-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
-
Be sure to enter the NES/MFS May Giveaway ***Canik METE SFX***
what polish do you add to your cleaning tumbler media?
- Thread starter KeithB
- Start date
I use walnut pet bedding from the pet store and a cap full of Nu-finish car polish to clean mine. It cost 1/3 of the price of the walnut media.
F
Finalygotabeltfed
I use Turtle Wax car polish, about $2.50 per container (Wally World) and mix it with some water and large bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol to a liquid consistency a little thicker than heavy cream. Add about one ounce to corn media, tumble 6-8 hours and brass comes out brilliantly shiney. One fourth the price and four to five times the amount of Dillon polish.
I found that the Dillon polish was too think and tended to clump in the tumbler. I started putting it on dryer cloths instead of directly into the media. I might try thinning it using the above formula until I use it up.
A capful of this every other run:
This is what I use also. Works great.A capful of this every other run:
jkelly
Shooting at the big range in heaven
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Messages
- 2,060
- Likes
- 93
Are you guys using the "polish" as a cleaner or just to polish brass you've cleaned using something else?
I clean my brass with Lyman Reactivator in with a corn media for maybe 45 minutes. I then "polish" it in untreated corn media for 5 or 10 minutes.
Respectfully,
jkelly
I clean my brass with Lyman Reactivator in with a corn media for maybe 45 minutes. I then "polish" it in untreated corn media for 5 or 10 minutes.
Respectfully,
jkelly
I put it in with my cleaning media. The brass seems to get shinier quicker with the polish.
Agreed: stay away from anything with ammonia.
Polishing media works by abrasive friction, and an additive should increase the friction. I use "Jewelers Rouge," in a form that comes as a paste in a small glass jar. I cut it with rubbing alchohol just so that it will distribute within the walnut shell medium. I add a dab once or twice a year.
Car waxes aren't going to do anything for the brass, though some contain solvents to aid in cleaning. Car polishes have some form of abrasive in them, often Jeweler's Rouge or Jeweler's White, but only in small amounts.
The cheapest, but also sort of messy, way to increase the abrasive action of tumbler media is to put in a handful of clean, white sand.
Polishing media works by abrasive friction, and an additive should increase the friction. I use "Jewelers Rouge," in a form that comes as a paste in a small glass jar. I cut it with rubbing alchohol just so that it will distribute within the walnut shell medium. I add a dab once or twice a year.
Car waxes aren't going to do anything for the brass, though some contain solvents to aid in cleaning. Car polishes have some form of abrasive in them, often Jeweler's Rouge or Jeweler's White, but only in small amounts.
The cheapest, but also sort of messy, way to increase the abrasive action of tumbler media is to put in a handful of clean, white sand.
F
Finalygotabeltfed
Sand?
![[laugh2]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/014.gif "Laugh at above [laugh2]")
I think thats more than a little overboard on the abrasive factor. Yes its cheap but it will also ruin your chambers and dies.Ever see how coarse a piece of metal is after sandblasting? Well, your brass will look very similar.
Even finely powdered(almost talc) pumice is too abrasive and leaves the brass dull and scratched
and leaves a residue, I've experimented with it and its not good for polishing brass.
Ammoniated polishes will leach the zinc from the copper zinc alloy that cartridge brass is made of and weaken it. They are made for items that do not have to withstand pressures.....like lamps and plaques, not cartridge casings.
I've used Brasso at times to clear really dirty cases before dropping them in a tumbler. It does work great but I have no idea if it is reducing the case life somewhat so I tend not to use it on a regular basic especially when I can get the Nu Car polish in Wal-Mart very cheaply.
Pretty sure ammonia can weaken brass over time. That's what all the reloading forums say.
F
Finalygotabeltfed
Sand?
Ever see how coarse a piece of metal is after sandblasting? Well, your brass will look very similar.
Even finely powdered(almost talc) pumice is too abrasive and leaves the brass dull and scratched
and leaves a residue, I've experimented with it and its not good for polishing brass.
Ammoniated polishes will leach the zinc from the copper zinc alloy that cartridge brass is made of and weaken it. They are made for items that do not have to withstand pressures.....like lamps and plaques, not cartridge casings.
1) Sand in the tumbler will not "sand blast" anything, because the velocity of the grains is too low.
2) I should have added that, the only two times I did this, I used compressed air to blow out the cases and then tumbled them again with the tub filled with torn up pieces of paper towel to get the sub-visible sand particles (or most of them) up.
3) As I say, only did this twice, with some military .30-06 once-fireds that were so old they were nearly black. After sand, they were clean. After the paper towels, they were shiny. After carefully miking such things as neck wall thickness, I loaded a few and shot them, and then examined the cases, which appeared to be good as "new".
4) I guess I should have been clearer: I'm not recommending sand for regular case cleaning use, but trying to illustrate that abrasives are what is needed to polish cases in a tumbler, now waxes.
Nufinish is the same way. The abrasive is not as hard as carbide though.
F
Finalygotabeltfed
*No ill effects that you visually see*
Rifle or pistol brass?
Rifle brass thins at the base and thickens at the neck after each firing. This is what causes case head separations. Indicated by a bright shiney ring above the web when resized.
Pistol brass bulges at the base and that buldge is a weak spot. Under magnification, you'd see striations in the brass. Adding ammonia to those striations increases the weakening because it penetrates into the cracks and further errodes(leaches) the zinc from the alloy.
You've defied the odds for a while but that doesn't change he laws of chemistry......brass and ammonia are chemically incompatible and always will be. I didn't make the rules, I just follow them.
I prefer not to deliberately induce further weakening of my brass(however slight) when its being fired ten inches from my face and or in a $8000 dollar gun.
Haven't done a lot of reloading in a while, but when I did, I always got great results with crushed corn cob and some Dillon brass polish solution. The brass comes out sparkling. Yes, it does take a little longer with really dirty brass that I find discarded at the range, but the vast majority of the time, I'm cleaning my own stuff so it's not an issue at all.
Patriot
NES Member
A capful of this every other run:
+1. When you put it in the media, pour it in while the tumbler is running. Then take a screwdriver
and run it around the media to mix it in, breaking up any clumps that were caused buy the introduction
of the polish. Then let it run for a couple of more minutes. Works great.
Last edited:
