What do you guys use to clean the gunk out of your dies?? Also, what do you use to polish them .... if you do in fact polish them.
Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
- Thread starter Muttt
- Start date
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
You can clean the crud out with the same stuff you clean a barrel with.If you want to polish the inside,a little Flitz on a bore mop should do it. Pete
You can clean the crud out with the same stuff you clean a barrel with.If you want to polish the inside,a little Flitz on a bore mop should do it. Pete
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
Butches Bore Shine and lots of q-tips. When I store them, I'll hammer them with a shot of WD-40. JPG
Butches Bore Shine and lots of q-tips. When I store them, I'll hammer them with a shot of WD-40. JPG
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
+1 whatever barrel cleaner you use, run patches thru the die similar to when you clean the barrel.
Just inspect visually afterwards you havnt left a thread of cotton or hair inside the die off your patch.
I don't recommend firing a fouling shot thru the die tho...
+1 whatever barrel cleaner you use, run patches thru the die similar to when you clean the barrel.
Just inspect visually afterwards you havnt left a thread of cotton or hair inside the die off your patch.
I don't recommend firing a fouling shot thru the die tho...
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
I use Hoppes #9 because it is handy and Flitz to polish.
I really couldn't tell you if the polishing makes a difference, but I figure that it couldn't hurt. The dies sure look smoother when polished. I polish everything that rubs on the case, stem, expander ball, I want everything to slide easily.
myerfire
I use Hoppes #9 because it is handy and Flitz to polish.
I really couldn't tell you if the polishing makes a difference, but I figure that it couldn't hurt. The dies sure look smoother when polished. I polish everything that rubs on the case, stem, expander ball, I want everything to slide easily.
myerfire
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
I spin the die in the mini lathe chuck and poke up inside with a Q-tip with Flitz.
I got that technique ~ 10 years ago from Varmint Al's web site.
I spin the die in the mini lathe chuck and poke up inside with a Q-tip with Flitz.
I got that technique ~ 10 years ago from Varmint Al's web site.
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
Only use solvents to clean it. You don't want to change the dimensions. Otherwise, use Flitz etc. and a power tool to really get all those nasty boogers out of the die. What's a few thousandths of an inch when we're talking peace (or a very small piece) of mind. /sarcasm,
Only use solvents to clean it. You don't want to change the dimensions. Otherwise, use Flitz etc. and a power tool to really get all those nasty boogers out of the die. What's a few thousandths of an inch when we're talking peace (or a very small piece) of mind. /sarcasm,
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
If you got a few thou off a steel die with Flitz, you must have started when you were very young.
If you got a few thou off a steel die with Flitz, you must have started when you were very young.
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
Maybe I should have said ten thousandths of an inch. I'm a former machinist who dealt with precision dies where .00001" mattered a lot. I still wouldn't use any abrasive on my dies. Go ahead if you want to. I'll pass.
Maybe I should have said ten thousandths of an inch. I'm a former machinist who dealt with precision dies where .00001" mattered a lot. I still wouldn't use any abrasive on my dies. Go ahead if you want to. I'll pass.
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
Many years ago I managed some mechanical as well as other engineers.
Many years ago my brother was a machinist.
He says I am a typical a$$hole engineer.
Now we both buy stuff from the ENCO flyer for home gunsmthing.
The only time we see really accurate things in gunsmthing is when we put a pin gauge or range rod in a bore to dial in a barrel.
I have seen the tool post grinder used to make a pin that has .0002" clearance to fit in the bore.
I just buy the + and the - pin gauges in the .0005" individual increments from MSC, for dialing in bores.
I use pin gauges to measure the neck size of FL sizer dies.
.001" resolution is good enough.
When Forster hones out a FL die for me on their Hardinge collet lathes, they write the new neck size on the top of the die with a sharpie pen. They typically write on top of a .223 die ".244"".
The reason I knew that Flitz would not take off much, was when I tried to replicate the Varmint Al experiment of Flitz vs JB bore paste effect on round steel spun in a mini lathe.
You can spin a .75" rod of RC28 4140 at 2,000 r.p.m for a long time while rubbing real hard with Flitz or JB paste.
Then look at it with a microscope and not see any change.
The trick is to start out with a mirror finish. Even then it is hard to find any change.
Many years ago I managed some mechanical as well as other engineers.
Many years ago my brother was a machinist.
He says I am a typical a$$hole engineer.
Now we both buy stuff from the ENCO flyer for home gunsmthing.
The only time we see really accurate things in gunsmthing is when we put a pin gauge or range rod in a bore to dial in a barrel.
I have seen the tool post grinder used to make a pin that has .0002" clearance to fit in the bore.
I just buy the + and the - pin gauges in the .0005" individual increments from MSC, for dialing in bores.
I use pin gauges to measure the neck size of FL sizer dies.
.001" resolution is good enough.
When Forster hones out a FL die for me on their Hardinge collet lathes, they write the new neck size on the top of the die with a sharpie pen. They typically write on top of a .223 die ".244"".
The reason I knew that Flitz would not take off much, was when I tried to replicate the Varmint Al experiment of Flitz vs JB bore paste effect on round steel spun in a mini lathe.
You can spin a .75" rod of RC28 4140 at 2,000 r.p.m for a long time while rubbing real hard with Flitz or JB paste.
Then look at it with a microscope and not see any change.
The trick is to start out with a mirror finish. Even then it is hard to find any change.
Re: Cleaning and/or Polishing Reloading Dies
Well,
Don't put them into your vibratory cleaner with the reddish walnut stuff. It leaves a huge amount of the reddish powder on the dies. It cakes everything up really badly. It doesn't seem to hurt anything. Just makes them 3 times harder to clean. Had to completely break them down and use a cloth buffing wheel to clean off all the tumbling gunk. Putting them in just plain corncob for a couple hours did help a little. But, there was still plenty of gunk left to clean off.
Huge mistake. I'll never do that again. But, the dies did eventually come out nice and shiney. Just wasn't worth the trouble I went through.
Well,
Don't put them into your vibratory cleaner with the reddish walnut stuff. It leaves a huge amount of the reddish powder on the dies. It cakes everything up really badly. It doesn't seem to hurt anything. Just makes them 3 times harder to clean. Had to completely break them down and use a cloth buffing wheel to clean off all the tumbling gunk. Putting them in just plain corncob for a couple hours did help a little. But, there was still plenty of gunk left to clean off.
Huge mistake. I'll never do that again. But, the dies did eventually come out nice and shiney. Just wasn't worth the trouble I went through.
