THE GUTS OF THE CONSTANT FORCE CRIMP DIE

The ball bearing, ball bearing seat, spacer tube and crimp ring rest atop one another on the internal lip at the bottom of the die body when not crimping a round. The lever and the weight container are also hanging down when not crimping a round. When the ram is raised with a round in the shell holder, the round contacts the crimp ring and drives the free sliding guts of the die upward until the ball bearing contacts the bottom of the lever. At this point the guts stop sliding and the crimp ring starts crimping the round. When the resistance of the round to being crimped becomes greater than the weight holding the crimp ring down, the round, the guts, and the weighted lever will rise and cease crimping the round. When lowering the ram, the round, all of the guts and the lever and weight will also move down. When the bottom of the crimp ring contacts the internal lip of the die body, the round will be pulled loose from the crimp ring and this will be felt as a slight tug as the ram is lowered. This slight tug diminishes as the inside surface of the crimp ring is slowly polished by the minute particles of grit on the outside of the cases. Because the crimp ring slides up and down, it can compensate for variations in the length, thickness, and hardness of the cases and also for variations in the diameter and hardness of the bullet. This insures that the crimp on each round requires the same amount of chamber pressure to overcome it, thus eliminating one factor that causes inaccuracy.