Strange finish out of tumbler

I have used my walnut shells for years by cleaning it with liquid dish soap
I put it in a bucket add soap and hot water stir it round and strain it with
a pair of my wife nylons several times adding water stirring and straining.

Then I dry it behind the wood stove in a pan turning it and shacking it
once and while until dry . works for me .You will be surprised how
black the water will be keep doing it until clean water .
 
Cummins4x4 said:
I have been looking into the SS pin media. First I have to buy a Tumbler and the media. It does a great job with Liquid in the mix, no more cleaning primer pockets. My dilema is how much of a PITA is drying the brass and washing out the media everytime you run a batch through? seems to be trading one set of problems for another.
Hopefully someone doing the SS process can enlighten me??
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There is no need to 'wash out the media' after tumbling using stainless pin media...have a look at this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-6SOiWE8Hc&feature=related

Not the most professional presentation but you get a feel for the process, by the way there are LOTS of places to buy the stainless pin media on the web, it is used in many other applications besides cleaning brass...

Jim
 
I call bs on the 20 bucks for a 50 lb bag of walnut blasting media. I've been looking. The best i've found so far is "premium grade" walnut blastign media from kbc tools, and it's nearly 80 bucks for a 50 pound bag, plus shipping which i'm guessing would probably be another 50 bucks. even so, though, that's under 3 bucks a pound, and the lyman stuff works out to about 6 bucks a pound.
 
Getting a Stainless media tumbler for Christmas, will chime in with the results when I get back from holidays. Will run it through a thumler model b rock tumbler, bought from canadian treasure seekers.
 
Man what a bunch of tight asses on here. Replace the stupid media when it's ready to be replaced.:rolleyes:
 
mwjones said:
I call bs on the 20 bucks for a 50 lb bag of walnut blasting media. I've been looking. The best i've found so far is "premium grade" walnut blastign media from kbc tools, and it's nearly 80 bucks for a 50 pound bag, plus shipping .............
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The joy of living in the Maritimes. No offence, but you are really, really, getting ripped on that stuff.

Ted
 
I never use same media more that 4-5 times. It gets dirty and... you guessed it - doesn't clean anymore, as well as new media. Would you wash your clothes in exact same water you washed your clothes last week, and week before, and 3 weeks ago?

I do recommend using plain walnut shell from pet store - it's in most cases dust free!! Due to whatever 'pet hazard' rules and regulations and whatnot. No need to buy Lyman media.
Use corn cob along walnut shell, 70/30 volume ratio - walnut shell scrubs, cob polishes - all at the same time. Use cleaning/polishing compound to get oxidation and powder and dirt off cases. Clean, say, 200-300 9mm cases at a time in a regular size tumbler. Add a tablespoon full of NuFinish or whatnot to media (and break clumps) before process. Usually takes 1.5-2hrs to get nice clean brass.
Toss and replace media after 3-5 uses.
 
mwjones said:
I'm thinking there's a problem with my media. Using lyman tuffnut. When i first got it, i could throw some brass in for a couple hours and come back to a mirror finish on my brass, like really REALLY shiny and bright. For some reason, now, i'm getting a kind of a satin/sandblasted kind of finish on them? They're still clean, and they'll work, I just want to know why they're not shiny!
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I think you just may be putting too much brass in a batch at one time. If there are too many of them they will chafe against each other and give that satin blasted/pitted look. I have had it happen. Yes, if there is sand or grit in the media it could also happen but dirty media just takes longer to clean. Just my opinion.
 
All you folks discussing walnut vs corn media...and the long range guru's say:

"Cleaning:
And while we are babying our brass, I do what many benchrest shooters have switched too: I use an ultrasonic cleaner to clean my brass. Vibratory tumblers only "pretty-fy" brass. It does not clean the inside, the flash hole nor the primer pocket. I do not need or care if the outside of my brass is shiny. As a long range shooter, I need the inside, the flash hole and the primer pocket to be clean in the name of uniform combustion & burn, shot to shot. Also all the rattling together of cases in the vibrator peens the cases together work harding them all the more though minimal.

Get you a Ultrasonic cleaner (on the cheap from Harbor Freight.) Throw in your resized/deprimed cases. Cover the cases with distilled water. Then add 1 tablespoon of dish detergent as well as 3-6 tbsp of your favorite liquid brass cleaner. Birchwood-Casey, Lyman Turbo, etc. Any of the liquid products intended to be added into vibratory tumbling media."

This quote is from the 24 Hr Campfire site, link to the page here:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...91/Hand_Loading_for_Long_range_1_#Post4104691

So I'm thinking I might just skip the walnut/corn debate and go straight to the ultrasonic or perhaps the stainless media tumbler method, although it sounds like it could 'peen' and harden the brass even more than the vibratory method. More annealing...

Jim
 
Well, I haven't found anything decent yet. All the pet shops in town do NOT carry any kind of bird/lizard supplies. No walnut or corncom litter available. Charlottetown too. I talked to an old guy that runs a sandblastign company, and he said he could order me some. He was not too happy about me only wanting one 80 lb bag of media. Said he'd call me back in the morning with a price, and that was 4 days ago :(

On the bright side, i tried takign the media that i have and ran it through a really fine sieve. I was amazed at the amount of dust i got out of it, and i thing it must have been some sand in there too, because i ran a batch of brass through and it's a little more shiny and polished that it was before.
 
Try an Acklands store, they should have, or be able to get the walnut blast media. I bought a 50# bag through another source a few years ago, I think it was around 20.00 also. It was a little dustier than I cared for, but for what it cost I could live with it. I believe it was through Manus Abrasives out of Edmonton also. We have an industrial paint and sand blast division at work, so our Paint Shop Manager ordered it for me.
 
mwjones said:
So here's the question then....is there any way to clean the media? or just live with it until it stops cleaning, and buy new stuff?
Click to expand...

I buy walnut in a 50lb bag for $20

Lasts for about a year as I change it quite often.

I use an Aluminum Mag Polish (Can be bought at Westcan Auto Supply under Pro Something-or-other) that gets put in and dispersed before adding my brass.

Comes out super shiny clean.
 
I've put a piece of 3M Duster material in with the walnut in my small rock tumbler after 200 brass and it came out totally brown, just loaded with dust. This last 65 came out better than the last batch. I'm not sure if it was the dust reduction or less brass. I'm sure the other retail floor duster material many of us use would work well. I've done about 275 pieces of rifle brass in a small tumbler and I think this batch of media will easily do that much more.
 
mwjones, maybe you are just tumbling the bejeebers out of your brass? 300 cases but it has run for 30 hours? Three hundred .338 lapua should tumble up in not more than two batches, for a total necessary run time of perhaps 4 hours. And, if they really do have a dulled finish, your brass must have been contaminated with sand. Dump the media, and get some new. Oh, and I know Joe-NWT. Not much point in "calling bs." He don't.
 
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