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Thread: Tumbler Media?

  1. #141
    Boolit Grand Master
    Shiloh's Avatar
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    40# of 20-40 corncob ran less than $25. Ordered it and picked it up at Grainger so no shipping. Years ago that was. More money now but I have a lifetime supply. Look around yo can probably fine it for less or a lesser quantity.

    Shiloh
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  2. #142
    Boolit Grand Master

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    A few years ago I ordered a 40# bag of corncob from drill spot.com. I think it was about $25 shipped. It actually shipped from Granger. I think its more now, but buying in bulk from companies that sell blasting media is the cheapest way to go. I use DukeinFlorida's method. A cap full or two of mineral spirits and a cap full of your favorite liquid car polish, run it enough to get them mixed up and dump your brass in. For years I used an old square commercial fry basket to separate the brass and media but I finally bought the Dillon separator.

    Many different things will work for media and over the years I have used most of them. Rice, rice still in the shell, wheat, sand, corncob, walnut, ceramic media, metal shavings, ect. I just keep coming back to corncob.

  3. #143
    Boolit Buddy Gunners Mate's Avatar
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    Stainless Steel tumbling Media, 3 table spoons of dawn, 1 tea spoon of Lemi Shine, 1 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar, to 1 gallon of water. Lube, resize, deprime and wet tumble or just deprime with universal deprimer then wet tumble and resize. This is hands down the best recipe I have found for cleaning brass in 30 years of reloading. I dry my cases with a towel first and then on Click image for larger version. 

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  4. #144
    Boolit Bub
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    I have used lizzard litter from pet stores .

  5. #145
    Boolit Master



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    +1 on the lizard litter. Seems to polish a little better and quicker than crush walnut media. james

  6. #146
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by mdi View Post
    http://www.drillspot.com/products/49...bs_blast_media
    This is prolly the best deal around and enough to do 20k cases. Walnut shells (lizzard litter) cleans pretty fast but doesn't give that "virgin brass, glossy shine", which is fine with me. Most of thr corn cob I've seen at pet stores was a flake, not the grit used for tumbling/blasting and doesn't work very well for tumbling brass.
    Walnut grit add about 1table spoon per gallon of grit of Nu Finish car polish plus about the same amount of mineral spirits. Let tumble for 15 minutes before adding brass. It will clean and give that shinny new brass finish

  7. #147
    Boolit Master
    Tom W.'s Avatar
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    I tried rice a few years ago. I finally dumped the dirty rice into the garbage can and the rest I fed to the birds.. Then I bought a bucket of untreated corncob media from Midway. I still have some, but will soon have to order some from Home Depot or see what Harbor Freight has available...That and some more Nufinish....
    Tom
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    Did I ever mention that I hate to trim brass?

  8. #148
    Boolit Man
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    Stainless pins wet tumbling is amazing, brass comes out like new.

  9. #149
    Boolit Buddy
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    Just used some stainless pins for the first time ever in my Thumbler. Brass came out very good. Even the primer pockets. A little bit of a pain though separating with just the media separating pan I have. Good stuff.

  10. #150
    Boolit Mold
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    Stainless pins for me in a Hornady tumbler set for 2 hours and I walk away. When done I rinse, shake, rinse...and then pour off water and put brass and media in a Hornady media separator. The one with the plexi top so I can spin that bad boy really fast and pins don't go flying all over me and the floor. When done there are zero pins left in and I put the brass into a 5 stack cheap Walmart food dehydrator for say an hour...even though after about 15mins there isn't any water left.

    Brass comes out flawless. I decap all brass before I do this. It does help to have carbine or titanium tipped dies to keep the squeaky clean brass from being a little tough to push through.

  11. #151
    Boolit Master
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    A couple of things I have only seen once on this thread.

    I have been using SS pins for several years, now.
    I de-cap using a Lee de-capping die. If you hit a Berdan case, it doesn't break the pin, just pushes it up and then you reset and go on.
    As has already been stated, this gets the primer pocket clean while using the SS pins. I hate cleaning primer pockets.

    I made my own tumbler from 6" pvc and cut strips from another piece and glued 6 strips inside to agitate. Drum is about 2 feet long. I do about 5 or 6 hundred .38's or .45's at a time. I have 5 lbs pins, 1 teaspoon of citric acid and 1 teaspoon of ArmorAll Wash and Wax Premium. The citric acid is the same as Lemishine. I purchased 2 lbs of it from Amazon for $10. The ArmorAll works better than the Dawn and leaves a better finish because of the wax. It sizes easier, and remains shiny for years. I've tried the NuFinsh, but like the ArmorAll much better. I don't think the NUFinish has a wax which is what KEEPS the brass shiny. I tumble for 2 hours, then use a Dillon case separator filled to the top with water. This does two things: 1, it rinses the dirty water off, and 2, it releases the pins from sticking in the cases. I use a bath towel and work them back and forth a couple of times which gets most of the water out. I then leave the brass in the sun for a couple of hours on cookie sheets when the weather is nice. Doesn't overheat the brass that way. (I ruined a whole batch of brass drying in an oven)
    The only thing I have used my Thumblers bowl for in several years is cleaning the lube off the outside after sizing.

  12. #152
    Boolit Bub
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    Use about a 50-50 mix of corn and walnut. Put in a couple spoonfuls of Flitz media additive, if out NuFinish car polish works pretty good. Seen the brass that was polished with pins and Dawn, real shiny and clean. Just not sure if I want to get into that after 40+ years.

  13. #153
    Boolit Master
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    Wet tumbling with SS pins makes the interior of the brass gorgeous, but the hassle factor is too high for me. I'll wet tumble without pins for clean enough and no media dust to inhale.

  14. #154
    Banned
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    I don't see the hassle with SS pins. Deprime first the wet tumble with pins.
    when done tumbling I dump everything into a crank type media separator, a few cranks and all the SS pins are in the bottom of the separator.
    The brass is shiny clean inside and out and the primer pockets are clean AND ---NO DUST

  15. #155
    Boolit Master

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    GRNPS has it nailed. Great results everytime and NO HASSLE!!!

  16. #156
    Boolit Bub frodo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by doulos View Post
    Just used some stainless pins for the first time ever in my Thumbler. Brass came out very good. Even the primer pockets. A little bit of a pain though separating with just the media separating pan I have. Good stuff.
    I have been using this method and it works great for me
    you need
    a 1 gallon plastic bucket
    a kitchen strainer [moma gonna get mad]
    a pair of panty hose

    on the bottom the bucket
    put the strainer in the panty hose
    pour every thing into the strainer
    the water goes into the bucket
    the pins go through the strainer into the panty hose,,and that is what i store them in
    the bling bling is in the strainer just shake,,,to remove pins


    Click image for larger version. 

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  17. #157
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by frodo View Post
    I have been using this method and it works great for me
    you need
    a 1 gallon plastic bucket
    a kitchen strainer [moma gonna get mad]
    a pair of panty hose

    on the bottom the bucket
    put the strainer in the panty hose
    pour every thing into the strainer
    the water goes into the bucket
    the pins go through the strainer into the panty hose,,and that is what i store them in
    the bling bling is in the strainer just shake,,,to remove pins


    Click image for larger version. 

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    Thanks for posting that I have been trying to think of a strainer for pins the hose is a great idea !

  18. #158
    Boolit Bub
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    Nov 2013
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    I have been using ss pins in a thumblers tumbler for about 10 years. This year in January, I stopped using pins, at all. I hate the hassle of separating the pins from brass, and whenever I end up with 9mm and 40 or 45 randomly in other batches, pins end up in between the cases, and I lose a few whenever I separate them...

    So I tried Guntaps "Brass Shine," and "Brass Juice." Brass Juice with no pins is all I'm using from now on.

    It's $20 for 32 ounces, drain/septic safe, and you can reuse it at least 5-6 times...so each load comes out to about $0.08.

    Advantages (for me): 1. No more separating pins 2. Faster. I only tumble 30-45 minutes for regular brass, and 75 for black, aged range brass. 3. So far, I've rerun each load at least 5 times...a few 6, and I'm going to try going a few more.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/tATocuGEuLuiLwF38

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/j5gdbX5ApTZzkU6G7

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/ev45x74ZP8zVHGHK6

    I'm never going to use the ss pins again, as long as either of these products remain available.

    Maybe I should add: I don't have any kind of relationship with either of those companies...I was just tired of ss pins and figured there had to be other guys out there in the same basic boat... figured I'd share.

  19. #159
    Boolit Master
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    Nov 2016
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    Boysee
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    Quote Originally Posted by frodo View Post
    I have been using this method and it works great for me
    you need
    a 1 gallon plastic bucket
    a kitchen strainer [moma gonna get mad]
    a pair of panty hose

    on the bottom the bucket
    put the strainer in the panty hose
    pour every thing into the strainer
    the water goes into the bucket
    the pins go through the strainer into the panty hose,,and that is what i store them in
    the bling bling is in the strainer just shake,,,to remove pins
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Nice...
    I use paint strainers from Home Depot instead of pantyhose though
    2 for $4: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-5-ga...36WF/202061360
    I have a wire waste basket from the dollar store for the strainer and a 4 bucket cleaning line with paint strainers in the 1st two to catch the pins.
    The last (4th) bucket is a mixture of water and Armorall auto wash and wax, used to protect the shine and lube for resizing.

    The 1st bucket is empty with a paint strainer bag in it, then the wire basket, because the tumbler water/brass/pins are dumped into it.
    The 2nd and 3rd buckets are 3/4 filled with rinse water with a paint strainer in the 2nd to catch any remaining pins, and the wire basket is moved/agitated up/down in baskets 1-2-3-4...done.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    So that's $5 at the dollar store (1 wire basket, 4 buckets) and $4 at home depot for the paint strainers.
    works for me,
    Size/Prime a few cases when starting off with a progressive and put them aside. You can plug them back into the process when a bad/odd case screws up in the priming station and continue loading.

  20. #160
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
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    SOT of Texas, and Oklahoma too I think. They sell everything associated with metal finishing. Walnut and Corn Cob is CHEAP! I pay $18 for a 40 pound bag.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check