How do you clean used dies?

I clean them with Ed's Red Bore Cleaner. That stuff will clean any reloading equiptment.
If you don't know what it is just do a search for Ed's Red Bore Cleaner recipe...
you mix it up yourself. I don't use the optional lanolin.
4 common ingredients , buying them from wally world the last gallon I mixed up cost under $20.00 .
Tip...do NOT use synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid, use regular GM Spec. Dexron ATF.
If the dies are grungy...let them soak a few hours/days.
Gary
 
There are probably a lot of different details and solvents you could use. Ed's Red is inexpensive and the ATF lubes and protects without getting sticky. But a lot of gun cleaners will work. Gunzilla is particularly good at loosening rust, especially if you let it sit for a time, and it is vegetable-based, so you don't have petroleum or solvent fumes as you do with Ed's Red. But it costs more.

If I were doing this today, I would probably disassemble the dies and put them into a beaker with enough Slip 2000 gun cleaner to cover the parts and set it in my heated ultrasonic cleaner for an hour. I would then rinse them in the ultrasonic with a couple of beaker baths of plain water and then boil them in distilled water for 20 minutes. When you pull the parts out that hot water and shake the excess off, they dry very quickly and completely. That fast hot drying in the presence of the oxygen in air leaves a thin protective layer of blue oxide on any exposed steel. I would then drop it into Brownells water displacing oil overnight to be sure no water hid anywhere, and just wipe the excess off the next day. I prefer that product to WD-40 because it doesn't try to a tacky film. However, there are other good products out there that will do something similar. LPS-2, for example, leaves a true corrosion inhibitor on the surface. Shooter's Solutions has one that works well and does that too.
 
GWpercele - Love the Ed'sRed. Been using it for more than 15years. Curious, what issues have you had with synthetic ATF? I haven't tried it, but do use Amsoil gear lube in my mixture. Have never had an issue.
 
I clean my dies after the warm outdoors benchrest season ( rifle) an indoors cold months (pistol) I take them apart spray them down with Ballistol , let them sit for 1/2 an hour wipe them clean , spray again an wipe the excess off . Ready for another season .
 
Northof50 said:
GWpercele - Love the Ed'sRed. Been using it for more than 15years. Curious, what issues have you had with synthetic ATF? I haven't tried it, but do use Amsoil gear lube in my mixture. Have never had an issue.
Click to expand...
Heard of several instances where the poster says the ATF will not dissolve , it stays separated ????
every time I've made it with standard GM Dexron ATF everything dissolved into one mix. a nice red color.....the only thing I can think of why the ATF doesn't dissolve is they were using synthetic ATF and the synthetic stuff might not dissolve, hence the warning to follow the original instructions...no synthetic ATF.

I have never tried Armsoil gear lube in the mixture, the gear oil would just add a little lubricant and body . For bore cleaner I just stick with the original blend and I use the ATF /Kerosene 50/50 mix for a Ed's Red compatible CLP and gun oil ...which works very well . The reason I like this stuff is it works and the boutique cleaners/lubricants are so darn pricey....and sometimes I question just how exotic these "wonder Lubes" are .
Us po' folks have to make do sometimes. A decent bore cleaner for less than $20.00 a gallon....been a long time fan .
Gary
 
I've been making Ed's Red since the Fidonet days before the internet was a household word. I've never bothered with the lanolin but it works well without it. I've never made more than a quart at a time. I use acetone as a cleaning solvent at work so I take out 6 to 8 ounces to make a batch of Ed's Red as needed...

Tony
 
Since lanolin is used as case sizing lube, instead of just protecting the hands, it will do a little of what the grease does, increasing the lubrication effect of the Ed's Red. I would guess grease and lanoline might best be left out if you are going into very cold weather.

The base oil in a synthetic is the same thing as natural oil, but much more narrowly refined than the standard grade. I don't see why it would separate out of Ed's Red unless it has an additive that's causing that.
 
What do you think could be the reason for the guys mix to separate....he said he wished it would mix and he had to keep shaking it up when using it. Every time I've mixed a batch there has been no separation whatsoever ...but I follow the instructions ingredients .
We have ATF, Acetone, Mineral Spirits and Kerosene... my first guess was Synthetic ATF....I wonder what it could be ? Any thoughts ?
The reason I ask is I don't want to do whatever he did and have a separation problem.
Gary
 
HIBC, I thought about purchasing 5 gallons but figured I would be out of the mood by the time I found a price.

F. Guffey
 
Hey everyone. I just want to thank you for the great advice so far and give an update. After an over night soaking in the alcohol, the surface rust and some of the gunk was removed. I followed up with some various bore brushes and got them looking pretty good. I then put them in my hornady sonic cleaner for a few cycles with hornady one shot cartridge case formula and they came out like new. After they dried I started sizing cases. They work great.
 
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I use my sonic cleaner but I use the small pan for gun parts.It holds about 6 cups.I use 2 cups of distilled vinegar, 2 cups of distilled water, and a cup of dawn dish soap.

The first thing I do is set the cleaner to 140°. I then put in my broke down dies in the pan and run for 1/2 hour. After the run, I rinse with distilled water and the dies go into another pan with about 2 cups of Hopps #9 and run for another 1/2 hour. I then wipe and dry the dies spray down with 1 shot and reassemble.
 
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