Tumbling - What Media???
 

I have a Midway 'vortex' type case cleaner (not really a 'tumbler') and over the years I've tried crushed corn cobs, crushed walnut shells, and glass beads...None seem to get tarnished brass shiny...All they do is clean off the surface dirt...

What do you reloaders use to get nice shiny cases???

I have used Nevr-Dull and shined them individually by hand, but I would rather just chuck them in the 'tumbler' and let it run all night... :rolleyes:

finely crushed walnut shells with powdered jewelers rouge... but I have always used a tumbler not a vibrator type polisher. But I would try it since it can't hurt anything. Rich, with your skills you can easily make a tumbler.

When I last built one I used a large-ish coffee can. Center drilled the bottom and installed a bolt to stick out that was held in a drill chuck installed on a gear reduction unit I salvaged from an old car power window mechanism and powered by a salvaged washing machine motor. Turned about 20 times a minute. The lid was the standard plastic lid that came on the can of coffee. It took years to wear out the lid...but it is easily replaced the next time you empty a coffee can.

I angled the can at abaout 45 degrees to keep the contents in the can during loading and unloading the brass. You can empty it quickly by opening the chuck and pouring it into one of those cat litter boxes that sift their contents ( I would recommend you only use this litter box for this purpose, because if you make it dual purpose and use it for cat litter your brass will smell pretty bad even after only one use!) :D

Cost: $0.00
Results: Priceless!
Media: useable indefinitely.

Try adding some "Brass-O" to the corn cob or walnut shell media. It certainly does help.
dju

+1 on the jewelers rouge, a friend turned me on to that, but after using it make sure you clean it out from the inside of the cases. I myself gave up tumbling to the point of making brass look factory but more for cleaning it up enough to reload.

Maybe I'm being unrealistic...Here's a pic of three cartridges...

First is typical before being shot...Second is after 'vibrating' all night with crushed walnut shells...Third is spin-polished with Nevr-Dull...

I don't really expect them to be bright & shiny like the third...But is the second about the best I can expect??? :confused:

(All are 5.56 military cases formed to 30 Mauser)

Skills: Boundless
Motivation: Zilch
Result: "good enough"

... :D ...

I'm just looking to make them cleaner...The brown brass tarnish seems resistant to tumbling/vibrating...But is very nice as 'patina'... :p

Is the rouge liquid or powder??? How do you clean it out of bottleneck cases??? Compressed air??? :confused:

I also use crushed walnut purchased at PetSmart as reptile cage liner. 20 pounds in a big bag last a long time.

I use a liquid polish in this media as well as a small square of used laundry softener sheet to pick up the dust.

The case in the middle should work fine... Marc

I might suggest that you hold off using Brasso, and like products that contain ammonia. The ammonia reacts with the brass and allows deterioration/weakening. To use it now and then won't be a big problem.

Using crushed walnut shells will clean the brass, but will not polish it. It will have that matte finish. I used to use my old Thumbler Tumbler that I purchased in 1971. I used the walnut shells with jewelers rouge on it. It worked, but was a mess to deal with. I stayed with that setup for years, but was never overly pleased with it.

A few years ago I tried one of the vibrating units with corncob media which I add 1-2 cap fulls of Dillon Brass Polish. It works soooo much faster, and with better results(to me). Put the polish into the media and run the machine SANS the brass for 15-20 minutes to dispense the polish(trust me on this). Then add your brass and usually 2-4 hours will produce beautiful like new brass. I also take a sheet of Bounty paper towel and tear it into 4-5 strips and throw them in. They help keep the media clean and when they get nasty, replace it.

Thank you for your help, gentlemen! :thumbup:

Attached is a pic of my ~20+ year old Midway 'tumbler'. I suppose it's more accurately a vibrator. When I first got it, instructions were minimal. I filled it, dropped my cases in, and turned it on. It sort of vibrated, but even after leaving it run overnight, the cases were still dirty. By accident, I screwed the lid down tight while it was running, and lo & behold, a vortex action began!!! Media from all sides began flowing into the center, and down. I could see my cases bobbing up & down in the flow!!! Fantastic!!! :D

So it cleans the cases quite well, but doesn't really leave a matte finish. And it doesn't touch tarnish. So I guess the 2nd case in my pic is as good as it'll get.

I might try the crushed corn cob on another batch tonight, just for comparison. :)

20/40 corn, unless they are muddy and filthy--then, walnut.
Never forget, all you need to do is wipe off the exterior.

Rich
I have a vibrator tumbler like yours. I use a product from Lyman " Turbo Tumbler Media." They make it in a couple types depending on what you want for a finish. Have always had excellent results. Brass comes out like new and more importantly the inside is clean. Bill

I use corn cobs with a healthy squirt of Blue Magic metal polish. Works great and never had an issue.

A friend of mine gave me a few shavings off a small block, it is reddish in color. How to clean it out? That's why I really don't use it. 9mm which is primarily what I had used it on isn't so bad but is time consuming to clean it out. I have used one of those .38/9mm cloth type cleaning rod attachments. Bottle neck rifle cases especially something like a .223 would probably be a PITA. I haven't tried to do that yet. If there is a better way than to wipe it out from each case like using air I would like to know?

I'm 'cleaning' a batch tonight with crushed corn cobs; tomorrow I'll try a batch with glass beads and then do a side-by-side comparison to see which looks best...Hopefully, pics will show which works best in my vibrator/tumbler...

Here's an example of how my mind works...When I read this, I immediately thought of milling a small block Chevy engine block and saving the shavings...Duh!!! :p

LOL, I don't know how well that will clean up brass, more like the brass will clean the shavings:)

Just got back from my LGS...No powder or primers in stock...He says none have come in for months...Distributors can't get powder or primers... :(

No new .223 brass either...But he dug out a couple of old boxes of fired brass, and I dug through a big tub of range-pickups, and ended up with 72 cases... :)

...Which does me no good without primers... :grr:

Someone mentioned 'Powder Valley', a site I had never heard of, so I took a look...Everything there is 'Out Of Stock'...Just like everywhere else... :crying:

I keep reading that the shortage is over, and that manufacturers are catching up with the demand...But my practical experience says otherwise...

There is a gun show in January; hopefully I can get a couple pounds of powder and a thousand primers then... :rolleyes:

A lot of reloaders add NuFinish to their corncob. It is a cleaner/wax designed for autos, and is sold at the local auto assy. shops. It is cheap to purchase, and a little goes a long ways. I purchased some a while back, but have not tried it just yet. Some swear that the wax layer aids in sizing, and also stops/slows the tarnishing of the shiny brass. I can not confirm that info at this time.

I finished my comparison of brass 'cleaning' in my Midway vibrator...Pic attached...

All three were 'vibrated' for 8 - 10 hours in the indicated media, with no additives.

(The middle case has a shadow near the base...That case has not yet been resized in the .223 Remington sizing die...It's as-fired...The other two have been .223 resized, and measure .372"/.373", while the fired case measures .385"...It expanded .012" from the sized .223 sized case when fired in my Mauser C96...)

They all turned out acceptably clean, but if I had to choose, I'd say the crushed walnut shells got the cases the cleanest...the insides even look cleaner... :thumbup:

Rochester?

It's a space-age polymer! It is entirely feasible that its residue would help lube and protect; well worth a try.

I read people who worry about grit getting into their gun and clean and clean and clean. Then, they turn around and add grit to their media. Seems they may actually be putting grit in their guns.
As long as you are happy, go for it.
Me, 30 minutes in 20/40 corn is all I need and I sure don't think I need a polymer/abrasive on my cases.

James -

What does the '20/40' stand for???

David -

I haven't received the flyer in the mail yet, but historically the ESACA has it's first Rochester show in the first weekend in January...They do have one listed in the NYSRPA newsletter on 25 -26 Jan in Albany...


Marc -

All three of these work fine. I'd just like them to look better. :) Here's a stripper clip full from 20+ years ago I keep for display. I could spin-clean them with Nevr-Dull and then use automotive paste wax to preserve the shine...I'm just looking for a better way to tumble them and get an acceptable 'matte' finish...An LGS some distance away has some that look like I want (done by a local reloader) but he won't tell me how (or who)... :(

Removing the tarnish is what my goal is. All three medias I have on hand work well to remove dirt/grime/powder residue, I'd just like some glitter... :D

Couple of thoughts.
Avoid using anything to lubricate, wax, or preserve the finish on your brass. A very important function of brass is its ability to expand and "grip" the walls of the chamber on firing. If you lubricate the cases of a centerfire bolt action rifle and fire it, all fo the recoil goes directly into the face of the bolt and its locking lugs, sometimes making raising the bolt handle difficult, the same symptom as high pressure. In short, lubed cases are really hard on guns, probably including old Lugers.
I'm no machinist, but I suspect that a high degree of polish is not part of reaming a chamber.
As far as Brass-O being harmful to brass, that's news to me. I've been adding a few drops to media for a long time, and have never had any reason to suspect the results. In fact, I've recently had reason (new gun) to start once again start shooting up some .223 reloads, which I just realized were last reloaded by me in 1990.
But then my goal in polishing and reloading brass is for function, not looks.
dju

It is, for the reason you mentioned - The brass expands on firing. You don't want it 'sticking' when you're trying to extract it. I have used emery cloth to polish up a chamber on occasion, but the reamers I use leave a nice smooth surface finish [Clymer reamers].

I know the 'sticking' you're talking about on some bolt action rifles - I've seen an extractor pull chunks out of rims because the case 'stuck'. But it was a rough chamber, not a smooth cartridge...

I don't believe that a 'lubed' case is hard on actions. If it was, Winchester/Remington/etc wouldn't offer nickel plated cartridges... ;)

How does the lube/no lube question reconcile with the advice to apply a couple of drops of oil or lube to a loaded mag?

Good question David.
Brownell's sells a special magazine lube, which I have somewhere around here, that smells more like starter fluid than it smells like oil. Sort of a dry-lube.
I'm not shy about lightly lubing the mag. follower, but again I do avoid excessive lube that would get into the chamber.
And regarding nickel cased rounds, please note the last time you saw 30-06 ammo. for sale in nickel plated steel cases.
dju

Nine of the .223 cases I bought yesterday are Winchester nickle plated commercial cases. The cases are nickle plated brass. I've never seen a nickle plated steel case. :D

But I don't fault your practice of using unlubed cartridges. Whatever your preferences are, are fine with me. :)

That stands for the size of the corncob particles. Corncob is used in abrasive blasting of various surfaces, and the size has to match the nozzles/expected results.

In reloading, this size works very well because it does not get stuck in the flash holes(a lot of reloaders remove the spent primers before they clean the cases). If you do not remove the primes first then you can use a smaller size corncob particle as the decapping pin would remove any stuck corncob when it removes the spent primer.

I don't know what the corn cob is (been in a bucket for years) but the crushed walnut shells is '24 Grit Fine Soft Abrasive' according to the box...I used it a couple times for blasting, but it wasn't as good as the glass beads [for blasting]...IIRC, the glass beads were expensive... :confused:

Edit: I was curious as to whether cutting/resizing/bottlenecking would flake the plating off...It didn't... :)

I've been using the SmartReloader Case Tumbler for years now, that gets filled with Lyman turbo tumbler media made by
a mixture of corncob green (about 80%) and sort of crushed nutshell (about 20%)
While I'm writing, my "yellow pumpkin" (that's what I usually call my tumbler) is cleaning the 40 S&W cases that I shot last saturday afternoon.

I just started reloading. I have a rock tumbler I bought from harbor freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-dr...ler-67632.html
I use a 2lb stainless steel media "refresh" kit I bought from http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com. Works like a charm. Though it's a wet tumble. Not sure your tumbler would handle wet media. I have to say the stainless media plus a little dish soap and vinegar works great.

Back when I worked in the aerospace industry, we 'tumbled' all our stringer clips [aluminum] to break the sharp edges...It left a distinctive finish...The media was small triangular-rounded gray stones...IIRC, it was a dry tumble...

I can't describe the look of the finish because I don't know the words...And the 38 Special reloads I bought with that distinctive finish have all been shot off or otherwise disposed of...So I can't take a picture... :(

I'll have to try a lapidary supply house and see if they carry the stones/media...