Cleaning the press?

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thorswhisper

thorswhisper

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Mainly interested in how many of you clean your presses.
Really more applicable to progressive presses as they have a tendency to spill more powder and have more primer residue.
Compressed air? (Kinda messy) Vacuum? Only air powdered could safely be used).
Just a fine dust brush? What say ya?
I guess another reason to buy removable press plates?
 
No vacuum for powder pickup - static electricity. ouch

Rag with some denatured alcohol, wipe everything down.

I lube press rams with STOS from Ponsness Warren - 100% synthetic. Do not need to use much. VERY slippery and stays where applied.
 
Powder is actually quite resistant to ignition via sparks or static....

index.php


index.php


https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html
 
I use compressed air sometimes, a soft brush, and Simple Green on my Dillon 550. For the most part I take it apart after it starts looking a little nasty and wipe every thing down with some bore patches soaked with Simple Green. I have had my Dillon 550 a couple of years and it still looks like new using this cleaning method.

It's always good to have a soft brush handy while reloading in case of powder spills.

Something like these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Weller-Flux-Brush-for-Soldering-25-Piece-WLACCFB-02/314638557#overlay
 
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Another_Kelley said:
Powder is actually quite resistant to ignition via sparks or static....
Click to expand...
At atmospheric pressures, and not as intimately packed as in a case, sawdust is infinitely more explosive than gun powder with static electricity.

A carry over from grain mill safety, vacuuming gun powder is no more dangerous than vacuuming up spilt flour in the home. Though I’m sure many have a pneumatic vacuum in their kitchen. :p
(How many even bake still? Oreos suck. I am a freak. Don’t look at me!)

Tallinar said:
Wait, you guys clean your presses?
Click to expand...
Well, yeah. After ever single use, for many, many years. And a Spritz press before that. It would be gross not to!
image.jpg :D

I also clean my reloading presses. Just not as often because they don’t get as dirty, I vacuum the powder. The rest is surgically clean.


*Allow me to contradict myself. My Lee APP gets regularly filthy when decapping new range brass. I hose that one off…;)
 
Another 550 user here. The press stays much cleaner since I started decapping on an old single stage. It takes a little extra time, but I'm not a high volume loader. A can of compressed air for minor spills and alcohol for cleaning other parts (especially primer assembly and tubes) covers most of routine cleaning requirements. A cover when not in use also seems to help cut down on maintenance requirements.
 
I’m afraid I sounded to cavalier earlier with regard to fire safety. The act of vacuuming the powder isn’t dangerous.

However, the practice of storing the cleaned up powder in the vacuum canister/bag, out of sight out of mind, is dangerous. It is a highly flammable fuel. Storage in unmarked containers is dangerous and should be avoided, if not prohibited.
Another human may use the vacuum and cause a fire. One much more energetic than a hair ball blaze, though probably not as stinky.



Now, how often a hand loader vacuums up pounds of powder, and sucks up flaming debris there after is anyone’s guess. An ember in a vacuum bag is usually dangerous no matter the matter cleaned up.

Silly me, I have a dust buster for this reason alone and store the mixed, spilled powder until there is enough to set a blaze in the driveway.:D

Just checked my press, still clean!
 
I have a can of compressed air, usually a quick pfft every time I have to stop and load primers. I’ll wipe what I can at the end of the loading session but wait until a caliber change for a deep clean. I run “fully progressive” mode, so I deprime as well but don’t see a big difference. The usual Prop 65 and osha statements included here since I’m blowing particulates making them airborne and bad bad things happen. Good luck.
 
I use a combination of compressed air (canned air...) and an old 4" paint brush. I wipe a little Tetra lube on the main ram once in a while, and a little on the plate when I set a new plate. I break my ProJector down about every 10 years and really go at it.

Unfortunately, I have carpet in my reloading 'room,' which happens to be a closet. I just vacuum up the floor like anything else, no worries. The disposable bag gets switched out often, because the ratio of powder granules to dog hair is about 1:1B.


I do have a question, since it seems germane to the OP... what about spent primer collection? All my primers drop into an old 8# plastic powder container, it is likely half full at this point. Is there an explosive danger in a pile of spent primers? I would think not, but a few months ago someone mentioned primer compound residue (from live primers) in the primer pickup tubes should be cleaned... and that makes sense.
 
As was said before, best practices is to decap on a single stage before loading them onto the progressive press. That eliminates the source of what wears/binds things up. Sizing on a single & then loading on a progressive press makes the entire operation go smoother. If you start w a sized case, there is less resistance , making for easy loading. I like to clean the cases before loading anyway.
 
Canned air & Dewalt 20 volt portable vac get most of it. Solvent, rags / q-tips get the rest.
By design, decapping on my Rockchucker was a bit messy.
I now decap everything on my LNL-AP and get very little to no schmuck afterwards.
YMMV
 
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Stiff bristle brush to clean old powder and primer dust. Wipe down with blue shop towel and then oil all sliding and pivoting parts lightly.
 
I de-cap separately to keep the press clean. I also use old soft bristle paint brushes with a vac (battery op) or compressed air after each use.

Keeping everything oiled and clean works for me! I believe it will keep my press working longer and looking newer.
 
I just wipe it down. Remove the base plate and clean under. Then remove the links and clean under them. Re-lube and put back together. Couple times a decade. It’s a co-ax so it doesn’t get very dirty to begin with.
 
Bcwitt said:
As was said before, best practices is to decap on a single stage before loading them onto the progressive press. That eliminates the source of what wears/binds things up. Sizing on a single & then loading on a progressive press makes the entire operation go smoother. If you start w a sized case, there is less resistance , making for easy loading. I like to clean the cases before loading anyway.
Click to expand...
This is what I do. Decap everything, tumble or otherwise clean it, then reload. If primer pockets need swaging, that happens on the single stage, as well.
 
My Co-Ax gets cleaned often with a rag, small brush and a hand vac. Very light oil uses sparingly. The primer catching assembly catches most of the primer residue and I keep it covered when not in use. Like all tools, keep them clean and put away when not in use and they will always be where you can find them and last quite a long time...

If I have a lot of cases to process, I'll use an old Pacific C press with a Universal decapping die...
 
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