Removing scratches from Carbide dies?

[Tom Herman]

Hi Folks,

I'm in a quandry. Even after meticulously washing and polishing my brass, somehow I managed to get a number of scratches into my Dillon .44 Spl/Mag resizing die.
I've tried putting polishing agents onto a cloth, lead wipe away cloth, and steel wool, then running them into the die and spinning it all with a drill to seemingly no avail.
Is there anything I can do to remove or reduce the nasty burrs so my brass doesn't get scratched?
TIA & Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[KYCaster]

The easiest way I've found is buy a new die and stop resizing nickel plated cases.

The nickel plating is as hard as the carbide and flakes of it will become imbeded and nearly impossible to get out with anything short of diamond.

Jerry

[Lee]

However..........
If you're really intent on doing it yourself, then diamond, as mentioned, is the ticket. And no it won't break the bank. You can get 5-10 gram tubes of diamond paste in your choice of grit sizes for under $20 per tube. As a wild guess, 400 grit should suit you. Just a touch, applied to a scrap of paper(or dense woven non porous cloth), then rubbed/polished thru the die, should take out the scratches. Careful not to over do it though, the diamond pastes can cut real quick, even on carbide. Doesn't take much, and a small tube will last a looong time.
Harbor Freight had a diamond paste kit some time ago, don't know if they still do. You could Google for the item, and of course, there's always Evil-Bay..............

[billyb]

Hi Folks,

I'm in a quandry. Even after meticulously washing and polishing my brass, somehow I managed to get a number of scratches into my Dillon .44 Spl/Mag resizing die.
I've tried putting polishing agents onto a cloth, lead wipe away cloth, and steel wool, then running them into the die and spinning it all with a drill to seemingly no avail.
Is there anything I can do to remove or reduce the nasty burrs so my brass doesn't get scratched?
TIA & Happy Shootin'! -Tom

I had the same problem,emailed dillon they said to clean the dies with #9 that the dies are picking up brass particles and that what is causing the scratches. I used a cratex point in my dremel and polished out the brass build up. I clean my brass and give a light spray with one shot case lube before sizeing and do not have the problem with scratched brass. Bill

[Southern Son]

+1 on what billyb said. Something marked the inside of one of my re-sizing dies. The more cases that went through, the bigger the marks on the sized cases, the brass was galling. Took ages to clean it up and then when I got all the brass out, I could not see what had started the galling, and it has not come back.

[Echo]

Have never had the problem with carbide dies, but steel pistol dies are a snap to straighten out. I epoxied a small piece of ScotchBrite to a 1/4" dowel, put a drop of cutting oil and a smidgeon of rouge on it, and chucked it in the drill press. Smooths out any burrs in no time, but doesn't seem to enlarge the die.

[Tom Herman]

I appreciate them!
Most likely, I'll go the diamond paste route. I can physically see the scratches. I picked up something (actually several somethings!), and the gouges in the carbide insert are visible to the naked eye.
Replacement would be a temporary solution, as this has happened, and will most likely happen again.
I've also had it happen in other calibers, only not so bad as in the .44, so I keep using them.
The diamond paste will be a maintenance investment.
OK on not using nickel plated cases! I generally don't. I've even segregated all my .38/357 brass into bags filled with brass or plated cases. Will offload the nickel cases as I can.
None of these cases are nickeled. They're all strictly brass.
Thanks also for the lube idea.
I'll look around and find the best source for diamond paste.
Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[pecos]

I have had good results by using an ordinary wooden pencil, wrap with a strip of crocus cloth, the reddish kind, around the pencil. The strip should be about .5 to 1 inch wide. Wrap enough around the pencil to make it a snug to tight fit in the die. Just rotate the die around the wrap a few times, clean the die with a shot of solvent, then a clean dry rag and try a lubed case in it. pecos

[Dale53]

I second the use of crocus cloth. I use it with a split dowel and a hand drill. Just tear a 1" strip of cloth. Slide it into the dowel just past half way on the cloth. Wrap the cloth around the dowel until it just barely enters the die. Run the drill until the scratches are gone (I doubt the carbide is scratched - my problem has always been deposits of nickel plating). This will remove the clumps of plating post haste and you can continue. I have that happen from time to time as I load and shoot a LOT.

I still use my nickel cases until they are gone. I will NOT willingly ever buy nickel again.

Dale53

[utk]

For embedded brass particles - would copper-cutting solvets work? Sweets etc, containing ammonia?

[felix]

Yes. ... felix

[jonk]

I clean my dies these days by just tossing in my ultrasonic cleaner. Granted I just tried this the first time a few days ago but it was painless and quick.

[utk]

I clean my dies these days by just tossing in my ultrasonic cleaner. Granted I just tried this the first time a few days ago but it was painless and quick.

Are you saying that you can remove embedded brass/nickel particles inside sizing dies by using a ultrasonic cleaner?

[Tom Herman]

Run the drill until the scratches are gone (I doubt the carbide is scratched - my problem has always been deposits of nickel plating).Dale53

Hi Dale,

Regrettably, the carbide is indeed scratched. I'd love to know what in the daylights caused it.
Looking into the die, the scratches are visible, and can be felt with a pick or jack knife.
Running the knife over the scratch has knocked off the higher sections of it to the point where the dies is now usable, but it still scratches lightly.
I spotted a deal on Evil-bay for tubes of diamond paste, and bought it. The deal was for twelve 5 gram tubes of diamond paste of various grits. Not bad for only $35! I expect it in sometime in the next two weeks.
I have a defective .44 Dillon die (it has a large crack in the carbide) that I will practice on before I try polishing the scratches out of the die in question.
I'll post results on what grits work best.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[billyb]

Tom ,call dillon about the cracked die they will replace it. when you call ask the tec guy about the scrached dies.I did and they sent me two new size dies,9mm&357,gratis they have a great warrenty.800-948-8009 tell them you have a problem with scratched dies,and one that is cracked. Bill

[725]

To remove scratches I have done the split dowel with Kroil and a strip of 1200 wet/dry sand paper. So far so good.

[Tom Herman]

Tom ,call dillon about the cracked die they will replace it. Bill

Hi Bill!

Thanks for the info! Dillon is GREAT! This die has already been replaced. The previous die (my victim) had a crack in the carbide about a third of the way through it, and it scratched the daylights out of my brass.
I confirmed the crack under my 10-30x microscope. Dillon took about two or three weeks to replace it, but that's fine.
I won't hit them up again on this one unless there is a problem that is due to their manufacturing quality.
Just like L.L. Bean, I won't rip them off.
I'll quietly polish out the scratch, which Dillon couldn't avoid, and go forward from there.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[garandsrus]

Tom,

I ordered
spotted a deal on Evil-bay for tubes of diamond paste, and bought it. The deal was for twelve 5 gram tubes of diamond paste of various grits. Not bad for only $35! I expect it in sometime in the next two weeks. this a while back and am very happy with the product.

John

[Tom Herman]

Tom,

I ordered this a while back and am very happy with the product.

John

Hi John, and the rest of the wild bunch,

I did indeed order the diamond paste. In the interim, I got shipped off for a week to fight forest fires. The paste was waiting for me when I got back.
I wound up with twelve tubes of grit ranging from 0.5 microns to 40 microns.
After trial and error, I determined the 20 & 40 micron pastes were simply too large.
Here's what works for me: I bought a 3/8" wood dowel, which is just under caliber size. I chucked this up in a DeWalt.
Then I took a pistol sized cleaning patch and oiled it. Then I carefully smeared a small amount of 10 micron diamond paste on it, put it on the drill dowel, and put it into the die and turned it on.
I didn't force it in, but let it slowly work its way in.
The 10 micron grit did a great job of buffing away the scratches! It seems like it took the scratches out without removing a lot of other material.
I then cleaned the grit off with solvent, and repeated the same polishing manuever with 0.5 micron paste, and cleaned it as above. The die was mirror bright and smooth!
Results are good, the .44 SPL's aren't scratched anymore, I'm back in business!

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Willbird]

I used to polish quite a few carbide parts with diamond paste. We used mostly wooden sticks and dowels with the paste applied to them.

Once you get the carbide SMOOTH it is very hard to remove more material, that said the ONLY way to remove an actual scratch is to remove material.

Bill

[prs]

I "ruined" a carbide die last winter. It was "scratched" very badly inside and my pocket knife test "verified" that it was a scratch and not a brass deposit. WRONG! I would have testified that they were scratches, but why did they scratch. I had been reloading 45 Colt brass that had been well used in cowboy action with black powder. The cases had never been re-anealed and were getting work hardened. Plus, I was using a water based case lube and I had skimped on the lube concentrate a bit. So, even "knowing" they were scratched, I took a shotgun bore swab and loaded it with Mothers Billet Aluminium polish and and hand lapped the die. In just a few minutes those scratches were GONE! I put the same paste polish on a soft cloth and hand cleaned the inside case sizer die too, with equal success. I did up the concentration of lube in my case lube spritz solution, but I am too lazy to aneal thousands of cases.

prs