Used primers added to tumbling media?

[MikeS]

Hi All.

I can't recall where I heard or saw mention of adding used primers into the tumbling media (either corn cob or walnut) to help with the cleaning of brass. Has anyone tried this? It would seem to me that the anvils would help clean brass, but I don't know about the cups, if they would do anything to help or hinder the cleaning process. I'm certainly not going to start separating the parts of the used primers, so I'm either going to use them as is, or not at all.

I really wish I could remember where I either heard this, or read it, as it halfway makes sense, the little pieces of brass added to the existing media would help clean really dirty brass, while still allowing the other media to shine up the cases being tumbled. So if anyone has either heard of this, or done it, I would really appreciate hearing about it. I have one of the Lee red round containers full of used primers, and it would be nice to be able to use them for something, rather than just discarding them.

-Mike

[Oreo]

Tumbling media gets dirty & dusty with toxic stuff enough as it is. Primers are a primary source of this toxic residue so adding them to the media sounds like it would make an undesirable situation worse. Besides that, I've never had a problem just using walnut media with some brass polishing compound. Does a great job. If you need better then that then you really need to be looking at ultrasonic or wet rotary with stainless media.

[shotman]

that would be adding more {dirt} to the mix

[thx997303]

JTknives uses spent primers as tumbling media.

His method is to put the brass and the used primers as well as some soapy water in a 2l mountain dew bottle, and chuck it up on the lathe, let it spin for 30 minutes or so.

He gets some shiney brass out of the deal. But since it's wet, there's dry time involved.

Hope this helps.

[geargnasher]

Yet another reason I need a lathe.

Gear

[Willee]

The brass shells by themselves seem to work as a cleaning agent.

I have noticed that a large batch of brass in the tumbler cleans and polishes quicker than just a handful. I suppose the shells hitting one another is what causes this.

[John Boy]

But since it's wet, there's dry time involved.
Drying wet primers is easy and quick ... How to Dry Wet Primers in Under 2 Minutes (http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=7653.0)

[MikeS]

Lathe! I wish I still had one! We had a large one (I believe it had a 14" swing, it was huge, I think the bed was about 18' long!), and an old Atlas lathe that was originally in my father's shop in our basement up north. It wasn't really a commercial quality lathe (I think it had a 3" or 4" swing, and a 3' bed), but for small jobs it worked pretty good. It's a toss up, if I could only have one machine, would it be a lathe, or a Bridgeport mill.

The only machines we did keep from the machine shop was a fairly nice drill press, with it's own metal stand, an industrial strength bandsaw also mounted on it's own metal stand, and another saw of some kind, that unlike the other machines, that are setup, and ready to go, it's stuffed in a corner of the garage (which is why I can't say more about it, I haven't seen it in years, and don't remember much about it, other than my father had some kind of attachment to it, so it was brought home along with the other ones when we sold the business.

[ku4hx]

I tried BBs once, did nothing special for the cleaning process and my son wondered what happened to his stash.

But I tell you those were some of the brightest, shiniest BBs I'd ever seen.

[Gtek]

Yes, more brass in tumbler does work a lot better. I believe it is due to the increased mass in media,
which in turn increases the pressure against brass. Buddy just picked up Thumbler (red rock roller)
with stainless pins-WOW, it is amazing how well that set up works. Gtek

[David Bachelder]

Just my thoughts.

Adding spent primers to a tumbler is a really bad idea. Why? The lead contaminates from the primers will become airborne due to the action of the tumbler. Breathing this lead dust can not be good for you and I believe it would expose you to serious amounts of lead.

Play it safe .... avoid the spent primers and follow good hygene after handling them. Walnut or Corn or both together is all that is needed to clean the spent casings.

[runfiverun]

just wash the brass in the citric acid.
then tumble it with the walnut media.
if you want a slick golden sheen a titch of nufinish will do that.
the nufinish makes it harder for the case to grip the chamber walls however.

i like clean brass colored brass it does it's intended job.

[MikeS]

I added some automotive wax/polish (not polishing compound) into my current mix of corn cob & walnut media, and along with making the cases really shine, it makes that nice shiny finish last longer than cases run thru the tumbler without the added wax. It could be my imagination, but it seems like the cases that were tumbled in media treated with auto wax also seems to size easier, and primers seem to go in with less pressure needed.

I bought some walnut media from the seller on eBay that also sells the mould lube that's similar to BullPlate, and it came with a packet a (2oz) of red rouge. I also bought a larger packet (4oz) of a white powdered media additive he calls Alumina which is supposed to clean better than the rouge, but not polish as much, but when I use either of those powders in the tumbler they created a lot of dust! When I use the car polish rather than those powdered additives I get lots less dust during the tumbling operation (I have the Lyman vibratory tumbler that comes with the separator top, rather than a closed top, and while it's working you can actually see the dust coming out of the top of the tumbler! When I tried the white powder it turned the media black in a single use, the red powder turned the media bright red before use, and a darker red after a single use, but nothing like the white powder, after use the walnut was BLACK! I suppose that means that it cleaned the casings better (I'm assuming the black color is from the dirt that came off the cases).

I guess I should mention that the corncob media I have is the Lyman stuff that's pre-treated with a green abrasive, I bought it with the tumbler, and still had some left, so after playing with the walnut media by itself with the 2 powdered additives I went to using the remaining corncob and added the walnut to it. First I tried using the mixture without adding anything to it, and it worked pretty good, but when I added the car wax it really made the brass shine, with a shine that seems to last longer than without the wax. It also seems that when I shoot ammo with cases that were tumbled with the auto wax added it seems that they don't get as dirty, and cleanup quicker too.

I took the used primers that I have (about 2.5lbs), and I rinsed them out, and lots of dirt and stuff came off of them, and I'm tempted to try adding them into the tumbler, worst case, they don't work, so I loose a couple of pounds of tumbling media. If they do work out helping the tumbling process, then I have found a use for my old primers, rather than just throwing them away. I still need to give this some more thought before I try them.

[Tim357]

I've used mineral spirits mixed in the corn cob media. Makes brass nice n shiny, tho it does tend to collect on the underside of the lid.

[runfiverun]

primers are usually brass too, i throw them in the recycle bucket.
i avoid the rouge stuff it might go on down the bbl [and imo it does] and i doubt it's polishing that.

[nanuk]

I was gonna try to reload some used primers, but can't find them....

I need to find some other reloaders and get some!

[beagle]

I once forgot a bunch of 9mm brass in the tumbler and dropped a load of .308 brass in and ran it. It seemed to polish a lot quicker with the 9mm in it./beagle

[RoGrrr]

I have a South Bend lathe but it only has a 10 inch swing. However, it does have a pilot hole in the headstock.
The comment about the lathe made me think that I can take a 1/2 or 3/4 inch rod about 18 inches long and thread it on one end.
Then take a 2-1/2 gallon bucket and punch a hole in the bottom. Take a couple pieces of plate that will fit inside the bucket and drill holes in them so they act as gussets for the inside and outside of the bottom of the bucket.
Put a nut on the rod, push it thru those 3 layers of "plate, bucket, plate" and put the second nut on it, kinda like a lollipop, large size.
Fill with cases and media and put the lid on the bucket. Then put the rod in the pilot hole from the left side and clamp it in the chuck.
Run the lathe at a slow speed and you have your tumbler for large quantities of brass.
It's amazing the ideas one can find on forum boards like this.
Thanks, guys.

[Shiloh]

Don't do it.

THe anvil will probably fall out and there is a risk of it getting by the decapping process in bottle necked rifle brass. The other thing is you will be adding lead styphnate residue as well as ground glass to the mix. More bad can come from it than good.

SHiloh

[Longwood]

I figured a little additional weight would cause the polishing media to rub against the brass with a little bit more force.
After reading about the stainless steel pins, and how well they work, I decided to try BB's and I honestly believe it helped with how long it takes.
I got about five pounds for $10 at walmart and added about half of them to the media in my small vibrator cleaner.

I am not exactly sure what works best, but after reading through everything here, I know that it sure goes fast compared to all night that it used to take.
About 20 to 30 minutes in a sonic cleaner then another 45 minutes to an hour in the vibrator cleaner and they shine better than new.
I only have big mouth brass now and don't advise using BB's if you are doing 223 or other very small mouth brass.

[beex215]

i added 22lr brass to my tumbler and i think it did a better job.

THINK

[high standard 40]

I read in a gun rag article years ago to add some brass wood screws along with the media and you get better faster results polishing your cases. I bought a box of 100 #8 X 3/4" brass screws with counter sink head and have been using them for years. They seem to help some, but don't work miracles.

[leadman]

I have been cleaning my brass first with Lemi-shine and a dab of soap in a large pretzel plastic container. About 2 tablespoons of lemi-shine, add enough hot water to cover, screw on the lid and shake back and forth for a few minutes. You can let it set for awhile if you want.
dump it out and rinse the brass and air dry. It usually looks pretty good with just this but if you want it real shiny tumble it for a bit.
I use the Lee depriming rods and bases to deprime first and about half of the crud is cleaned out, sometimes more.

[southpaw]

To add to what others have said and expand on what Longwood said, the large primers will give you trouble when tumbling 22 cal cases. I have had some fall into my tumbler. When I tumbled some 22-250's the little buggers would be stuck in some of the cases. You had to sit there and shake the case for a little bit before it would find its way out. I finally changed the media so I didn't have to deal with them any more.

Just my two pennies.

Jerry Jr.

[Longwood]

The last walnut shells I bought were lizard bedding and quite fine.
A rimfire case can lock itself into a 9mm or 380 case so well that it may as well be soldered.

A bunch of brass screws would surely help clean primer pockets.

[MikeS]

I went ahead and bought an ultrasonic cleaner. For cleaning cases I use Hornady's ultrasonic cleaner solution and it works really well. On cases that are freshly shot it will even get the primer pocket 100% clean! On brass that's been sitting around for a long time it doesn't always get the pockets totally clean, but it gets most of the dirt out. Unfortunately the cases never look as good once they've dried, as they do fresh out of the cleaner. For some reason once dry they seem to have spots on them that just don't look right. So I've been putting the cases into my vibratory tumbler once dry, and tumble them a little, then the cases look like new! I bought a 5lb bottle of plastic blasting media from HF, and in my tumbler it gives the brass a nice finish, They're not super shiny like with some media, but rather a nice matte finish that looks like new brass looks. I like using that media because being plastic it's fairly dust free, unlike walnut shells or corn cob.

[Crosbyman]

I use distilled water and a dishwasher rinse aid in my sonic, which is a 6 liter machine.

I use corn cob media from the Anderson Co, product 2040, with liquid car wax.

I bought a pallet of 48 bags and have a lifetime supply.

[Love Life]

I figured a little additional weight would cause the polishing media to rub against the brass with a little bit more force.
After reading about the stainless steel pins, and how well they work, I decided to try BB's and I honestly believe it helped with how long it takes.
I got about five pounds for $10 at walmart and added about half of them to the media in my small vibrator cleaner.

I am not exactly sure what works best, but after reading through everything here, I know that it sure goes fast compared to all night that it used to take.
About 20 to 30 minutes in a sonic cleaner then another 45 minutes to an hour in the vibrator cleaner and they shine better than new.
I only have big mouth brass now and don't advise using BB's if you are doing 223 or other very small mouth brass.

That is just plain smart. Did you use the copperhead BBs or the steel daisy ones?

[Longwood]

That is just plain smart. Did you use the copperhead BBs or the steel daisy ones?

Cheapest.

[Love Life]

Thank you Sir!

[smokeywolf]

My Hornady vibratory tumbler came with solid and slotted lids. I've come up with an additive to my walnut shell that speeds up the cleaning by about 900%. It definitely produces more dust, but I always use the solid lid anyway; no dust problem. I think if I only had a slotted lid I would wrap it in about a half dozen layers of saran wrap.
I had about a thousand pieces of milsurp 30-06 brass that had been sitting in GI ammo cans since the mid 1950s. In just plain walnut shell it takes about 60 hours to clean up. With the additive I cooked up, it takes 7 hours.

I would absolutely not use primers in tumbling media. I figure I get enough exposure to lead just with casting, handling, shooting, and decapping.

I do little machining jobs out of my garage. I have a Bridgeport knee mill and a 17" x 40" gap-bed engine lathe. A customer needed me to drill several dozen .039" holes in some stainless cylindrical manifolds. The manifolds were about 3" dia. by about 16" long, with end caps and 3/4" pipe couplings welded on each end. All of those .039" holes had to be deburred on the inside. I covered all those holes with duct tape and loaded the manifolds up with abrasive ceramic media and enough water to keep particulate in suspension and chucked them up on the lathe.

smokeywolf

[JTknives]

Primers work great as tumbling media, but dont use them with other media. put all the primers in a tumbler with soapy water and let run to clean them out. do this a few times to get clean then add brass. works very very well.

[Stephen Cohen]

Laugh if you must, but I knew an old guy who loaded his shot shells with old primers for shooting flying foxes (fruit bats)

[Sasquatch-1]

It definitely produces more dust, but I always use the solid lid anyway; no dust problem. I think if I only had a slotted lid I would wrap it in about a half dozen layers of saran wrap.

smokeywolf

I had read somewhere to use old dryer softener sheets in your tumbler cut into 1" to 1.5" squares to reduce dust. Tried it a couple of times and the sheets seem to collect a lot of the dirt from the media.

[Bad Water Bill]

I have used the drier sheets also but found out that BOUNTY will do the same thing and will not dry out like the dries stuff.

Cheaper as well.:bigsmyl2:

[Wally]

I use used drysheets and dampen with paint thinner...

[Longwood]

Primers work great as tumbling media, but dont use them with other media. put all the primers in a tumbler with soapy water and let run to clean them out. do this a few times to get clean then add brass. works very very well.

Maybe I will start cleaning mine in a sonic cleaner.
Maybe tumbling them with some balls to see if the anvils will come out, prior to cleaning them.

[smokeywolf]

Dryer sheets are pretty much just lintless "tacky" wipes. They have been coated and impregnated with wax. They will undoubtedly catch and hold dust. I prefer to keep a moderate amount of dust in the tumbler as it seems to enhances the overall cleaning effect. After the walnut, my brass goes into the corncob, and after that it gets a quick rinse with a little acetic and water.
I modify this procedure depending on how dirty the brass is.

By the way, a Sears repair man advised me years ago not to use dryer sheets as they gum up the machine and shorten the duration between repairs and replacement of the machine.

smokeywolf

[yobohadi]

I had the bright idea one time to see if I could tumble the Alox off of 200 loaded 40 cal bullets, the Alox did not come off, it actually attracted a lot of the dust from the media and seemed to clean up the media really well. Of course it sucked wiping off the caked on dust from each of those bullets so that I could shoot them.

That got me to thinking that maybe I could either lube a bunch of reject boolits let the Alox dry, tumble them to clean up the media, and just melt down the caked boolits and skim off the dust, or maybe coat some pea gravel or spent steel cases with Alox to attract the dust and just throw it away or recycle it. Not sure if it is worth the Alox but it could keep your media clean much longer and if you have a bunch of Alox you don't use from all the bullet sizing dies bought over the years it may be worth trying.