Storing dies with bushings?

[levsmith]

Hey everyone, I just bought my first press (Hornady LNL ap) and got it all mounted up and started putting stuff together but ran into a problem. With the LNL bushings on the dies, they wont fit back in the original cases. How does everyone here store their dies with bushings on them?

 

[nofishbob]

I have been storing my Hornady and RCBS brand dies with their LNL bushings on them in the factory cases.

You might have to wiggle them a little, and they might not fit as snugly as without the bushings, but they fit.

Good luck!

Bob

 

[levsmith]

I guess you're right on the hornady dies. But the lee pistol dies wont fit at all. I guess I could do a little dremeling but I dont want to ruin the case and find out it didn't work anyways. Plus the whole point of the case for me is to keep it out of the moisture and dremeling would open up some nice holes in the case. Am I correct in saying they need to be stored away so the moisture in the air doesn't get to them or am I just being way to paranoid? The only reason I thought about it was because I saw some used dies at the local gun store that were all rusted up.

 

[Randy1911]

I just made a simple rack for mine. I used a 2X4 and drilled 1-1/8" holes in it. I then labeled what dies were what. Don't forget to drill one hole all the way thru with a 1/8" drill bit for the de-priming pin to go in.

 

[mongoose33]

They *will* store in the Hornady boxes, if that's what kind of dies you have and they came in those boxes:

The foam under the seating die stem is to prevent it from tipping; with the micro-just stem it is topheavy.

Alternatively, you can buy just the boxes to store your dies if you want. Grafs is one place you can get them:

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/6594

I bought three empty ones for the various other dies I have bought and which are seated in LnL bushings, such as the Lee Universal decapping die, an extra Hornady seating die, like that.

 

[dmazur]

Am I correct in saying they need to be stored away so the moisture in the air doesn't get to them or am I just being way to paranoid?

Moisture can be a problem, especially if the environment is "condensing". By that, I mean the temperature drops below dew point. If this happens, moisture tends to condense on surfaces. And, of course, moisture leads to rust.

The plastic boxes aren't sealed. They aren't "Otter" or "Pelican" boxes with O-rings, so moist air is going to be around your dies. If the temperature drops, the air will condense and the dies will get wet even though they are inside a box.

If you can't keep your press and dies in a non-condensing environment (like a room with air conditioning), the next best thing IMO is to coat the dies with some kind of rust preventive. Perhaps a light coat of oil would work, inside and out. Don't forget to remove the oil before using the dies...

 

[Walkalong]

With creative placement, many will fit in Lyman, RCBS, and Forster boxes. On some boxes I have had to cut the "cradles" for the die body deeper. A dremel makes it fast and easy.

 

[Roccobro]

Ditto what Walkalong does. Only case I have that they don't fit (with dremeling) is the round Lee capsule version.

Justin