Set your flare die so it quits shaving brass and then crank it down a little and flare some more.

 

sorry, not understanding. The flare die doesn’t shave anything. Do you mean start by just lowering the flare amount to point of no need brass shavings from crimp station and THEN revisit the crimp amount?

 

You are going the wrong way. Shaving brass means you do not have enough flare. Leave the crimp station out for now. Get the proper amount of flare first.

 

I flare enough to not shave lead (or coating). If tiny rings of lead or strips of coating are "shaved" when seating, flare more. The tiny bits of coating your photo shows may be coming from the crimp not from seating the bullet.

My nickel's worth.
Grumpy

 

Indeed. the picture is 100% brass shavings from the crimp, not coating. Is this normal? I’ve never seen brass shavings like this on other coated lead caliber loads I do.

 

To eliminate the problem completely use the 4 dies set.
Seat and crimp separately.
( I use Lee dies too)

 

Seat and crimp separately.
( I use Lee dies too)

I am using 4 die set. I get brass shavings with FCD or the crimp only die that I just replaced FCD with.

It wasn’t as bad when the seating die also did some crimp and station 4 just finalized the crimp. I want to utilize seating only and then crimp only. But based on the picture something’s wrong.

 

In that case, my apology, I misunderstood.

So what kind of die is in station 3?
Is it seating only?
Or a seating/crimp die?

 

Station 1 Lee sizing
Station 2 Lee powder - expanding (.478 bell)
Station 3 Lee seating/crimp (NO crimp set though) - OAL 1.245” for a 200gr SWC
Station 4 Lee Crimp only die (set .471)

Brass shavings in post 1 pic

 

It is difficult to understand how you are getting brass shaving from the crimping process if you are NOT using a Lee Factory Crimp Die. The purpose of a (non-fcd) crimp die is to re-shape the upper case portion from a "flare" (so the bullet can be seated) to a "crimp" (either tapered or rolled into a cannelure) to hold the bullet in place at the desired OAL.

 

Ryan, can you give us a picture of post flare ? I had a similar issue years ago before I realized I was over flaring my brass , I reduced the flare until it was just enough for the bullet to just sit on the brass pre insertion.

On my deal it shaved some brass when I seated the bullet and then again on the crimp, reducing the flare to just enough to just hold the bullet before seating it. It also helped reduce some of the bulging I was getting just below the inserted bullet… hope this helps !

 

Here:

.478” flare and profile view

 

Run a bore brush inside your dies and clean them out.

That will help you narrow down at what step the shavings are showing up.

 

I've had this same problem with brass shaving along with sticking brass in my Redding crimp die.
At this point you likely have brass buildup and galling inside your crimp die making matters worse.

Like passx mentioned I think in my circumstance it was mostly due to over expanding. Clean the crimp die out really well, lube it with silicone spray (I sprayed a Q-tip and swabbed the crimping cone) and be careful not to over expand. I also only crimp enough for rounds to consistantly pass my guage.

I've become a fan of Dillon crimp dies for pistol, since they allow quick removal of the barrel for cleaning (out of the top) by pulling a pin and not having to reset the die in the tool head.

 

The flare may be a little excessive It’s hard to tell for sure, I only flare enough to start the bullet.

Is this new brass? Sometimes I’ve seen this with new brass due to no chamfer on the case mouth.

 

It’s used brass. I noticed the mouths are not even across once resized on many.

I will try backing off my flare a a thousandth or two for starters and cleaning the die.

all good recommendations - appreciate it