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Media

Patriot

Patriot

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What do you guys use for brass cleaning media and where do you get it? I had
to replace mine recently (it would take about 8 hours to clean a few cases) and
was at FS. The only stuff they had was the stuff with the jewelers rouge in it
so I bought it. The crap goes everywhere. The price at FS sucked as well so I
am looking for a better place. I know I can get it on the net but I thought
there might be a better place to buy this stuff locally. I have a lot of brass to
clean.

TBP
 
Ground corn cob will do a good job of cleaning, not polishing off corrosion.
I use a Lyman turbo tumbler and leave the brass in for 6-8 hours.
They come out clean, but not shiney.
I bought a huge bag at a garden supply store for aboout $10.
It's sold as small animal bedding.
I have a "special" batch which is doped up with Simichrome polish.
This does more polishing but it also makes the cases so slick that you can't hardly pick them up. This is definitely NOT for any rifle or magnum pistol loads as the cases will not stick to the chamber to reduce bolt thrust. It's like pouring oil in your chamber. Light .38 Spl loads just about jump out of the chambers after firing.
The ground corn cob is easy to handle and the small pieces seem less likely to wedge in the flash hole than ground walnut.
The ground walnut shells are available untreated. I don't have the source handy but you might want to check Midway.
 
You can get ground walnut media at the big pet store chains - I believe they sell it as reptile bedding.

I find the walnut to be a bit too aggressive. I've been using the corncob media to which I add a couple of capfulls of Nu-Finish car wax (liquidy stuff in the orange plastic bottle). It does an AWESOME job of cleaning/polishing and the wax seems to keep the dust down.
 
I use the Lyman TufNut that you were talking about. To get rid of the red dust that is left all over the cases, I just put a couple strips of used dryer sheet in with the media. It collects the dust, and prevents the static charge from holding it to the cases. I use this media for strict cleaning. In my tumbler, with this media I can get the cases cleaned and ready to be processed in under 2 hours. After cases are processed they then get put into the corn cob media with polish added to get them to shine. And if they are rifle cases, they get dry corn cob media after sizing to get the lube off first.
 
+1 on the crushed walnut shells (I buy the stuff at pet stores also).

To that, I'll add a tablespoon or so of Dillion rapid polish.

I tried using the cob media, it did a fine job of polishing the brass but, when I use it for necked rifle cases, it get's lodged inside the case and it can be a real pain dumping/digging it out (especially with .223 cases).

For my tumbler, I made one myself...

http://buildgear.cjb.net

Works really well and never had a problem with it.
 
LoginName said:
For my tumbler, I made one myself...

http://buildgear.cjb.net

Works really well and never had a problem with it.
Click to expand...
If I'm understanding the drawings right, that's just a spring mounted bowl with a lid and the motor underneath vibrates it because it's got an off center weight? how long do you usually have to tumble your brass for?

If it works like you say it does, that's a real cheap build! [grin]
 
dwarven1 said:
If I'm understanding the drawings right, that's just a spring mounted bowl with a lid and the motor underneath vibrates it because it's got an off center weight? how long do you usually have to tumble your brass for?

If it works like you say it does, that's a real cheap build! [grin]
Click to expand...

Yep (after I put it together I had to resist the temptation to stick my finger in the spinning weight [wink] ). One little nuance... I keep it set down on the floor when it's in use, it has a tendency to wobble and move around. I just place something up against it to keep it in place.

how long do you usually have to tumble your brass for?
Click to expand...

Hard to say. Usually I just let it do it's work while I find something else to do.
Maybe 45 minutes to an hour or hour and a half. Just about all the brass I tumble is lightly to moderately tarnished. I haven't tried it with heavily tarnished brass. Oh yeah, it also worked pretty good cleaning up the GFs silver jewelry.

If it works like you say it does, that's a real cheap build! [grin]
Click to expand...

Actually, all the parts I either found in the trash or already had laying around.
I got the motor from a fan that someone had thrown out. The "hopper" is a tupperware type container that my parrots treats came in.
Everything else is scrap parts I had (sometimes it really comes in handy being a pack rat).

Pretty, it's not, but looks aren't everything. [grin]

shop5.JPG
 
LoginName said:
Actually, all the parts I either found in the trash or already had laying around.
I got the motor from a fan that someone had thrown out. The "hopper" is a tupperware type container that my parrots treats came in.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was thinking that I have a fan motor that I just yanked from my bathroom when I replaced it with a quieter one... and that bowl looks *just* like a large salad Tupperware in the drawing. (but I think SWMBO will be very upset if I swipe hers!).

Ross
 

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