April 19, 2011, 05:20 PM | #1 |
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Corncob source
Hi guys, everyone seems to have problems with cob so I thought I'd add my .02 worth since I've been shooting and reloading going on 50 years now. There are all kinds of media you can use but I do prefer corn cob for polishing, along with a little NuFinish car polish.
I have found there are several different sizes of cob and it's graded according to the mesh sieve it will go through. 12/20 is fairly coarse and is good for cleaning finished ammo but this size does tend to stick in the flash hole if you use it on deprimed brass. Add the polish a few minutes before adding the brass and it will have a chance to mix among the media and it will not clump in the brass. 20/40 grade is much finer and I have found this does not stick, or very rarely sticks, in flash holes. This is what I use for polishing deprimed brass. Again there are a number of sources for cob. I bought it at Grainger for many years but recently discovered Drillspot.com which I think is a division of Grainger. With Grainger you must have a business account but Drillspot does not require this. Further I found I was paying $27.20 for 40 pounds of 20/40 from Grainger and I had to drive almost 20 miles to pick it up. Now I can order the same brand of the same grade of media from Drillspot for exactly the same price, $27.20, and they will DELIVER it to my front door for the same price. Heck of a deal. As far as polishing, as I said, add a capful or two of NuFinish car polish, depending on the size of your tumbler. Let the polish and media run for about 5 minutes to distribute the media thoroughly before adding the brass. I tumble range brass for 2-4 hours depending on the condition. It does help to add a few used dryer sheets cut into small squares to pick up the dirt from the media. This keeps the media cleaner for much longer. When it doesn't seem to be polishing as well any longer, add a capful or so of mineral spirits to rejuvenate the dried polish. The mineral spirits help to loosen and remove carbon on the brass as well. It doesn't hurt the brass at all and dries pretty quickly leaving no residue. I keep my media in 5 gallon buckets with separate media for "first cleaning" from range brass, "clean polish" for polishing up brass that's clean but discolored, and "final clean" media to remove any leftover lube or fingerprints from loaded ammo. Yes I do polish loaded ammo, have done it for years. It only takes about 10 minutes to really clean it up before boxing it up. And no it won't cause the ammo to explode in the tubmler. It's just sliding around in a mixture of corn cob, remember. I add polish to the first two batches of media but the final polish is just clean media. When my "first cleaning" media is just too dirty, I toss it and use the "clean polish" media for that, adding some more polish, and them bump the "final clean" up to "clean polish" grade. In this way I don't waste any media and keep each batch as clean as possible. A quick word on walnut media. That is much harder than corn cob and doesn't polish brass very well but it's fantastic for cleaning really dirty brass. Generally no polish is needed but remember walnut alone will sometimes leave the brass with more of a matte finish not a high polish. This is due to the harder media very lightly scratching the brass. If this happens, just pop the brass into corn cob with polish added and it'll look like new in no time. Good luck with your loading. |
April 19, 2011, 07:45 PM | #2 |
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Good info. Thanks for posting.
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April 20, 2011, 10:01 AM | #3 |
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"This is due to the harder media very lightly scratching the brass. If this happens, just pop the brass into corn cob with polish added and it'll look like new in no time."
Not that it matters but "new" brass is matt, it doesn't have an artifical looking glittery shine; some of much prefer the matt finish new look. |
April 20, 2011, 11:50 AM | #4 |
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Here's a link to the drillspot website for the 20/40 grit corn cob;
http://www.drillspot.com/products/52...bs_blast_media Any minute now, somebodies going to say"WADAYA MEAN YOU TUMBLE LOADED AMMO??¿!!! I just ordered some, I'll split it with my buddy. It'll keep both of us in tumbling media for years!
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April 20, 2011, 12:00 PM | #5 |
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Yeah. Like I said, I've done it for many years. I like ammo free of lube and especially fingerprints. I understand this is also done by Remington, Winchester, Hornady, S&B, etc.
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April 20, 2011, 09:21 PM | #6 | |
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Quote:
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April 20, 2011, 09:40 PM | #7 |
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Thanks for the Info.
And I too for years, have preferred the "New" look on my loaded rounds that can only come from the tumbler. o
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April 21, 2011, 12:14 AM | #8 |
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Nice thread Medalguy, thanks
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April 21, 2011, 01:33 AM | #9 |
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Yer welcome.
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April 21, 2011, 05:32 PM | #10 |
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Thanks for the info, just finished ordering 40lbs from Drillspot, I've been using walnut from Harbor Freight with Nu Finish, gets the cases clean but not the high polish. I like shiny cases.
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