"used up" media

[rtracy2001]

I use a vibratory case cleaner, and I have reached the point that the media is quite loaded with dirt. (Shotshells come out dirtier than when they went in, and brass comes out dusty). I have been told that the media itself isn't really worn out or used up, but the dirt must be separated form it to restore the effectiveness. I have tried cutup dryer sheets, and they seem to remove a lot of dirt, but nowhere near enough. Is there a convenient way to remove the dirt? If not, is there a convenient use for used media (both walnut and corncob). Being the parsimonious sort that I am, if it is good for anything I'll use it before throwing it out.

Thanks!

[XTR]

Flux with it.

[MtGun44]

Drop in a paper towel torn into strips while it is running. About three treatments will
remove almost all the dirt. It sifts into the towels making them black and removing
it from the media.

Bill

[rtracy2001]

Flux with it.

Brilliant!! Thanks!

[billyb]

I have washed the walnut media with a little dish soap, rinsed and spread out on old towels to dry in the sun. I would not try to wash the corncob, it would probly absorb to much water. I left a 5 gallon bucket half full of the corn media outside and it rained soaking the corn. It swelled up and before I returned from a trip it had molded and stunk! I use old media to remove the lube from sized case's. A couple hours removes the lube. Bill

[mac60]

Just toss it and get some of this.

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

You'll get a big ol' sack that'll last a good long time. While you're at go to wally world and get a bottle of NuFinish car polish - add a couple capfulls to your media. The media is small enough to not get stuck in the flash holes. It's good stuff.

[pls1911]

Too cheap to mess with.
Go to the pet store and buy wanut or corn cob media used for cage lining, litter boxes, or reptile media. It works fine and is MUCH cheaper than the same stuff labeled for brass polishing.
Add a little brass polish of your choice and you're good to go.
Spread the old media out in the yard....
Load it in shotgun shells for cats, squirrels etc. ...
Make lightweight epoxy filler or concrete...
Use your imagination...or just put it in the trash.

[rtracy2001]

I already buy my walnut media at Petco, $5 for 20L is enough to fill the cleaner about 3 times, and it is small enough that it does not get stuck in the flash holes. Any recomendations on the polish? Will the Nu-Finish work with the walnut as well as corncob?

[mac60]

I don't think it really matters. The good thing about the NuFinish is that it leaves a coating on the brass that will keep it from tarnishing for a good long time.

[coleman]

After about 15k on my lizard litter w/nufinish my brass wasnt getting shiney, put clean. Somewhere i read to put low odor mineral spirts in and with a few dyrer sheets it cleaned up very well and my brass came back with a shine. might try this and see what happens.

[Lloyd Smale]

walnut bedding at the feed store is cheap enough that i change it often and dont let it get bad enough to worry about.

[jcwit]

Pitch it in a safe manner, its loaded with lead compounds.

[kd185]

run the tumbler out side with the lid off
all of the dust and grit will float away and you'll be left with good clean media

[Sasquatch-1]

I also use the lizard litter from petco. Cheap enough that you don't have to worry about recycling for some other use. I use a bit of Iosso case brite in the media. The cases come out like new on the outside, cleans the primer pocket fairly well, but leaves the inside of the case dark. (The only thing I have heard of that cleans the inside well is the stainless media and you need a rotory tumbler for that.) Mind you that the inside is cleaned a bit and gets out all the loose stuff but does not get the darkness out. Also, don't but you brass in damp (case lube is OK) the media will clump on the inside and have to be loosened in some way. I usually put them in a small bucket with some sort of lid and shake vigorously to remove any stuck media.

[historicfirearms]

I tried the lizard bedding once while doing some 5.56 cases. The media was just the right size to get stuck in about 75% of the case necks and 95% of the primer pockets. Maybe I bought the wrong stuff, but it about ruined that batch of brass. Being frugal, I hated to trow out good brass, but maybe 10% of it I just couldn't get the media out of the necks.

[Dan Cash]

I tried the lizard bedding once while doing some 5.56 cases. The media was just the right size to get stuck in about 75% of the case necks and 95% of the primer pockets. Maybe I bought the wrong stuff, but it about ruined that batch of brass. Being frugal, I hated to trow out good brass, but maybe 10% of it I just couldn't get the media out of the necks.

Run the brass back through your sizing die and load it with a moderate load. Bang, the media is gone.

[dragonrider]

Wash it, cut the leg of a pair of panty hose, be sure there are no runs in it. More importantly be sure it is not your wifes last pair. Pour it in tie off the end fill sink with water some dish soap and mash it round for a while. Rinse thouroughly several times, hang on a nail to drip dry overnight then spread out to dry in the sun or on cookie sheets in the oven 200 degrees.

[dromia]

The stuff I use is called reptile sand, it runs like water, too small to get stuck in flash holes and cleans the best of all the dry tumbling media I've tried.

[Sasquatch-1]

The only time I have had problems with the lizard litter lodging in the brass is when the brass is damp. In that case I run it in the tumbler for about an hour, dump it, place it in a bucket with a lid and shake vigorously to dislodge the media from the case. I then place it back in the tumbler over night and the cases come out bright and shiney. I repeat the bucket routine when done just to make sure no media is left in the case.

[rtracy2001]

run the tumbler out side with the lid off
all of the dust and grit will float away and you'll be left with good clean media

Yeah. . .
UMM, NO.

The stuff I get from Petco is super fine. Desert sand or something like that. Never had a problem with it getting stuck in the flash holes.

I think this stuff is probably beyond salvaging as I have done several thousand range pickup cases, so I'll just start over using the dryer sheet/paper towel suggestion to maintain clean media as opposed to trying to clean up this stuff.

I will ty the flux idea, it should work well as fine as it is.

[Sasquatch-1]

Yeah. . .
The stuff I get from Petco is super fine. Desert sand or something like that. Never had a problem with it getting stuck in the flash holes.


I will ty the flux idea, it should work well as fine as it is.

I use the same stuff. It's called the desert mix. Just remember if you use as flux you will be scoping out the sand when you are done. I don't know how much is in it, But if any gets in your spout on a bottom pour you could have leaks.

[arkypete]

I'll bet that your bride will generate dryer sheets faster then you can dirty them. With every load drop a couple, three in you'll catch the old crud and pick up some of the new.
I keep a handful of the plastic grocery bags to put the used dryer sheets in, while I accumulate a bag full.

Jim

[StratsMan]

There is a common element in many of the posts here: adding liquid to your tumbling media keeps the dust down... Whether it's small amounts of brass polish, water, mineral spirits or lamp oil (my choice), liquid additives stop dust from building up. Heck, it looks to me like they stop dust from forming in the first place. Personally, I've found that removing the bulk of the dirt, grime, case lube, etc BEFORE tumbling (I soak my brass in degreaser) is the key to long media life. I haven't changed my walnut/cob media for about 3 years. I've probably tumbled no more than 10K cases in that time, but this media still dries my brass and leaves a long lasting shine after about 30 minutes of tumbling... And if I forget about the tumbler for 2 hours... wow...

[Jim]

When I shoot test loads, I use a Sharpie marker to write a code of some sort on the cases so I can keep track of the loads as I shoot. The down side of this practice is I need to get the ink off the cases.

I shoot several shots of Simple Green or some equivalent in the media just before I screw the lid down. The brass comes out looking great, the ink is gone and there's no dust.

That's my story an' I'm stickin' to it.

[LongPoint]

For cartridge brass I use the lizzard litter and nu-finish, when it gets funky, it gets tossed. For shotgun shells, I size-deprime then put them in one of them little ladies under garment bags,tie it shut and toss them in the clothes washer with some cascade dishwasher detergent and put them through a wash cycle. Let them air dry and load them up. They look brand new. I forget where I read that, might have been here, I don't remember. Good Luck.

LongPoint

[BD]

You can wash walnut media. Just put in in a five gallon pail with some soapy water for 5 min and then rinse it, screen it and spread it on an old sheet in the sun to dry. Corn cob, not so much. The main thing you should be doing is washing your brass in soapy water before you tumble it. While this will make your media last much longer, that's not the reason to do it. The reason is that it will put the lead styphanate dust, (primer residue), into solution so it gets rinsed away, keeping it out of your media dust, and your lungs. IMHO, (backed by 25 years of research using my own bll as the subject), the lead dust from tumbling media ranks second only to shooting in indoor ranges as the primary cause of lead poisoning in shooting enthusiasts. Easy to avoid, so just "Do It".
BD

[rtracy2001]

I shoot several shots of Simple Green or some equivalent in the media just before I screw the lid down. The brass comes out looking great, the ink is gone and there's no dust.

I like that one Jim, mostly because I like the smell of Simple Green.

I do need to get setup to wash first, have to do some research unless someone has some photos to share.

[Mal Paso]

Orange Oil is another good cleaner I've added to media.

[RP]

I was very happy to see this I was thinking how dam cheap I was being for washing my media. I have washed my media three times now and still using it. I use walnut pet type and for some reason it dose not float. So I dump it in a bucket fill with water soap or what ever cleaner I have. Then I put my water hose in and run water stirring it up until the water runs clear.

[Alzado]

I pour my used corn cob media into empty shot bags and sew up the end. Makes great sandbags for shooting and they're light.

[dromia]

I pour my used corn cob media into empty shot bags and sew up the end. Makes great sandbags for shooting and they're light.


Concur, just don't let them get wet!

[200swc]

Too cheap to mess with.
Go to the pet store and buy wanut or corn cob media used for cage lining, litter boxes, or reptile media. It works fine and is MUCH cheaper than the same stuff labeled for brass polishing.
Add a little brass polish of your choice and you're good to go.
Spread the old media out in the neighbor's yard....
Load it in shotgun shells for cats, squirrels etc. ...
Make lightweight epoxy filler or concrete...
Use your imagination...or just put it in the trash.

Does it work like fertilizer

[JLDickmon]

no. more like filler.

When you do the dryer sheet trick, it's better to cut the sheet into strips.

Now, I do the lizard bedding trick, too.. and some call what I do a waste of time & money...

When I have dirty brass, I throw it in the tumbler with walnut media/lizard bedding to clean it.

When I'm done tumbling and separating, I put that media in a gallon ice cream bucket and put a lid on it. This is the stuff that's gonna have lead styphenate in it.

Then I put a gallon of corn cob media with a two cups of powdered Lemi-Shine added..
in this, is where my loaded ammo goes for a final clean & polish.

why do I do it this way?
just seemed like the thing to do at the time..

[W.R.Buchanan]

I use it till it is really dirty,,, then I put into my trash can. AT $12 for a 25 lb bag it is not worth messing with. Especially when you consider how long you can run it in the first place. One tumbler load lasts me for over a year of use and I run my brass for 24 hours each time, so why mess with it. It's not like you are going to save any significant amount of money. I figure $1/year is an acceptable expense. Even if you were processing a large quantity of brass, say 30K cases, if you wore out the media it cost you $1 in materials. Is this too much $ to write off? Seems kind of pointless to stress over this issue.

I find that running it for less than 24 hours doesn't get all the brass completely clean. I use Dillon Case polish too, so how do you guys get decent results only running for an hour or so?

Now the stuff that is a real problem is the Lyman material with the jewlers rouge in it. I put a whole jug of the stuff into my medium sized Tumbler, and did a bunch of .30-06 cases. MY gawd what a mess ! I closed the lid and set the machine asside 3 years ago and haven't had the courage to open it back up. It took me two days to get the rouge off my hands. It will take me an hour or so to clean it out of he machine and another two days to get it off my hands again. That media will be going into a plastic bag and then the trash as I don't want to make a mess of that too. Maybe I'll wear rubber gloves this time.

So just use it and loose it. Lifes too short!

Randy

[gray wolf]

If you flux with it I bet you only do it once. The fumes will knock you down.

This is the way to go V
Just toss it and get some of this.


http://www.drillspot.com/products/52...bs_blast_media

You'll get a big ol' sack that'll last a good long time. While you're at go to wally world and get a bottle of NuFinish car polish - add a couple capfulls to your media. The media is small enough to not get stuck in the flash holes. It's good stuff.

[willy3]

Make sure to store media with a lid on.. I had a half of a 5 gallon bucket of walnut media in my garage without a lid and a stray cat decided to turn it into a litter box.. Let's just say that what that cat left behind in that bucket could not be mistaken for flowers... :(

[Sasquatch-1]

Now the stuff that is a real problem is the Lyman material with the jewlers rouge in it. I put a whole jug of the stuff into my medium sized Tumbler, and did a bunch of .30-06 cases. MY gawd what a mess ! I closed the lid and set the machine asside 3 years ago and haven't had the courage to open it back up. It took me two days to get the rouge off my hands. It will take me an hour or so to clean it out of he machine and another two days to get it off my hands again. That media will be going into a plastic bag and then the trash as I don't want to make a mess of that too. Maybe I'll wear rubber gloves this time.

So just use it and loose it. Lifes too short!

Randy

The next time you get the rouge on your hands try spraying some Carbarator cleaner on them. I haven't founf anything that it won't take off. Just make sure you don't have any cuts or scapes on your hands. OUCH :shock:

[myg30]

When I need to add the mineral spirts to the media, I like to wet the drier strips with it. It saves me from running the tumbler to mix it so no clumping, The wet sheet strips will attract all the dust and fine dirt. Adding nufinish, I mix it with some of the mineral spirts to thin it out and run the tumbler for an hour to mix it in good.
De priming the brass first helps keep the media cleaner longer and less powder residue.
I tumble with a timer on about 3-4 hrs.
Both the walnut and the corn cob get the same treatment as above. Works fer me as my brass is indoor range pick up.
Outdoor pick ups might get the water soap pre wash to get the dirt,grass,ants and spiders out of them before the tumbler.

Merry Christmas, Mike

[atr]

interesting thread.....thanks.....

[dragonrider]

In post #17 I mentioned that I wash my media and how I do it. What I did not say was that I use corncob media, it washes very well, comes out looking like new. Drying it in the oven is the key. Containing it in the pantyhose leg works well also. I have been doing this for years. Eventually you do have the toss it as the individual particles get smaller with use, in time they are too small to be effective. The longest I have use a particular batch is six years, washing it once or twice a year.

[Netherwolf]

After about 15k on my lizard litter w/nufinish my brass wasnt getting shiney, put clean. Somewhere i read to put low odor mineral spirts in and with a few dyrer sheets it cleaned up very well and my brass came back with a shine. might try this and see what happens.

That works. I know from personal experience.
Netherwolf

[John Allen]

Take an old pair of pants and cut the leg off and make yourself a sandbag rest.