care and feeding of reloading dies

[MrN]

I recently acquired brass, bullets, tools, and about
reloading 25 die sets from a friend whose father had
passed. The dies are RCBS, Lyman, Redding and Dillon mfg.
Most are regular guy calibers - 223, 38, 40 S&W, then there
are some lesser known ones like 303 British and 6.5 Swede.
Mfg dates look like mid 1990s to now. Most are in like new
condition, but some of the older ones have RUST on the
them. (I kept to myself my opinion about folks caring for
their firearms and equipment.)

Not being a reloader yet, I have a question - How do I best
clean these for use - I am using a new soft toothbrush and
nothing else right now. Do they need to be oiled? Are they
supposed to be oiled? I envision keeping some and
selling/trading others, so I want them working and rust
free. Suggestions welcome.

thanks
MrN

[Bigdog357]

You can use some WD40 with that tooth brush and or some very fine steel wool to take off the rust. Then you can lightly lube with most any gun oil, wipe of the excess and return to storage. If you cant break the moving parts free soak in Kroil oil.

[scooter123]

WD-40 was originally developed as a Rust Preventative oil, so wiping the dies wet with WD-40 and then wiping them to a dry appearance can leave a microscopic film that will act as a rust preventative. I reload in my basement which can be rather humid in the summer so I am a huge fan of WD-40 for this use. As for cleaning up some rust films, more actual experience speaking here and I've found that bronze wool or a bronze brush soaked with WD-40 will do a very good job.

BTW, next summer I'll have a new A/C system installed and hope that will reduce the humidity in the basement but because the drain for the condensate is the basement sink I'm not counting on it. So, I'll continue with the WD-40 regimen.

[Engineer1911]

The dies are hardened steel that can be cleaned with a wire brush, stainless steel chamber brush, or coarse steel wool with out doing any damage. Do not use a Dremel tool with a stone polishing bit. A felt wheel with polishing compound does a great job.

[fla_gun]

You can use Frog Lube on your dies. Protects them and make cleaning a snap.

[MichiganScott]

If the rust is on the outside, use a wire brush and some sort of penetrating oil, preferably Kroil. If it's on the working surfaces, toss 'em. It's not worth the aggravation once you start reloading.

As far as storage is concerned, you can use any rust preventative oil that you prefer, or use some vapor rust preventative products. I like the chips because then you don't have to degrease the dies before using, but you appear to be more concerned with long term storage.

[WR Moore]

I'd add the stainless steel chamber brush to the DO NOT USE list.

A product made to remove such things without changing dimensions is Scotchbright in the milder grades. You can usually find the green version in the supermarket, gray is even more gentle. Both grades are more aggessive than steel wool.

I've also gotta agree with a previous poster about rust in the interior. If it doesn't come out with a few swipes of Scotchbright and some WD-40, trash the die unless it's a really scarce item.

[SMSgt]

I'll second FrogLube. Oils and reloading are not a good combination. FL provodes excellent rust resistance, contains no oils and application is easy.