Learned something today

[Jal5]

Let me start by saying I have not used a tumbler with dry media in several years. I wet tumble all my brass.

Today I wanted to tumble some rounds that I put together that had an excess amount of lube on them. My tumbler was set up with old powdery lizard shell media. IIRC. The rounds immediately had the powdery stuff stuck all over. I needed to dump all that media and tumble again using clean corn cob media.

They finally got cleaned up.
Joe

[Winger Ed.]

I try to keep my media as clean as I can, and put paper towels and dry sheets in it quite often.

Over time, it still gets that 'greasy' feel.
Once in a while, I wash it in dish soap & water.
Rinse it through a tea strainer, lay it out, and left it dry.
It's like new after that.

[Land Owner]

When my dry media (chipped walnut shell) gets "dirty", or the chips seem "less edgy", or take "too long" to clean the brass, I dump it out and pour in fresh. "Dirty", "edgy" and time are subjective - to each his own. Media is readily available and not overly expensive at the Pet Store. Dryer sheets extend media life for "quite a while", depending of course on severity of use.

I would never have thought to wash and clean media WingerEd. I learned something new today...but probably will continue my "it won't spend itself" use of money ways.

[Jal5]

I have been sold on wet cleaning for several years now but will keep the dry setup for cases such as this one.

[gwpercle]

Proper dry media like Frankford Arsenal Walnut Shell Polishing Media from Midway does a much better job and isn't "dusty" like kitty litter , lizard bedding , reptile bedding and all the stuff not made to do case cleaning and polishing ... give it a try sometimes.

[tankgunner59]

I too use reptile bedding, (crushed walnut shell) media with a used dryer sheet. Once in awhile I put in a cap full of paint thinner and Nufinish.
I buy it in 15 pound bags and it lasts for quite a while. I tried the Lyman media at first but it's a little expensive for me. Total cost is less than an equal amount of the Lyman stuff.

[Jal5]

I may always tumble rounds lubed with 45-45-10 now. That batch I started this post on turned out to be the most accurate that I have loaded for my S&W Shield. It only takes a little while and leaves them very clean after a corn cob tumble.

[georgerkahn]

I had a dry-tumbler challenge last week. The dry corncob media in my Thumler's Tumbler was waaaay overdue for disposal, so throw it out I did. I cleaned the rubber liner and put in some Lyman brand media, complemented with their branded polishing additive. Per their instructions on additive bottle I added appropriate amount, and ran tumbler sans sans any brass for two hours. Upon removing lid, I noted several "marble-sized" "rocks"!
I ended up dumping contents in a pail, and using my fingers to break apart a short zillion clumps!
OK... a few more weeks before I'll be wet/pin tumbling -- this should now work -- was my expectation.
Well, after tumbling but 51 .44 Russian cases for FOUR hours -- the finished product was/is well below what I had hoped for. I loaded the brass, anyway -- but -- after shooting -- it surely will be tumbled in the stainless pin/wet tumbler.
My experience...
geo

[greenjoytj]

Today I wanted to tumble some rounds that I put together that had an excess amount of lube on them. Joe

I would have used a microfibre towel and wiped each cartridge clean of excess lube.

Each ctg. gets cleaned an visually inspected again plus no tumbler powder mess.

[Dusty Bannister]

I use both the wet pin cleaner as well as the dry media in the vibrating cleaner. When using the dry media, I always toss in some 1/4 sheets of paper towel, or equal sized cotton rags. Since I use a rotating sifter to remove the media from the cases, the cleaner bowl is empty so I will take the opportunity to wash out the residue in the bowl. The towel or rags help remove a lot of dust, shavings, or other debris and a few times a year I wash the media with Dawn and hot water. I cycle through several pounds of the media through the year so there is plenty of time for the media to dry before using again. Somehow, I have managed to mix the cob and the walnut shell media, but I am cleaning the brass and not going for a high shine. I think it is important to keep the bowl as clean as the media to prevent the transfer to the brass.