Originally Posted by 38magnum View Post
all of my dies are steel body, even pistol. sure pistol have that nifty carbide ring..
ALL of my lee dies have been rusty within one week of original arrival at the mailbox.. some have been rusty on the outside IN the factory box.
But use of that lee size lube will make the insides rusty within a week.
WOW. Your comment shocked me. It made me go downstairs and closely examine my Lee dies.
I bought my first set of Lee dies in 1971. I never bought a competitor's product. I'm now up to 28 different calibers.
I could not find a single die with a trace of rust. Rifle OR carbide pistol. Do I have unusual basement storage conditions? I ONLY use Lee sizing lube.
So, what am I doing wrong?
When I lived in Idaho (a dry climate) I had no problems with my dies rusting. When I moved to Southeast Alaska where yearly rainfall varies from 90 to 140 inches per year (depending upon location) I had the same problem as 38magnum. To prevent rust I began to wipe down the inside and outside of my dies with Break Free CLP after every use to keep them from rusting. This was probably more often than necessary, but I decided not to take any chances. By the time I realized the local high humidity was causing problems with my dies, I had completely lost two sets of dies to rust, and I had to clean light rust off individual dies from many sets of dies. To help, I also put a piece of rust inhibiting paper in each of my die boxes.
The REAL culprit and major problem, however, was Lee water soluble sizing lubricant (the white stuff in a tube). Any time I used it without cleaning out and oiling the inside of my sizing die immediately after use, the inside of my sizing die would rust in a few days. Lee resizing lubricant was not only water soluble, it was hygroscopic (it attracted water) which would make my dies rust. I quit using the Lee resizing lubricant. I cleaned the stuff out of my dies, then switched to imperial Sizing Die Wax. I haven't had a rusting problem since.
I'm sure there are other lubricants/oils that will work to keep your dies from rusting (I've used Ed's Red some, and it seems to work well), but mostly I've used Break Free CLP on my firearms and reloading stuff since the early 1980s and feel little need to change (especially since I buy the stuff by the gallon, so I have a lot of it). Although I don't know this for sure, I've been told the only reason the military has switched from Break Free CLP to whatever they are using now is simply because you can't convince soldiers to read or follow the directions on the bottle. Break Free CLP contains teflon and needs to be shaken well so the teflon goes into suspension. Since young men (particularly those in the military) can't seem to read the directions, the bottles aren't shaken so the first stuff that comes out of the bottle is thin and doesn't contain the teflon needed for lubrication, and the last stuff that comes out of the bottle is thicker than hell so it doesn't apply right or clean properly. Since I know how to read directions, Break Free CLP works well for me.
Whelenshooter
