case tumbling?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Sometimes a guy can be well into a hobby and still have basic questions, that the longer they go unasked the harder it is to ask 'em.

So I'll swallow my pride and ask.

I see there are different types of media. What are the purposes of walnut shells vs. corn cob vs. whatever else might be out there?

Do you wash the brass first then tumble? Or tumble then wash? Or wash, tumble, and wash again? I see the walnut media I have leaves a lot of brown dust inside the cases.

[snuffy]

Crushed walnut is for cleaning really dirty cases, but does not polish much. Corn cob is more for the high shine, but is slow to clean.

Forget the wash. All that does is get them wet. Then the bother of assuring they get dry. Some brass cleaners have citric acid in them, with a bit of soap. The acid pickles the brass, it's good for taking tarnish off.

Treated walnut has red or green rouge on it, most of the time way too much of it.

My personal favorite is fine grit corn cob with some polishing compound added to it. Flitz or most car polishes work well.

Here's where to get the best, also the cheapest 20/40 grit corn cob media;

http://www.drillspot.com/products/521055/econoline_526040g-40_40_lbs_blast_media

This is the best because it is a very fine grit, it won't get stuck in flash holes. It's faster, because the finer grit presents more polishing surface for the same weight. It's also shipped free.

[Chicken Thief]

Depends!

Lee does'nt do tumblers because he thinks they do nothing but bad.

Walnut has sharp edges that will dig into crud and grime, but it will leave the brass dull.
Corncob has rounded cernels and combined with a polishing agent they will buff brass to a fine luster.

Some say to tumble before sizing. It will clean the brass but my opinion is that the brass does'nt get all that dirty on the outside, so.

I lube and size, then tumble. That way i clean of the sizing lube and clean/buff the outside and inside at the same time.

My BP brass is washed, wet tumbled with SS media, dried and then corncob tumbled to get the high finish.

*******************************

How old is your media?
Does you treat it with some polishing agent from time to time?
Is your tumbler bowl dirty om the inside?

My opinion again:

After 1000-1200 rifle cases the media starts to get so dirty it wont polish 100%, but still has usefull life. (i have a Lyman 1200!)
3-4 sheets of TP torn will absorb a lot of crud from the tumbling media. Throw it in with the cases and tumble as usual. Discard when done. What the TP absorbs will not get in the cases and in the media.
I buy clean corncob and add some auto chrome polish and a little wax polish. The chrome polish is slightly abrasive and the wax will keep a high luster on the brass for "ages".
That is cheap and i toss before the media gets to dirty.

[Larry Gibson]

I've had a tumbler since '75 and a vibrating case cleaner (hah....and you thought I'd say vibrator[smilie=l:) since '92, still use both. I've tried a lot of different types of cleaner material over the years and found that long stemed rice works the fastest and quickest. I get the cheapest available at the local oriental market. I found the old Midway lemon case sleaner was great with the rice. When it got dirty enough to where the wife accused me of raising mice in the garage because of all the black mouse "turds" on the floor I throw it away and use new stuff. Rice cleans the dirtiest of cases to a nice bright shine quicker than most any thing else. After seperating the rice from the cases I "towel swich" the cases back and forth 8-10 times which gets most of the last bit of rice out and takes any "dust" off the cases.

Recently Sportco had Lyman's corncob on sale so I've tried it. It works ok but not near as good as rice and even on sale costs a lot more. I'm going back to rice.:bigsmyl2:

I use the rice in the Vibrating case cleaner to clean the cases. When I lube cases to size I then tumle them in the tumbler using pitch free sawdust to clean the lube off. About 15-30 minutes is all it takes and I then towel swish the cases after sawdust/case seperation to quickly remove the dust. I also will tumble loaded ammo in the sawdust for 15-20 minutes to remove the lube when loaded on my Dillon 550B (mostly 30 carbine, 5.6, 7.62 NATO, 30-06 and 8x57).

Larry Gibson

[runfiverun]

rip up a couple of dryer sheets and run with your media it will get all the fine stuff out.
i wash in the citric acid mix it will get all the gunk off/out out the cases.
for rifles i then lube the cases up after letting them dry on some old towells/teeshirts/and maybe an actual shop rag.
size then into the tumbling media, maybe with a little bit of nufinish.
for most of my revolver stuff i wash,tumble,and load on the progressive with a dash of lube.
dirty/sooty cases actually work better with carbide sizers.
i'd rather have a hint of lube on them,i wipe them off real quick when boxing them up.
this gives me a chance to give each one a quick once over and pull any boo-boo's.

swirling them in the citric acid bath also gives me a chance to catch any split cases or badly dinged case mouths etc..
i don't have any corn cob the walnut gets them clean enough for me.

[geargnasher]

Tarnished/dirty/range pickup brass gets deprimed, simmered and stirred in a SS pot full of distilled water (I use rainwater I collect), powdered citric acid, and two drops of Dawn or Lemon Joy dish detergent for about ten minutes, then rinsed in hot water and dried in the sun, oven, or on a towel in the shop. Then I vibrate it in coarse plain cob rodent bedding for half an hour and inspect the remaining pink spots for zinc depletion. After culling, 30 minutes in the vibrator with clean plain cob and some Nu-Finish liquid car polish. The brass is passivated, cleaned, polished, and preserved at this point and ready for trimming and further prep.

Once I've done the above, I usually don't mess with it again unless I get it dirty at the range or it corrodes from sweaty fingerprints. Once passivated and used/stored properly, the brass develops a protective, even tarnish layer that hurts nothing, so I just keep reloading it. At most I'll give brass a towelling in mineral spirits or Ed's Red before resizing it if I think it's gritty or something.

I quit worrying about "show brass" a long time ago. If I want pretty brass, I use nickel-plated stuff.

Gear

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

So of those that use walnut media how do you deal with the "rouge" that seems to ride on the cases afterwards? My cases aren't covered, but I can see a little in the nooks-and-crannies and inside the casemouth. I also see it accumulating in places where brass goes dies, magazines, actions, boxes, etc.

[mpbarry1]

Larry .. that long stemmed rice idea sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing. Im going to try that!

[Shiloh]

Nu-Finish car polish from Wal-Mart and 14-20 corn cob grit works great.
Really tarnished get rinsed in a plastic bucket to cover brass with a tea-spoon or two of muriatic acid.

Rinse well, dry and tumble in above mentioned media. The more times you shoot and polish your brass, the faster it polishes.

Shiloh

[Larry Gibson]

Larry .. that long stemmed rice idea sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing. Im going to try that!

It sure works for me. I use the long stem because sometimes with deprimed cases the short stemed really plugs up the primer pockets. Mostly I clean cases with the primers in them though. :drinks:

Larry Gibson

[BigShot]

I am new to reloading and my first headache was a load of deprimed cases with the primer pockets pluged from the tumbler media. It took about a half hour to dig it all out.

[slide]

I have been using the walnut bedding for lizards. Buy it at Petco or Petsmart. It is small enough it won't get stuck in the primer cases. I deprime before I tumble. It works better than anything else I tried. Can't take credit though,saw on this forum.

[dale2242]

I wash dirty pickup brass in a citric acid bath, rinse several times with clean water, dried in my dehydrator, and cleaned in the vibrating tumbler with walnut media.
Handgun cases are sized with carbide dies and loaded.
Rifle cases are sized,primer pockets cleaned, trimmed if required and tumbled again to remove sizing lube, then loaded...dale

[SlowSmokeN]

There is 101 uses for a dead cat. For me it is liquid car polish I had in the garage and corncob I bought at the pet shop.

A few hours later and I can see my reflection in the brass.

Everyone here as great ideas that work for them. Each one will work for you as well. The main thing is enjoy the process as most of the results are the same.

good luck

[wkelley70]

I am new to reloading, so take my process for what it is worth .....

I use a vibratory case cleaner with Lizard Litter (crushed walnut) media and Flitz Tumbler/Media Additive.

I pick up my brass after firing it and drop it in the case cleaner. I do not wash it first.
After three hours in the case cleaner, I am happy with the results.

After removal from the case cleaner, I size/de-prime, trim/chamfer the cases then clean the primer pockets.