Corn cob, or Walnrt shells?

[bagdrag]

I think it largely depends on how dirty the brass is. Walnut works better for dirty brass, but tends to leave the surface "matte". Where as corn cob polishes to more of a shine. YMMV Nickle brass tends to be easier to clean and resist the stuck on carbon residue, so corn cob should be suffiscient.

I get the same results as above but I mix my media. Walnut doesn't seem to last as long and I usually just add some refresher corn media a couple time before I have to replace the whole mess.

[bagdrag]

Tried corncob. Gets dirty too easily and takes forever.

Tried walnut, and got way too much nasty dust. Also the brass looked like crud. Had that frosty look, and although it knocked the big chunks off faster, they were covered with walnut dust.

I got nowhere NEAR the lifespan out of either that I see lots of people claim.

Then I saw a number of folks say they use rice. So i hit up costco for a 50lb bag of the cheapest bleached white parboiled stuff.

3 hours and I have nice shiny cases that are nicer looking than I was getting with corn cob and polish (or straight corn cob). Also very little dust, and less crap building up in my tumbler.

YMMV but I like rice.

You got me wanting to try rice now. Also, are you saying I don't need to use brass polish with rice?

[Duane Thomas]

Matt,

How much did the 50 lb. bag of rice cost you? Did they have large (but not quite that large) bags available, as well?

[Pat Miles]

Tried corncob. Gets dirty too easily and takes forever.

Then I saw a number of folks say they use rice. So i hit up costco for a 50lb bag of the cheapest bleached white parboiled stuff.

3 hours and I have nice shiny cases that are nicer looking than I was getting with corn cob and polish (or straight corn cob). Also very little dust, and less crap building up in my tumbler.

YMMV but I like rice.

3 hours!

I buy the 20# bucket of corncob media at Sportsmans Warehouse. In goes some NuFinish car wax and 30-45 minutes later my brass is clean and shiny.

CYa,

Pat

[mildot1]

I use denatured alcohol to cut my polishing compound

[Madmark]

I've got probably 25 pounds of walnut, and 15 pounds of corncob on the shelf collecting dust. I tried dryer sheets, even dampened them a bit, but couldn't get away from the dust walnut makes.

As for corn cob, I found a lump of polish encrusted media inside a 223 casing, and didn't like the idea of inadvertantly reducing internal case volume, either.

I tried rice once for kicks and giggles, and never went back to other media. The only drawback is that it likes to stick in empty primer pockets, and is harder to pick out than corn cob.

[twodownzero]

Maybe I'm in the minority but I can't tell the difference. Either way the brass gets clean and I load it.

If I spent forever polishing my brass, I'd never get to go shooting.

[The Happy Gila]

I've been using a 60/40 combination of Walnut and corn cobb on my .45 brass, plus a few drips of polishing compound. I drip the polishing compound around the outside perimeter of the vibratory case on top of the media (not close to the center, otherwise it'll sink immediately to the bottom of the bowl and lump up).

As I usually accumulate over 400 or so rounds of brass before I clean it, I turn the tumbler on when I get up in the morning, check it a couple times during the proceeding 3-4 hours and just take it from there.

Coupled with the Montana Gold bullets I normally shoot, my ammo ends up making me look like a 1954 television series cowboy action hero (but I don't shoot as good as those guys did!!) THG

[raz-0]

Does rice maintain its integrity or does it break down? Thanks

Honestly, I don't re-use it much. Probably the most use I have on any rice is from a recent batch because I didn't want to crack open my next 5 gallon bucket and I forgot to disconnect the timer after it was done the first go through. It probably got tumbled about 18 hours in 3 hour chunks over the course of a weekend. It was no dustier than the other batches and pretty much just looked like gray rice.

I could probably re-use it more than I do, but I dont' I use it once, then re-use it once, and toss it. It defintiely has life left over, but I ahve no idea how much.

You got me wanting to try rice now. Also, are you saying I don't need to use brass polish with rice?

I ahd been using a liquid car wax/polish or nothing with corn cob as my mainstay before trying rice. In terms of cleanliness and shininess, I'd rank it walnut with wax (bad idea) < walnut < (much less shiny than) corn cob < corn cob with wax < plain rice

The best results i got with corncob was with wax, and at 4 hours pop. Plain rice seems shinier, but I think it is mostly about the same plus the fact the inside of the cases are cleaner.

Matt,

How much did the 50 lb. bag of rice cost you? Did they have large (but not quite that large) bags available, as well?

I buy it form costco. I think it is called american blue ribbon. It costs $15.95 a bag. A 25lb bag of corn cob bedding runs about $20 from the big box pet store nearby. However, due to density, I use less corn cob per batch. I go through about 1 25lb bag of corncob in about 2 years give or take, and one 50lb bag of rice in about a year. A year for me means likely cleaning about 6000-8000 cases depending on how the brass scrounging gods smile on me. Bu I err on the side of toss it while it is still working well.

Word of warning, separate your brass before cleaning. rice will wedge between 9mm and 40 and 40 and 45 REAL well. I use my slotted plastic brass sorters on the dirty brass if it is mixed. Then tumble. Speeds things up immensely.

[Beowulf]

What is frosted brass ? and what should the ratio be. I'm using a 750- I actually just started cleaning today. So if someone can go over PERFECT Experience SOPs that would be nice.

[bball97]

Thank you for all the valuable information. I just polished 4 batches with Lyman corn cob media, & some Nu-Finish. Can't believe how good they look! I threw in a box of long grain white rice that I found yesterday for good measure. Happy shooting...

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: I use both. The Walnut to clean dirty range brass then I use the corncob to give it that new finish look. I actually have 3 tumblers. One for corncob pre clean, one for corncob finish clean(with polish in it) and one for Walnut. The pre clean one is for pistol brass and uses large corncob(critter litter) which is not good for cleaning 223 brass(the corn cob sticks in the case). I like my brass to look new and very shiny since I figure it will chamber better and is easier to see when it lands on the ground so it can be reloaded again. The walnut does remove the tarnish faster. Thanks, Eric

[Duane Thomas]

What is frosted brass ?

It's a reference to the matte, bead blasted looking appearance of the brass.

[Sam]

I live a long way from any of the big box pet stores. I started using rice several years ago. I run it with a dab of car wax until it turns green and quits cleaning the brass. This is usually about 4 loads of brass. I'm always careful to discard the used rice where birds won't eat it.

[Jesse Tischauser]

Hello: I use both. The Walnut to clean dirty range brass then I use the corncob to give it that new finish look. I actually have 3 tumblers. One for corncob pre clean, one for corncob finish clean(with polish in it) and one for Walnut. The pre clean one is for pistol brass and uses large corncob(critter litter) which is not good for cleaning 223 brass(the corn cob sticks in the case). I like my brass to look new and very shiny since I figure it will chamber better and is easier to see when it lands on the ground so it can be reloaded again. The walnut does remove the tarnish faster. Thanks, Eric

What do you use for tumbling 223 brass then? I too had troubles with the large corn cob filling up half of my cases the first time I tried it.

[Jesse Tischauser]

I am using large corn cob media from one of the big box pet stores. The media actually looks too big to fit down into the corners of the cases.

Can the media be too big?

I have also tried using the Lyman brass polish but it never really made the brass shiny. The Lyman polish made the media black and dirty so I had to throw it out after one use.

I also tried varying the amount of cases but the cases always came out dull but clean no matter how many cases I had in the tumbler.

I tried all media and no polish and that didn't do much cleaning or polishing either.

I even tried tumbling the brass all night long with little success.

A friend recommended using BrassO brass polish with my media. So I did and it makes the brass shine real nice.

[TIGwelder]

A friend recommended using BrassO brass polish with my media. So I did and it makes the brass shine real nice.

From what I've been reading, BrassO contains ammonia which isn't good for our cases. Might want to do a Google search and do some reading on it.

Den

[diablodawg]

I have loved rice, since anything else I cannot find in my area. Do not put brasso in, though: it makes the rice kind of gummy and sticks in the cases. Completely dry is the way to go.

[mildot1]

Just for clarification, Are you guys using wax or a polishing compound??

I have two tumblers one with treated walnut for cases that are super nasty.

The other was corncob that I treat with "scratch out" that I cut with alcohol to get it to mix with the media. I have run over 5000 cases thru with the same media. Just add some compound every few batches.

Brad

[2kcrewcab]

After reading some on the forums a few months ago, I switched to about a 60/40 fine corn cob/walnut hull (lizard litter) mix with a little case polish, and I throw in a couple of used dryer sheets to keep it from being as dusty. I'm going more for function than looks, and I only tumble for around an hour (give or take 10 minutes). While they might not be as pretty as other folks rounds, they still work just fine.

[ExtremeShot]

I did a side-by-side comparison of corn cob, walnut, and rice. I ran each for 1hr, 2hr, and 3 hr. Walnut produce the best results. 2 hrs+ worked best.

[Justin R.]

Just going to throw this question to the wolves real quick here...What if you were to use a glass bead sand blasting media, followed by corn cob with Dillon Rapid Polish? I have got a free supply of quality glass bead, but don't know if it would work? Has someone already tried it? Can anyone see a potential problem with it?

Edited October 23, 2009 by Justin R.

[Steve J]

Just going to throw this question to the wolves real quick here...What if you were to use a glass bead sand blasting media, followed by corn cob with Dillon Rapid Polish? I have got a free supply of quality glass bead, but don't know if it would work? Has someone already tried it? Can anyone see a potential problem with it?

Seems to me that would only serve to increase the health hazard level from the dust created by tumbling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis

[Blueridge]

I did a side-by-side comparison of corn cob, walnut, and rice. I ran each for 1hr, 2hr, and 3 hr. Walnut produce the best results. 2 hrs+ worked best.

Okay, but how did the others do? What was the criteria that you used to determine "best"? How much better was the walnut than the other two? Which came in second?

Just curious.

[gregdavidl]

I have always used the largest corncob media I could find. The cheapest place to buy it is at an industrial supply house and I've always bought a 50# bag. I add a squirt of Brasso everytime I run a load and discard when the media gets real grungy looking. Be sure to let it run a bit before you add the brass, otherwise it will clump inside the cases. I've never worried about the ammonia in Brasso since I replace my brass every year.

Edited October 23, 2009 by gregdavidl