Cleaning media

[Twicepop]

Alfalfa hasn't been worth squat since he took up with Darlene.

I thought his main squeeze was Desdamona?

 

[LHSmith]

I thought his main squeeze was Desdamona?

I remember the name as Darla.

 

[pre64win]

For good quality corn cob or walnut media go to Powder valley Inc. Support our fellow shooters.

 

[JRS]

The secret is toasted buckwheat- it is large enough to not get stuck in flash holes, but not too large, never any dust, tumbles well, and is relatively inexpensive and longer lasting for me than any CC/ Walnut/ Rice/ mixture blends that i have tried. I will throw a bit of new finish as well and we are good to go. With the larger particle size, I am done tumbling within 1 hr or 2 hours for factory shiny brass.

View attachment 1042087

I get mine from Amazon.com

 

[arm017]

Where did you get the stuff?

I order it off of amazon - as a quad pack- four (3.2 lb bags). I believe something like 24 dollars for it. I have at least 40 hours of tumbling through it thus far, and it is still good as new, slightly darker/carbon discoloration, but it still works as good as new. So I have a surplus of like 10 lbs ready to go when I feel obligated to change it out.

 

[LarryDScott]

For the best of both worlds, 50/50 corn cobb and walnut,
w/IOSSO liquid polish. Cases look like jewelry.
Shiney doesn't shoot any better, but it makes me feel better
looking at them LDS

 

[Dusty Stevens]

For the best of both worlds, 50/50 corn cobb and walnut,
w/IOSSO liquid polish. Cases look like jewelry. LDS

Ive got one of those huge dillon tumblers and no matter what i put in it and no matter how many days i run it ive never had a primer pocket get clean. I do try it every few years when i hear of a special mix. Ill get it off the shelf and give this a try.

 

[LarryDScott]

Dusty this is your solution for 100% clean.

Soak/agitate you brass for 5min in KABOOM(household cleaner)
THOROUGHLY rinse in hot water.
Dry in oven at the lowest setting.
Use the above media concoction.
As BILL DANCE would say if it
doesn't work, I will buy you something
nice. LDS

 

[divingin]

I'm liking Lyman's walnut, leabes a bit of red film on inside of the case tho.

They put a bunch of jewelers rouge in their media. That's what's leaving the red.

 

[retired]

in the tumbling world, that i know, only ss pins will
clean primer pockets.
none of the std media will( i think not enough mass to work in that little hole)
pins have a small contact surface and mass based on the contact size.

Ive got one of those huge dillon tumblers and no matter what i put in it and no matter how many days i run it ive never had a primer pocket get clean. I do try it every few years when i hear of a special mix. Ill get it off the shelf and give this a try.

 

[Webster]

12 years in the commercial brass business.
fine ground corn cob sold as "blasting media"
for truely impressive results add some nufinish car polish.
1/2 the price of brass polish.

A problem with tumbling large batches with SS pins is the cost. Cannot remember how many pounds of pins I bought but it was around 4# for $52. Of course they never wear out you can use them for a life time. I use about 1# in a 2 qt size Harbour Freight tumbler. Works out to about 1# of pins for about 50-60 cases. If your doing large volumes of range pickups I would use some dry stuff. Corn cobbs, walnut hulls. I think some people use something like gravel that goes on the bottom of canary cages. I accept the carbon removed from the I.D. of the necks since it's a varmint rifle and I don't get OCD about trying to shoot 1/4" groups. The process is slow the way I do it. Tumble about 2 hours, dry several hours and inspect each case for pins still in the cases. I have a 6BR and a 6BRX and they both shoot about .350" groups.

 

[retired]

since the pins are basically sold in small lots of about 5 lbs, i do not think anyone is doing "large" lots. we would have to define "large".
when i use pins it is typically less than 100 pcs, more like 50. competition match cases. this is in a rcbs sidewinder.

when i run a a dillon large vib tumbler i can do 12 lbs(up to 15) or so of brass at a time, 1000 223's is just over 13 lbs in 4.5 lbs of fine ground corn cob.
so "large" is a relative term.

A problem with tumbling large batches with SS pins is the cost. Cannot remember how many pounds of pins I bought but it was around 4# for $52. Of course they never wear out you can use them for a life time. I use about 1# in a 2 qt size Harbour Freight tumbler. Works out to about 1# of pins for about 50-60 cases. If your doing large volumes of range pickups I would use some dry stuff. Corn cobbs, walnut hulls. I think some people use something like gravel that goes on the bottom of canary cages. I accept the carbon removed from the I.D. of the necks since it's a varmint rifle and I don't get OCD about trying to shoot 1/4" groups. The process is slow the way I do it. Tumble about 2 hours, dry several hours and inspect each case for pins still in the cases. I have a 6BR and a 6BRX and they both shoot about .350" groups.

 

[dttheliman]

A problem with tumbling large batches with SS pins is the cost. Cannot remember how many pounds of pins I bought but it was around 4# for $52. Of course they never wear out you can use them for a life time. I use about 1# in a 2 qt size Harbour Freight tumbler. Works out to about 1# of pins for about 50-60 cases. If your doing large volumes of range pickups I would use some dry stuff. Corn cobbs, walnut hulls. I think some people use something like gravel that goes on the bottom of canary cages. I accept the carbon removed from the I.D. of the necks since it's a varmint rifle and I don't get OCD about trying to shoot 1/4" groups. The process is slow the way I do it. Tumble about 2 hours, dry several hours and inspect each case for pins still in the cases. I have a 6BR and a 6BRX and they both shoot about .350" groups.

The other problem is getting the pins out of the necks on 6mm and 6.5mm brass after a tumbling session - 1st world problems I know .....

 

[JRS]

If you want your brass to look like polished gold, that polished gold comes with a price.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

The other problem is getting the pins out of the necks on 6mm and 6.5mm brass after a tumbling session - 1st world problems I know .....

I put my tumbler under the faucet, let the water get clean, pick up the brass underwater 4-5 at a time and if you turn em upside down still underwater the pins just fall out

 

[Dos XX]

Get er done!

 

[rkittine]

I used to tumble brass in crushed walnut shells with some liquid polishers rouge, but that was before I worried so much about the condition of my brass, so to eliminate them beating each other up, I have just gone to an ultrasonic cleaner. They do not come out looking as nice, but they are clean and in the same condition they went into the solution.

Bob

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I used to tumble brass in crushed walnut shells with some liquid polishers rouge, but that was before I worried so much about the condition of my brass, so to eliminate them beating each other up, I have just gone to an ultrasonic cleaner. They do not come out looking as nice, but they are clean and in the same condition they went into the solution.

Bob

If you use simple green in there thatll clean em good then change the water to include real lemon and water with nothing else theyll shine like new brass inside and out

 

[rkittine]

I will try that, thanks.

 

[pirate ammo]

I'm not a professional like most here seem to be,cob before decapping and sizing,no picking out flashholes,after sizing,sonic cleans off caselube,DRY.if I'm wrong I'm wrong