Sieve size Walnut media

[dromia]

I've been offered 1/2cwt bags of ground walnut media at £20 a bag, a good price here in the UK.

The guy has sent me the size as grade 25/52 or 300-600 microns.

What does that mean in relation to the usual size for tumbling, is it too fine, to coarse or OK?

I can't see the stuff to form a view and these numbers don't mean anything to me.

[MtGun44]

Fact:
300 microns is about .012" and 600 is double that or .024".

Speculation:
I assume (you know what that means!) that the grains fall
between these two size limits. The other two are probably
the "passes thru and stopped by" screen guages, which
I THINK is the number of wires per inch, so 25 wires per
inch passes it and 52 wires per inch catches it. Maybe, I
think. . . . Don't trust that, and no idea how thick a wire
might be to calculate hole sizes for 25 wires.

I don't know, but I think this .018"+-.006" small for tumbling,
but may be small enough to fall out of the flash holes rather
than stick in them, the usual reason stated for wanting larger
grain sizes is grains stuck in flashholes which run around
.060" - .070" IIRC.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[dromia]

Thanks Bill,

Now its in inches I have a picture in my head, that is a lot finer than you usually get but as you say blocked primer holes shouldn't be a problem but will it still clean as effectively as the usual size?

£20 a bag is expensive just to experiment with.

Anyone have any experience using this fine stuff.

[9.3X62AL]

There MUST be a happy medium here. I once found some really fine corncob grit that did a great job untreated at removing sizing lube, and at cleaning 223 and 22-250 cases without bridging in the case and at the case mouth. I'm unable to find more at this time, but am headed for Petsmart in a few minutes to try again. The Lyman red and green compounds are not only expensive, but jam up in 22-24 caliber case mouths.

[mooman76]

Dromia
A lot of us get out walnut from pet stores in the section for reptiles and such. It is usually about as cheap as you could find it without buying in giant bulk sizes and it is still in bulk form. Might you have something like that there?

[dromia]

Thanks Moonman but the pet emporiums don't sell it over here, been round them all small large and the chains like pets'r'us (?)

Even been to the odd reptile specialist as I've seen you guys describe it as reptile litter just vacant looks upon enquiry.

Now if I was looking for flux they have hay and woodchips in abundance but walnut/corncob gets vacant looks.:roll:

[Scrounger]

Thanks Moonman but the pet emporiums don't sell it over here, been round them all small large and the chains like pets'r'us (?)

Even been to the odd reptile specialist as I've seen you guys describe it as reptile litter just vacant looks upon enquiry.

Now if I was looking for flux they have hay and woodchips in abundance but walnut/corncob gets vacant looks.:roll:

Do they have feed stores, where a farmer might buy feed for his chickens or pigs? Check them out...

[ebner glocken]

In some of the walmart supercenters you can find it in the pet asile.

[mooman76]

Pet stores gave me the blank stare also. They didn't really know what they were selling because the had it the whole time.

[BigCheese]

One test is worth a hundred expert opinions. I just took a random sample of my walnut medium purchased as pet litter and measured them with a vernier caliper. The grains are irregular, and will yield different dimensions depending on the random orientation in the caliper jaws. For an approximate size I got the following values (inches): .037; .038; .046; .049; .052; .058

This size works very well. I hope this information is useful to you.

[arkypete]

A suggestion.
Get some fiberglass screening and sift your walnit media to get the dust out of it. That dust darn near did me in when I first used pet store litter.
Jim

[MtGun44]

I second the walnut media dust issue. Walnut trees are really
biowarfare experts. No small trees will grow in their root area
as they put out a toxin into the soil to kill competitors. Also,
the dust from walnut wood is moderately toxic and many
woodworkers have become sensitize to walnut to the extent
that they cannot come into contact with the wood without
serious reactions.

I have noted that walnut dust from vibratory cleaners tastes
quite strongly in the air and I worry about getting allergic to walnut,
which - given the number of walnut stocked rifles I have would
be a MAJOR disaster. So, I stick with corncob. I could stand
to not eat corn or corn chips the rest of my life, but couldn't
stand not being able to handle walnut wood! :roll:

Bill