Anyone clean a die with tumble pins?

[osteodoc08]

I have a few does with a bit of surface rust on them. Purely cosmetic, but I was mulling over in my head, ways to get it off without spending a bunch of time.

That at for me thinking about how well the stainless media cleans cases. Since it just tumbles around in the media, I was wondering if anyone has tried this to remove surface rust or to clean their dies. What about other small parts?

[browntown]

Id try evap-o-rust first out of caution, but I'm interested too, subscribed

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[cheese1566]

I do small parts all the time. Sometimes takes a little longer than brass.

Be careful what you tumble with them. I did an older rcbs 38 seater die that turned out bronze loking. I beleive i tossed it with some brass at the same time.

I also tumble my aluminum and stainless baffles from my 22lr silencer in sst pins. Its about the only way i can get them clean without a ton of elbow grease.

[Walter Laich]

remember all the oil on them will be gone so be ready to treat them for rust prevention when the come out. Ask me how I learned this.

[andre3k]

I just threw a set of rcbs dies in my tumbler this morning that had a decent coat of surface rust on them. I didn't add any citric acid to the mix as I was afraid of it doing something to the finish of the dies. We'll see the results in a few hours.

[Nueces]

I think pin tumbling of 'brown' steel parts is a good idea. For fairly heavy bits like dies, I would put just one at a time in the tumbler, to eliminate die to die collisions. This would especially go for mould blocks - one half at a time.

[Bayou52]

I've never tumbled dies but I clean the insides with carburator cleaner and q-tips.

For the outside, I do the same except that if there's a need for anything more, then 0000 steel wool does the job with no risk of damage or marring. This is for non-blued surfaces.

Bayou52

[NyFirefighter357]

I have tumbled just about everything, I think 1 half at a time would be best for dies. I just cleaned a bunch of drill bits up this way, this past weekend. I tumble everything from jewelry to car parts.

[bangerjim]

Be careful to NOT use "used" citirc acid solutions. Always throw them out every time anyway. There is no need of being THAT cheeeeep! There will be Cu traces in there and those will plate clean steel. You could end up with Cu-plated steel! I have seen it happen by accident with other steel items.

If you actually want to plate steel without electicity, mix up some copper sulfate CuSO4 (root killer in the plumbing section of big boxes) and stick the steel in there. You should end up with a dull-looking Cu coating (very thin) on the steel parts. Not something you really want to do for gun parts. I use it in my antique restoration processes....no electric plating needed.

Here in the SW desert, one has to try to get steel to rust! If I ever get any (nomally from sweaty fingerprints, I use 0000 steel wool and odorless paint thinner as a vehicle to float particles away during the removal process. If not agressive/fast enough for you, use 1500 grit paper with lubrication

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Be careful to NOT use "used" citirc acid solutions. Always throw them out every time anyway. There is no need of being THAT cheeeeep! There will be Cu traces in there and those will plate clean steel. You could end up with Cu-plated steel! I have seen it happen by accident with other steel items.

...SNIP
I've heard this years ago, when I started using citric acid solution to clean brass. So I had to give it a try, soaking brand new "china" channel-lock pliers (that were degreased) in heated/used citric acid solution (I had probably cleaned 2k pieces brass that afternoon). The Pliers got a nice flat black finish with random 'thin' patches of copper staining...it was so thin, I couldn't call it plating.
[smilie=l: