Rice in the brass tumbler

[Nora]

I've had the same corn cob media in my tumbler for about 15 years now. It's long past it's prime as a cleaner / polisher. So wile I was in the kitchen shopping for reloading supplies I stumbled across a 20 lb bag of medium grain Jasmine rice. I'd heard mention of using it to clean brass befor, so I thought I'd give it a try. That stuff did an awesome job at cleaning. It didn't polish it shiny but did it ever clean up in a hurry. The only draw backs that I can see is that it is louder than corn cob, and there was a grain stuck in almost every primer hole. But for the job it did it's worth the extra time to clear all the flash holes.

Just thought I'd share

Nora

[archmaker]

Thanks, I have to check the primer pockets anyway, so it sounds like you have found an alternative.

I have heard that some people are using crushed walnut hulls they found in the pet section.

[Tom W.]

I've tried a lot of different stuff over the years, and found that the stuff made for the tumblers is the best. Lizard bedding, cat litter, rice, cracked corn, grits, cream of wheat or whatever, it's always come back to what's designed to be used. However, If you want to try rice, go ahead. But be sure that you get it all out of your case before you put your powder in. It's really strange to find a grain of rice on the shooting bench....

[anachronism]

Don't waste food. Lizard litter is cheap & readily available.

[GP100man]

rice will work but it`ll get goooeeyyy with lube & humidity, don`t ask how i know!!
+1 for lizard litter . the bigger bag you buy the cheaper it is.

GP100man:cbpour:

[HeavyMetal]

I have used rice with a little comet and it is indeed a fast cleaner for very dirty brass.

The down side is it doesn't work well, at least for me, in smaller case's like 223. The stuff packed into a few hundred I tried it in and I spent an evening digging it out with a dental probe!

I'm not a big rice eater so the occasional purchase as a media should only help the growers. If I was selling tons of brass and need to run a large cleaning operation I'd have to reasearch to find the fastest cheapest way to clean a lot of brass and I don't think rice would be it.

The suggestion that media be purchased for the intended use is a good one. I've yet to see anything in a pet store that I was interested in buying. However I have purchased both sizes of walnut shell blasting media from Harbor Freight and have had some mild success with it.

Ned to find a way to imbed some rouge in it though.

[Willbird]

I had some whole wheat grains and tossed it in there, it worked OK, but not nearly as good as the other stuff we use in case tumblers.

Bill

[Ancesthntr]

Go buy some walnut and corn cob media at a farm supply store in 25# bags (and get the smallest pieces they have). I bought both about 3 years ago for $35 or so, and that'll last my many years.

I mix about 2/3 walnut to 1/3 corn cob to get both cleaning and polishing done in one load (the walnut cleans, the corn cob polishes). You can, of course, do a full load of each, but then you'll run your tumbler twice as much (and I've already burned out a machine, and don't really want to buy another anytime soon).

Here's hint to make the media last longer: get a used dryer sheet and rip it into 4 strips, and put that into your media. It'll trap a bunch of dirt and primer residue. Pick it out while wearing gloves, and don't breath while doing so - primer residue isn't exactly healthy, and there's plenty of easily breathed and absorbed dust containing it. Use a covered garbage can. But the strips keep the mixture clean for a lot longer.

Last hint: if you want to really polish stuff up, get a bottle of Nu-Finish liquid wax (about 5 or 6 bucks, lasts for many, many tumbles). Pour about a cap full into the media and tumble it alone for 5 or 10 minutes before putting in your cases. Bright and shiny is the result. You can even use it once every other load if you'd like, it hangs around for a while.

[Russel Nash]

^^^ that is spot on.

the only thing I do differently is instead of the Nu-Finish car polish I will dribble in several drops of odorless mineral spirits.

In addition to the used dryer sheets, the mineral spirits also cuts down on the dust, which you can inhale.

I haven't tried this myself but I have heard that auto body shop/paint suppliers will have the crushed walnut shells in 50 pound bags for cheap. It is used kinda like sandblasting media to strip paint and/or rust without eating through things as easily as the true sandblasting stuff does.

[Beekeeper]

heavymetal,

I use the crushed walnut lizzard litter sold at the local feed store, they also sell corncob.
I saw a post elsewhere where the poster was using Bon Ami ( similar to comet but not as harsh) and gave it a try.
Found it works great, gives a polish similar to brand new cases, and they have not tarnished ( test cases) after setting out for a month. By out I mean on a shelf in the garage not outside.
I stopped buying the RCBS polish and use the Bon Ami on everything now.

I have never tried the corncob media yet , does anyone have any good feedback on it versas the crushed walnut media?



beekeeper

[Cap'n Morgan]

Rice for tumbling...

In another forum I saw someone recommend the kind of rice you would use for porridge. The grains were more round and less prone to stick in the primer pockets. He also suggested heating the rice to about 300 F for an hour to make the rice grains harder.

[legend]

for those that dont know.....

most rehab sections in hospitals have to change out corncobs they use.

i microwave it for a minute,then store it in the jugs they give me.

its called celstim.

[high standard 40]

All need to be careful when adding any kind of chemical to assist in polishing brass. Best not to use anything with ammonia which will weaken the brass. It won't be something you see after one use but it will weaken the case and shorten it's life.

[Calehedron]

Harbor Freight sells 20/40 grit walnut shell blasting media in 25# boxes for $25. Its very fine, flows thru flash holes. I use the Frankford Arsenal polish, has orange extract in it.

[NavyVet1959]

Being from Louisiana originally, I guess I eat a bit more rice than some of the people around here. I usually buy it at the restaurant supply stores and it goes for around $15-17 per 50-lb bag, IIRC. I store it in 2-liter soft-drink bottles that have been washed out and dried very well.

Hmmm... That reminds me... Need to check the deep freeze to see if I have any gumbo put up... The weather has been a bit nippy lately and some gumbo sure would taste good right about now...

I recently got a free electric dryer that someone was giving away. They claimed that it "didn't work". I gave the guy some suggestions on how to fix it given various symptoms, but he just wanted to get rid of it since he had already bought a new one. I didn't need another dryer, so I just disassembled it to see what parts I could salvage from it. From the amount of lint that I found in it, I doubt that it was ever cleaned and the brass bushing on the idler pulley was so worn that the steel axle that went through it was wearing the plastic of the pulley pretty badly. But, after cleaning up the motor and applying power to it, it runs perfectly, so I'm thinking of making some sort of rotating tumbler out of it. I already have a vibratory tumbler, but that thing is just so noisy I don't like to run it. Plus, it will "walk" across whatever you put it on. I made the mistake of putting it on a table ONCE... I then ended up having to do some repairs to fix it after it dropped off the table. I only let it run on the floor now and it can only walk as far as the electric cord will let it go. If it tries to go further, it pulls the plug out of the outlet. :)

[trapper9260]

Years ago I had got some ground walnut shells of Lyman that had the mix of polish in it .So I run my brass first in it and then I size and deprime and then I use ground up corn cobs that I had a farmer do for me in his feed mill for me.I do have to pick some of the ground cobs out of bottle neck cases. But that dose not matter to me.It polish up the cases good enough for me.

[redriverhunter]

I have tried rice worked ok. I would make sure you separate it as soon as it is done did some 30.06 bass and left it the tumbler over night and the rice swelled up and was heck getting out of the cases.

[308Jeff]

The used dryer sheets do absorb the gunk, but they slow the speed of the media in the tumbler which extends the time it takes to get the brass clean.

I buy my corncob and walnut from a local media blasting supply company. Usually works out to 40-70 cents a pound, and a 50lb bag will last you a long, long time.

Now that I have a wet tumbler, my vibratory tumblers have been relegated to cleaning off case lube and powder coating duties.

[lightman]

I also buy ground corncob from blasting supply companies. I've tried about everything you can think of and keep coming back to corncob, if I don't wet tumble. Just FYI, a bushel of rices brings about $5 at the dryer. I've used it with the hull on it and its pretty fast. You can shovel up a trash can full about anywhere that they are loading/unloading trucks during harvest time. I probably hauled 70,000 bushels for a friend this past fall!

[country gent]

Supply House have corn cob and walnut hulls very reasonable, I think the last 50 lb bag of corn cob I bought was less than $20.00. A 50 lb bag lasts a long time. Corn cob, walnut, rice, Baking soda, sand, glass beads are all used in sand blasting for various finishes and reasons. In the food industry when cleaning equipment to be repaired rice is often used to blast. Corn cobs give a good polish and arnt as abrasive on softer materials. Walnut is used for heavier build ups on soft materials and the polish isn't as nice. Baking soda is used for fiberglass and plastics.
I have tried rice in the vibratory and it works well cleaning the plugged flash holes and on smaller cases the plugged cases wernt worth it. We used fine ground walnut at work to deburr small parts and stampings in bigger tumblers and vibratories. These units held 50-75lbs of corncobs. These some times had a small amount of oil and polish added to them to improve finish. Experiment with them some. I add a small amount of Iosso brass polish to con cobs every second or third run. A shreaded paper towel or 2 ran for 1/2 hour 45 mins will remove a lot of crud and or dust from the media also. I have seen automotive rubbing compound added to corn cobs also. Nufinish also works well. I run for 20-30 mins when adding the polishes before adding brass to get it distributed thru the media.

[Thin Man]

Hey - NavyVet1959... I have (had) the same problem you described for a runaway tumbler. I cured that with a small square of carpet with the rubber backing on it. Take a carpet piece large enough to fit completely under the base of the tumbler plus a few inches for insurance, but not so large that it gets in your way when walking around it. Place the tumbler on it and it will stand in place until you shut it off. Enjoy.

[Soundguy]

to protect my good treated media, i use a hopper of plain rice on all range pickup. it cleans well enough, and when it is sand contaminated.. I can toss it without much $ loss.

[HangFireW8]

Rice is too large, as HeavyMetal noted it packs in smaller bottleneck cases, and in flash holes. It'll do in a pinch, but you'll soon tire of unpacking stuffed cases. If you have to use it, drying it and cracking it might be in order, but cracked rice won't last as long, so may not be worth the effort.

Ancesthntr gets everything right about dry tumbling, as Russel Nash adds you can put mineral spirits in to reduce dust, no reason you can't use both mineral spirits and Nu-Finish both.

But I have moved on, since my big vibratory died, and getting a most excellent gift of a Thumbler's Model B, to which I add a squirt of Dawn and a dash of Nu-Finish. The quiet gives me the ability to work in the same room, which is priceless. But vibratory cleaning served me well for decades, just had to get in the habit of turning it on while I wasn't going to be around, so I can't put it down, it does work.

[Soundguy]

I shoot 218 bee.. That's a pretty small bottlenecked case.

I've been doing the rice thing for years. Have yet to ever have a packed case.

Once in a blue moon something finds a primer hole, but its usually a bit of cob media broken down, in ant case, decap pushes it out.

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=s: Around my house,the only place that rice goes is in the cook pot and then onto my plate.Anything else is a waste of food.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Duckiller]

I wouldn't eat the rice! Broken shells or hard animal bedding works great to clean brass. Small allen wrench will clean primer holes.

[NavyVet1959]

[smilie=s: Around my house,the only place that rice goes is in the cook pot and then onto my plate.Anything else is a waste of food.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

Then cook it and give it to the dog... Mix some used cooking oil and salt in it and a dog will eat *anything*. Of if you think that it might be detrimental to your dog, then mix it with some anti-freeze and give it to the neighbor cat-lady's herd of feline vermin.

I see rice at the restaurant supply stores for around $15 per 50 lb bag. That's cheaper than dog food. I noticed quite a few people giving away multiple gallons of used peanut oil after Turkey Day. Apparently they did a fried turkey for the holiday and don't do enough deep frying throughout the rest of the year to keep it and reuse it.

I just got through fixing some mashed potatoes for dinner and had a large container of potato skins. I put them in a pot with some used deep fry oil and some salt and let them cook for awhile, periodically stirring them. Put it out for the dog and it was gone in no time.

[tmc-okc]

Sorry NavyVet---- but those deep fried and garlic salted potato skins ( with a sprikling of black pepper ) go in my mouth. Dang dogs will just have to find something else to eat.. lol

[shdwlkr]

something else you can do to keep media from getting all gunked up is take a paper towel and tear it up and put in the media, you don't need dryer sheets. Did that for many years and it kept my media useful. Being cheap I always used to look for the cheapest way to get something done. YMMV

[hornet112]

Throw away you tumbler and buy a wet tumbling system 50 or 350 rounds SS can't be beat.

[HCH]

I've used rice with good results on straightwall cases. Not so much on bottlenecks.

[Bama]

+1 for Nu Finish, really cleans the powder stained necks

[Echo]

Generally use ground corn cobs OR ground walnut shells, whatever I have, and add a dollop of mineral spirits and about a teaspoon of jeweler's rouge. I bought a packet of JR several years ago, and am still using from that packet - it doesn't take much. Put both in a fresh batch of media and run for about 20-30 minutes to distribute. Have to replace the dollop of MS sometime, but the JR lasts the life of the media. And also put in a used dryer sheet, removing when it looks like it has done as much as it can...

[detox]

Finer grit corn cob media will not get stuck in flash holes. I also like adding a little mineral spirits to vibratory for better case cleaning.

[Larry Gibson]

I've been using rice for probably 45 years in a Thumbler M-B and a couple vibrators that gave up the ghost. I use the cheapest long stemmed rice available at oriental stores. I don't worry about throwing it away after it gets used quite a bit. I've tried most all the other media along the way and keep going back to rice because it works quite well.

The only time I had any problems with it compacting in cases was when I added a liquid "cleaner" and didn't let it dry sufficiently. I clean cases from 22 Hornet up through 45-70 w/o problems. Sometimes with 223s I separated the rice and then put the cases back in the thumbler/vibrator for a minute and it gets the rest out of the cases.

Here is some 7.62x54R still in the sifter cleaned in rice, as you can see it does a nice job.

210955

[Soundguy]

Same results I've seen.