Reloading Dies ,Do You ever clean and polish your dies ?

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gwpercle said:
Yes Sir Ree Bob ... they get grungy over time and I once had a RCBS steel sizing die (38 spcl / 357 mag) pick up and imbed a tiny spec of grit and start scratching lines in the cases ... cleaning and polishing removed it ... that was when I decided to clean my dies every now and again ... that scratching could be felt in the press handle ... it wasn't a nice thing to experience.

Mom used to tell me ... An Ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure !
Gary
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Oh my gosh, we’re brothers!! Mom told me that too!
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Yup. Ballistol and rubbing compound. As little as I reload, an annual cleaning is enough.
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I think infrequent use can be more problematic than frequent use because you don't notice the rust until it has already established itself pretty good. I learned this the hard way with LE Wilson case gauges. I also had it happen with a fairly expensive Redding micrometer seater die when I stopped loading for 300 WM. I was able to remove the rust from the sliding body with steel wool but it still bears the scars. I haven't looked at that die in a while and so I just pulled it out and, sure enough, I had to remove rust from inside and outside the sliding body again.
 
redcon1 said:
I think infrequent use can be more problematic than frequent use because you don't notice the rust until it has already established itself pretty good. I learned this the hard way with LE Wilson case gauges. I also had it happen with a fairly expensive Redding micrometer seater die when I stopped loading for 300 WM. I was able to remove the rust from the sliding body with steel wool but it still bears the scars. I haven't looked at that die in a while and so I just pulled it out and, sure enough, I had to remove rust from inside and outside the sliding body again.
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You bet! Touch it just once and a while and the salts and acids from your fingers remain and slowly eat away at the finish. Careful, same for your leather chairs too.
 
CQB45ACP said:
You bet! Touch it just once and a while and the salts and acids from your fingers remain and slowly eat away at the finish. Careful, same for your leather chairs too.
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That's what happened with my case gauges for sure and it didn't take long for those to develop rust. But I just had to remove fine rust from inside the sliding seating stem sleeve/tube. there is no way I touched the inside of that tube. There's no way I could have. That rust had to have developed without any help from me or at least from me touching it. I don't know if what the steel wool could have caused it the last time I used it maybe but I don't think so because something caused it to happen initially too and, like I said, there is just no way my fingers touched the inside of that tube. These dies and anything else made of iron require periodic inspection, cleaning and maintenance.
 
I’m not so sure polishing is helpful, more so the same line of thought towards polishing a chamber being detrimental to primary extraction we need honing to grip the brass and if we polish that too much it may have a negative effect
 
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Hoppe's #9. Always clean new ones per manufacturer's instructions and Rule3's post. gwpercle has good advice. I had the same experience as he had once and don't want to have it again.
 
I will clean them just like I clean the bore of a gun, when I see build-up. This happens fairly regularly with cast bullets and pretty rarely with jacketed.

I wouldn't really have any idea on polishing them, and can't imagine ever wanting to.

I do tend to keep a bit of oil/grease/silicone on the outside, to prevent rust.
 
Clarification ; Carbide dies or TiN coated polishing is OK but a waste of silicon carbide wet/dry paper . As I've Several sets of older as well as newer dies ,I have cleaned wet paper abraded and polished those dies to near mirror finishes . Once I've completed that ,I ONLY clean from then on and re-lube . Polishing repeatedly ISN'T recommended but I can assure you ,NOT every single set of dies comes out mirror like from the factory . I actually had one with a small scratch or better description a nib and it showed up on the brass . Truthfully I had used that die for 10 years or better before I discovered it . I ran MY finger up inside of it once and it scratched MY finger .
I sent the die back and RCBS replaced it NO charge . As I used to reload out of our garage and had a cover for the machines along with entire bench , I assumed for Years all was OK . Wow was I ever WRONG !!.
Yep humidity moisture gets EVERYTHING eventually . As I was working remotely and heavily at that particular point in time , SURFACE RUSTING ever so fine crept in . So I pulled everything down ( ALL MY Dies were and are on Toolheads preset for specific tasks . #18 calibers with redundant sets of pistol caliber setups ,so perhaps #45 sets of dies al tolled . Yeah took more than a few days .

Taught ME a valuable lesson , even with oil or lube left on dies things can go South ; IF LEFT LONG ENOUGH . That's when I started spraying Boeshield T 9 inside ALL of MY dies ,as well as using it for case lube . I've Never looked back once that was over #30 years ago .

I still obviously clean and re lube but ONLY polish NEW DIES now out of habit mainly but at least I KNOW what I'm starting with .

Kind of like when I buy a New vehicle . I purchase ALL NEW fluids filters gasket washer seals and Change ALL factory lubes for fresh . IS it necessary ? Probably Not but a particular problem came up with a company vehicle once ,which MAKES ME DO IT . Seems while buying fleet a foreign pickup slipped by inspection WITHOUT Rear Axle Oil or Transfer case oil . I Didn't get that truck but heard about it during a meeting .

So as a personal friend and mechanic told Me once , YOU KNOW what You start with and given the cost of what you're purchasing ,what's a $100.00 more :)
 
BushMaster-15 said:
Clarification ; Carbide dies or TiN coated polishing is OK but a waste of silicon carbide wet/dry paper . As I've Several sets of older as well as newer dies ,I have cleaned wet paper abraded and polished those dies to near mirror finishes . Once I've completed that ,I ONLY clean from then on and re-lube . Polishing repeatedly ISN'T recommended but I can assure you ,NOT every single set of dies comes out mirror like from the factory . I actually had one with a small scratch or better description a nib and it showed up on the brass . Truthfully I had used that die for 10 years or better before I discovered it . I ran MY finger up inside of it once and it scratched MY finger .
I sent the die back and RCBS replaced it NO charge . As I used to reload out of our garage and had a cover for the machines along with entire bench , I assumed for Years all was OK . Wow was I ever WRONG !!.
Yep humidity moisture gets EVERYTHING eventually . As I was working remotely and heavily at that particular point in time , SURFACE RUSTING ever so fine crept in . So I pulled everything down ( ALL MY Dies were and are on Toolheads preset for specific tasks . #18 calibers with redundant sets of pistol caliber setups ,so perhaps #45 sets of dies al tolled . Yeah took more than a few days .

Taught ME a valuable lesson , even with oil or lube left on dies things can go South ; IF LEFT LONG ENOUGH . That's when I started spraying Boeshield T 9 inside ALL of MY dies ,as well as using it for case lube . I've Never looked back once that was over #30 years ago .

I still obviously clean and re lube but ONLY polish NEW DIES now out of habit mainly but at least I KNOW what I'm starting with .

Kind of like when I buy a New vehicle . I purchase ALL NEW fluids filters gasket washer seals and Change ALL factory lubes for fresh . IS it necessary ? Probably Not but a particular problem came up with a company vehicle once ,which MAKES ME DO IT . Seems while buying fleet a foreign pickup slipped by inspection WITHOUT Rear Axle Oil or Transfer case oil . I Didn't get that truck but heard about it during a meeting .

So as a personal friend and mechanic told Me once , YOU KNOW what You start with and given the cost of what you're purchasing ,what's a $100.00 more :)
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Used to do essentially same with new vehicles and bought oil, etc by the case. Then got tired of crawling on ground and started paying others to do it for me.

Today as I watch the news and see armed gangs/technicals/terrorists throughout the world driving Toyota pickups around godforsaken crap holes, I have to laugh and wonder “when did they last change the oil?”
 
I clean as needed. Normally I clean the seating die after and during use if I'm loading LSWC bullets. I have not switched my 45acp over to coated. May some day but have not as of yet. I did switch my 357mag over about 5 yrs ago. When I had all my loading gear in the garage I would have to spray all my dies down with a MP to keep them from rusting if it was going to be a while before the next round. Back then I would load up all my practice ammo in the cooler months and not even touch the equipment during the hot summer. I generally put a coat of paste wax on all the machined surfaces or grease to prevent rusting. I have since have a space in my shop that is climate control and dehumidified that I use now. Which is a good thing lately. We are having record high temps with humidity running in the 90% range. The concrete slab and any surface on the shop is wet. Even all of my porches on the house looks like it rained on them, water standing. I noticed my big 5 hp 80gal air compressor tank had dew all over it, tank, head, lines. If I ran it it would produce a lot of water and may even have to put new compressor oil in. I have multiple filters setup to remove the water, all the way down to 0.01 micron which is suppose to remove 99.98%. I have these setup after the after cooler before getting to the tank, with a auto drain on the tank.
 
I sure do. I work in the tool and die industry and have some wonderful cleaners that do a fantastic job. Give em a little oil when they go into storage, a quick spray of some mold cleaner before and after use.
The presses get lubed every few thousand rounds
 
bigpower491 said:
I sure do. I work in the tool and die industry and have some wonderful cleaners that do a fantastic job. Give em a little oil when they go into storage, a quick spray of some mold cleaner before and after use.
The presses get lubed every few thousand rounds
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As I worked within the aerospace composites industry for decades and machine shop tooling go hand in hand . Standard practice to polish and either wax or put a release film on molds or platens . We pioneered film releases for the pre preg autoclave vacuuming processes . Some of the very first wind turbine blades and motor housings came to us ,as our autoclave was SIZABLE as in fuselage capable .
 
Yes, I clean my dies. Occasionally I'll squirt them full of Brake Cleaner and after it evaporates squirt them with whatever flavor of oil that I'm using on my guns. Seating dies used with cast bullets occasionally get taken apart for cleaning.

I've only polished one die. I had a flake of Nickel get stuck in a sizing die that was scratching my cases. This got the brass brush drill treatment followed up with a bore mop coated with Flitz or JB's.

I also wipe off the ram on my press and lightly lube it.
 
AJC1 said:
My dies see wet tumbled brass and clean Redding sizing wax. I clean the new machining oil off and that's about it.
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Same here. I’m pretty particular when I prep my brass for my own reasons but I also think it helps keep the dies in “like new” condition.
 
I never remember cleaning/polishing dies before. I read this post and went into full panic mode. My reloading stuff is in storage,went to my storeroom and got started. Kroil and Qtips and not much to worry about.
 
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