Clean Dies

sirgknight

Do any of you ever clean your dies? Just out of curiosity I looked up into one of my resizing dies and saw a bunch of gook up in the die. I cut me a thin strip of cloth and soaked it with mineral spirits and used it like a rope sliding it back and forth inside the die to clean it. I guess this gook accumulated from excess lube on the casings. I've always used the lube by hand and have never diluted it. Lee advises that the lube may be diluted but when you dilute to let it dry on the casing before resizing. Would letting the lube dry before resizing eliminate the gook problem? Thanks in advance for the great advice.

Odawgp

quote:Originally posted by sirgknight
I guess this gook accumulated from excess lube on the casings. I've always used the lube by hand and have never diluted it. Lee advises that the lube may be diluted but when you dilute to let it dry on the casing before resizing. Would letting the lube dry before resizing eliminate the gook problem? Thanks in advance for the great advice.

Yes, Excess lube and the fact that you have been lubing and resizing dirty cases help to contribute to the "GOOP"

You can delude the lee lube with rubbing alcohol (1 to 2 or 1 to 4 ??)
then spray the deluded lube onto the cases with a spray bottle the alcohol will evaporate and leave behind a oilly film. this film is similar to the "One shot" lube but costs just a faction of $$.

If the dies are really gooped up disassemble them completely
and clean like you would a gun barrel (minus the wire brush of course) lube lightly reassemble and re adjust them to where they were before

sandwarrior

sirgknight,

I clean my dies, that have been sitting a while, before reloading with them. I didn't used to do that and found out the hard way that cases get stuck and tweaked when you start sizing a batch. Once you get fresh lube up into the die then it starts to work well again. Even dies that aren't really dirty per se, they just have dried lube up in them. Why take the chance of losing/ruining some brass and not clean them?

So, I take out the primer pin stem and do like you do. Squeeze some alcohol, mineral spirit, etc. into a wadded up shop rag(paper) and wipe it all out. Note that if you use a petroleum based cleaner to make sure you clean that completely out. It degrades the non-petroleum die lubes and you can end up with a stuck case really quick doing that.

Also, FWIW, when I lube cases, I spray on Lymans in the wintertime during the cold. This is very thin lube and works well in the cold and for low pressure resizings. It also does a wonderful job of emulsifying the carbon off the cases. I wipe each case before I resize it and the crud comes right off. I then feel that I still have a clean film of lube on the case. Size it, good to go.
For high pressure resizing, i.e. .300 Win mag that had been fired either in a big chamber or semi-auto, I use RCBS on a roll pad. Some of these rounds took a LOT of force. I used this none too sparingly. Especially after I had to extract 8 cases from my die doing this. This softens carbon up as well and it's just a couple of rotations in a shop towel and the brass comes out clean. I use this lube in the summer when it's warm and full length resizing. The Lymans is a little thin in case you get a stiff case.

Mikein

Every winter I go through a process of disassembly of each die and giving all components a thorough cleaning and very light lubrication. Then, before I use the die, I take an aerosol can of "electronic contact cleaner," (I get mine at a NAPA auto parts store) put the little red tube/nozzle on it, walk outside, hold the die right side up, push the little tube into the die, and as I squirt the cleaner up into the die body, I rotate the die slowly in my hand. The cleaner drips out, and evaporates completely. I then take Hornady One Shot and give the die a blast with it. At that point, the die is ready for work. Since I began this process, about 5 years ago, I've not had a single incident of stuck cases.

sirgknight

thanks for the great tips on die maintenance.

Pinhead

I usually clean my dies the same as I clean my rifle barrels, Hoppe's bore cleaner and followed by break-free oil. I take them apart before cleaning though. I usually do this in the cold winter months but I will clean in the summer if I am doing a lot of reloading with one or more die sets. I have been doing this since the 60's and haven't had a die rust on me as yet. My dies all look like new -- except for the boxes.

dcs shooters

I clean mine a couple times a year. Sometimes more when loading lead bullets.

5mmgunguy

Yes I clean them. I go to the hobby store and buy RC electric engine cleaner. Take the die apart and spray some in and they clean with a long q-tip. Could of passes and one final squirt of clesn and some compressed air and we are done. I put a little lube on a Q-tip and lightly lube the inside and then reassemble.

konamtbiker

I clean mine with cheap carb and Choke cleaner, scrub with a old tooth brush, then blow them out with the air compressor. I clean mine about 1 a month. and clean the button every time I load.

Claimbuster

Similar to above, I spray some Gun Scrubber through them, followed by a shot or two two of compressed air. Then I spray some case lube before I use them again.

Its a good idea to clean them from time to time.

bugmantraap

Try using some WD-40 to clean those dies with. Disasemble and use a WD soaked cu-tip. Keep a WD soaked rag in a coffe can with lid to wipe down finished cartridges.Sizing lube mixed with dirty brass will raise hell with your chamber. Trapper