Rust

[dudeman1986]

Greetings,

I have noticed a lot of my reloading components are getting rusty, particularly the dies (Dillon carbide) in the tool head and my case length gauge. My bench is in my garage, and I live in north OC far away from the beach. Functionally, everything still works, but is this something I should be concerned about?

Thanks!

[ducky_0811]

Well... yes. When I lived in San clemente about a 1/4 mile from the ocean my dies (Lee imparticular) would rust up if I didn't tend to them. Just hit em with some 0000 steel wool and oil, they'll clean up. Then leave a light coat of oil or grease on them to keep the rust away. What if always thought about doing was having them cerakoted or parkerized. To permanently keep corrosion away (outside only of course).

All in all not a huge issue, happens to lots of us.

[croue]

I always used oxalic acid to derust my stainless lab equipment. Worked like a charm. Came out all shight and briny. Then you'll need to keep a light coat of oil on them. Tool steel just doesn't passivate well. (oxalic acid is often sold as wood bleach at the hardware store) DISCLAIMER: I was doing this on stainless, I see no reason why it wouldn't work exactly the same on any steel, but YMMV so try on a small replacable bit first.