I have started cleaning depriming and getting ready to tumble. I have read that rice is a good/inexpensive media,what else should I put in with it? I've read dryer sheets. What are they used for?
thanks in advance for input
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I have started cleaning depriming and getting ready to tumble. I have read that rice is a good/inexpensive media,what else should I put in with it? I've read dryer sheets. What are they used for?
thanks in advance for input
You can get proper media cheap from Harbor freight (Crushed Walnut shells), it works well and is cheap. I tumble a LOT of brass and a box of it lasts me over a year. I've never tried rice, and can't imagine it'd work all that great since it's a fairly smooth media.
Dryer sheets are to keep dust down, I throw one in (cut into 4 pieces) when the dust gets noticeably thick and it takes a good bit of it out.
I use Dillon polish, which works really good as an additive, have used nu-finish car polish and that works fairly well too. Some guys throw a cap full of mineral spirits in it too, I haven't tried that but hear it works well.
Lizard bedding in the big bag from Petco or Petsmart. It is crushed walnut and is reasonably priced. I add a cap of NuFinish car polish and run the tumbler all day in the garage.
I use corncob only, add some mineral spirits (about 1oz) every few uses. A dash of polishing compound if you have it. Run tumbler before adding brass.
My brass comes out looking great.
Dont change the media untill its dann neer black lol.
Just go stainless and be done. It works so much better.
Just went this route. If you do you need to tumble with media first if your case lube on the brass. I made the mistake of not doing this and my brass was a bronze color. Had to let it all dry and then re run it thru the media. After that you have to check all of the primer pockets.
i have to agree that stainless is the way to go. It is expensive to start and it's a longer process than the media. I love the final product my STM Rebel 17 turns out.
You can get bulk corn cob media in Denver
http://www.unitedwesterndenver.com/i...category_id=15
Corn cob media in smaller quantities from walmart:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hartz-Corn...Birds/11994300
"Zilla" ground walnuts for lizards. Works great, and cheap from the pet store. Add Nu-finish for shine, mineral spirits & dryer sheets for dust.
Is Nu-finish a car polish? Is this one of those things that will be cheaper pretty much everywhere but the gun store?
Orange bottle in the car polish section at Walmart.
Thank you.
Corn cob ranks slightly higher than walnut on Mohs scale. [emoji102]
Jeez. My wife thinks I'm a reloading nerd. I'm going to show her this thread. [Slap]
You mean the thread where you have the most posts.
https://www.ar-15.co/threads/87717-W...ing-room-today
No way, it will just make it worse.
If she gets a glimpse of the truth...
I've always wanted to experiment with some sort of alternative media for my vibratory tumbler. Maybe some sort of tiny plastic pellets or something. Just haven't gotten around to trying anything.
How shiny you guys need to get 'em so they shoot straight? I mean, I understand if a woman of loose moral virtue walks by the garage, she won't come in and say "Awesome! AM radio!", or "Wow, tell me about that spittoon and those antlers!!!".... "OoooOOOOooOooOOoooOOO, SHINY!!!" is about my best shot, but damn.
Mine don't get shiney. I just knock the big chunks off and it's good to go. Could be my fifteen year old media.
Shiny, is that when you forget and leave the tumbler running all nite? [facepalm][fail]
I always blame the wife for distracting me.
Cheap dry media and let the tumbler run.
I like the way brass looks after wet tumbling, but can't be bothered to rinse and dry. Clean is good enough for me.
Well, I've certainly done the overnight tumble on accident... now that you mention it, they did shoot a lot better shiny! [Muaha]
https://nerdsofmassdistraction.files.../nerdalert.gif
I just use corn cob media and dryer sheets.
crushed walnut. run it with nu finish for about ten minutes. toss in a quartered up fryer sheet. throw the brass in there. let it work.
What happens if you don't let it tumble for 10 minutes before you add the brass?
Slapps74 is correct in that you'll still need to tumble with dry media before using the wet stainless if you've lubed the brass.
I like to wet tumble my brass after the primer has been removed so the primer pocket can be cleaned. I run the brass through my Dillon 650 to deprime so I've got to lube it up before depriming. I made the mistake (ONCE) of throwing the deprimed, but still lubed brass right in the wet tumbler. What a gooey sticky mess. Everything--stainless media and brass--was coated with the waxy lube.
It took me several empty runs to get the stainless media clean again. I dried the gooey brass and ran it through the dry tumbler with walnut media to get the goop off. I'll never do that again.
I use walnut media purchased from Harbor Freight and Corn purchased from Grainger. The corn makes it shine a little better. Since I'm one of the shiny brass freaks and my stainless tumbler does the heavy cleaning, I tend to use the corn more than the walnut. I run the completed ammo through the corn as the very last step in my process--just to remove the lube.
I bought 40lbs of 20/40 grit Corn cob Media from Drillspot 7 years ago, still have 30 lbs.
http://www.drillspot.com/products/52...bs_blast_media
So far it's looking like a good smelling, dirty litter box, salad, with brass that looks the exact same. I like the smells though!
Just a caution and YMMV, but I bought some corn cob stuff from a pet store years ago. It was cheap and worked well....what I did notice is you have to be damn careful that, with it being a bit larger than some media, a piece won't become wedged in the case.
I blew up a $3000 Briley/STI after a case went boom instead of bang. Was it the media inside with powder on top? I can't say for certain, but I loaded and shot 40,200 .40 cal USPSA loads that year and it happened right after I started using the pet shop stuff.
Oh, and you can say you visually check every case.......I thought I did too. Again, YMMV
I use 1/8 inch corn cob I get from a feed store with a big squirt of nu-finish car polish added in. 40 lbs runs about $18 and it goes a long way.
I agree its another step to dry, but not much different if you have to check all of the primer pockets for corn, walnut or steel pins. Pins stick in them less often.
Just lay the brass out on a black cotton towel in the sun. (or inside through a window) It will dry.
I have two high speed computer server fans I sit on top of a plastic box, it still takes a while. I'm no rush.