Tumbling without media - harmful for brass or tumbler?

harbl_the_cat

harbl_the_cat

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I use Walnut shell media plus a mixture of paint thinner and NuPolish car finish with a plug in timer set to 10 hours.

Usually gets the brass looking good and shiny - but the other night I sprayed WAY to much into the mix, and ended up with big clumps of media stuck inside my 9mm and .223 casings.

Not having the time to scrape or bang it all out, I thought I'd try an experiment and put the brass inside my tumblers while I'm at work WITHOUT any media to see if it loosens up the clumpy media to the point that I can just shake it all out.

Now I'm a bit bothered - could it damage the brass just leaving it in the tumbler with no media? Could it damage the tumbler? It sure was loud on my way out to work this morning...
 
I understand (and use) the walnut shell/Nu Finish car wax combo. What's with the paint thinner? And how much are you putting in??
I pour in half a cap of polish every fifth load or so. No clumping ever.

I'm thinking it'll beat the pi$$ outta your brass. The clumps will probably fall out of the 9mm, but I think you're hooped on the 223. I predict a slow, boring clean out in your future.

(E) :cool:
 
"...mixture of paint thinner and NuPolish..." You don't need that. Brass needs to be clean, not shiney. The only thing that could happen and likely will, from running the machine with no media is some scratches on the brass. Nothing to worry about. As mentioned 10 hours is far too long.
"...see if it loosens..." Not likely. Get an ice pick(or something like one) and rent a movie. I'd suggest 'Zulu'.
 
Put your polish in the tumbler with the media BEFORE you put in the brass. Let it tumble for a few minutes to soak up the polish and THEN put in your brass.

Don't ask how I know.
P.S. A small screwdriver will help to get out the clumps.
 
Won't hurt the tumbler to run it 10 hours or to run it with no media. I've left tumblers going for days and they are fine. I like shiny brass so I'll run it overnight or longer if I forget about it. After all,that's why you buy a tumbler- to put the brass in and forget about it!
 
If you have a air compressor, or access to one, try blowing it out. I generaly blow my cases out after tumbling to get rid of the dust and/or any pieces of media that may be stuck in the flash hole.
 
I wasn't too impressed with the ultrasonic and I have so much brass, it takes a while to clean it all.

I run 4 tumblers of variable size, some clean better than others, so I just let them all run as long as e crappiest one.

Also, tumbling the brass with no media did the trick. The brass looks dull, not damaged, but the media clumps all came out.
 
ultrasonics suck to polish brass, but it might have gotten your clumps out. Just an idea...

I wet SS tumble dirty brass, and then corncob + polish when I need to "polish" brass.
I don't even use ultrasonics anymore to clean brass. Just to clean gun parts, OR to give a brass batch a quick "clean" before mass decapping
 
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