Forster Co-Ax wear plate issue?

[lefty222]

I agree. Mine's old, and the only wear I have is the bluing is worn around where the case heads sit.

Blueing on stamped parts is usually an indicator of it being made of spring steel or tempered steel. what is shown in the picture looks to be made from mild steel the way it beat up.

So it seems the older machine have a blued plate. l'm speculating that that could be the problem newer machines might have a softer plate material and by overcaming there will be base plate deformation.

 

[Seabeeken]

Blueing on stamped parts is usually an indicator of it being made of spring steel or tempered steel. what is shown in the picture looks to be made from mild steel the way it beat up.

So it seems the older machine have a blued plate. l'm speculating that that could be the problem newer machines might have a softer plate material and by overcaming there will be base plate deformation.

Mine is also blued

 

[Arcola]

The guy I spoke with said they were made by stamping, in a past tense, which makes me think they may not be such now. It measures .034" on the micrometer which is kind of an odd number but its uniform on all four corners about 3/8" in from the edge.

This is interesting. The plate on my press has a much deeper blue to it which on other steel products I've usually attributed to heat treating. Perhaps they just used whatever they could get their hands on when yours was manufactured. Do you know the approximate age? I think mine was manufactured in 2017. Either way, it sounds like they're making it right with you, and may know of the potential issue given his "past tense" response to you.

 

[TheDeicide]

Just an update. I have yet to hear back with an email, tracking number, or anything from Forster. I called this evening and was prompted to leave a voice mail.

On a side note, I received the new one I ordered from a seller on ebay and it is blued spring steel. Very hard and rigid. The one that came with my press was absolutely not of this quality. If I ever do get one from Forster I'll update at that point.

 

[TheDeicide]

The replacement showed up in the mail today. The new plate is a little bit harder based on running a file across the edge but still not as hard as the ones that are made of spring steel with a blue on them. The thickness of the one I replaced and the one I got from eBay are one thousandth of an inch difference. The new one is significantly thicker. I think they realized the material was too soft and tried to fix it by making it thicker. I've already readjusted my dies for the blue one. I have no intentions of putting the significantly thicker one on there to try. It's still pretty soft and I don't want to readjust my dies again. Perhaps next time I do a load of 556 range brass I'll use the new plate to see how it stands up to that.

 

[lefty222]

l knew that was the problem, Forster trying to save some pennies.