Mandrels
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I prefer and use 21st TiN mandrels to carbide. Been using them for years now and love them. No lubes required
No they have TiN and Steel
Arbors and Mandrels
21st Century Shooting, Reloading products, Reload, reloading ammo, 21st century, twenty first century shooting, shooting, gun arbors, mandrels, reloading, tools for reloading, front rest, f class, bench rest, short handle, arbor press, powder measure, bullet, bullet comparators, die base, shell...
Scroll down, the entire list of TiN are below.the Steel. The Turning arbors are sized to give .002 neck tension. I squeeze down .004 under final neck diameter with either a bushing or honed Forster FL sizing die then open up .002 with TiN turning mandrel with leaves me with .002 neck tension. The expander mandrels will leave you with .001 neck tension.
21st, Pma and Sinclair are all interchangeable with one another, both mandrels and die body’s. K&m is the only odd ball out.
I think it is easy to get confused with the 21st Century parts between TiN and Steel.
Their TiN expanders are only designed to match their neck turn arbors. The sets that are meant to control neck tension are not TiN.
Here are the sets for controlling neck tension.
http://www.xxicsi.com/expander-mandrels.html
Here are the ones to get to the right diameter to turn.
http://www.xxicsi.com/arbors-and-mandrels.html
Their TiN expanders are only designed to match their neck turn arbors. The sets that are meant to control neck tension are not TiN.
Here are the sets for controlling neck tension.
http://www.xxicsi.com/expander-mandrels.html
Here are the ones to get to the right diameter to turn.
http://www.xxicsi.com/arbors-and-mandrels.html
Expander mandrels are .001 under bullet diameter. Turning arbors are .002 under bullet diameter. That’s in either material, stainless or tin. And for all other manufactures as well really.
The custom .0005 increment diameter option just allows you to specify in even finer increments.
Pretty sure my K&M mandrels for .30 cal are .307 and .308, not .306 and .307. And no, they weren't custom ordered.
That's why I always hated neck turning brass - I had to expand it, turn it, and then resize it, or else it didn't have enough grip to hold the bullet securely.
It's also why for the longest time I could never understand why other people were raving about expanding with a mandrel after F/L sizing their cases.
Once I finally twigged to the fact that Sinclair (and the rest of the industry since then) used a more or less standardized sizing scheme that was slightly different than what I was used to, it all made a lot more sense.
I added that really in there because I knew that there was gonna one out there who had to be different. And of course it’s k&m
Have not ask them lately, but some years back K&M would make you steel diameters to order.
One would just have to decide which mandrel die style they liked best, and getting a mandrel ground to size in steel is easy if you know a cutter grinder.
At the start of the thread there was a question of getting carbide tools made, and I don't know if 21st, Sinclaire, or K&M will make them in carbide to order.
I had steel tools TiN PVD hard coated by friends at BryCoat down in Oldsmar FL. Just make sure you have them ground about 6 microns undersized to account for the TiN coating thickness.
I found that the real key for my own processing style was to keep the operations lubricated, then it didn't really matter if the tools were steel, carbide, or coated. That adds the burden of cleaning up, but it worked out better for me. YMMV
One would just have to decide which mandrel die style they liked best, and getting a mandrel ground to size in steel is easy if you know a cutter grinder.
At the start of the thread there was a question of getting carbide tools made, and I don't know if 21st, Sinclaire, or K&M will make them in carbide to order.
I had steel tools TiN PVD hard coated by friends at BryCoat down in Oldsmar FL. Just make sure you have them ground about 6 microns undersized to account for the TiN coating thickness.
I found that the real key for my own processing style was to keep the operations lubricated, then it didn't really matter if the tools were steel, carbide, or coated. That adds the burden of cleaning up, but it worked out better for me. YMMV
