Sand blasting media for tumbler?

[Lead Freak]

I was in a tool supply store the other day and saw some sand blasting media and wondered how it would function in a tumbler. I believe the stuff I saw was silicon carbide. Would it be too heavy to float the brass in a Turbo Tumbler? If not, would it be too aggressive on brass? I would imagine that it would cut the polishing time down to a half hour or so.

[cheese1566]

I never tried it, but I would suspect it may be more harm than good.
Too coarse and it would probably scratch up the brass, too fine and it could be a bugger to remove the grit which would tear up your dies and/or gun chamber.

I use DuPont StarBlast in my homemade sand balst cabinet. It is fine like beach sand.

[Sonnypie]

NO!
No, no, no!

The dust would find it's way into your guns and there goes your weapons. Not to mention your dies.
Stick with what you know, Walnut (I use lizard litter from Petco) or corn media.
But now my vibratory tumbler has fallen silent, Stainless Steel media tumbling produces Factory bright and clean brass in 4 hours or less.

77 year old bullets tumbled in SS media for 1 hour.



Don't shoot sand through your guns!

[adkpete]

I tried it once. It's really heavy and you can't put much in your tumbler.
It seemed to clean the brass ok but it left a "satin" finish on them, not shiney at all
Never used it again

[Mike Kerr]

No No No in any of the vibratory tumblers I am familiar with. Try Grainger's for Corn Cob media in bulk. Do a search on this Forum for a good link .

regards,

[JSnover]

Back when I was learning about polishing and grinding, I was taught "Emery Grinds Forever" meaning if you left any residue on moving parts or bearing surfaces it would accelerate the wear. Same thing applies to silicon carbide.

[badbob454]

carefull on the walnut media ...i used to use corn cob media , bought some walnut media ...
it wont fall out of my .223 brass a real pain in the keester..... ill go back to corncob media or smaller walnut media if they make it smaller
......you live, you learn

[sargenv]

I use the really fine corn cob sand blast media from Grainger's.. 50 pound sack for a reasonable price.. lasts a couple of years.. and I use one of those large Dillon tumblers...

[jimkim]

I use this. http://www.drillspot.com/products/52...bs_blast_media

[nanuk]

Why would the ceramic media be OK, but the sand be considered continuing to abrade?

surely the ceramic also dusts and abrades forever.

I was going to try some Jackpine sand (silica) and a good rinse after.

I have some REALLY dirty brass.... My vibratory cleaner won't touch it with the commercial corncob media

[uscra112]

Ceramic media is tough stuff. It's essentially the same stuff as sparkplug insulators, very hard to break down. Sand and silicon carbide are quite friable, you can easily crush the grains to powder with pliers in one hand. The powder is still abrasive. It will embed into any soft metal, including brass. That's how one makes a lapping tool.

Sand and silicon carbide are also much too heavy for vibratory tumblers. Motor damage is likely if used.

[akagalford]

I ditched my walnut tumbler 6 months ago when I came across a new method using stainless steel media and a rock tumbler. I have now cleaned over 10,000 pieces of brass with it and can say it does what they claim it does. To top it off the media never wears out or needs to be replaced. Just replace the water, 2 tsp of Dawn soap and a 1/4tsp of Lemon Shine and its off to the next batch. With a perfect clean every time and no Walnut media cost i have already recovered my cost of the entire setup already!

I am not associated with the company in any way just a very happy customer. Company name is "Stainless Tumbling Media" there easy to find by Google searching their name.

[jimbojr]

Also try harbor freight, they have corn and walnut balsting media for cheap.

[shotman]

the black beauty blast works good for hard to clean cases. It is lighter and will let the brass move freely. It does leave a satin look . But I use it first , then go with the walnut and brass polish
If you soake the brass overnight in Simple Green and wash off and sling the water off you can put in the tumbler damp or damp on the inside . and they will have a clean primer pocket. If the cases are real wet you will get some wanting to stick inside. mostly 223 type cases

[milprileb]

I hope this discussion will alloy a flag on the play. One has to decide wet or dry cleaning methods for brass. There is a mess and set of hardward for each. How clean do you require brass to be.

Don't get me wrong, I like clean brass but shiny immaculate gold sparkling brass obtained with a wet method of cleaning, drying of brass down time and special tumbler (I own one by the way that will do wet and its slooooooooooow) is hardly as convenient as walnut media (fine grade) and a vibrator type tumbler.

There is nothing wrong with a vibrator tumbler and the clean brass it produces with little fuss or muss.

I don't do wet cleaning as it adds zero to my shooting program and I shoot volumes weekly. If time and volume were not important and cosmetics were important: SS media and wet would rock the boat.

For the 99% of reloading purposes, the dry walnut /corn cob media approach in a vibrator tumbler is state of art solution.

I can wear my socks wet and run on them but I prefer dry socks and run better that way.

[cgtreml]

Which of the Grainger products do you guys use. What a great price. This would solve the polishing media question for me. Thanks

[mdi]

Which of the Grainger products do you guys use. What a great price. This would solve the polishing media question for me. Thanks

The best deal I've found to date is:http://www.drillspot.com/products/49...bs_blast_media $28 and change shipped to your door...

[cgtreml]

The best deal I've found to date is:http://www.drillspot.com/products/49...bs_blast_media $28 and change shipped to your door...

Thanks. For $28 how can you go wrong. I will order some this morning.

[JSnover]

For really dirty brass I have a tumbler filled with Tuff Nut. Leave them in there for a good long time, wipe them down and run them through another tumbler filled with clean walnut media. That gets them clean enough for me. Some people like thier brass shiney enough for a Cartridges Illustrated photo shoot. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[dragonrider]

A vibratory tumbler, corn cob media, Dillon rapid shine, a photographic timer, 1 hour later I get clean brass. No mess, no drying time.