Reloading Dies question

[4t5]

How often do you take them apart and clean them?

[JimT]

When they are too dirty to use. Some I have only used for 35 years and have yet to clean them.

[Walt]

I have very infrequently needed to scrape lead shavings from the seating stem of a couple of dies but have never taken any apart to clean them.

[GunnyMack]

Before I broke down and bought a tumbler I got a 223 die dirty enough that the necks of the cases started to gall. I tried soaking the die in different solvents, brushing with a bore brush but it didn't help.
Of course loading milspec brass that was not cleaned as well as I thought was the cause but I was able to load 3 or 4 thousand before this happened.
I contacted RCBS and was told to send the decap die back to get vapor blasted... one of these days I should send it back.

[COSteve]

As I use a tumbler on all my brass before it ever sees a die, I've found that all I need to do is take out my toolhead and turn it over, spray each die well with Brake Cleaner, leave them to soak for a minute, and then turn them back over into position and spray up into them again.

That seems to flush any residue out of them. I've been doing that for 25 years and hundreds of thousands of rounds and have never had to take them apart to further clean them. Even my most used (.357 mag, .40 s&w, and 5.56) have come out clean without any buildup.

I do this for both my carbide pistol die sets where I don't use lube as well as my steel rifle dies where I do. I usually clean them every 5K rds and so far, so good.

[marlinman93]

I have no set maintenance schedule to clean dies. I use them until I have a problem. Some have never been taken apart to clean in 4 decades. Only a couple have been cleaned out of about 35 die sets.

[Griff]

After a couple of decades of using nothing but lubed, cast bullets, my 45 Colt seating die needed the accumulated hardened, sticky lube cleaned out of it...

[Drawdown]

So far never, EXCEPT my full length resizing die, which for 30-30 I use every time I handload. At first I didn't, but found rust underneath the big jam nut. Come find out the Lee Lube I use is water based, so now I clean it after every use. I don't take it apart, but first swab & wipe out all I can get. Then outside I spray it steady with WD40, a good flushing. Swab the inside again wipe or whatever needed. Then sit it to drain outside, usually in the sun for few hours. Wipe it out and off ready for the next round.

[4t5]

I’ve been lubing some cases even though they are carbide dies, and they appear a little gummed up, that rcbs case lube is tacky stuff.
Lubing every third one.