Carbide Shortage Still?

M

Mac Sidewinder

New member
I bought a Dillon 750XL 2 years ago this month with 5 different caliber change kits and carbide die sets to match. It's taken Dillon all this time to get me my die sets (slowly coming in one at a time) and I am still waiting on my 223/556 set. I have talked to them many times over the past 2 years and always get the same response: There is still a carbide shortage and you will get them soon. Is the carbide shortage really still so bad that I am still waiting after 2 years?

I have been able to load 223 since I still have a Lee die set. It's just a pain in the butt to use with the Dillon. I love the Dillon but this is so disappointing. Anybody else having this problem?

Mac
 
U

Unclenick

Staff
Yeah. It's not a shortage of tungsten carbide, specifically, but rather that tungsten in general is running out of supply, worldwide. Even though we have largely stopped making incandescent bulbs, for which it was the filament material, it turns out it is now a raw material in touch screens, so the cell phone and tablet market are sucking it down. Plus, 80% of it comes from China. There's a Forbes article on it here.
 
S

std7mag

New member
I can't even begin to tell you of the amount of carbide inserts the 4 machine shops at work go through in a day!!
 
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