Tumbler media

[GetReal]

I've typically used Franford Arsenal or RCBS walnut media, but I find several other possibilities:

Walnut 24 grit sandblast media (Harbour Freight)

Central Pneumatic 70 grit abrasive alum oxide media

Central Pneumatic Glass bead 80 grit media


Anybody ever tried something else to get brass good and clean.

I used to use SS pins wet tumbled but folks here said it cleans the necks inside too well, free of the carbon you need for good neck tension / lubricity for loading.

Thanx.

 

[Bill Norris]

Rice with a tad of baking soda for added grit does it well.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I like to dry tumble with medium grain rice and it has worked well for me for years. Much of the time I'm cleaning the necks and shoulders by hand with steel wool and the tumbling is mainly for removing lube after sizing.

How and what one chooses to clean with really depends on the condition of the brass. Firing a semi-auto in the winter with cases landing in wet or muddy dirt, requires more aggressive cleaning that shooting off a bench at range where cases never touch the ground.

 

[Cecil S.]

I am a wet tumble ss pins guy. A couple drops of Dawn with a pinch of Lemishine. Works for my system. I do 100 at a time just easy for me to control.

 

[TTE]

I've typically used Franford Arsenal or RCBS walnut media, but I find several other possibilities:

Walnut 24 grit sandblast media (Harbour Freight)

Central Pneumatic 70 grit abrasive alum oxide media

Central Pneumatic Glass bead 80 grit media


Anybody ever tried something else to get brass good and clean.

I used to use SS pins wet tumbled but folks here said it cleans the necks inside too well, free of the carbon you need for good neck tension / lubricity for loading.

Thanx.

I dry tumble.

Have used walnut shells, rice and toasted buckwheat (Kasha).
All work, rice and Kasha are difficult to get out of smaller caliber cases even with a media separator.
I bought a used tumbler and it came with what looks like chicken feed in it. That cleans and shines the best and is easy to get out of the cases.

​

 

[dhagerty40]

I have used the Harbor freight walnut media and it cleans well. BUT it has a lot of fine dust in it from the crushing of the media.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Dry untreated cobb. Nuff said.

 

[6Creed73]

I used to dry tumble but got a good deal on a wet tumbler with ss pins, so decided to try it. I'll never go back to dry....my dry tumbler and media now sits in the back of a closet. It's crazy how much better the brass looks after wet tumbling.

 

[RabbitSlayer]

I wet tumble with no pins. Dawn and lemishine. Comes out sparkling and leaves some carbon in the neck. I just run it longer than you would with pins. Usually 30 min.

Then I use imperial wax to size and give it just 10 min, hot water, lemi shine and dawn and I add like a cup of isopropyl alcohol if I have it. A lot of people dry tumble at this step instead.

I really hate dust, so dry tumbling always sounded horrible.

 

[Benchrest Braxton]

medium grain rice with a rebel 17 tumbler for 3 hours

treated corn cob media with a cap full of flitz in a vibratory tumbler every 5 firings or so to get them pretty again

the best thing about rice is that its completely dust free, the rice absorbs everything including the carbon

 

[Elwood]

Long grain rice does a very good job. It takes a little more tapping to get it out of the case, I would advise leaving the old primers in while cleaning as it is a real pain removing it from the flash hole.

 

[Doom]

PetSmart Lizard Litter (bedding). Crushed walnut.

 

[PopCharlie]

I like corncob media. I use Iosso treated media. Works great for me.

PopCharlie

 

[Pres100]

I do a bit of both, but the majority of time I dry tumble in corncob. When I wet tumble it never takes long ... never more than 20 minutes needed. When I dry tumble I rarely do it more than 90 minutes. If removing lube in dry tumbler I generally it for 15-20 min

 

[jepp2]

I've tried/used most in the past. Now I use corn cob blast media (both the 12/20 and 20/40 sieve size) from Zoro. Comes in 40 pound bags. I will add my own polishing material.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I like corncob media. I use Iosso treated media. Works great for me.

PopCharlie

Where do you purchase this at?

 

[NorCalMikie]

Wet tumble with SS pins? That will get the CRUD out BUT, too clean so you have to think about lube when you seat bullets.
Wet tumble "once is a while" is the best way to go. I have tumbled range brass with SS pins and found "gold dust" in the wet??? That's where the "once in a while" comes in. And the case necks can and will get peened.
Pop the primers out and the pockets will get cleaned also.
If the brass isn't THAT dirty. untreated corn cob does the trick.
Brass comes from the factory untreated so why add something that wasn't there from day one? And if you don't like picking media out of flash holes, maybe you need another hobby?
EVERY TIME you pick up a piece of brass is one more chance to inspect it BEFORE it gets reloaded. Better to find problems BEFORE it gets to the powder charge or primer press.

 

[dcali]

I don't clean brass, but rice and car polish does a great job on bullets.

 

[6Creed73]

Wet tumble with SS pins? That will get the CRUD out BUT, too clean so you have to think about lube when you seat bullets.

That's what graphite is for.

 

[freebird22/250]

I'll vote for corn cob media.