Tumbler Media?

[Jackpine]

Re the Blue Buffalo brand, it says "Quick Clumping" in big letters at the bottom of the bag and "natural cat litter" in small lettering under that.

Jackpine

[rogerstg]

Thanks Jackpine, that helps. I'm due for some new media.

[ReloaderFred]

You'll be a lot better off ordering this: http://www.zoro.com/g/Blast%20Media/00054305/None

You can't beat the price, and orders over $50.00 ship for free.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[gunfreak]

I use a mixer of lyman, walnut and rice. I also have an ultra sonic that I use vinegar and dawn.

[jednorris]

Sounds great, I will have to give it a try.

[qkdraw44]

hi all, i clean LARGE amounts of pistol brass in a 5 pound plastic bucket in a clothing dryer. i stuff in blankets so the bucket does not bang around. this is not our regular dryer (the wife would shoot me). been using it for 20 years. only problem is i can only set the timer for 60 min. so i must reset it. i tried throwing in some small steel plates to agitate the brass more, it did not get the job done any faster. i run it 2 hours.

[Swede44mag]

I bought an Extreme Tumblers Rebel 17 I use water, Dawn dish soap, Stainless Steel pins & LemiShine. There is directions on YouTube of how to use their tumbler to clean your brass. What I like about the system is I don't have to breath the dust from the walnut media. It cleans the inside, outside and the primer pockets. What I don't like is my well water is hard even with a water softener system and it leaves water stains on the brass.
Some don't like to wet clean their brass but I don't like the idea of sand from range brass being mixed in my walnut shell media and the possibility of lapping the rifling out of a barrel with any fine sand left in the cartridges.

I would appreciate your comments on the wet cleaning stainless steel pin system.

[MOA]

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, SOMEONE ONCE SAID, THEY WERE CORRECT.

TUMBLER, WATER, DAWN, LEMISHINE, STEEL PINS, THE ONLY WAY I CLEAN MY BRASS. WISH THEY HAD THIS 30 YEARS AGO.

[NileCitySlick]

I use the same system with a difference (I shoot a lot of BP too):
I like clean shiny brass. (I drop my BP cases in a water bottle until I get around to cleaning them.) I do wet tumbling of the cases with stainless pins in water + a shot of Dawn dishwashing liquid plus a teaspoon or so of LemiShine after decapping really does a good job of cleaning them. No residue of BP or anything else in the case or in the primer pocket. After a 3 hour spin in the tumbler, I pour off the dirty (I mean dirty) water, add some baking soda and fill it up. A few shakes then into my media separator with clean water (or maybe some more baking soda in it). The baking soda counteracts the acidity in the LemiShine. I dry them in a paint roller pan (I like the slant to drain water). To speed things up, I use my heat gun to really warm up the cases. Some people put them in the oven at a low temp.
I like the results. Very clean cases that are easy to reload.

[MOA]

Great idea on baking soda. Walmart sells it cheap too.

[Pee Wee]

yea, on the baking soda, great tip

[donald duck]

Go to Pet smart and get a bag of pet litter, crushed walnut, I use it for first cleaning. after sizing I use corn cob to put shine on my brass. works great.

[Sam Casey]

Using a Lyman tumbler & Lyman walnut media. After 2 hrs outside of cases are bright & clean. Red dust residue inside cases, however. Pretty thick. Guessing it is caused by media dust sticking to residue of cast bullet lube. Steel wool on old bore brush chucked in drill cleans that but adds a step. How do I cut down on dust? Different media? Some thing I should add?

[Nlvmike]

Sam, I have found a lot of great ideas on this thread, and I would not venture to tell you which is the best, but I would be glad to venture which is the worst. I hate that Lyman walnut media with the red rouge in it. The dust is darn tough to clean out, and it gets everywhere in the process. I keep a pretty clean bench, and it is the enemy. If I noticed that it got the brass any shinier than plain corn cob, that would be something. It isn't. Just use the same tumbler with cheaper lizard media or Grainger corn cob. I think you will like it.

[flyingmonkey35]

+1 for lizzard bedding and nu Polish.

Add a quarter of a dryer sheet to collect dust.

[swmass]

White rice.

[Ovationdave]

This maybe a stupid suggestion, but did you ever try a final rinse with a touch of the Jet-dry stuff that is supposed to remove water spots on dishes? Just a thought......

Dave

I bought an Extreme Tumblers Rebel 17 I use water, Dawn dish soap, Stainless Steel pins & LemiShine. There is directions on YouTube of how to use their tumbler to clean your brass. What I like about the system is I don't have to breath the dust from the walnut media. It cleans the inside, outside and the primer pockets. What I don't like is my well water is hard even with a water softener system and it leaves water stains on the brass.
Some don't like to wet clean their brass but I don't like the idea of sand from range brass being mixed in my walnut shell media and the possibility of lapping the rifling out of a barrel with any fine sand left in the cartridges.

I would appreciate your comments on the wet cleaning stainless steel pin system.

[Chuck26287]

Does the baking soda stop the brass from going lightly tarnished after the wet tumble with the pins?

I use the same system with a difference (I shoot a lot of BP too):
I like clean shiny brass. (I drop my BP cases in a water bottle until I get around to cleaning them.) I do wet tumbling of the cases with stainless pins in water + a shot of Dawn dishwashing liquid plus a teaspoon or so of LemiShine after decapping really does a good job of cleaning them. No residue of BP or anything else in the case or in the primer pocket. After a 3 hour spin in the tumbler, I pour off the dirty (I mean dirty) water, add some baking soda and fill it up. A few shakes then into my media separator with clean water (or maybe some more baking soda in it). The baking soda counteracts the acidity in the LemiShine. I dry them in a paint roller pan (I like the slant to drain water). To speed things up, I use my heat gun to really warm up the cases. Some people put them in the oven at a low temp.
I like the results. Very clean cases that are easy to reload.

[phidelt208]

Im interested in the baking soda trick as well? I just started the wet tumbling WOW is all I can say the brass looks new. It is a lot more work though.

[cowboy60]

I've tried walnut but it is just too dusty.
I have settled on wet tumble first, then tumble with corn
cobb, polish and a dryer sheet will collect what little dust there is.
They look better than brand new, inside and out.
Forgot to mention the wet tumble is with ss pins, dawn and citric acid.