Horrible freight media

[salpal48]

I recently was @ horrible freight and they had walnut media on sale. . I normally use Zilla. Or get my Course special blend grit from Cramer Industries which. is close Buy. For 15.00 Bucks i got 25 lb of the fine.
I only Rotary tumble . I use a Sears Vertical 6lb and a Highland Park 12Lb Commercial Tumbler . Cases were dirty . and Un washed.. The results with that media was bad. after Overnight Tumble the cases were cleaned and polished very little. . Very dusty media , and useless. . The media seems to Break down to a fine Powder .
Anyone else Use this stuff
Sal

[Kilroy08]

I've got a box of it that I've been working on for about the past 5 years. In my vibratory tumblers, a cap full or so of Nu Finish car polish and some mineral spirits will perk things up. Just make sure to let it run for about 20 minutes to mix things up before adding any brass.

[lightman]

I've never used Harbor Freight. I got my Corncob from a place called Drillspot, but it shipped from Granger.

[RogerDat]

I've got a box of it that I've been working on for about the past 5 years. In my vibratory tumblers, a cap full or so of Nu Finish car polish and some mineral spirits will perk things up. Just make sure to let it run for about 20 minutes to mix things up before adding any brass.

With walnut shell I saw a suggestion to use the approach suggested by kilroy08 and it does work much better. Maybe a shot glass worth of mineral spirits and a drizzle of Nu Finish (orange bottle car polish) and the dust is a non-issue plus it just works a lot better. I don't mix for 20 minutes at least not after the initial treatment. Maybe 3 - 5 minutes each time I add a "fresher" to the mix. I'm using the Zilla from the pet store.

[flyingmonkey35]

Zilla from the pet store and a half a dryer sheet for the dust.

[rbuck351]

I use the Lizard litter with about a teaspoon of auto rubbing compound and a half a teaspoon of Cerium oxide which is a rock polishing compound. I put the lid on and don't worry about the dust. They come out very clean and shiny with a bit of what appears to be wax from the rubbing compound on them.

[mdi]

I haven't tried any media from HF, but I've tried just about everything conceivable for tumbling media (beach sand, Good Mews cat litter, rice and dried peas/beans, wood chips, charcoal granules, glass beads (blast media), ceramic and hard plastic tumbling media and mebbe a half dozen I can't remember right now) and found dedicated blast media works the best. Choose either crushed walnut or ground corn cob, the blast media is made for polishing/deburring metal and does work better than pet bedding (and costs less). After all my "experiments" I just settled on corn cob blast media, 14-20 grit http://www.drillspot.com/products/499763/econoline_526020g-40_40_lbs_blast_media Occasionally I'll use auto polish (I don't like adding any rouge or other abrasive/polishing compound to my media), and for really tough cleaning I'll add a handful of hard plastic pyramids (3/8"), but commercial blast media alone does a good job...

[jimofaz]

On a whim, I recently tried a box of RCBS 'pre-treated' walnut shell case polishing media, and was not impressed. Cases were just plain 'ol .45 ACP that I like to clean the desert dirt off of before running thru a sizer die. They came out not as polished as I usually get with ground corn cob media with a dab of Nu Finish liquid car polish. Cases had a thin layer of dust remaining on them after vigorous rotary separation . Had a lot more dirty dust rising into the air when dumping the Dillon vibratory bowl load into a Dillon separator than i get with CC. I had de-primed the cases prior to tumbling, and at least 50% of the flash holes were plugged with a small chunk of walnut for my effort. They needed sizing anyway, so that was a wash in this instance. Maybe the RCBS media would work better with the RCBS rotary tumbler, but think I will stick with the CC (#1020 - IIRC) that I buy locally in 50 lb. bags.

[lancem]

I get mine from McMaster Carr, I get the fine, it is small enough to flow through primer holes so no blockage. I put in a teaspoon of Iron Oxide (jewlers rouge) and they come out looking like new.

[Pee Wee]

I've got a box of it that I've been working on for about the past 5 years. In my vibratory tumblers, a cap full or so of Nu Finish car polish and some mineral spirits will perk things up. Just make sure to let it run for about 20 minutes to mix things up before adding any brass.
This is what I also do.
also works great for me, this 25lb. box will last me a lift time. $19.00 with coupon.