polishing dies

[cobyb]

i just bought a new redding type s fl bushing die for my 308, i used a nylon brush and hopps to clean the die then ran a few patches through it. on the first 6 pieces of once fired lapua brass, it scratched the hell out of them. i read on reddings web site that you can polish the dies with 400 - 600 sand paper. does anyone have any experience with this. I was thing of using a wooden dowel in a drill with sand paper on the end of it. i tried to take a couple of pictures of the cases but i dont have a great camera. the scratches do not seem to be real deep, but it sure looks like shit.

should i try to polish the die, or will it get better over time and is the brass going to be damaged.

 

[cobyb]

Here are a couple phone pictures.

 

[Rattler56]

If there new send them back with a pice of brass, they should polish or replace
them, it will not get better with time.
Call them and explain what is going on first.

 

[lightman]

Calling Redding is your best option, but I would probably polish them myself and be done with it. I would probably go much finer than 400 or 600 grit, say 1200 grit, and finish up with some Flitz on a bore mop. Just wondering, what kind of lube did you use and how did you apply it? Grit on a dirty lube pad can scratch brass pretty easy. Lightman

 

[cobyb]

no lube pad here, first they were stainless tumbled and i used there imperial wax applied by hand. i would like to go through redding and have them fix it, but it took a couple weeks to get due to the weather going on, and i need to get some brass worked up. who knows how long it will take. so if i can take care of it myself, there wont be a lot of down time.

 

[bigedp51]

Disassemble the die and then take a snug fitting shotgun cleaning mop and chuck it in a drill. Then apply J&B bore paste, Flitz, automotive rubbing compound, etc to the mop and polish the inside of the die. This will remove any embedded dirt or grit and polish the inside of the die. A second method is to place the disassembled body of the die in a vibratory cartridge case cleaner with walnut media and leave for several hours.

The dies are hardened and as the Redding website tells you you can use 400-600 wet and dry sand paper. The problem with this method is the sandpaper does not get into all the nooks and crannies and the shotgun mop will.

I use both methods mentioned above and I have been reloading for over 46 years and never damaged a single die. Any time you have firearms that throw perfectly good brass away and the brass lands on the ground you run the risk of embedded dirt and grit on the brass. Stainless steel media wet tumbling will remove 99.999% of the dirt and grit but you will eventually end up with embedded grit inside the die and scratched brass and then its time to polish the die.

 

[shoot4fun]

Follow what bigedp51 suggested and you will be fine. I have polished many a die with Flitz and a bore mop in a drill. I will clean them every few thousand rounds and polish again. You will not hurt the dies this way. If you do then find a different brand of dies. They are supposed to be hardened.

 

[cobyb]

right on, im heading out for a bore mop and some flitz. i appreciate all the help.

 

[Wheres-Waldo]

The Redding body die I purchased wouldn't take anything less than carbide tooling to modify... They are very hard!

 

[cobyb]

well i gave that sucker hell with a bore mop and flitz, that made an amazing difference. before the polish job it was rubbing so bad it was taking the annealing trace off. bigedp51 thanks for the advice, it worked well.

 

[bruddah]

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