After vibratory cleaning, how to remove walnut powder?

ormandj · July 21, 2008, 01:19 PM

Hi,

Just started reloading (today!) I just ran ~500 .45ACP CCI brass through my vibratory cleaner, using the lyman crushed walnut medium. It worked great, brass looks sparkly, but there is still residue from the medium, even after running it through the media separator.

How do I clean this off? It's mostly inside the cases, but I'm sure there's a bit on the outside too.

Thank you kindly,
David

Alleykat · July 21, 2008, 01:45 PM

I never use staight walnut; 50/50 cc and walnut. NuFinish and a used dryer sheet cut in two pieces to absorb the dust.

ormandj · July 21, 2008, 01:51 PM

Ok, thanks for the advice for the future, but how do I sort out the issue mentioned in the first post?

I'm thinking I might try just using my air compressor to blast it all out, it seems like it's stuck on via static (I guess that's how dryer sheets would help...)

nosualc · July 21, 2008, 02:07 PM

I use a 5 gallon pail with 6 inches of hot water and a mild detergent (I use simple green). Dump the brass in, swish it around some. Rinse. I let mine dry in the sun.

-nosualc

dardascastbullets · July 21, 2008, 02:12 PM

Hi ormandj,

Without knowing all the details of your media, it sounds like you didn't treat the media prior to tumbling your brass. Or, the media is heavily laden with dust. I always conditioned media prior to using it. Any type of tumbling media liquid added to the media and tumbled without brass will condition your media.
If it is heavily laden with dust, I would return it for a refund, or if that isn't possible, you can remove the dust by slowly pouring it in a light breeze letting the dust separate from the media.
I hope this information helps.

Matt

res45 · July 21, 2008, 02:15 PM

Not sure how much you paid for your walnut media but you can get it a PetSmart or another pet stores allot cheaper.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2752164

another good source of Walnut or Cob media.

http://www.championsbrand.com/mediacatalog.html

wncchester · July 21, 2008, 03:07 PM

ormandj, put a couple of teaspoons of mineral spirits in your media and add a couple of 2" squares of paper towel or dryer sheet and tumble your brass about an hour. That should remove the "dust" for you.

The really small stuff in the media will get clogged in the loose weave of the paper and you can toss it out when finished. You will need to repeat this jsut about every time you tumble, the mineral spirits will evaporate overnight.

Don2 · July 21, 2008, 03:34 PM

Another place to buy cheap walnut media right now while sale is on.
Midway has Frankford walnut media 18 lbs for $18.79.
That the same price as the pet store.!!
I just bought a bag of it for my big Bur-King tumbler...and it almost took all of it..!!!!
Man...What a big tumbler...Bigger than I need, but I got a killer deal on it

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpag...169&t=11082005

I've had no problems with it so far..I use Nu-Car finish in my media.

Don2

ormandj · July 21, 2008, 06:46 PM

Great, thanks everyone! I'll pick up the dryer sheets and mineral spirits tomorrow.

Cheers,
David

38 Super Auto · July 21, 2008, 06:58 PM

+1 on the [used] dryer sheets. They tend to soak up all the fine particulate and keep your media cleaner. I replace them after each tumbling session.

Don't forget that Harbor Freight sells walnut shell "blasting" media in 25lb cases for $24.99. I got the 12 grit coarse grade - it is about the size that I was buying at gun shows.

ormandj · July 22, 2008, 04:23 PM

Update:

Turns out, it was the media I was using.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpag...eitemid=557992

Click on "reviews", and you'll find out it's hit everybody who uses it. Do NOT buy this junk.

It took 3 washes with simple green/water and sun dry cycles to get the brass even 10% cleaner. Gave up on that idea.

I spent three hours scrubbing out my media separator, *finally* got the red dust off it. Had to use simple green, and a roll of paper towels.

Finally, the vibratory cleaner - I couldn't even scrub the red dust crap out of it, it had apparently worked its' way into the plastic. I went to Petsco, bought a bunch of corn cob bedding and that crushed walnut lizard bedding, mixed it about 50/50, and filled the tumbler with that. It's currently running, with a paper towel torn into 1" squares inside. I already replaced the paper towels three times now, they are finally coming out without a bunch of red crap all over them. From what I can see, it looks like this is finally eating the red dust junk off the cleaner, thank goodness. I'm going to let it run 3 hours to be sure.

Then, I'm going to have to dump all that media, fill it back up w/ the 50/50 split media, put in some polish I grabbed at the gun shop, and run that for 5 minutes, then dump the brass back in, and along with paper towels, clean it yet *again*. Hopefully it'll get all the red dust out of the brass, because washing/air compressor couldn't.

Lesson learned - stick to corncob/walnut media from pet stores. Lyman media sucks (and it's expensive, to boot.) Hopefully this will save other people from having to go through the mess I just did.

Cheers,
David

Alleykat · July 22, 2008, 05:22 PM

David, chances are that pet store corn cob media is too coarse for cleaning brass.

ormandj · July 22, 2008, 05:27 PM

Thanks for the update. I did the 50/50 mix because the corn cob bedding is rather course (a little smaller than .177 BBs.) That said, I thought it might work as follows:

The ground walnut will be the actual "cleaner" of the mix, since it's relatively fine. The course corn cob mix will function to collect the dirt/dust/grime/powder/etc being scrubbed off the brass. That was my thought, anyways, I have no idea if it really will work like that!

If it is really pointless, I'm out $5, so it's not that big of a deal.

cpaspr · July 22, 2008, 07:33 PM

I use straight corn cob from the pet store. First load for cleaning goes two hours with four 3"x3" pieces of paper towels to catch dust. Second load goes for one hour but the second batch of media has been treated with polishing compound.

Works for me, and the media was very cheap. Haven't tried it on any really small mouth cases yet, so don't know if the corn cob is too course or not.

wingman · July 22, 2008, 07:41 PM

I to purchased the Midway dust bowl stuff more like a pigment then cleaner,
tossed that and purchased Petsmart Lizzard bedding + add nufinish polish works great.

aerod1 · July 22, 2008, 10:23 PM

Right now I am using straight treated walnut with some dryer sheets and it is working fine. I just removed some 357 brass about 5 minutes ago.

ISC · July 22, 2008, 10:43 PM

"vibratory cleaner" = "tumbler"

mkl · July 23, 2008, 09:12 AM

Quote:

I'm thinking I might try just using my air compressor to blast it all out

Looks like you have your problem solved, but I found a gizmo at Harbor Freight that is pretty handy for blowing out the inside of cases and getting the media out of flash holes.

Key in 95159 in their "Find item number" function.

http://www.harborfreight.com

I made something similar years ago and use it quite often for my bottle neck cases.

aerod1 · July 23, 2008, 09:41 AM

I just dump the walnut media out and start reloading. It seems to have worked so far.

CrustyFN · July 23, 2008, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Great, thanks everyone! I'll pick up the dryer sheets and mineral spirits tomorrow.

Cheers,
David

You want to use dryer sheets that are already used, if you use new ones you will get all of that crud in your tumbler. I just use a parer towel sheet instead and it works fine. I also use 3/4 cap full of Nu Finish car polish in walnut and tumble for two hours, they come out like new. Don't use anything that has ammonia in it or car wax.
Welcome to reloading.
Rusty

snuffy · July 23, 2008, 12:11 PM

Ormandj, what you had there is Lyman tumbler media charged with rouge. It's a mild abrasive that jewelers use to polish gold or silver. The rouge gets rubbed off onto the cases and everything else the media touches. You were unlucky to have tried the worst stuff you could have picked for your first trial.

TEDDY · July 24, 2008, 10:51 AM

that stuff is horrid.yes it is rouge.I found out the hard way too.

farnorthdan · July 24, 2008, 12:15 PM

I use the Zilla walnut lizard bedding in my tumbler and it works great. I also add a splash (cap-full) of mineral spirits, this usually produces cases that don't even need any additional cleaning. Sometimes when the media starts getting old I do have to wash after tumbling, for this I just put it in a large bowl add some dish soap and water and agitate by hand, rinse, rinse some more then dry. I place cases on a cookie sheet and dry in the oven at a low temp. usually around 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.....works great for me.

zxcvbob · July 24, 2008, 12:52 PM

I *like* that stuff. Just cut it 50% to 60% with CC to adsorb the excess rouge. (makes the Tufnut go a lot farther too)

rolyasm · August 28, 2008, 03:48 PM

Crap,
Wish I woud have read this before I bought that Lyman stuff from sportsmans. Dust all over. I just posted a new thread on this issue before I found this thread. Any way to delete the one I just listed? So sounds like I will dump it all, buy some walnet, put in some mineral spirites and small pieces of laundry sheets. Any other ideas?

July 21, 2008, 01:19 PM	#1
ormandj Senior Member Join Date: April 13, 2008 Posts: 119	After vibratory cleaning, how to remove walnut powder? Hi, Just started reloading (today!) I just ran ~500 .45ACP CCI brass through my vibratory cleaner, using the lyman crushed walnut medium. It worked great, brass looks sparkly, but there is still residue from the medium, even after running it through the media separator. How do I clean this off? It's mostly inside the cases, but I'm sure there's a bit on the outside too. Thank you kindly, David

July 21, 2008, 02:15 PM	#6
res45 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2007 Location: NC Posts: 753	Not sure how much you paid for your walnut media but you can get it a PetSmart or another pet stores allot cheaper. http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2752164 another good source of Walnut or Cob media. http://www.championsbrand.com/mediacatalog.html __________________ The Reloaders Network discord Channel https://discord.gg/Nafuzht

July 21, 2008, 06:58 PM	#10
38 Super Auto Member Join Date: January 17, 2008 Location: In God we trust Posts: 32	+1 on the [used] dryer sheets. They tend to soak up all the fine particulate and keep your media cleaner. I replace them after each tumbling session. Don't forget that Harbor Freight sells walnut shell "blasting" media in 25lb cases for $24.99. I got the 12 grit coarse grade - it is about the size that I was buying at gun shows. __________________ ____________ NRA Life 1995

July 22, 2008, 10:23 PM	#16
aerod1 Senior Member Join Date: April 12, 2000 Location: Garland Texas U.S.A. Posts: 734	Right now I am using straight treated walnut with some dryer sheets and it is working fine. I just removed some 357 brass about 5 minutes ago. __________________ NRA Life Member, TSRA Life Member, C&R 03 FFL, Texas LTC Recreational Reloader U.S. Navy Veteran (USS Midway V-1 Division)

July 23, 2008, 09:41 AM	#19
aerod1 Senior Member Join Date: April 12, 2000 Location: Garland Texas U.S.A. Posts: 734	I just dump the walnut media out and start reloading. It seems to have worked so far. __________________ NRA Life Member, TSRA Life Member, C&R 03 FFL, Texas LTC Recreational Reloader U.S. Navy Veteran (USS Midway V-1 Division)

July 21, 2008, 01:45 PM	#2
Alleykat Junior member Join Date: July 26, 2007 Posts: 3,668	I never use staight walnut; 50/50 cc and walnut. NuFinish and a used dryer sheet cut in two pieces to absorb the dust.

July 21, 2008, 01:51 PM	#3
ormandj Senior Member Join Date: April 13, 2008 Posts: 119	Ok, thanks for the advice for the future, but how do I sort out the issue mentioned in the first post? I'm thinking I might try just using my air compressor to blast it all out, it seems like it's stuck on via static (I guess that's how dryer sheets would help...)

July 21, 2008, 02:07 PM	#4
nosualc Member Join Date: June 15, 2006 Location: land of sky blue waters Posts: 51	I use a 5 gallon pail with 6 inches of hot water and a mild detergent (I use simple green). Dump the brass in, swish it around some. Rinse. I let mine dry in the sun. -nosualc

July 21, 2008, 02:12 PM	#5
dardascastbullets Senior Member Join Date: July 20, 2008 Location: Essexville, MI Posts: 164	Hi ormandj, Without knowing all the details of your media, it sounds like you didn't treat the media prior to tumbling your brass. Or, the media is heavily laden with dust. I always conditioned media prior to using it. Any type of tumbling media liquid added to the media and tumbled without brass will condition your media. If it is heavily laden with dust, I would return it for a refund, or if that isn't possible, you can remove the dust by slowly pouring it in a light breeze letting the dust separate from the media. I hope this information helps. Matt

July 21, 2008, 03:07 PM	#7
wncchester Senior Member Join Date: December 1, 2002 Posts: 2,832	ormandj, put a couple of teaspoons of mineral spirits in your media and add a couple of 2" squares of paper towel or dryer sheet and tumble your brass about an hour. That should remove the "dust" for you. The really small stuff in the media will get clogged in the loose weave of the paper and you can toss it out when finished. You will need to repeat this jsut about every time you tumble, the mineral spirits will evaporate overnight.

July 21, 2008, 03:34 PM	#8
Don2 Member Join Date: July 12, 2008 Posts: 21	Another place to buy cheap walnut media right now while sale is on. Midway has Frankford walnut media 18 lbs for $18.79. That the same price as the pet store.!! I just bought a bag of it for my big Bur-King tumbler...and it almost took all of it..!!!! Man...What a big tumbler...Bigger than I need, but I got a killer deal on it http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpag...169&t=11082005 I've had no problems with it so far..I use Nu-Car finish in my media. Don2

July 21, 2008, 06:46 PM	#9
ormandj Senior Member Join Date: April 13, 2008 Posts: 119	Great, thanks everyone! I'll pick up the dryer sheets and mineral spirits tomorrow. Cheers, David

July 22, 2008, 04:23 PM	#11
ormandj Senior Member Join Date: April 13, 2008 Posts: 119	Update: Turns out, it was the media I was using. http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpag...eitemid=557992 Click on "reviews", and you'll find out it's hit everybody who uses it. Do NOT buy this junk. It took 3 washes with simple green/water and sun dry cycles to get the brass even 10% cleaner. Gave up on that idea. I spent three hours scrubbing out my media separator, finally got the red dust off it. Had to use simple green, and a roll of paper towels. Finally, the vibratory cleaner - I couldn't even scrub the red dust crap out of it, it had apparently worked its' way into the plastic. I went to Petsco, bought a bunch of corn cob bedding and that crushed walnut lizard bedding, mixed it about 50/50, and filled the tumbler with that. It's currently running, with a paper towel torn into 1" squares inside. I already replaced the paper towels three times now, they are finally coming out without a bunch of red crap all over them. From what I can see, it looks like this is finally eating the red dust junk off the cleaner, thank goodness. I'm going to let it run 3 hours to be sure. Then, I'm going to have to dump all that media, fill it back up w/ the 50/50 split media, put in some polish I grabbed at the gun shop, and run that for 5 minutes, then dump the brass back in, and along with paper towels, clean it yet again. Hopefully it'll get all the red dust out of the brass, because washing/air compressor couldn't. Lesson learned - stick to corncob/walnut media from pet stores. Lyman media sucks (and it's expensive, to boot.) Hopefully this will save other people from having to go through the mess I just did. Cheers, David

July 22, 2008, 05:22 PM	#12
Alleykat Junior member Join Date: July 26, 2007 Posts: 3,668	David, chances are that pet store corn cob media is too coarse for cleaning brass.

July 22, 2008, 05:27 PM	#13
ormandj Senior Member Join Date: April 13, 2008 Posts: 119	Thanks for the update. I did the 50/50 mix because the corn cob bedding is rather course (a little smaller than .177 BBs.) That said, I thought it might work as follows: The ground walnut will be the actual "cleaner" of the mix, since it's relatively fine. The course corn cob mix will function to collect the dirt/dust/grime/powder/etc being scrubbed off the brass. That was my thought, anyways, I have no idea if it really will work like that! If it is really pointless, I'm out $5, so it's not that big of a deal.

July 22, 2008, 07:33 PM	#14
cpaspr Senior Member Join Date: October 20, 2005 Location: Oregon Posts: 304	I use straight corn cob from the pet store. First load for cleaning goes two hours with four 3"x3" pieces of paper towels to catch dust. Second load goes for one hour but the second batch of media has been treated with polishing compound. Works for me, and the media was very cheap. Haven't tried it on any really small mouth cases yet, so don't know if the corn cob is too course or not.

July 22, 2008, 07:41 PM	#15
wingman Senior Member Join Date: August 20, 2002 Posts: 2,108	I to purchased the Midway dust bowl stuff more like a pigment then cleaner, tossed that and purchased Petsmart Lizzard bedding + add nufinish polish works great.

July 22, 2008, 10:43 PM	#17
ISC Junior member Join Date: August 5, 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 1,982	"vibratory cleaner" = "tumbler"

July 23, 2008, 12:11 PM	#21
snuffy Senior Member Join Date: May 20, 2001 Location: Oshkosh wi. Posts: 3,055	Ormandj, what you had there is Lyman tumbler media charged with rouge. It's a mild abrasive that jewelers use to polish gold or silver. The rouge gets rubbed off onto the cases and everything else the media touches. You were unlucky to have tried the worst stuff you could have picked for your first trial. __________________ The more people I meet, the more I love my dog They're going to get their butts kicked over there this election. How come people can't spell and use words correctly?

July 24, 2008, 10:51 AM	#22
TEDDY Junior member Join Date: December 10, 2006 Location: MANNING SC Posts: 837	lyman that stuff is horrid.yes it is rouge.I found out the hard way too.

July 24, 2008, 12:15 PM	#23
farnorthdan Senior Member Join Date: December 3, 2007 Posts: 371	pet smart I use the Zilla walnut lizard bedding in my tumbler and it works great. I also add a splash (cap-full) of mineral spirits, this usually produces cases that don't even need any additional cleaning. Sometimes when the media starts getting old I do have to wash after tumbling, for this I just put it in a large bowl add some dish soap and water and agitate by hand, rinse, rinse some more then dry. I place cases on a cookie sheet and dry in the oven at a low temp. usually around 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.....works great for me. __________________ Believe NONE of what you hear; HALF of what you see and ALL you believe Accuracy is king,penatration is queen but why not jack'em in the process if you can.

July 24, 2008, 12:52 PM	#24
zxcvbob Senior Member Join Date: December 20, 2007 Location: S.E. Minnesota Posts: 4,720	I like that stuff. Just cut it 50% to 60% with CC to adsorb the excess rouge. (makes the Tufnut go a lot farther too) __________________ "Everything they do is so dramatic and flamboyant. It just makes me want to set myself on fire!" —Lucille Bluth

August 28, 2008, 03:48 PM	#25
rolyasm Member Join Date: August 13, 2008 Posts: 66	Crap, Wish I woud have read this before I bought that Lyman stuff from sportsmans. Dust all over. I just posted a new thread on this issue before I found this thread. Any way to delete the one I just listed? So sounds like I will dump it all, buy some walnet, put in some mineral spirites and small pieces of laundry sheets. Any other ideas?