Rust on Dillon powder funnels ?

R

reaper7534

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I've had a 550b for about two months now and noticed my powder funnels are rusting. The .45 funnel was purchased with the press on 7-14-15. It is not as severe as the 9mm funnel that was purchased just two weeks ago. All my equipment is in a climate controlled environment ( my bedroom ) and I'm 200 miles from the nearest ocean ( Greensboro, NC ). I ran them through my tumbler to clean and polish, they are fine now. I called support and was told if they do it again, send the funnels in for inspection. If I have to do that, will Dillon cross-ship so I am not without use of the press ?
 
I would not think so, but even if they would you would be without use of the press during the cross shipping period. I have also had rust on the powder funnels but just let it go at that.
 
I would be fine without it for a week, two weeks would stink though. I'm in NC and their in AZ so it's a full week travel time each way.

Here is how they looked before cleaning, they cleaned and polished fine but are already starting to show signs again.

9mm


.45


Powder die


I'm not sure how the other powder die looks since my measure is on it at the moment.

What would be causing this in the first place ? Anything I can do to correct it ?
 
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Pictures of the rust would have helped a lot.

The powder funnels are bare steel. Bare steel will rust easily. Did you clean them when you received them? Some people have high salt content in their skin and will cause things to rust quickly. A friend of mine would use my shotgun when shooting trap. I could see every fingerprint on the blued steel receiver and if I didn't clean them off within hours, they would be rusting. And no, he wasn't eating potato chips before shooting.

I consider NC to be fairly humid. When I lived in DE, everything rusted if not coated. Now that I live in CO, nothing rusts. I don't think there is anything unusual about the powder funnels you have.
 
Jepp, I was posting pictures as you were typing. Yes, we do have our humidity here, but I'm also in a air conditioned bedroom with a constant humidity of 61 % . I did not clean them initially but I also don't handle the directly since their on their own toolhead, but I can't rule out salt from my skin contaminating them.
 
The pictures helped A LOT! That doesn't look like skin contact. Have you tried sanding them and then polishing? Chuck them in a drill press or just a drill and start with 800 grit. I work my way up through 1000, 1500, 2000, and finish with 3000 grit. Then I use Flitz followed by Mother's Mag polish. I find that with a very smooth finish, steel resists rusting.

I realize you may not have all the grits I have listed, but any good smooth sand paper will help. Using oil with coarser grits will also smooth them out some. I would consider using Renaissance wax if you have any. Good for smooth operation, and would provide some rust protection.
 
I don't have the grits, but this is what I did.

I wet tumbled for 3 hours with SS pins ,this removed all the rest and left a perfectly smooth finish to the touch.

I then took and used a scotch bright to smooth it out.

Finally put it in drill and polished to a luster using Wenol metal polish.

It look great after I did all this, but seems to be starting again. I may invest in a dehumidifier just to rule that out.
 
I live in NE Florida on a saltwater marsh/creek and everything rusts if I don't coat n protect. I keep a pump bottle full of rubbing alcohol handy to clean my dies before each use. Before I put them away they get goobered up with Barricade or some other protectent. too bad they don't make our reloading stuff out of tool grade stainless steel to help reduce the surface rusting.

A note of caution on your cleaning methods. Be real cautious about using too aggressive cleaning stuff (scotch brite) on those powder funnels around the tip/belling area. It doesn't take much to remove a couple thousands of an inch and make that funnel too small to allow easy seating of your bullets
 
Those area disn't rust, they seemed to be almost chromed there so I left that alone. I 5th ought of using some lube but was afraid of gunking up with powder residue
 
What does the press have to do with shipping the powder funnels back?
Load mass quantities and ship the funnels back...
If you have the stations, use a standard expander die and a "universal" powder funnel that only flares the case mouth or operates the measure. If that funnel rusts, who cares?
Sorry, but your climate control isn't good enough. Did Dillon make any recommendations--humidity control, keeping room at 80°F or higher, or what?
Keep funnels in desiccator or wrap in VCI paper. You could wax the expander's exterior (warm up, apply carnauba wax, cool down, buff).
In CA I have had parts of press rust, but not dies or powder funnels. In AZ, it is really not an issue.
 
If you call Dillon support and send them pics, I'd pretty much bet the farm that they'd ship you out two new funnels and ask you to send those back to them for QC purposes. I've never had Dillon question anything, and they've sent replacement parts without me even asking for them (old case feeder pipe -vs- new style - sent a new one when asked why the older one was longer).
 
I did call them initially and they want funnels first. My original post was before I talked to them. I'd rather not have to take measure off each time I'm not using to wrap them up or put in decissant. I think I will try a dehumidifier first, heck may help me sleep better

Dillon just asked where I lived but made no mention of the environmental variables. Just told me to send them back if they rust again so they could inspect
 
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