I know what you mean. I sent them pictures. Some were off centre. You can tell the punches were overdue for replacement because, instead of brass petals inside, several had chunks of torn brass pushed inside. Similar to my original post, single primer pocket pic. My flash hole uniformer hung up on these. Two had partial punch throughs. They were a mess. When you consider that all this was only in the first bag, I was amazed that the QC dept and automated equipment didn't pick up on any of this.
In my opinion, the culprit for all of this was the punches. Given that they are a shorter life item, I would think they could be easily replaced without much downtime. They are also a lot cheaper to replace than the drawing dies! Really, it's not the place to cheapen out.
I don't know about the quality of the brass. It looked okay, but nothing tells the tale like a test.
First, I'll say, I've never worked with case forming dies, and also, there may be more than one way of doing it (but I doubt it, it's a pretty mature process.) Everything I'm saying here is speculation. I don't know if, in the forming progression, the flash hole is done on the same station as the primer pocket. I would guess so, because if the punch used to form the primer pocket is also a support bushing of sorts for the punch that makes the flash hole, it makes it easier on the flash hole punch, but significantly complicates that station of the process. The portion of the die that supports the case from the inside when the primer pocket is being formed and the flash hole punched, is going to have a hole for the flash hole punch to enter on the down stroke, after it's gone through the brass. The fit of that hole to the punch and the condition of that hole are key to what's happening here. I would say that it's generally not a really close fit, given the amount of burr one is accustomed to finding on the inside of the flash hole. I think, also, that there is probably brass building up on the support portion of the die, so the inside of the case heads are not seated as well as they should be. This creates a gap under where the flash hole punch strikes through, creating more flash and exacerbating the problem in a vicious cycle. It's what one would expect when plants are running 24/7, full-throttle, and don't have enough skilled help in the toolroom to maintain an adequate maintenance schedule. (Isn't it interesting, how when you Canadians pronounce schedule, the "c" is silent. The proper way, you know, is for the "h" to be silent.)
