The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - After vibratory cleaning, how to remove walnut powder?

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

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