com ] in the reloading forum.

[Copper John]

Originally Posted by Paul Harm

A pencil line on the cam. I've never marked it, just loosen the Allen head screw and move the cam a slight bit and retighten the screw. What I just posted came from a different web site. There were two different replies of someone having the same problem. Some of those guys have been reloading with Mec's for many years and seem quite knowledgeable. I've learned a lot over there [www.shotgunworld.com ] in the reloading forum.

Ok, I will mess with the cam tonight. What is the order I should be making these adjustments in regarding cam, final crimp and pre crimp? Where should I start?

[Woodcock survey]

Follow Mr. Harm's last paragraph and you should be fine.

[Woodcock survey]

Post# 12 last paragraph.

[Paul Harm]

Mec 's explanation about the cam/roller is to eliminate the swirl in the end of the shell. They don't say anything about eliminating the flare. The swirl and any opening can be taken care of by properly adjusting the start and final crimp. Then, as stated above, the flare can be taken out with a rounded corner for easy loading.

[Paul Harm]

Your start crimp dictates how much material [ shell ] there is for the final crimp. If there is very little start crimp most the time you'll end up with a hole in the final crimp. At the other end, if there's a lot of start crimp [ shell almost touching ] , then you might have too much material and get a swirl in the final crimp. I usually start with enough start crimp that a lead pencil will almost fit in the end. The plunger in the final crimp station is then adjusted to get about .060 depth [ look at a factory shell ]. Then you may have to readjust the start crimp to eliminate holes or swirls. That should get you to the step to adjust the cam/roller for a rounded, nice looking, working shell.

[Copper John]

This may be a really dumb question, but is it possible to mess around with this without doing all the other steps loading the shell?