Need some help! I might have screwed up!

[poppy42]

Ok I need a little help! This probably sounds like it’s posted in the wrong place but bare with me a minute. It’s about tumbling brass, sorta kinda! Here goes! I tumbled a bunch of buckshot in my vibratory tumbler, with a small amount of graphite. Graphite in the form of about 1” of pencil lead. It worked great! Nocked off any of the small fins you get when using a Lee buckshot mold, along with taking care of the small nubs from separating the individual shot. To put it simply, it polished it quite nicely! Now for the problem! The graphite coated the bowl of my tumbler! I mean it looks like I molly coated it! I’ve cleaned it good with various different detergents, now if I wipe it with a paper towel it barely leaves a small black smudge on the paper towel! Is this going to be a problem when I tumble brass? Did I screw the pouch and have to buy a new tumbler? How can I clean it, if I even have to? I mean I tumbled about 15 pounds of 00 buckshot! It ought to hold me for awhile! It’s not like I need a tumbler just for buckshot! Any and all suggestions and advice would really be greatly appreciated!!!!!
Oh and mods if this is the wrong place please move it to the proper place

[Stew]

I just looked up how to remove graphite from a plastic surface. the two most popular methods. 1) Mix dish detergent with hot water and swish it a lot to form a lot of suds. Dip a cloth in the suds only and wipe the graphite out. 2) Simpler but more time consuming, was to use a soft eraser to take the graphite off. That's all I could find, good luck. Whether the graphite residue will coat brass, I couldn't tell you, but I would use some abundant brass say like 9mm and tumble it to see what results I get.
You didn't say which brand of tumbler you have, but I actually have a solution if that happened to me. I have a Lyman vibratory tumbler, the turbo 1200, and a few years ago I noticed the cover had some cracks in it. I tried to repair in a few different ways but eventually each failed. I looked to buy a replacement cover to no avail and decided to replace the entire bowl. The new replacement came with a new cover of course. I kept the old one and now I will have a use for it. Sorry for your problem, but thanks for the idea.

[brokeasajoke]

They make graphite neck lube for brass. You dip the neck into it to lube the neck for bullet seating. Unless you are concerned with exact neck tension I'm not sure it would be a problem.

[poppy42]

I just looked up how to remove graphite from a plastic surface. the two most popular methods. 1) Mix dish detergent with hot water and swish it a lot to form a lot of suds. Dip a cloth in the suds only and wipe the graphite out. 2) Simpler but more time consuming, was to use a soft eraser to take the graphite off. That's all I could find, good luck. Whether the graphite residue will coat brass, I couldn't tell you, but I would use some abundant brass say like 9mm and tumble it to see what results I get.
You didn't say which brand of tumbler you have, but I actually have a solution if that happened to me. I have a Lyman vibratory tumbler, the turbo 1200, and a few years ago I noticed the cover had some cracks in it. I tried to repair in a few different ways but eventually each failed. I looked to buy a replacement cover to no avail and decided to replace the entire bowl. The new replacement came with a new cover of course. I kept the old one and now I will have a use for it. Sorry for your problem, but thanks for the idea.

It’s a Frankford arsenal Tumblr. I’ll try to dishwashing liquid thing but as far as the eraser I need a awful big race at a remove all this graphite L O L. The next thing is I have some scrap range brass and I’m gonna try tumbling at to see what happens what it looks like. It’s a shame because it did a heckuva job Paul’s going to buckshot. Anyway thanks for your response

[Bazoo]

Howdy Poppy. I've never tumbled buckshot with graphite, but... I think removing the bowl and washing would probably get most if not all of it out.

I think just putting it back into service would wear it off, but it might cause your media to bite the dust sooner.

Sounds like a slick trick to get the Lee buckshot polished and lubed, thanks for the tip.

[Dusty Bannister]

When I use the dry media in the vibrating tumbler, I dampen several small cloth patches with mineral spirits and toss them in with the brass. The spirits seems to help attract the black debris. Maybe use extra pieces since you already have a lot of graphite in the bowl to deal with.

Edit: I use cloth since it is a thick material with more "room" between the fibers to accept debris and strong enough to survive hard use.

[racepres]

When I use the dry media in the vibrating tumbler, I dampen several small cloth patches with mineral spirits and toss them in with the brass. The spirits seems to help attract the black debris. Maybe use extra pieces since you already have a lot of graphite in the bowl to deal with.
Prolly the best bet...I too use dryer sheets...and at times put Mineral spirits on em...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

After you try to clean it...and get most out, them I would coat it with car wax. That should seal the leftover graphite to the plastic.

[gunseller]

I Just put a couple of Kleenex in with each batch. Media lasts for ever.

[Charliemac]

Maybe you can get another bowl and save that one for when you tumble buckshot again? Try a rag with some alcohol and give a good scrub and call it good. I’ll bet after awhile the walnut shell or corn cob will finish cleaning it up.

[country gent]

Im thinking a short run with corn cob and mineral spirts JUst enough to dampen the corn cobs will do it.

[Dusty Bannister]

Walnut hull will Scrub where the cob might be too soft.

[Winger Ed.]

I'd just wash it out as described and keep using it.

If any keeps coming out, no big deal,,, it's a lubricant anyway, what's it going to hurt?

[Bloodman14]

If you tumbled 15 pounds(!) of buckshot, could that be lead residue you are seeing? Isn't there some sort of lead wipe available you could use?

[gwpercle]

Wipe the bowl out with mineral spirits and paper towels ...
Then carry on with brass polishing .
there will be so little graphite left as to not harm a thing ...
A little graphite sometimes gets in mine from inside neck lubeing and it simply gets picked up by the media .
You haven't done any harm ... Keep On Keeping On !
Gary

[dondiego]

My tub has always been coated with tumbling crud. Just put the brass in and tumble it.

[jimb16]

Just put the brass in and tumble it with some torn up paper towel. The paper picks up any residue from the brass and any graphite that comes off the bowl. I helps clean your tumbling media at the same time. No big deal. I do it all the time after I tumble shot that I make for the shotguns.

[Stew]

By the way, I heard somewhere to have my wife save her old clothes dryer sheets and use them to collect the residue from tumbling. You might get that to work. It cleans my tumbler pretty well.

[sureYnot]

By the way, I heard somewhere to have my wife save her old clothes dryer sheets and use them to collect the residue from tumbling. You might get that to work. It cleans my tumbler pretty well.I've been trying to remember what I used to throw in the dry tumbler since this thread started. Those worked pretty slick.

[sigep1764]

I don't think graphite is gonna hurt the brass. I do however clean my tumbler bowl once a year. Lots of built up carbon and wax. Get some dish soap and hot water and scrub with a Magic Eraser scrubbing pad. Comes out like new.

[poppy42]

If you tumbled 15 pounds(!) of buckshot, could that be lead residue you are seeing? Isn't there some sort of lead wipe available you could use?
No it’s not lead residue, it’s graphite.

[poppy42]

Howdy Poppy. I've never tumbled buckshot with graphite, but... I think removing the bowl and washing would probably get most if not all of it out.

I think just putting it back into service would wear it off, but it might cause your media to bite the dust sooner.

Sounds like a slick trick to get the Lee buckshot polished and lubed, thanks for the tip.

Hey Bazoo! Sorry I didn’t respond to replies sooner, my email is supposed to notify me when someone replies to my thread but it didn’t! Yep it did a real nice job on the buckshot! Today I ran some scrap brass and some corn cob media that I got by mistake through the tumbler. This corn cob is way to big, it gets stuck in every flash hole in any brass I tumbled! It’s even clogged up the entire 5.56 case! But between the scrap brass and the junk corn cob it cleaned about 90% of the graphite out! I guess I was worried over nothing!

[poppy42]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the replies! Crisis averted! As I posted in a reply to Bazoo between washing it out and running some scrap brass and some corn cob that wasn’t much good for anything for a couple hours about 90% of the graphite was removed! I was quite relieved! I’m telling ya it looked like I moly coated the bowl of my tumbler lol! I thought it was ruined for cleaning brass! It wasn’t like it was a lot of graphite, about the equivalent of about 3/4” of lead out of a carpenters pencil! Anyway I guess it isn’t as big of a deal as I was afraid it was! Lesson learned! Anyway thanks for all the helpful replies! Greatly appreciated! Great forum with a great bunch of members!!!!!!!!

[Sasquatch-1]

If this is something you are going to do on a regular basis, you should look into getting a dedicated bowl for this. You may want to post a "Wanted To Buy" request. I have seen a lot of post about burnt out tumblers on the forum.

[Gobeyond]

Use some SOS.

[beagle]

Won't hurt anything. I tumble #4 buck in mine all the time with a dash of powdered graphite for locks. Then throw in "Lizzard Litter" pecan shells and have at it. Never noticed the difference. Been doing it for years in my RCBS Sidewinders./beagle

[trapper9260]

I use a hand roller that is use for round balls for ball and patch. I use it on my buckshot and takes care of it all . Some years ago I did a test with shooting 00 buck shot in a 410 . First test without roll the shot and the spread is no pattern , then I rolled the shot in the hand roller and use the same data and I had a pattern . Just for those that dose a small amount of shot and dose not want to put it in your tumbler. I use the cheap dryer sheets with my media to take care of the dust when I tumble my brass. I like the idea to use a cloth with mineral sprits . It got me thinking is the old cotton socks or anything like that would do a good job on this too for dust .