What am I doing wrong? Hornady LNL misalignment?

T

TheFineLine

New member
I'm setting up Hornady LNL titanium nitride dies and I've been having an issue with the round sticking in the seater/crimper. I have a little brass in the crimper that I'm going to buff out today. After going over and over it I've realized that it is misaligned. I've re-set the shellplate several times and the brass will still sometimes butt up against the edge of the resizing die and sometimes not and slide right in. As the round makes it to station five (going to use a powder cop in 4) the case pops out of the spring and hits the crimper/seating die at an angle. What am I doing wrong?

This is the exact ram position when it pops out.


The angle of it when it connects with the die
 
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I don't own this press, but my engineer's eye suggests the outside edge of the case should not be sitting on top of the retaining spring, which appears to have slipped out of its recess in the shell plate. As a result, the spring is pushing that outside edge of the case up, tilting the case mouth inward. Instead, the spring should be over the rim if not actually in the extractor groove of the case. Try tilting the case mouth toward the outside to see if it pops up.

Again, I don't own one of these, but it appears to me the spring should be where the arrows indicate, below.

Outofalignmentpress_zps43aabee0.gif
 
The spring definitely shouldn't be under the shell just yet. I think the timing is off maybe due to me over tightening the shell plate. I'm looking into adjusting the timing right now.
 
The picture looks pretty normal to me, but my rig didn't work right at the seating die until I bought a new subplate and was given a new shell plate. Note that if the shell plate fits tightly enough to the subplate, the case cannot tilt as long as the rim is captured by the shell plate. If there is too much play, report it and request a new shell plate.
 
The spring definitely shouldn't be under the shell just yet. I think the timing is off maybe due to me over tightening the shell plate. I'm looking into adjusting the timing right now.
Click to expand...

Tighten up the shell plate to hold the case rim closer to the subplate. Get a star washer to replace the flat washer holding the shellplate. I believe any shell plate that only functions when loose should be replaced.
 
In the photo it looks like the die itself isn't centered, but that could just be looking at it a 3D object in 2D. Once the round has been seated in the last station, the spring lowers to release the round into the bin.

Call Hornady customer support. They will sort it out for you. They're very good.
 
Ahh. Now I notice the finished round catch bin in front of that station. So, I was wrong and the spring is where it should be. It is just that the shell plate is not riding low enough to keep the edge of the case rim behind the spring.
 
Check this out. I'm definitely out of alignment. I have some shellplates for other calibers and once I get the alignment right if it is till tilting I'll try the others. Unfortunately (for me) Hornady isn't back until Monday.
 
If the detent has engaged to line up the shell plate call hornady something is out on the body of the press. You may have got a bad press. if all the other 4 stations are in line when that one is out you have a problem that can only be replaced not fixed. Call the number that came with the press. They are great to deal with and will fix the problem. At least that has been my experience.
 
Yes. If the other dies are aligned, and it's true regardless of which shell plate position is under the dies, then the location of the threaded die hole for that position in the top of the casting is suspect. But if you move that die to other positions and that same misalignment is still present, then its likely an indexing or detent issue of some kind.
 
Is your misaligned picture with the shellplate in a detent? Confirm by trying to rotate the shellplate in this 1/2 up position , w/o cases, until locked in a detent.

The pawls on the bottom of the ram are what index to the next detent, but the detents are what align the shellplate to the die. I would guess your pawls are over or under rotating the shellplate. It rotates 1/2 on the up and 1/2 on the down, if I remember right. Properly set up, it rotates perfectly to the next detent each time.

This can come out of adjustment, but is easy to realign.
 
It is catching the rim of the resizing die as well. I think that particular picture the shellplate was NOT in the detent as I keep indexing and it looks much more aligned than in the photo. I've tried resetting the shellplate about 15 times now going from loose to nicely snug, and I'm still having the issue. I'm checking the detents on the shell plate (confirmed correct with serial number just now) and notice that they don't spring very easily. I just hit them with compressed air and Oneshot and I'm still getting the same result. I switched out to another shellplate for the 38/357 whose detents are very positive and I'm still getting the same result.
 
I'm leaning towards adjusting the pawls but am a little nervous that I'm going to screw it up. I haven't had a lot of luck up to this point.
 
My lnl ap press needed adjustment almost immediately after I started using it. Just give the one pawl a little adjustment at a time. I put a lock washer on the shell plate between the washer that comes with it and the bolt head, then I tighten down firmly. As far as the shell casing cocking over in station 5, mine does that to, but it is not a problem unless I am loading taller bottle neck shells. This is why I do not use station 5 for loading them, I seat and crimp on station 4 with rifle brass.
 
IMHO, Station 5 should only be used for a crimp die (not seat n' crimp) as the cartridge doesn't doesn't get full support from the spring to maintain alignment.

My set up:
1 Resize
2 Powder \PTX
3 View or Powder cop
4 Seat
5 Taper Crimp (45 & 9mm)

Get a PTX and free up a hole.

YMMV
 
I adjusted the pawls and the timing is right on now. Now that I've done it it is an easy fix should that ever come up again.

Unfortunately the case is still hanging up in the crimp. I'm not sure what to do. It is a taper crimp on a .45acp seater/crimp die. Is it because I have too much crimp?

Update, ITS FIXED! Oh man, I've been at this for a couple of days now. I'm really feeling good right about now. :)
 
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I have a couple of fixes for the ap, but it involves a dremel tool if anyone is interested. With the fixes it works like silk.
 
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