Store boolit size dies clean or dirty?

[Charlie Horse]

When you remove your size dies from your lubrisizer, do you clean off the lube or store them caked with lube? I usually clean mine, but it is a PIA to do so. I was thinking why not just remove the die and wrap it up to keep it from getting contaminated.
If you do clean your dies, what do you use? Some kind of solvent, perhaps? I've used acetone in the past.
Right now my lubrisizer is stoked with FWFL.

[NVcurmudgeon]

OK, I'll be the first to bite. I store my G&H dies in a dustproof plastic box, without cleaning. Right now one Lyman 450 is loaded with FWFL and is used for lubing and sizing .44 (rifle and pistol), and 9mm, .38 and .45 pistol boolits. The other machine is loaded with Javelina NRA Alox and used for all rifle boolits. If I want to try a different lube, I don't worry about it too much, because the previous lube will comev out in a few boolits. Now somebody else can say I'm doing it all wrong, will have lousy accuracy and no fun at all!

[454PB]

I store mine just as they came out of the sizer, in a metal can with a tight fitting lid. I've never had a problem and I've been doing it this way for 36 years.

[MT Gianni]

I store it full of lube in a plastic snap top box for 12 gauge shells. The top of the box is marked for the corresponding die size. Gianni.

[floodgate]

I store mine, just as they come out of the lube-sizer, in the MTM 25-round 12-ga. shotshell boxes. They will just fit in the 20-ga. box spaces, but if sticky, are hard to get out again. For cleaning - if needed - I soak them for 1/2 hour in a tuna can with 1" of paint thinner, then clean them with a rag and a doubled pipe cleaner, and spray lightly with RemOil for storage.

floodgate

[Bret4207]

I do as Flood does, same set up. I wipe the top enough to be able to read the size.

[hivoltfl]

I clean mine, I use a cleaner that came from the Space industry and is misused more that most products on the market, disolves lube real quick and is not to messy, try WD-40 on a rag damp with it, it was originally made for NASA as a cleaner degreaser.

Rick

[RayinNH]

I store mine as they come from the sizer in 35mm plastic film "cans". I use a Sharpie and mark the size on them...Ray

[Blammer]

I leave em lubed up, and put em somewhere sometimes, and other places other times.

[Phil]

I leave 'em as is, in a plastic box, with the top end facing the outside of the box so I can see at a glance where the die want is. Done it that way since the late fifties, works for me. Never had one rust or get dirty.

Cheers,

Phil

[Charlie Horse]

Dang. All that time I've spent cleaning them has been wasted.
I'm just paranoid about stuff rusting. Everything automatically gets cleaned and lubed before storage. Guess I'll start storing my sizer dies "pre-lubed."

[singleshotbuff]

Guess I'm just a sucker for busy work in the loading room, but I clean mine thoroughly with carb cleaner then store them oiled. I use pill bottles from the pharmacy in the hospital where my wife works. each fits a die perfectly and I put a label on them with the diameter on it.

SSB

[Fireball 57]

Since I'm not on friendly terms with my Lubersizer, I'll have to say, my sizers are tucked in their platic tubes. One side of the boolit smears. I know it is some adjustment, or operator error!

[Bent Ramrod]

I store mine in one of those plastic cabinets full of little plastic drawers they sell for storage of screws, washers, etc. I try to keep them in their original plastic tubes (if I have them), but eventually these fall apart. Only rarely do I clean the lube out of them, generally only when I'm changing from Alox-beeswax to SPG or something like that.

I've never had the least indication of rusting, but I live in a pretty dry climate. Still, I'd think a good schmear of lube on the die and plunger would protect against rusting as well as a coat of oil or grease would.

[monadnock#5]

Caked with lube, placed in the factory tubes and organized in a compartmentalized plastic box works just fine for me.

With a brand new die, the first four or five boolits are the most difficult to extract, until the die is properly seasoned with lube. It just makes sense to me that a die should be treated like a cast iron skillet. Don't wash them clean, just wipe them down.

[blysmelter]

I leave em lubed up, and put em somewhere sometimes, and other places other times.


You have copied my set-up! I store most of my stuff that way:-)

[montana_charlie]

try WD-40 on a rag damp with it, it was originally made for NASA as a cleaner degreaser.
Uhh...not quite.
WD40 was developed in 1953...to displace water. NASA was born in 1958.
http://www.wd40.com/AboutUs/our_history.html

(Hmmph! Put THAT in your pipe and saves nine...uhh, stitches, that is...or smoke?)
CM

[ron brooks]

WD-40

Water Displacement Formulation 40

[joatmon]

You can change them out? I buy another sizer for each die!

[Springfield]

I drilled a bunch of holes in the top of the sizing stand and put a row of dowels in there, then just drop the sizers over the dowels. That way I can keep them in order. I change them out pretty often. I suppose if I wasn't going to use a die for a year or so I might oil it and put it away in a tool box drawer.

[hivoltfl]

Well I have been known to eat humble pie from time to time and think its good for everyone from time to time, I have some good reciepies for it and it appears I have a slice to eat now, excuse my error gents, I stand corrected, ummm would someone pass the A-1 sauce?

I will stand on my statement that it cleans sizer dies pretty quick and easy.

Rick

[jonk]

Dirty. I toss 'em in a plastic drawer that isn't quite airtight, but covered nonetheless. No problems.

Why would you clean them? You waste a lot of lube that way.

[Bullshop]

I store them in an MTN 12 gauge shot shell range box, the type with three layers of trays that stack on each other. I have two of these about full. Works for lee dies too. You can index these in order of caliber so what you need is easy to find.
BIC/BS

[Charlie Horse]

Why would you clean them? You waste a lot of lube that way.

Good point.

It just seemed natural to me to clean them. I won't no more.

[Forester]

I very gently take them out of the sizer, then again very gently toss them in the akro bin where size dies and top punches live...

I do like the idea of a separate sizer for each die...now how do I break this to SWMBO?

[9.3X62AL]

My dies are stored as they come from the sizer, lube and all. RCBS dies are placed in the little green boxes they come in, the Lymans are wrapped in T-shirt cloth. All are stored in the plastic drawers of a metal screw/bolt/nut assortment cabinet.

The only time I clean them is when I change lubes, which hasn't happened for a LONG time. If another lube gets the nod, I would likely buy another 450 or RCBS sizer to process it.

[lawboy]

I clean them, inside and out and store them together in a plastic drawer in a wall-mounted storage cabinet. BUT I don't have to change out sizers much since I run three 450s and one star machine, and have room for one more machine on the lube sizing bench. I have maybe 20 sizing dies but generally only switch out one caliber here or there so it is no problem to clean the occassional die before putting it away. YMMV.

[fourarmed]

Jeez, am I the only old geezer on here who accumulates pill bottles faster than sizer dies? I just write the size on the white cap. Child-proof, too. Oh, yeah, I leave the lube on them.