Post by bobcat2 on Dec 12, 2016 18:03:23 GMT -5
Hello all,
That time of year again where I break down all of my dies and presses for a good cleaning...I'm not gonna lie, I hate doing it, lol. It usually takes me 30-45 minutes to break down a 4 die set, scrub them out, polish the turret head(if applicable), and scrub the shell holder, I usually spend an hour per press.
Don't know if I'm doing it right or not, I don't have the dedicated RCBS die/press maintenance kit. I usually disassemble a die, fill the body up with hoppe's elite bore foam, clean the internal parts while the body soaks, then brush out the body, and use the 3 rag system...The first rag is for removing the cleaner and major crud, the second is for getting what the first one missed, and the third is the final cleaning cloth, then after each die set, rag 1 is trashed, and the other 2 get demoted, and each set has a new final cleaning cloth. While the dies are out of the turret head, I like to polish the bearing surface of the head using never-dull, seems to make rotation changes smooth.
Presses get a general breakdown, cleaning, and polish. I don't like using liquid lubes that attract dirt, so I just use a graphite spray when needed.
It always amazes me how much crud comes out of dies. You would think an expanding, seater, or crimp die would stay fairly clean, but I always manage to pull a lot of crud out of them. FL sizing dies usually get pulled apart every 50-75 cases throughout the year.
I've also shied away from depriming on the sizing step, that helped a lot in the way of keeping the press clean. I've made due with the frankford arsenal deprimer, but I still use my dedicated partner press with a universal decapper now and then.
Well, I need to get my butt off here and go back to scrubbing...
Thanks,
bobcat2
That time of year again where I break down all of my dies and presses for a good cleaning...I'm not gonna lie, I hate doing it, lol. It usually takes me 30-45 minutes to break down a 4 die set, scrub them out, polish the turret head(if applicable), and scrub the shell holder, I usually spend an hour per press.
Don't know if I'm doing it right or not, I don't have the dedicated RCBS die/press maintenance kit. I usually disassemble a die, fill the body up with hoppe's elite bore foam, clean the internal parts while the body soaks, then brush out the body, and use the 3 rag system...The first rag is for removing the cleaner and major crud, the second is for getting what the first one missed, and the third is the final cleaning cloth, then after each die set, rag 1 is trashed, and the other 2 get demoted, and each set has a new final cleaning cloth. While the dies are out of the turret head, I like to polish the bearing surface of the head using never-dull, seems to make rotation changes smooth.
Presses get a general breakdown, cleaning, and polish. I don't like using liquid lubes that attract dirt, so I just use a graphite spray when needed.
It always amazes me how much crud comes out of dies. You would think an expanding, seater, or crimp die would stay fairly clean, but I always manage to pull a lot of crud out of them. FL sizing dies usually get pulled apart every 50-75 cases throughout the year.
I've also shied away from depriming on the sizing step, that helped a lot in the way of keeping the press clean. I've made due with the frankford arsenal deprimer, but I still use my dedicated partner press with a universal decapper now and then.
Well, I need to get my butt off here and go back to scrubbing...
Thanks,
bobcat2