brass cleaning?

There are two camps when it comes to tumbling live rounds. One camp says it causes the powder in the case to break apart and increase its surface area and increasing its burn rate, increasing pressure, causing your guns to explode. The other camp does it all the time and have all of their fingers.
 
I think the best thing is more walnut shells. They are commonly used as an industrial abrasive and are sold most anywhere that sells sandblasting media, including Princess Auto.

Many years ago somebody came up with the idea that tumbling loaded ammo could affect the powder. Others seemed to think it was a reasonable concern and I have seen the warning repeated in reloading manuals and instructions that come with the tumbling machines. But several people have tried to see if they could make it happen, tumbling ammo continuously for weeks. It does nothing. Go ahead and tumble your ammo.
 
Live round tumbling- FIne for an hour or two. Not for a day or two.

New media- pet store for crushed walnut reptile bedding or if you want lots- Princess Auto for a 50 lb bag of blasting material.
 
Lyman walnut is coarse and dust free, making short work of cleaning brass.
Princess Auto walnut is fine and very dusty, cushioning the brass more than abrading it.
Takes forever and leaves the brass with a fine dust coating.
I tried running the tumbler with the lid off outside in the breeze, and still felt compelled to help it with my compressed air gun.
A lot of trouble to reduce the dust, and only marginal improvement.
I'm back to buying the Lyman, and the remaining 40 pounds of the PA will be a traction aid for the icy parts of my driveway...
 
Bubba Yugga said:
Lyman walnut is coarse and dust free, making short work of cleaning brass.
Princess Auto walnut is fine and very dusty, cushioning the brass more than abrading it.
Takes forever and leaves the brass with a fine dust coating.
I tried running the tumbler with the lid off outside in the breeze, and still felt compelled to help it with my compressed air gun.
A lot of trouble to reduce the dust, and only marginal improvement.
I'm back to buying the Lyman, and the remaining 40 pounds of the PA will be a traction aid for the icy parts of my driveway...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip.
I'm going to need some new media soon and P. Auto is nearby.
Would sifting their walnut media remove the dust?
Has anyone tried that?
 
Bubba Yugga said:
Lyman walnut is coarse and dust free, making short work of cleaning brass.
Princess Auto walnut is fine and very dusty, cushioning the brass more than abrading it.
Takes forever and leaves the brass with a fine dust coating.
I tried running the tumbler with the lid off outside in the breeze, and still felt compelled to help it with my compressed air gun.
A lot of trouble to reduce the dust, and only marginal improvement.
I'm back to buying the Lyman, and the remaining 40 pounds of the PA will be a traction aid for the icy parts of my driveway...
Click to expand...

My Lyman walnut sure isn't dust free, I have to wash my brass afterwards to get the dust off.
 
Try tumbling with medium grain rice. Eric Cortina did a video on youtube recently where he touched on that in an interview with the fellow from Primal rights.

On Primalrights.com under library- articles, play with your food clean your brass with rice.
 
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