Cleaning rusty dies

[Kevin Rohrer]

Kevin. nice looking turret press. What is that?

Various Hollywood turrets, from left to right:
1. Universal Model-III (it's for sale)
2. Senior Turret
3. Universal B (allegedly 1 of 100 and the one you asked about)
4. Universal Model-III Deluxe




And a side view of this unique looking press you asked about:

 

[788Ham]

I have a set of .250 dies, older than dirt. They'd gotten kind of a dark patina to them, noticed when cleaning out the die drawer, rusty? or whatever. I tore them both down and used the Dremel tool and one of the steel brushes, on the bullets stem and decapping stem. Then I took a drill bit and wound a gob of 0000 wool around it, went inside the die body and ran it around in there a bit, to clean any and all gunk out. Then lightly applied some synthetic oil on the die bodies and wire brushed them off, wiped them down and applied some of the oil inside with a Q tip, assembled everything and put away. Simple solution. While disassembled, I took a drill bit and drilled, lightly, inside the bullet seating stem, to remove a tad bit of metal. When reloading Hornady AMax bullets, the plastic tip gets bent over, not enough room for the tip, removing just enough metal relieved this situation.

 

[LiveLife]

Well, I have another "cleaning rusty dies" project. Bought this Pro 1000 press/die set at a gun show.

When I first saw it, oh my, I cringed. Anyone who wonders if dies can rust, here's another example. I do not know under what conditions these were kept, but they sure have seen some exposure!

Will be breaking out the rust remover/wire brush and then polishing the dies in walnut/NuFinish. Will post pictures as I go through the steps.

 

[1KPerDay]

Wow.... looks to me like it was in water. Flooded basement, perhaps?

 

[jeepmor]

Wow.... looks to me like it was in water. Flooded basement, perhaps?

Not from the PNW eh. That looks like storage rust and oxidation on aluminum from sitting too long neglected and ignored. I best go check my dies my stuff and give them a coating of gun oil or the like.

 

[amlevin]

I live here in the rainy Pacific Northwest, near Puget Sound and its salt water, and I don't have that much rust on my cheap old Lee dies which I don't bother to maintain much beyond cleaning out with a q-tip. Some of those dies are now almost 40 years old and have no rust at all on them.

I can't imagine that kind of rust unless as others have said, a flooded basement, or reloading at the picnic table in the back yard and leaving the equipment in the rain.