blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Well, everybody has to have a good failure now and again. Here's my biggest one for 2009 so far
I got some plastic resin pellets from one of my customers to try as a tumbler media. It's very unlikely that they are the same as the ones we were talking about a month ago in another thread, but what the hey, give them a try.....free is free, right ???
I tumbled one batch of brass and it cleaned the burnt powder off, but wouldn't clean the bullet lube off where my cast bullets had rubbed a bit of lube off on the cases. I generally put my bulk ammo in a heavy plastic bag, so there was a little lube here an there on most of the cases. At any rate, I carried on and loaded them, shot them, brought them home.
Last night, I put some fresh pellets in the tumbler and tossed in the brass.
((( here comes the fail part ))))
I was thinking to myself "hey, self....why don't you put some kind of cleaner in there to try and cut through that lube on the sides of the cases".
Since I didn't have any NuFinish or Brasso, I decided to squirt in a little of this industrial cleaner we use for cutting through the grease and gunk on forklifts. I squirted in a bit and the circulation of the media and brass pretty much stopped dead. Well now....that isn't good. So, not satisfied with THAT fail, I decided to make things worse. I grabbed a jug of windshield washer fluid....summer stuff...with a bit of soap in it. Soaps a lubricant....RIGHT!!!!???? It should allow the pellets and brass to start sliding past each other and life will be good...right???? WRONG !!!!!!
The tiny bit of movement that was there has now stopped. It's like one solid mass in there now. Great....well, not really. Well, I know what WILL free that up, and that's if the plastic is pretty much floating in washer fluid...right??? WRONG !!!!! As it turns out, I wasn't done with my masterpeace failure yet. I dumped in the jug of washer fluid and what do you know...the f-ing pellets are high density plastic and they sink!!!!! ARGH!!!!!
So, now at level 3 of my failure, we've got a mass of plastic pellets and brass in the bottom of a tumbler tank full of now very dirty windshild washer fluid....FARK!!!!!! To hell with it I say....enough for tonight. I left the tumbler running to see what would hapen.
Fast forward to tonight. Not much has hapened. Still water logged mass in the bottom of the bowl. The brass is fairly clean, but nothing to write home about. So, I decide to pull out my 44 mag cases by hand. sure enough, the f-ing soaking wet pellets are sticking to the inside of the cases and the cases feel like they're covered in soapy water. Joy.
I go and get a 1/2 full 5 gallon pail of water and dump the whole mess in. I had to pull out every case....all 250 of em, one at a time.....swish the case back and forth in the water to get most of the resin pellets out, then tap repeatedly on the side of the bucket to get the rest out. One more swish to get the finer bits of plastic out and out on a bunch of rags to dry. It only took me 2 1/2 hours !!!!!!! ARRRRRRRGH !!!!!
I'm going to buy some crushed walnut and a bottle of NuFinish tonight. It's worked the best out of all of the various types of media I've tried. That's enough experimenting for a while. LEARN FROM MY PAIN BOYS !!!!! ROFL!!!!
I got some plastic resin pellets from one of my customers to try as a tumbler media. It's very unlikely that they are the same as the ones we were talking about a month ago in another thread, but what the hey, give them a try.....free is free, right ???
I tumbled one batch of brass and it cleaned the burnt powder off, but wouldn't clean the bullet lube off where my cast bullets had rubbed a bit of lube off on the cases. I generally put my bulk ammo in a heavy plastic bag, so there was a little lube here an there on most of the cases. At any rate, I carried on and loaded them, shot them, brought them home.
Last night, I put some fresh pellets in the tumbler and tossed in the brass.
((( here comes the fail part ))))
I was thinking to myself "hey, self....why don't you put some kind of cleaner in there to try and cut through that lube on the sides of the cases".
Since I didn't have any NuFinish or Brasso, I decided to squirt in a little of this industrial cleaner we use for cutting through the grease and gunk on forklifts. I squirted in a bit and the circulation of the media and brass pretty much stopped dead. Well now....that isn't good. So, not satisfied with THAT fail, I decided to make things worse. I grabbed a jug of windshield washer fluid....summer stuff...with a bit of soap in it. Soaps a lubricant....RIGHT!!!!???? It should allow the pellets and brass to start sliding past each other and life will be good...right???? WRONG !!!!!!
The tiny bit of movement that was there has now stopped. It's like one solid mass in there now. Great....well, not really. Well, I know what WILL free that up, and that's if the plastic is pretty much floating in washer fluid...right??? WRONG !!!!! As it turns out, I wasn't done with my masterpeace failure yet. I dumped in the jug of washer fluid and what do you know...the f-ing pellets are high density plastic and they sink!!!!! ARGH!!!!!
So, now at level 3 of my failure, we've got a mass of plastic pellets and brass in the bottom of a tumbler tank full of now very dirty windshild washer fluid....FARK!!!!!! To hell with it I say....enough for tonight. I left the tumbler running to see what would hapen.
Fast forward to tonight. Not much has hapened. Still water logged mass in the bottom of the bowl. The brass is fairly clean, but nothing to write home about. So, I decide to pull out my 44 mag cases by hand. sure enough, the f-ing soaking wet pellets are sticking to the inside of the cases and the cases feel like they're covered in soapy water. Joy.
I go and get a 1/2 full 5 gallon pail of water and dump the whole mess in. I had to pull out every case....all 250 of em, one at a time.....swish the case back and forth in the water to get most of the resin pellets out, then tap repeatedly on the side of the bucket to get the rest out. One more swish to get the finer bits of plastic out and out on a bunch of rags to dry. It only took me 2 1/2 hours !!!!!!! ARRRRRRRGH !!!!!
I'm going to buy some crushed walnut and a bottle of NuFinish tonight. It's worked the best out of all of the various types of media I've tried. That's enough experimenting for a while. LEARN FROM MY PAIN BOYS !!!!! ROFL!!!!
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