Ian,
You are correct about the crushed necks. One of the drawbacks to the NOE expanders in the Lee die body is that if you are not very careful to center your case when raising the ram crushed necks can happen. I have lost a few!
I did take a file and scratched one of my expanders to see how hard it was. I think I could drill that hole with just my drill press. I agree that there ain’t enough meat to drill a hole that unique would flow through.
I have this old, rusty, beat up, Rong Fu RF30 round column Mill that I need to build a table for. And buy collets. And rebuild the Albrecht keyless chuck. And rewire the plug. But someday I will start tackling more complicated project; like this one.
The wife says that I can’t buy a lathe until I sell “that nasty old broke down truck”. So, one more thing to fix!
Josh