This is a much better design than any of the other decapping systems I have seen. In every other decapping die I know about the pin is threaded or otherwise fixed in the die, so that if it hits resistance it bends. The pins may be inexpensive, but finding a replacement at 5pm on a Sunday can be quite difficult. With the Lee die, you just need to loosen the collet with a wrench and push the pin to the depth you desire and then retighten it. This is much simpler and faster.
What is probably the best review of this piece of equipment is that if you perform an internet search for a review of the Lee Decapping die all you will find are forum posts where experienced reloaders are recommending this equipment to new shooters. I could not find a negative comments about this piece of equipment, and to me that says a lot.
I have no affiliation with Lee precision in any way, other than I like some of their products and I want to share with you what works for me.
I want to learn to weld, it’s on my “hope I never kick the bucket” list. You know skills I wish I had, but if I had them all I would be 176 years old simply due to the time it takes to learn everything. I also have the unfortunate experience of working somewhat close to a harbor freight store. Due to the cost I tend to buy a lot of consumables there – media for my bullet tumbler comes to mind. I tend to stay away from their durable goods though because I am concerned about quality, but something about a $100 welder just called my name.
I have the willpower to say no when something calls my name once, but this darn thing was persistent, it just kept calling. Finally after getting some overtime from working the last TN disaster I bought it. I bought it after looking at hundreds of reviews that says this thing is junk. BUT, all of these reviews were from professionals that use big name welders for commercial purposes. The lowest cost welder these guys were recommending cost thousands of dollars and with capabilities far beyond my scope of use.
Now, that’s not to say I don’t WANT some of these great welders, just that even if I had the cash to spend on one, my money would be better served buying tools I actually need.
As one review said “Anyone who does fabrication and builds for pay simply needs the ability to lay heavy bead, with long duty cycles. If you were a factory mechanic, and spun wrenches for a living, you wouldn’t use 99 cent store sockets for long term. A full-time logger doesn’t use $100 kmart chainsaws. For the homeowner trimming one tree once a year, it works. You don’t need a $700 Husqvarna ‘Rancher’ chainsaw with a 20+ inch bar for that kind of like duty. Not that it wouldn’t be nice to own….”
I need something simple, and cheap that lets me weld up to 3/8 inch thick steel. And this welder does that.
Out of the box the Harbor Freight Welder comes with one 2 lb roll of flux core wire, a combo brush/slag hammer, and a face shield. I bought some heavy welder gloves when I bought it, and picked up (but set down) a auto darkening helmet. Next time I go back to the store I am going to pick it back up, as not being able to see until the spark is stuck is a little scary for me.
It did take some minor assembly to get it ready, but it took less than 10 minutes and the hardest part was assembling the cheap welding face shield. The instructions were not that hard to follow especially considering they were written overseas.
I tried to weld two things one was a cheap china made charcoal grill that had a leg knocked off during our April storms (it stuck, but I melted through some sheet metal), the other was a set of crucible tongs I made. Once again it made a very ugly weld, but in fairness it was probably more my lack of skill than the limitations of the welder.
I can hit the target with a cheap pistol, but my group size is tighter with a better quality pistol, but when I started shooting I did not know enough to tell the difference.
I have read that with a better quality torch tip and flux core wire it improves its weld capabilities. But it will sputter a lot and cause lots of little balls of slag to be thrown all over your work.
Is it worth it? I say yes if you’re going to use it irregularly and can get it for less than $100. My mind may change after I gain some skills – especially after I make that battery powered stick welder and the alternator welder I have on the project list, but who knows.
Watch the video below to see what it does out of the box, but be warned I don’t know much (anything) about actually welding…
BTW – Constructive comments about how I’m doing it are much appreciated…
Like all gun guys I have a couple things I really don’t like:
- People that are irresponsible in their usage of firearms
- The rising cost of ammunition
- Policing up brass
- Sorting said brass
I believe that most gun guys have similar dislikes. I also think that most would agree with me that all but the first are minor irritants that we gladly put up with as long as we get to use our favorite spent casing creation devices.
At some point I will cover all of these pet peeves; this article will show how I deal with number 3 – Picking up brass after my range sessions.
I have long searched for an easy way to collect my fired brass, both to keep the ranges I use looking nice, but also to feed my reloading habit.
Things I Have Tried to Get Out of Picking Up Brass
- People
- I have tried getting kids and girlfriends, more than one wife, and students.
- Using people is either prohibitively expensive (especially wives that turn into ex-wives).
- Tarps and mesh screens
- I don’t like being tied to one spot.
- At the risk of sounding tacti-cool – I don’t want to do anything that may place a subconscious routine of standing still while shooting. (like dumping spent casings from your revolver into your open hand).
- Mesh bags that attach to your firearm
- I am severely biased against those bags that attach to your gun to collect fired cases (both from malfunction prevention and training viewpoints).
- I don’t like anything extra on my gun that does not fix an articulable problem and makes the firearm run better. This does not fit those criteria.
- Those little sticks with the gripping claws that sell on TV infomercials
- They are cumbersome and only pick up one casing at a time.
- “bag-a-nut” machines adapted to range use
- These are to large to move about easily and are awfully expensive.
Only Three Choices Left
This leaves me three choices. I can shut up and pick up my brass; I can design some Rube Goldberg contraption to pick up my brass, or I can use the brass wizard.
As soon as I saw this device I ordered it. It originally was designed by farmers that grew tree nuts like pecans (just like the bag a nut). It’s a small wire cage that attaches to a broomstick (and later a collapsible metal pole) by a hanger that allows it to roll on the ground.
What happens is that as the metal cage rolls over a fired cartridge case, the wires are forced apart, allowing the case to be swallowed up by the wizard. As the brass wizard continues to roll, the wires spring back to their original shape trapping the case inside.
This device works really well, and can hold several cases before having to be emptied. I works on rounds from .380 and up and while it can collect Shotshell hulls, the company makes a large wizard that works better for hulls.
Works Best on Packed Ground
In all fairness, I do have to tell you that this device works best on hard ground. Cement is the best, but I have personally used this with success on hard packed ground, sandy soil, and short grass. I have even tried it on a gravel range, but that is the weak point of the system. In gravel, it picks up as much gravel as it does cases, making it pretty much useless.
When I bought mine it came with a metal device that presses onto a 5 gallon bucket (I supplied the bucket) and helps with emptying the cage full of cases. You just press down and wither wiggle or twist the wizard and the cases fall out into the bucket.
This is starting to become a more common item, but I enjoyed being an early adopter of the device. When I went to a range with my brass wizard I was very popular, and many people borrowed my wizard to try it out.
They sell for around $45.00 and if you police up your own brass, this is a bargain due to the amount of labor you will save.
Stay tuned, as next week we will review my solution for peeve #4 Sorting Brass
Until recently there were no good shortcuts to sorting brass. You just had to dive in and look at each head stamp. Then manually throw each case into its own bucket. Luckily some smart gun guy came up with a faster way.
Today’s review is on the shell sorter – an ingenious device to sort brass quickly by size
Why I Love the Shell Sorter
To me, one of the great things about guns their preciseness. There is not a lot of grey area when dealing with guns, they either are loaded or they are not. The round has the correct amount of powder or it doesn’t. For a guy that tends toward approximation and it is good that I have one precise hobby to keep me balanced. Guns are something that keeps me understanding that some things are black and white with no wiggle room for feelings. It is this level of preciseness which allows the brass sorter to work.
Each round has a specific measurement. Each case has a proper length and its case mouth has a specific diameter. By machining slots in a rigid container that are slightly smaller than a cartridge’s case size you can create a device that allows and object smaller than the specified cartridge to fall out of the container, while retaining the case it was designed for.
By creating three different colored containers each designed for common caliber dimensions, you can use them in series to quickly sort out a large quantity of mixed brass.
Colors Equal Sizes
The yellow sorter is cut to allow anything smaller than a .45 acp round to fall through so it collects anything larger like: .45 acp, .45 gap, .50 ae, .243, .308, 7.62×39 and .45 lc
The next size is the blue sorter, and its cut to allow anything smaller than .40 to fall through, so it collects .40 and 10mm. Because of the size of the rim of the cases .357 magnum and .38 spl cases are also collected.
The black is the smallest and it allows anything smaller than 9mm to pass through so it collects: 9mm, 38 super, and .223. If you buy the additional .380 aluminum plate, this black sorter will also sort .380
If you sort your cases before you clean them, then it is pretty easy to separate those nested cases where loose 9mm sometimes slips inside of a .40 casing. Actually, they tend to come apart on their own if you shake the sorter hard and long enough. If you tumble them before sorting, loose media can jam a 9mm into the larger .40 case tight enough to cause problem separating them.
The fastest way to use the sorter is to place the black sorter over the top of a 5 gallon bucket, then insert the blue sorter into the top of the black one, top the blue sorter with the yellow sorter and then dump a couple handfuls of cases into the yellow sorter and shake the bucket until the cases pass through the sorters. .17, .22, .25 and .32 acp cases along with small gravel and dirt will collect in the bucket, and you can then pull out each sorter and deposit the casings into there respective buckets.
This is the fastest way is you sort pretty regularly. If you procrastinate like I do you may need a different procedure.
How I Use the Shell Sorter Trays
- I take a bucket and nest the yellow sorter in the top.
- Next I then fill it to about ⅓ to ½ full and then shake the bucket until only the .45 and larger cases remain in the yellow sorting tray.
- I dump the tray into my .45 bucket and then repeat the process until the container holding the unsorted cases is empty.
- After that I then know that in my bucket that holds my yellow sorter contains only items smaller than .45.
- I repeat the process with my blue sorter, leaving only casings and junk smaller than .40 and .38 revolver.
- Lastly I finish up with my black sorter to get out all the 9mm.
Trust But Verify
Obviously, if your sorting range brass, and you are not 100% sure of the contents (and it would be a good idea to even if you are 100% sure) go through your sorted brass to make sure a nested cartridge, or some oddball casing or loaded round did not make it into your brass buckets. This is easy to do with .45 acp and .45 gap, or 9mm and .380 or 40 and 10mm.
As I said on the video, I really like this product. It is well worth the $40 or so I spent on it. I haven’t bought the $20 .380 plate as I RARELY shoot .380 but if I did, I think it would be money well spent also.
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the browning M2 Heavy Barrel .50 and a 0 being the Clinton Gun Ban I would rate this shell sorter as a solid 9.5.