how to ruin all your reloading equipment in one nights sleep

[LAKEMASTER]

im a little dramatic when it comes to my reloading stuff. mainly, i dont like to force anything and or be rough with my equipment that ive spend lots of $$$ on... i like to keep everything clean and nice, mainly since my presses are out in the open of the house...

a few weeks ago, my wife got into one of her hot flash moods and decided to turn the swamp cooler on high. this may seem like no big deal to most, and to myself, its normal. but this particular day was aimed at my reloading hobby and my OCD problem...

she turned on the swamp cooler, and got the kids to bed, i got home really late that night. so i walk into the house and immediately go to sleep. i wake up the next morning and hear a strange PITTER-PATTER on the opposite side of the room ( where the window and my reloading bar is )

i walk into the room and see shiny/glossy on the tile, turns out, its a light spray of water. i walk over to the cooler, shuf it off, and turn all the lights on in the room.

the whole side of the room is covered in water,

my 6 complete turret for my loadmaster, my single stage press, everything has flash rust on it. my loadmaster had a old pillow slip on it, and the roller handle kept the case off the metal parts...

the oak display holder my dad made for the turrets, was spotted from the water, the ammo i made a few days before was corroded everything exposed ontop of the table was covered in water softener salt/water/rust...

i mopped up the floor, and set the furniture out in the 112*F heat for a few days...

once i took a closer look at the cooler ( which runs 24/7 most days ) one of the celdek pads moved away from the water trough, causing a 1/4" gap where air flew up between the pad/water pouring out onto the pad.

the cooler was sucking it into the wheel and spraying it into the room ( to one side )


since this disaster, ive wired wheeled the dies that had rust( on a 3500 rpm buffer system ), applied marvel mystery oil and you cant even tell it happened...

i also built an adjustable retaining system for the cooler pads. after 3 straight days of running it on high i think its fixed.......

both presses have covers on them now, and the cooler vents are turned to the other side of the room...

i just thought id share this story with you guys who reload in front of ac units or coolers, or in the same room as coolers

[Shawlerbrook]

Probably the only thing worse for our shooting equipment than Democrats is water. Hope all turns out well for you.

[pjames32]

We had a house fire a few years ago. High pressure water messes with reloading equipment in a big way. Ended up losing my paper records, powder and primers. Saved everything else and the gun safe did not get soaked. The Fire Dep't paid special attention to my reloading room and no flames got into that room!

[elmacgyver0]

Now you know why it's called a swamp cooler.
Sorry about your mess.

[LAKEMASTER]

We use our swamp cooler year round when humidity is below 40%. with all the special stuff I've added to make it blow 35* cooler air i should have seen it coming.

The pullies on mine are different. Mainly top get more flow on the low setting, but every thing changes @ high

[pworley1]

I am sorry for your loss. Losing even one piece is a tragedy.

[jmorris]

Make sure your covers can breathe or your likely to help things rust.

I'd just load with them and not worry about it unless there is a problem with the finished product.

I have lots of die sets that have gained some surface rust over the last 30 + years, they still load fine ammunition.

Not to mention the Loadmaster is mostly aluminum and plastic.

[EDG]

The dumb butts at the Texas Memorial Museum had the 1300 gun Wooten collection damaged by a broken water pipe.

During replacement of a water main outside in October of 1995, a pipe in the fourth floor janitor's closet burst. Water filled the walls and began to leak through cracks to the bison display, gun hall (area where Great Hall Shop is now), and mineral hall on the first floor. Unfortunately, two-thirds of the famous Goodall H. Wooten Gun Collection was damaged, but all pieces were restored to pre-water damage conditions. The firearms had to be cleaned within 24 to 36 hours of being exposed to water, or rusting would begin. The restoration process involved disassembling each piece, saturating the parts in alcohol, drying the parts with compressed air, lubricating them with oil, and reassembling each gun. Everything else was carefully dried with fans and vacuumed to combat the threat of mold.

This gun collection was worth millions because it included a matched pair of original Colt Patersons and other even more spectacular pieces.

The lesson is make sure there are no holes in your roof and no water pipes that can leak into your stuff if they break. That includes the water lines to your water heater, water heater and washing machine lines. I checked my washing machine before going on vacation once and found a golf ball size blister on one hose. Had it burst it could have flooded the floor on the same level of my safe.

[lightload]

A cheap Harbor Freight tarp covers my reloading table.

[Walter Laich]

I use cheap wally world pillow cases for covers. They breathe and keep dust off.

Had to convince the wife it was the best way to go as she didn't understand the need to breathe--her idea was plastic garbage bags

[Gunslinger1911]

I feel your pain.

I was away for a week a few years ago, came back to a leaky pipe in the kitchen sink, right above my dads 1940's vintage lathe I inherited.
By the looks of everything, it started leaking a day or two after I left.
Dried it out best I could, covered it in WD-40, and spent weeks with Marvel Mystery Oil and Emory paper cleaning it up.

[LAKEMASTER]

since the dies were round and easy to wire-wheel, it was effortless to clean them... it just upset me that it happened.

the ammo i dont care about, the bench i dont care about, but the stuff my dad made for us and the dies/stuff i started buying when i was 16 really hurt...

[mazo kid]

We were gone for about 5 days a few years ago. Came home to find ceiling dry wall, walls, etc. down on furniture and dripping water all the way from the second floor to the basement. A flex line to the upstairs toilet and had split the retaining nut and was spraying water out. Luckily, our insurance covered most all the damage, but the inconvenience of having most of our stuff boxed up and taken to a storage facility was huge, not to mention the reconstruction. Now if we are gone, even just overnight, we turn the water line off. We have a well, and installed a ball valve in the basement. That little episode cost the insurance almost $85,000. They were able to collect about half of that from the maker of the faulty supply line.

[flashhole]

Lived in FL for a few years. Learned a painful lesson about humidity and the damage it can cause to steel equipment and guns (rifle barrels) almost overnight.

Discovering the problem early I was able to salvage almost everything. I lost an Ithaca Model 37 shotgun (external bluing) to the rust and a Sauer 202 rifle barrel (external bluing). Neither of those were what I consider to be low quality.

Was able to reclaim all my reloading equipment that had formed rust in a very short amount of time.

[Geezer in NH]

I am from NH what is a swamp cooler??

[bcp]

I am from NH what is a swamp cooler??

One of these:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Brisa-5000-CFM-2-Speed-Front-Discharge-Window-Evaporative-Cooler-for-1600-sq-ft-with-Motor-and-Remote-Control-RBW5001/204700116?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D26P-AirCirculation%7c&gclid=CJKgzfz6wNQCFcZgfgodAYMMeg&gclsrc=aw.ds

The bottom has about an inch or two of water in it. (the swamp :) ) A pump lifts the water to the top of pads on three sides, where it drips on the pads, keeping the pads wet as air blows through, evaporating the water, and cooling the air.

The output is very humid, and the system works well in dry climates. Less effective in humid climates as there is less evaporation.

Bruce

[RogerDat]

I am from NH what is a swamp cooler?? Cools air by evaporation of water. Common in arid regions. Same idea behind the old canvas water bags, water would seep into the canvas and evaporation would pull heat from the remaining water. Some large cooling units on roofs are water based chillers, less expensive to run since pumping water uses less power than a compressor. They are an epic fail in high humidity, air damp, evaporation slows to nothing.

I live in fear of a water line above my bench that goes to an outside faucet. Won't keep a lot of primers there or powder at that end. Hose was left on with closed nozzle and faucet couldn't drain so faucet froze one year. Fortunately it only leaked when it was turned on and not while just sitting but it still leaked a couple of coffee cans worth in the time it took to realize it was leaking inside.

[LAKEMASTER]

i only run my cooler when its under 20% humidity, right now its 110* and no humidity, thermometer states the cooler is pushing 72* air out

[wonderwolf]

The apartment we're in currently has a huge humidity problem. So far I've been able to stay ahead of it with rechargable silica packs in the safe and rust inhibiting paper strips in all the die boxes, tool boxes etc.

Years ago I kinda saw the writing on the wall where we might be living and started buying sportsmans boxes for the dies from plano as well as getting as many of the firearms as I could completely swapped out to their stainless counterparts which has really made a difference I think.

[LittleLebowski]

I am sorry for your loss. Losing even one piece is a tragedy.

This. Start up,a fundraiser if insurance doesn't cover it.

[jsn]

While off topic, the other thing you could consider whether or not it is close to your reloading stuff is the washer feed hoses, especially if your water is metered.

Standing in front of a public meeting asking the local water board to let you out of your outrageous bill due to a failure while you were on vacation or left town for the winter is an insult added to the ruined flooring, subfloor, etc.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Do the doctors expect her to make a full recovery once the surgeries are complete, along with the rehab?

[mrayw]

We were gone for about 5 days a few years ago. Came home to find ceiling dry wall, walls, etc. down on furniture and dripping water all the way from the second floor to the basement. A flex line to the upstairs toilet and had split the retaining nut and was spraying water out. Luckily, our insurance covered most all the damage, but the inconvenience of having most of our stuff boxed up and taken to a storage facility was huge, not to mention the reconstruction. Now if we are gone, even just overnight, we turn the water line off. We have a well, and installed a ball valve in the basement. That little episode cost the insurance almost $85,000. They were able to collect about half of that from the maker of the faulty supply line.

This is why we turn off water when out of town. Also turn off water to washer when not in use.

[arclight]

The WD-40 "Corrosion Inhibitor" spray is fantastic for this. We had a roof leak in the shop during the last rain storm. The 2-ton Tree Mill got rained on. A through blasting with that product prevented ANY rust for forming.

Arclight

[byrd45900]

So sorry to hear of your bad luck.