Thread: Remember to clean yer dies

I'm guessing most of us do, but maybe not. Took delivery of a set of used dies today in 44-40. Needed a light wirebrushing on the outside for cosmetics to make bright and shiny which suits me. Then a wipe out of the insides with Isopropyl Alcohol. Got to the the bullet seating die, seating plug had to be pushed out of accumulated bullet lube with a rod. Then it took me 20min of soaking and bronze brushing, not to get the old accumulated lube out of the bore, but the lead shavings that seemed fused to the steel. I mean the lube was bad enough but man, that last few deposits of lead had me wondering if someone had been using the die for a firing chamber lol. Wouldn't do much for accurately seated pills I imagine. Now I'm looking at my collected die sets on the shelf trying to recollect the last time I cleaned them before or after a reloading session. Maybe doesn't matter so much for a pistol target at 20 paces but might be the difference with cast out of a rifle barrel at 80, or more. Anyway...

you can do worse than drop them into container of two stroke petrol to soak for an hor or two....maybe not ideal for rubber seals/rings but it sure cleans the gunk out well.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

you can do worse than drop them into container of two stroke petrol to soak for an hor or two....maybe not ideal for rubber seals/rings but it sure cleans the gunk out well.

Yeah true that, about half way thru I was wondering why I wasn't using bore cleaner. Or a Diesel bath. Probably bore cleaner smells better wafting from the basement...

Brake kleen works well

+1 for Brakleen as advised on this forum previously