Tumbling

[praetorian97]

Can someone give me the quick rundown of the media types for tumblers?

Example corn vs walnut.....

[beeenbag]

for cleaning dirty brass I like walnut media. You can also use that lizard bedding you get at the pet shop, it is cheaper.

for polishing brass and making it shiny, I like corn cob media. You can buy it cheaper too if you find it not marketed towards firearms. I haven't bought any this way but im sure someone here has a link or two for you.

[Jammer Six]

http://www.oz.net/~jammer/Brass/index.html

[Jim243]

I like both clean and polished so I use a mix of 50 % Zilla lizzard bedding (fine walnut) and 50 % fine corn cobb with two table spoons of polish. Works well on cleaning and polishing in about 1 hour. (2 hours if you want super polished brass)

Jim

[jcwit]

For corn cob

http://www.drillspot.com/products/52...bs_blast_media

shipped right to your door.

Yes its fine enough so as there is no problem with glogged primer pockets or media in the flash hole.

Then add a slight amount of liquid auto polish to help with the polishing process and preventing tarnish. One to one and a half teaspoons to a tumbler will last for quite a number of tumblings, this is a case where less is more.

[CrustyFN]

Walnut will clean faster than corn. Corn will shine better than walnut. So what I do is use a 50/50 mix. The cases clean just as fast as straight walnut and come out a lot shinier. I use the walnut from the pet store and 14/20 blasting cob from Grainger. I add 1/2 cap full of Nu Finish car polish to the media. In 1.5 hours mine come out very clean and shiny and the Nu Finish will keep them from tarnishing.

[Misssissippi Dave]

Walnut and corncob both work. You can add things like brass polish or the liquid car wax to polish it faster. Corncob tends to make less dust but you get dust from both of them. A dryer sheet added to the bottom of your tumbler will reduce the dust quite a bit. When it starts wearing out toss it and put in a new sheet. This seems to make the media last longer too. You really don't need to change out the media that often when you shoot at an indoor range since there isn't any mud getting on the brass. Cleaner burning powders also tend to reduce the time needed to clean the brass. I use corncob with an additive to make things simpler. The big bag of 14/20 corncob from Grainer will last for years so the cost of media is really next to nothing. I base that on tumbling about 500 9 mm cases and 150 .45 cases a week. I have a good sized vibrating tumbler and the media is change every couple of months.

The corncob from the pet store is really too big and will get stuck in the cases.

[dacaur]

Ive found two types of walnut at pet stores, well, pet areas. The first I got from walmart, and it was pretty course, probably about 1/8". I used it as a "pre-clean", and it worked pretty good, until I tried it in some .223 cases.... about 10% of the cases came out completly PACKED with media, no amount of shaking would get it out... I ended up having to stick the tine of a fork down in each one to loosen it and get it out.... Thats not worth it IMO, that sack is now in may garden (lucky it was only about $3) The other is of course lizard litter, which is much finer and works really well. I get my cases 90% clean with that, then switch to corncob. THe downside to lizard litter is its REALLY dusty when new, the first batch of brass came out covered in a thin layer of dust that clung to the brass and made a huge cloud when I poured it out of the tumbler. I put in 3 cut up used dryer sheets and ran the tumbler for an hour then took them out, they were very dark. I then retumbled the brass and the dust was gone. I just put in 1/2 a dryer sheet cut into 2 pieces each time I tumble now.
I just have my wife put all the used dryer sheets in a bucket by the dryer as she pulls out the laundry so i have an unlimited supply

[bbqncigars]

I used to use both walnut and cc media in vibe machines to clean brass. I switched to SS media in a Thumler to get my brass virginally clean, inside and out including primer pockets. Now the vibes are only used with untreated walnut w/mineral spirits to remove case lube from finished roiunds.

[hooligan1]

Oh boy, here's another tumbler thread!( i really like em) I have the Thumler Tumbler and in it I use walnut media that was purchased in 1987 or maybe 1986, anyway I just "recharge it with Nu-Finish and Mineral spirits, once in awhile. I never thought of mixing corn cobb with it, But if you guys say it's the cats meow I'll shoot at it.

[jepp2]

As mentioned, the DrillSpot corn cob media is the best size to minimize getting caught in the flash holes and the best price.

For walnut, I have found Harbor Freight fine walnut blast media is also small enough to avoid getting caught in the flash holes. It is cheaper for me than any other source of walnut media (pet stores, Walmart, etc). I read where some folks find lizard bedding at great prices, but none in my area.

If you don't get the 20/40 sieve size media, you always run the risk of getting too large media size, and having the problems mentioned. I have seen corn cob bedding that must have been 5/16" diameter. Huge.

Any new media that isn't treated, will have some dust with it. If you don't have a source of used dryer sheets (don't use new sheets) I have found cut strips of paper towels work acceptable as an alternative.

[Jammer Six]

I may have to try the metal media, Thumbler method.

I like shiny brass. Shiny brass is more accurate.

The only thing I don't like about it from reading about it is that it only does 4 or 5 pieces of brass at a time.