Addressing dust from cleaning cases with dry media.

[cwtebay]

yup me too. A bit of new finish and no dust.

Both of your experience is similar to mine - but a question for both of you is how frequently do you replace the media in your tumbler?
Seems like the more it's used, the more it breaks down into dust. Also have noticed that pistol brass leads to faster break down of the media as compared to larger rifle brass. I've assumed that it's from greater surface area with the smaller cases?
My older Lyman tumbler is dusty no matter what I do, but covering the top with press and seal plastic wrap before putting the lid on takes care of it quite nicely.
And yes, some clever company needs to relabel lizard litter as vibratory media - it is far superior to anything else I have ever used.

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[country gent]

I use a vibratory lyman with each batch I add a cap full of new finish and a cap full of the Iosso brass polish to the corn cob run 10 mins to distribute add brass and clean this gives a high shine land low dust. dampening the medias very slightly goes a long way to cutting dust. I have added a couple ounces of alcohol to soeed up the distribution. but it evaporates fast.

Ar work on the polished parts corn cob was used and the light grinding oil on the parts treated the media in short order and little to no dust was produced. You might try a few drops of clp or even veggie oil in the media to reduce dust and it will "soften" the abrasiveness. Its hard to give amounts as size of your tumbler isnt known. Start light and with the oil I would run for a couple hours to distribute and make sure clumps are gone. You want just enough for a shiny look but not enough to cause media to swell or clump.

I tried white rice and it was a mess flash holes plugged dust and affected by moisture.

I tried treating media with red rouge in a wax carrier this really made a nice shine but took forever to completely impregnate and also a second coating to remove the wax residue. But the wax also seemed to contain the dust.

[Lloyd Smale]

i use only walnut anymore. I get it bulk at the feed store. It can get dusty if it is getting to old. But by that time its pretty filthy anyway so i toss it in the garden.

[WardT]

a $5.00 furnace filter zip-tied to 20" cheap box fan, med speed, will hold a lot of dust
old wood shop trick

[Winger Ed.]

I tried white rice

Everybody needs to do that once,,,,,, and like me, it usually ends up being only once.
At least with anything other than straight wall cases that still have a fired primer.

[cwtebay]

Everybody needs to do that once,,,,,, and like me, it usually ends up being only once.
At least with anything other than straight wall cases that still have a fired primer.

I absolutely love your answer Winger Ed!! Can definitely tell you have tried that also!!

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[Sam Sackett]

I use vibratory tumblers and don’t have any issue with dust. I saturate a sheet of paper towel with liquid Nu Shine car polish, then cut it into strips, toss them into the tumbler while it’s running. Once the strips get pulled into the media, add the brass and install the lid. Start it back up and run for a couple of hours or so. Dump into a media separator and spin a few times. Pick out the paper towel and toss into trash can. Spin the brass a few more times and done.
The trace of car wax that gets left on the brass seems to help it going through the dies during reloading, too..

Sam Sackett

[porthos]

dust has never been a issue; because i don't clean cases. the insides of my dies are just fine.

[Lloyd Smale]

dust has never been a issue; because i don't clean cases. the insides of my dies are just fine.

might be the case if you load 500 rounds over the life of your dies. but some of us load that in a day a few times a week. Ive wore out sizing dies even using cleaned brass. Dirty brass will shorten the life of your sizing die. Now im not anal and i sure dont need perfect shinny brass like some do with liquid cleaning. I dont care about pristine looking primer pockets or like new brass. i take the brass that i pick up out of the dirt and throw it in a vibrating cleaner for a couple hours to knock the dirt and crud off and load it. Bottle necked brass gets that 2 hours then another two hours to knock the lube off it after sizing because wiping it wastes time i could be doing something else.

[dale2242]

When I replace the ground walnut shell media in my vibratory tumbler, I place a 12" fan on the bench outside my shop.
With the fan running at slow speed, I pore the media from one container to another in front of the fan.
As you slowly pour it the fan will blow the dust and fine particles of media away.
Continue to pour back and forth until the fan has blown the dust away.
I use the vibratory tumbler to remove sizing lube and carbon from the cases before collet neck sizing.
For serious cleaning I use the SS pin tumbler.

[trapper9260]

I use walnut for when I first clean them and add dryer sheets and take care most of the dust and the cases are clean enough for me, then after I size and deprime , I put them back in the tumbler to take the case lube off and use ground up corn cobs that I had farmer ground up for me with his feed grinder . the cases comes out nice for me , I do need to take the cobs that is stuck inside the cases at times . I do not add anything to the corn cobs . the cases lube help to shine the cases up more with the corn cobs and when the cobs get too dirt I dump it in to be burned . As for the walnut I got it many years ago from lyman and for how much I do this might not be like some of you do but it works for me, and use what is on the walnut already and when gets too dirt I have wash it out in dish soap outside and will get some of what you all say on here that you add to yours .

[David2011]

Don, this is is what works for me. My primary polisher is a Dillon CV-750. I used to have an older CV-2001 that was really noisy. I never did find a way to make it quieter and it was really heavy when loaded. The 750 had plenty of capacity so I sold the big one, which has nothing to do with the point.

I use the same media as you. It gets a squeeze of NuFinish Car Polish which is not a wax and a tablespoon or two of mineral spirits. The only time that I smell the mineral spirits is when I remove the lid of the polisher. I fill the polisher very full of corn cob, within 1/2”-3/4” of the top. It runs with a hum and a soft whisper of the media and brass. Too much brass and it gets very loud.

[Froogal]

Don, this is is what works for me. My primary polisher is a Dillon CV-750. I used to have an older CV-2001 that was really noisy. I never did find a way to make it quieter and it was really heavy when loaded. The 750 had plenty of capacity so I sold the big one, which has nothing to do with the point.

I use the same media as you. It gets a squeeze of NuFinish Car Polish which is not a wax and a tablespoon or two of mineral spirits. The only time that I smell the mineral spirits is when I remove the lid of the polisher. I fill the polisher very full of corn cob, within 1/2”-3/4” of the top. It runs with a hum and a soft whisper of the media and brass. Too much brass and it gets very loud.

Never even thought about using mineral spirits, but I'm sure it would be effective.

[Wayne Smith]

The issue of lead in the media is potentially serious but I believe it is caused by lead in the primers. I deprime everything before I clean the cases. Between that and the NuFinish I am not concerned.

[Taterhead]

I've tried several things. What I like now is about 4-5 parts ground cob to 1 part walnut. The Frankford Arsenal grind is great. I habe also recently discovered the Lucas Oil media polish. This combo is easily the best I've encountered for dry media.

[farmbif]

like five gunner when I buy ground corncob and walnut shell its by the 50lb sack. I have always added some flitz to the tub before running any brass in vibrator and ive never had a problem with dust. I use a stainless wire mesh basket with 1/4" mush size that is about 1'x 18"x 3" deep to separate brass from media in one of those big plastic totes they sell at Walmart or Home Depot . there is sometimes small bit of dust but I guess the moisture of the flitz added keeps it from becoming airborne or to be a problem. its not a perfect system but its worked well for me for many many years.
gallon jugs of flitz are getting more expensive and more difficult to find so I may try other additives in the future.

[Jbiker]

For the last 3 decades , the Dillon 750 has cleaned everything. I've got several buckets of medium for everything starting with range pickup full of crap to pick up from the concrete floors. what I usually do is add a piece of old tee shirt to the pot along with dillon cleaner. The shirt piece grabs the dust ,and is a once only use. The wife is happy cause the ratty tee shirts disappear.
Getting rid of the dust is critical on a couple of levels.....firstly if your using walnut , the dust can be toxic !! Black Walnut , Juglans Nigra , has a curious ability as a living plant to secrete compounds in it's root's and wood ,the whole plant body , that cause other plants to avoid where the walnuts grow. Over the last 50 years of woodworking , and I do like playing with black walnut lumber, the medical community has published many warning articles about the toxicity of walnut dust if inhaled. Over time , the effects are cumulative ,starting with minor respiratory distress and progressing to respiratory failure. Just an F.Y.I. , so any way you finally use to get rid of the dust without blowing it out the door is worth thinking about. just my 2 cents !!

[jmorris]

This is a bank of post load tumblers using a dusty media.

The ones in use are the ones with the pantyhose type material over them and the duct plugged in, sucking the dust out of the building.

[mdi]

I have been using corn cob blast media for quite a while, no dust. Perhaps pet litter is dusty but blast media is meant for cleaning metal...

I saw a mention of rice. I tried rice, the white stuff that comes in a plastic bag. It broke down very quickly into a dusty powder...

[Wooserco]

When I used to shoot high power rifle at Cadillac Sportsman's Club, there was a shooter whose wife was on the State Rifle Team. He had a dedicated cement mixer for tumbling brass and went to the local feed store and bought ground corn cob by the 100# burlap bag. If I recall, he went through a couple of those each winter.

Ingenious, the cement mixer. I believe that he modified the paddles to be less aggressive. He would do a couple thousand round of .308 at a time.