Cleaning media experiment – and results! Looks like a winner and its PLASTIC!
- Thread starter Timbertec
- Start date
- Location
- In the middle of gopher country
Gotcha!!
This works well for straight wall cases. I tried several types of beanbag stuffing both wet and dry, in addition to different shapes and sizes of ceramic media. I can tell you from experience that it jams up tightly in bottle neck cases when used in a vibratory tumbler. A lot gets jammed in the primer pockets too, but that stuff is pretty easy to get out compare to what's in the cases.
I haven't found anything that gives you the same benefits of ceramic media in bottleneck rifle cases. It cleans the primer pockets and not just the insides of the necks, but the entire inside of the case. People overlook the benefits and get caught up in the process being wet. Its like reloading new brass every time, and with a lot less work than with dry media, when you look at the entire reloading process and not just the tumbling step.
I haven't found anything that gives you the same benefits of ceramic media in bottleneck rifle cases. It cleans the primer pockets and not just the insides of the necks, but the entire inside of the case. People overlook the benefits and get caught up in the process being wet. Its like reloading new brass every time, and with a lot less work than with dry media, when you look at the entire reloading process and not just the tumbling step.
Without water, it will be burnishing, not polishing. In other words, sanding away your cases and making them thinner each time you tumble.
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
If they are standard resin pellets, you'll have to check your flash holes afterwards. Although the actual pellets will be of a very uniform size and won't fit in a flash hole, there is plastic dust and some bits and pieces/fragments left over from the manufacturing process. They can't really wash them with anything like water because the batch will retain that water and cause SERIOUS grief when you feed it though an extruder. I know this from my personal experience of working in a plastics plant. Cleaning resin is not something that's done. Your only concern at the manufacturing level is that it's not contaminated with foreign debris, liquids or another types of resin.
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- Location
- Alberta Free State
Well, I followed up on Timbertec's original post, and acquired 3 lbs of plastic tumbling media from Bedrock Supply. Price was $5.50/lb.
I loaded half of it into my Franklin Arsenal vibrating tumbler, and added about 150 rounds of really grotty .45 ACP brass I had collected at the range last summer. Gave it a 2 1/2 hour run and WOW! Shiny sparking brass, clean inside and out. So then I tried it on a bagfull of 9mm cases, probably about 250 - same story. Beautifully clean brass.
From the look of the media, it will take many, many loads to make it too dirty to work with. It takes about half the time that my crushed-walnut-lizard-litter-and-car-polish media normally takes, and the finish looks cleaner.
This stuff is great!
I loaded half of it into my Franklin Arsenal vibrating tumbler, and added about 150 rounds of really grotty .45 ACP brass I had collected at the range last summer. Gave it a 2 1/2 hour run and WOW! Shiny sparking brass, clean inside and out. So then I tried it on a bagfull of 9mm cases, probably about 250 - same story. Beautifully clean brass.
From the look of the media, it will take many, many loads to make it too dirty to work with. It takes about half the time that my crushed-walnut-lizard-litter-and-car-polish media normally takes, and the finish looks cleaner.
This stuff is great!
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
You should be able to wash out the media using a standard wire strainer and soapy water. Just spread it out on a towel overnight to dry and you should be to go again. The plastic itself won't soak up water. It's just that if it's put in a 1500lb carton wet, the stuff in the center will never dry.
Edit: If you're washing it in a sink, make sure you don't get a big wad of it down the drain or there will be no end to your grief short of putting a pressure washer nozzel down there to blow it though !!!!!!
Edit: If you're washing it in a sink, make sure you don't get a big wad of it down the drain or there will be no end to your grief short of putting a pressure washer nozzel down there to blow it though !!!!!!
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Well, when I was working at CIL plastics, static electricity was always a problem. Sometimes, a knock you flat on your butt problem if you were running the right type of film. I don't recall having any real problems with the resin pellets themselves, but then again, I didn't put them in a tumbler either. Exactly what does it do ????
The pellets stick to anything else thats plastic as well as my hands. It doesn't work well for my setup because I have a homemade media/brass separator that causes the pellets to stick.
I don't know that the pellets were the right shape either, they were similar to mini cylinders, slightly larger than corncob nuggets, I don't know that this shape or size is ideal for tumbling.
I don't know that the pellets were the right shape either, they were similar to mini cylinders, slightly larger than corncob nuggets, I don't know that this shape or size is ideal for tumbling.
No guys... the poslishing plastic pellets are hard plastic... not the crappy soft "bean bag" fill!
Well I stopped into Bedrock supply on my way home yesterday and the guy behind the counter had no clue what I was talking about. I kept referring to plastic tumbling beads, nothing, polishing media that was made from small plastic beads and still nothing. It was like I was talking German and he had no clue what I was talking about. I finally spelled out exactly what I needed and he said they didn't have anything even close to what I was asking for. I reiterated that two other people had been in here in the last week and bought some from you at 4.99 a lb or something like that. Well he finally convinced me to keep using my walnut/lizard litter and to add a polishing compound to it, kind of has the exact same consistency as powdered sugar. I tried it when I got home and what a bloody mess that made. Took about the same amount of time but now I have to wash this fine white powder off all my brass, let it dry and then polish the brass with a rag. Thank goodness I only put in 50 .44 mag cases.
What exactly did you ask for when you went to Bedrock Supply?
What exactly did you ask for when you went to Bedrock Supply?
if your having problems finding items look for a Rock Shop (not a hippie smokin one a geology kind that deals with lapidary supplies) or can i mention the online auction site and type in lapidary tumbler
