Anyone have an easy way to remove rust off of RCBS shell holders? The some of the ones I inherited has rust on them and I would like to salvage them if I could.
ACC
Anyone have an easy way to remove rust off of RCBS shell holders? The some of the ones I inherited has rust on them and I would like to salvage them if I could.
ACC
It depends rust can be a little or a lot.
If it's light rust steel wool and oil or bead blast them.
I just pitch mine in the tumbler for a while.
NRA Benefactor Member NRA Golden Eagle
Steel wool should get the light stuff.
If a bit more Evap O Rust works well. Once you take them out of the Evap O Rust you want to wash them off quickly with very hot water. Them immediately spray down with WD 40. This removes the water and prevents rust.
If you don't they can flash rust. This will clean off with steel wool or a wire brush. Once rust fee I might use some Never Dull metal polish.
Leo
The Tumbler is a good idea. With a bit of polish in there they come out rust free and a wax coating to prevent rust.
I didn't think of that. I don't have a tumbler.
Leo
I buy them all the time at gun shows and off the auction sites. I just throw them in the tumbler and let them run until they're clean. If they're heavily encrusted, I hit them with a wire toothbrush prior to tumbling. It saves on a lot of extra labor and time.
Hope this helps.
Fred
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. - William S. Burroughs.
This has been discussed many, many times.
Dunk them in a solution of Citric Acid and water for a few hours (heavy rust will take a couple days). The rust will magically fall-off w/o damage to metal.
Member: Orange Gunsite Family, NRA-Life, ARTCA, American Legion, & the South Cuyahoga Gun Club.
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Evaporust works great and so does muratic acid used for swimming pools. Both need to be rinsed off and oiled. Muratic will also remove bluing. You just wipe it on and wipe the bluing off. Rust will take a few minutes, but don't leave it on. Evaporust is pretty safe to use and doesn't hurt the base metal.
I'm a fan of the citric acid technique. 10% solution. Warm or hot water works faster.
I'm no chemistry or materials maven, but I read here that the citric acid makes the steel a bit more tarnish and rust resistant (passivation I think it's called).
I use Naval Jelly to remove rust on Shell Holders' Brush it on, wait about 15 minutes Wash it off (wear gloves when handling) pop them in my dehydrator to dry, then wipe em down with CLP wipes. I store my Shell holders in Tupperware type containers between reloading sessions.
All of the above methods will work for removing rust but there is no magic method to replace metal lost to rust.
Often the damage from rust is minor and inconsequential, but it's always permanent.
Once iron combines with oxygen to form rust (one of the many ferrous oxides) that material is lost. You can remove that rust and you can stop further rusting but you can't restore what was lost.
Once the part is clean and free of rust, it needs to be protected with something that prevents oxygen from reaching the surface. (oil, grease, wax, paint, lacquer, etc. )
I tumbled machined parts long before I tumbled any brass cases. Used several types of media depending on the results/finish that was needed. Harbor Freight has some inexpensive hard resin tumbling media that works quite well n rusty tools, and I add a bit (mebbe 10%-20%) to my corn cob blast media for excellent, quick cleaning. I just tumbled some old rusty 1/4" drive sockets in my rotary with HF and cob 50-50 and they came out clean and rust free with a bit of new shine...
BTW it doesn't wear out... https://www.harborfreight.com/520-lb...dia-63672.html
My Anchor is holding fast!
Evapo-Rust , Naval Jelly or a long soak in kerosene or Ed's Red Bore Cleaner .
Gary
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