Preventing dies from rusting in a humid coastal climate

[NamibHunter]

Found a solution to a problem, and thought others would benefit from it too:

I have noticed a year or so ago that my dies and shell holders tend to develop little red rust spots on them. House has A/C running year round (Houston Texas) at 70 F, and we run one large dehumidifier per floor, set to 45%. It gets very humid here in summer, Gulf Coast climate.

My reloading room has a dedicated dehumidifier set to 40%, running with the door closed, but some gap below the door. Heats up the room to about 75 F which should help a little. Actual humidity varies between 36% and 43% based on a separate (and more accurate) electronic sensor intended for herbarium applications that alarms at 55%. [No i don’t own any lizards. ]

Dies and other carbon steel (even stainless steel) components like shell holders have a thin layer of oil on them (Ballistol spray). I have an additional large desiccant holder and a heating element in the safe. Even with all of these precautions, i have seen minor amounts of rust forming on the trigger guard of a rifle that is always in the safe.

So asked my industrious wife to buy me a large transparent cookie jar with a good air tight seal. She found the one below, and for the past 6 moths i have put all my dies and other valuable tools inside, with a freshly regenerated desicant, Imperial lube on the rubber seal, with a cheap hygrometer inside the cookie jar to monitor when to regenerate.

Humidity drops to 3-5% within about 2 hours and stay there. I have found that i can open the lid, remove the dies i need, and then reclose the lid maybe 20 seconds later, and the humidity does not move beyond 7%, then comes down again to the original value. A desiccant pack (plug-in version) seems to last for about 3 or 4 months before it gets to 15%, where i would once again regenerate it. No more issues with rust forming on my dies.

Hope this helps!

 

[Sogan]

Good idea. I have mine in just cheap plastic Tupperware with a dissicant pack but I’m going to look for one of these now

 

[Sean the Nailer]

That's a good start, and all. I'd need a number of those 'cookie jars' but what about the rest of the components in the room? The load cell in that scale, for example. Same goes for whatever you have stacked in a/the safe.

I'm running a dedicated de-humidifier in 'the room' and it seems to be doing 'ok' for the moment. I am NOT saying that this is the answer. I am saying though, is that the process itself is "multi-phased".

Luck to ya'.

 

[Sogan]

That's a good start, and all. I'd need a number of those 'cookie jars' but what about the rest of the components in the room? The load cell in that scale, for example. Same goes for whatever you have stacked in a/the safe.

I'm running a dedicated de-humidifier in 'the room' and it seems to be doing 'ok' for the moment. I am NOT saying that this is the answer. I am saying though, is that the process itself is "multi-phased".

Luck to ya'.

Preventing rust or issues on my FX-120i will be a big concern for me. I keep a dehum in the basement and it runs quite a bit but the room seems to hold around 55% or so

 

[Boatninja]

I also am Gulf Coastal and you are doing much better than I am on the humidity battle. One thing I do on rifles that I don't use often is synthetic automobile motor oil. I used it in a pinch on an old Sako I was retiring and pulled it out about six months later and it still had a good film on it. Sure if I was going to take it hunting again I would take it out of the stock and clean it with brake cleaner or something similar but in the mean time it is preserved. I am using the same 50% synthetic 10w-40w oil on dies now also.

 

[NamibHunter]

Preventing rust or issues on my FX-120i will be a big concern for me. I keep a dehum in the basement and it runs quite a bit but the room seems to hold around 55% or so

Yep, have a large dehumidifier in the room (Compressor, cooling coil and fan, similar tech to a fridge) and it gets humidity down to 35-43% range. It turns on and off every 10-20 minutes, so humidity cycles a bit. It also heats up the reloading room by about 6 degrees.

Some/most metal objects do just fine that way, but a small number still show minor signs of rust. Just tiny orange spots. Like the trigger guard on my old Savage rifle. Will try a better oil.

What else can be done?

 

[NamibHunter]

Preventing rust or issues on my FX-120i will be a big concern for me. I keep a dehum in the basement and it runs quite a bit but the room seems to hold around 55% or so

Would hate for that rather expensive scale to die on me.... Price of a really good barrel.

Tupperware comment gave me an idea: I guess you could put the lid of a large Tupperware container below the scale, so let the scale feet stand on top of it, pull the power cable out, and close theTupperware container (when not in use) over the scale with a desiccant inside? The seal on a Tupperware tub works quite well.

So how much paranoia is sufficient in this case...

 

[Sogan]

Would hate for that rather expensive scale to die on me.... Price of a really good barrel.

Tupperware comment gave me an idea: I guess you could put the lid of a large Tupperware container below the scale, so let the scale feet stand on top of it, pull the power cable out, and close theTupperware container (when not in use) over the scale with a desiccant inside? The seal on a Tupperware tub works quite well.

So how much paranoia is sufficient in this case...

Im going to be using the autotrickler set up. I doubt the scale sitting on the lid would provide enough stability since they make it a point to mention that you want to use it on a sturdy surface that does not vibrate etc.

 

[NamibHunter]

Im going to be using the autotrickler set up. I doubt the scale sitting on the lid would provide enough stability since they make it a point to mention that you want to use it on a sturdy surface that does not vibrate etc.

Fair point!

Maybe a thick and heavy granite slab on top my grandma’s Tupperware lid.... Offcuts are fairly cheap...

 

[Lucky Se7en]

I’ve always been jealous of the guys that have the die holders that keep the organized and accessible but it’s never been an option for me because of the rust...I’ve been dealing with it with It using plastic bags. I would love to get something that has a drawer or something easily accessible with spots to put the dies.

 

[Sogan]

I’ve always been jealous of the guys that have the die holders that keep the organized and accessible but it’s never been an option for me because of the rust...I’ve been dealing with it with It using plastic bags. I would love to get something that has a drawer or something easily accessible with spots to put the dies.

Simple plastic bags working well enough? I’m assuming you throw a desiccant packet in each?

 

[Sogan]

Found a solution to a problem, and thought others would benefit from it too:

I have noticed a year or so ago that my dies and shell holders tend to develop little red rust spots on them. House has A/C running year round (Houston Texas) at 70 F, and we run one large dehumidifier per floor, set to 45%. It gets very humid here in summer, Gulf Coast climate.

My reloading room has a dedicated dehumidifier set to 40%, running with the door closed, but some gap below the door. Heats up the room to about 75 F which should help a little. Actual humidity varies between 36% and 43% based on a separate (and more accurate) electronic sensor intended for herbarium applications that alarms at 55%. [No i don’t own any lizards. ]

Dies and other carbon steel (even stainless steel) components like shell holders have a thin layer of oil on them (Ballistol spray). I have an additional large desiccant holder and a heating element in the safe. Even with all of these precautions, i have seen minor amounts of rust forming on the trigger guard of a rifle that is always in the safe.

So asked my industrious wife to buy me a large transparent cookie jar with a good air tight seal. She found the one below, and for the past 6 moths i have put all my dies and other valuable tools inside, with a freshly regenerated desicant, Imperial lube on the rubber seal, with a cheap hygrometer inside the cookie jar to monitor when to regenerate.

View attachment 7329029
View attachment 7329030

Humidity drops to 3-5% within about 2 hours and stay there. I have found that i can open the lid, remove the dies i need, and then reclose the lid maybe 20 seconds later, and the humidity does not move beyond 7%, then comes down again to the original value. A desiccant pack (plug-in version) seems to last for about 3 or 4 months before it gets to 15%, where i would once again regenerate it. No more issues with rust forming on my dies.

Hope this helps!

Any idea where your wife found this? Harder than I thought to find one of that size with seals

 

[Lucky Se7en]

Simple plastic bags working well enough? I’m assuming you throw a desiccant packet in each?

It’s been working great, it’s just not convenient to get into. I keep the bags in an ammo can with desiccant packs and put an index card saturated with WD-40 in with the dies.

 

[gunsnjeeps]

Any idea where your wife found this? Harder than I thought to find one of that size with seals

Amazon.com - Felli Classic Round Canister with Locking clamp and Handle. 7.5"x 7.5" x 8.5" (155 oz/4.6L) (U01014601) -

Amazon.com - Felli Classic Round Canister with Locking clamp and Handle. 7.5"x 7.5" x 8.5" (155 oz/4.6L) (U01014601) -

www.amazon.com

 

[NamibHunter]

Any idea where your wife found this? Harder than I thought to find one of that size with seals

Bought in store at Walmart i believe. Brand is Mainstays (Clear Canister).

You might need a different size from this, depending on how many dies you have.

I have used zip lock bags for a long time and it works (at least for a while). Dies have sharp edges and eventually the bag gets a small hole, often goes unnoticed. Adding the cheap hygrometer (passive humidity level sensor) is good insurance. Hard shell canisters with a good seal is a useful upgrade.

If you have some woodworking skills you can make a round circulating pedestal from wood, drill die sized holes and stack the dies in three rows, put a handle at the top and pull them all out at once, spin the wheel. Will eventually try to do that.

 

[NamibHunter]

I searched for an analog (non-battery operated) hygrometer, as batteries are a hassle, eventually will run flat, and cost money. Lockdown brand has several, but there are many viable alternatives.

 

[NamibHunter]

Idea is to make a wooden die stacker, and this Redding turret storage provides an example of what i meant. Of course you can use the turret stacker, but rather expensive, and it may or may not fit in the canister. Anyway, that is the general idea, made with wood with drilled holes rather than threads.

Yes this is overkill unless you have a T7.... I don’t use one, so no idea if it will fit or not.