Reloading gear and rust

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mikemyers

mikemyers

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When I packed away all my reloading gear in the early 1990's, I didn't realize at the time how long it would be before I'd get it out again. If I were smarter, I'd have sprayed everything with oil or grease or something protective....

I can't be the only person with this problem - open up gear from ages ago, and find various degrees of rust on some of the parts. I guess my question here is how to fix it, or if it's better to just buy new.


Larry, at RCBS, told me to buy some of the WD-40 that comes in a brown can. Supposedly everyone (except me) knows about this form of WD-40, and that it's good for removing rust. This is NOT the WD-40 that comes in the blue can. Anyway, so far I haven't found anyone who sells the brown cans, but one hardware shop thought it might be coming next week.

Anyone here have any suggestions on how to deal with rust? My thoughts are to use a wire brush, get rid of the rust, and then give the parts a light coat of oil. I've also got three shell holders, which look like a miniature version of the rusticles that are eating away the Titanic. I'll try the wire brush, but I think they're likely to be headed for the dumpster.


I guess the moral of this post is to use something to protect parts that you plan to put away for an undecided length of time. Maybe someone who's already dealt with this problem can suggest what they did to fix things.....
 
let them soak in penetrating oil for a time-as mentioned, kroil does pretty well. Then have at it with a wire brush on the outside...for the inside of your dies, maybe a bronze brush well oiled attached to a drill. I wouldn't use a steel or stainless steel brush on the bores of your dies as it may scratch them.
 
Smaller parts, drop them in a cup of vinegar overnight. Degrease first if you oiled them.

Larger parts, use naval jelly.

Wash the parts in hot water. Dry. Oil.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. My shopping find-it list now includes "WD-40 brown can", Kroil, Vinegar, and "Butches Gun Blue and Rust Remover".

Delmar, thanks for the wire brush warning. I was about to use my steel wire brush on all of them. Larry already warned me to not use any rust remover on the inner parts of my powder measure, as any residue might affect the powder. Fortunately, only my very ancient powder measure had rust - the newer one was quite clean.

I had all this stuff in Michigan for 20 years, with no rust problem whatever. Florida must be a Rusticle State. :-(


(Rusted parts include shell holders - mine remind me of the Titanic, several of my dies (mostly surface rust), and many exposed steel parts (again, just surface rust).
 
Thanks. I'll try the other ideas first. Not sure yet where I'd get "electrolysis" cleaning done, or how. I hadn't thought about a tumbler, but I guess why not...? One of the things on my to-do list is to buy a tumbler anyway.

For what it's worth, I have the two priming tools, and the standard one had a shell holder rusted in place - wouldn't budge. Half an hour with a wire brush and a Dremel helped expose the metal, with much of the rust gone. Penetrating oil might have helped, but the shell holder might as well have been epoxied in place. I finally clamped the shell holder in a vice, gripping it on the one side that is cut away, and by twisting the priming tool, it broke free. Now everything just needs cleaning - or maybe replacing.

JimKirk, any recommendations on a tumbler that might be better than the others for doing this? A tumbler was on a "future buy" list, but no reason I can't get one now. I don't need "big", but do want "effective". I like the idea of being able to do what you suggested.
 
I have had great success using PB Blaster to remove rust. That coupled with steel wool or a wire brush of the appropriate type followed by a trip through the tumbler media should be good. The shell holders might be easier to just replace for the work involved IMHO. I would not think that the ACCURACY of a powder measure would be affected by cleaning and removing rust as it would be able to be set to any weight no matter the size difference of the rust removed.:confused:

The trip of the parts through the tumbler or degreasing the measure with CARB cleaner after rust removal and relubing with graphite should save the measure.
 
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Use of Naval Jelly, while very effective, will generate fume which are very irritating to the respiratory system.

Be sure to have adequate ventilation (preferably outdoors), along with gloves and eyepro to guard from the phosphoric & sulfuric acid content which acts to convert the rust to a soluble form.
 
I had the same problem when I received a 20 year old, never used but badly rusted RCBS 4x4 press. I used a solution of Barkeeper's Friend (oxalic acid) and water. Soak the parts for a couple hours and scrub with steel wool. Repeat if necessary. The acid solution did a really nice job of loosening the rust. I don't know if I would try this on dies though. It might be too harsh for the polished interior surfaces. When you're done wipe the clean metal with a light coat of oil or the rust will come back pretty quickly.
 
Mike ... my tumbler is a home made deal .... a piece of 10" PVC pipe(about 15" long) with oak "triangles" screwed inside using counter sunk flat head screws ... I made sure the screw heads were flush with the outside of the pipe.... I used 1/4" plex glass to cover the ends and made a cover door of the same but used two pieces and used a big oring around for a seal .... the plex was screwed to the oak triangles and sealed with chaulk ... I used two 3/4" shafts and made a wood frame out of Cherry 1" x 6" boards ... used some cheap flange type bearings screwed to the frame ... I left one shaft long enough to put a 6"/8" v belt pulley I think it is a "A" sized belt and I used a junk 110 volt motor with three speeds out of the trash ... kinda of looks like a wood mini front load washing machine.... I use corn cobb ....

I cleaned several dies in it ... I only put one at a time in so they don't bang each other .... it will clean up light rust ... I would clean as well as you can as it more or less polishes ...
 
Here you go. I used a very similiar product that i had from napa (was napa brand) which was blue in color and some sort of acid to clean a redding die that had surface rust on the knurled portion. Sprayed on and brushed with a brass or plastic brush to assist removal. Wear gloves and reoil after use.
Click to expand...
This stuff works well. If you want a larger/cheaper amount, it's just phosphoric acid, which you can buy in quarts or gallons. Same stuff that is in naval jelly. Naval jelly just has a thick carrier that you can wipe on to coat larger items.

You can also use Parkerizing solution, if you have it. Same active ingredient, but with a little zinc added. This will give even better protection.

To clean the rust off my cast iron bandsaw table and add some protection, I made up some Naval-Parkerizing-stuff by pouring some Parkerizing solution over sawdust. I spread this over the cast iron table and periodically sprayed with a little water to keep it from drying out. The rust dissolved and the table turned gunship blue. I wiped it down and oiled it, and the rust hasn't returned in over a year. Prior to this, I tried oil and wax, and it still rusted whenever it rained.
 
I used walnut media with nu-finish for surface rust, also noticed that it acts as an inhibitor for future rust. I did not have anything heavy though, just rust from humidity and spots where I had touched it with my hands and did not wipe it off afterwards.

Heavy rust, not sure, I would probably replace any tolerance items with anything more than surface rust.
 
Florida rust

I have had luck using most of what has been mentioned here for removing rust from various things over the years. Never knew about WD-40 in a brown can though. I have done dies in my tumbler with some success also. Problem with rust, depending on the amount, is pitting and pitting on precision parts is never good. Florida is terrible when it comes to rust. If it's steel and not treated or in a controlled environment it's gonna rust eventually.
 
I guess this is as good a place as any to ask the final question....

Once a part is reasonably cleaned up, what's the best way to protect it from getting rusty again? Simply coat it thoroughly with a light oil?


I haven't found the brown can of WD-40 yet, but vinegar followed by a lot of rubbing helped quite a bit on many of the smaller parts. I'll wait until I have something more effective to try to clean off the dies.

The shell holders cleaned up fairly well, but not completely. Are they supposed to have some sort of ID number on them, saying what size they are? I'll probably just replace them anyway. I've got other parts that I'm not sure what they are, or what they're used for. Will do more searching before I ask about them here.

Is there some kind of oil spray can that is made for this purpose - just spray the parts thoroughly, and put them away in storage until when/if needed?
 
Powdered citric acid and water will remove surface rust in a day or two. It falls off. Anything that remains can be removed with a purple or white scouring pad soaked in Breakfree.
 
Yes, the shell holders , mine any way, have their numbered size on them.
I think if I were going to store these things I would certainly give them a good coat of oil. The smaller parts would go in a freezer storage type of bag and might even use a spray oil in said bag. Break free (CLP) would be a good choice and is easily found.

http://www.safariland.com/more.../break-free/
 
Evapo- rust works. It is also non toxic. From what I remember the navy uses it to de-rust engines. You can get it in a small pint size if I remember correctly.
 
Are you sure about the W-D being in a brown can? I'm thinking that he might have meant the gray can for rust removal and penetration and I should have written all that it said it did. You have me looking all over for the stuff? Yep the holders should have #'s on them.
 
'Lauderdale', I am certain - he said it over and over again, emphasizing it is not the same WD-40 I've used for ages, that comes in a blue can. I can't say more than that - maybe he sees colors differently than others do.... Lots of choices up above.

Rust wasn't a big problem (for me at least) in Michigan, but Florida is something else again! Rust for parts, and mold for walls and other things.


....................OK, did a YouTube search. I'm pretty sure THIS is what Larry meant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIWl2s4APXw

You're right, the bottle is "gray", but there is that "orange" circle Larry probably remembers. Looks like good stuff to have!!
 
Thanks for the you tuber! They had one can left I should have grabbed it! All the other flavors were 10 deep. Yeh I also live in the land of humidity! I would use it as a cleaner not as a preventative. Thanks.
 
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