Flood in the gun/reloading room

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Sommerled

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
184
Location
Kandiyohi County Minnesota
A valve broke in the wall on the first floor of my 6 yr old home, such that the pipe spewed piping hot water for hours while I was at work.

Right below that wall, in the basement, is my man cave. Hundreds of gallons right on top of my main bench.:cuss::cuss::cuss:

Just got the repair est: $27,452.00:what: Insurance should cover all but the $6,000.00 deductable (I raised it a year ago to help pay for college for my kids) They will not pay for rusty reloading equipment. :fire: Even my old stuff was in very good rust free condition.

It is astonishing how fast things will rust.

Luckily, my powder and primers are stored in a seperate shed on my farm. (thank you honey!) No water entered my safe so the guns are ok.

Well, no one is hurt or injured, but doggone it! I had to tell this to people who could understand my trauma. Thanks for reading this post..

Sommerled the waterlogged.
 
I once sent a set of 30-06 dies to RCBS that were rusted out due to a leak right above my bench. They said they would see if they could smooth them out. I had a brand new set of dies a few days later and it was my fault. The dies were purchased in the mid seventies. This happened about ten years ago.
 
Sorry to hear that man. That totally sucks. I would have thought that homeowners insurance would have covered (all) things that got destroyed in the house.
 
OMG....I would absolutely die.

Well, on a positive note, maybe you can make those upgrades you've been thinking about.
 
I have read that putting your dies and smaller tools in a tumbler will get off surface rust, if that helps out.

Sorry to hear about that accident. That definitely sucks.
 
"I have read that putting your dies and smaller tools in a tumbler will get off surface rust, if that helps out."

I tumbles dies. Pull them apart. Tumble in walnut for the big parts aned scotch brite the small parts. Buy new set screws and even lockrings if needed. Wire brushes can work. Walnut will work in a sandblast cabinet also.

Of coure you could try to see what the die mfg will do. Never hurts to ask.

Trust me - I feel for you.
 
Oh Man!

now you've got me thinking.... as my bench is directly under two water pipes :what:

need to get hopping on my plans to finish off the other side of the basement into my manly-man HQ
 
I had a flood in my cellar about 30 years ago. My 30+ year old water heater let go. Who'd of figured? The wife was out of town and I worked overtime. A lot of powder got wet and some of my equipment. The consensus on the powder was to dry it out so as to be useable. And it was. The equipment that rusted was dealt with one piece at a time. NOTHING was lost except a few minor doo-dads. Between drying everything out in the oven, and scotchbrighting the bejeesus out of everything that the tumbler didn't take care of, there was virtually nothing lost. Rust, to be really damaging has to work at it awhile. An odd thing was that none of my Redding dies rusted at all.
 
Think about some water detectors in a few places that will trigger a complete whole house water cutoff.

They are out there but I'm not sure who makes them.
 
I'm sorry to hear something like this has happened to you. It's bad enough your home was damaged but to additionally have all that water all over your reloading equipment is just too much.

May I suggest using a good gun oil and 0000 steel wool to remove the rust without damaging the metal. It works well on gun barrels and other gun parts so there's no reason it won't work on your reloading equipment..

Good luck with the house and your basement...
 
I feel your pain. 15 years ago my house got destoryed by a tornado and it also rainned 5 inches that night:what:. All of my reloading stuff got ruined. I feel you pain.:fire:
 
fuzzybunny,

I had a water detector detector installed. It could not shut off a broken valve.

Keep your powder dry,

Sommerled

The detector must be attached to a fail closed solenoid valve on your main.
 
Oh man, that really stinks!!!

Having lived in Florida, the land of hurricanes, for 8 years I have several friends that have experienced similar flooding. It is a Horror story all the way around. And insurance covers darn little when it comes to flooding unless you have every different kind of flood covered. I hope you can save some of it at least.
 
Sorry to hear about that!

My bad luck was having my bullet loading thumb contact a table saw blade a week ago. I don't expect I'll be able to reload for at least another week, probably more like 2.
 
I am sorry to hear about your recent experience. I can relate though, I was flooded in 1999 (Hurricane Floyd). As mentioned earlier, the rust will need to work a while to ruin your reloading equipment. I did take apart many dies and clean them thoroughly. I also had to clean lots of other pieces. Basically everything was salvaged and it works good as new.

Best of luck with the cleanup.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

F
  • Locked
You like? (pics )
Replies
3
Views
759
AndyC
A
Back
Top