Cleaning resizing dies

rondaxe said:

How often do you reloaders clean your resizing dies?

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Yes regularly. Soak in mineral spirits and scrub with brass brushes

About once a year I'll blow mine out with arisol solvent then blow out with air. I leave it on my Lee Turret. I don't have a decapping pin in mine so it's pretty easiy. I use a Lee Universal Decapping Die on a separate turret.

Dave

It depends. How clean is the brass you are running? What cartridge? How much and what kind of lube are you using? What kind of dies, steel...carbide?

I last cleaned my .45acp dies last summer maybe about 2500 rounds ago. .308 every 500 rounds or so.

.40

Usually I run a cotton swab through them about every 3rd or 4th reloading session . If it comes out dirty I usually get a can of Hornady One Shot Gun Cleaner & Lube ,spray it into the die and go to work with clean cotton swaps till they come out clean.

Once I read this I guess I probably should go do it . No set schedule. When I feel like it. My brass is all clean, and my pistol dies are all carbide so no lube on those. All dies that are currently in use are also mounted to turrets for the Lee. I'd guess my pistol dies get some cleaner and a q-tip cleaning on the inside once a year. Some of my rifle dies haven't been used in a year, but I inspect for rest etc regularly since they are on the bench and in turrets.

-Jeff

When I start having problems I will disassemble them and run them through my tumbler with the SS pins. Then I oil them up with a silicone based lube, wipe off, and reassemble. Might happen once a year or as long as 10 years. Depends on how much you use them. I do it more to keep the rust at bay than for any other reason it seems.

FROGO207 said:

When I start having problems I will disassemble them and run them through my tumbler with the SS pins. Then I oil them up with a silicone based lube, wipe off, and reassemble. Might happen once a year or as long as 10 years. Depends on how much you use them. I do it more to keep the rust at bay than for any other reason it seems.

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I considered tumbling dies until a friend offered mine did it and it beat the dies to crap. It may work if you only tumble one die at a time

AJC1 said:

I considered tumbling dies until a friend offered mine did it and it beat the dies to crap. It may work if you only tumble one die at a time

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Ultrasonic, disassembled with parts cleaner does wonders.

.40

Got to have enough media to cushion them. Or use a vibrator and corn cob like BDS did. I tumbled a couple bodies and internal parts at a time for 20 min and they were clean and rust free. Blow off with compressed air and lube to stop rusting again.

FROGO207 said:

Got to have enough media to cushion them. Or use a vibrator and corn cob like BDS did. I tumbled a couple bodies and internal parts at a time for 20 min and they were clean and rust free. Blow off with compressed air and lube to stop rusting again.

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Sounds reasonable
I clean mine before every use, and spray with wd40 rust inhibitor when I put them up. The humid south is hell on metal and grows rust better than anything

Almost never. I use carbide almost exclusively (and load straight walled revolver cartridges almost exclusively) and go out of my way to get my brass squeaky clean before loading. If I notice unusual resistance while sizing I will take a peek into the die and swab it out if needed. I honestly do not recall the last time I needed to do that.

I keep a bottle of 91% alcohol and a jar of Q-Tips on (near) my loading bench. Sometimes I just swab out the dies with a clean Q-Tip, other times I'll dip the end in alcohol and swab it around, repeating until clean. Otherwise, a full tear-down is an "as needed" item.

For light duty cleaning I just use the corner of a rag with some oil on it and twist the rag into the die. If they are really dirty I use a bore brush and solvent, much like a rifle barrel.

Ultrasonic cleaning should work well but I don't have one.