Cleaning brass makes it worse...

[Marc82Much]

I must be the worst cleaner in America. I bought a 5 pound dry tumbler from Harbor Freight (can't post link, sorry) and then I added 5 pounds of SS tumbling media from Pellets LLC.

I put the media into the HF Vibrator, and I put in a squirt of Nu Shine, with a small piece of dryer sheet. I turned it on and let it tumble for five minutes before I added some range brass.

I came back in 10 minutes to check it and the brass is now worse than when I put it in. It is black and greasy. Yuck!

I thought this would be simple. Any ideas?

[Merlin Orr]

Use corncob media...?

[The_Vigilante]

Stainless steel media is for wet tumbling-not in a vibrator.

[hankfan79]

I was going to say the same thing. I notice it stated "dry" tumbler yet he added liquid and SS media

Edited October 31, 2011 by hankfan79

[noylj]

Awful lot of cost for such a non-important activity. This all started with the need to wipe of the case exterior to protect the early steel dies and now is a major industry.

Order 20/40 grit corn from Grainger's for your vibrator.

Since you have the SS media now, you need a wet tumbler. Thumler's Tumbler is about as good as it gets (I love mine), but they sure are charging an arm-and-a-leg for 'em ($171 at Amazon, $170 at erocktumbling.com, or $173 at buffaloarms.com). Some mechanically-inclined make their own tumbler.

[Marc82Much]

I took back the dry tumbler and bought the 18 Lb. Vibratory Bowl w/ Liquid Drain Hose "wet vibratory bowl" from Harbor Freight. Got the floor model for $88. Tried again using 1 gallon water, big squirt dish soap and teaspoon of LemiShine. All is now right with the world.

Heavy duty vibratory bowl for cleaning and polishing small hardware

Vibratory tumbling is faster than rotary tumbling

Rubber mounted feet for stability

18 gauge steel motor housing

Polyethylene drum and lid

Maximum capacity: 18 lbs.

120V, 60 Hz.

Drum opening: 10-1/2" diameter

Overall dimensions: 15" W (at base) x 18-1/4" H

Shipping Weight: 30.46 lbs.

Thanks guys.

[Punkin Chunker]

I thought this would be simple. Any ideas?

Brass cleaning is simple.

Start by pouring 3 ounces of bourbon into the shooter.

Repeat until the brass looks clean enough.

[rsrocket1]

Stainless Steel media is definitely NOT the stuff you use in a vibratory tumbler. It is to be used in a rotary tumbler with soapy water. You should be using either corn cob media or crushed walnut shells with a vibratory tumbler. You could have used one of the single or dual drum rotary tumblers from Harbor Freight with the stainless steel pins, but most people buy the Thumler's Tumbler which is much more rugged and expensive.

You can buy the media from pet stores sometimes called "lizard bedding" or animal feed stores. I bought 50 pounds of crushed walnut shells form a local feed store for $17.

The good news is you can probably salvage that brass by running it overnight in a batch of crushed walnut shells and it would probably clean up. The cut up used dryer sheet picks up a lot of the walnut dust as well as the burned powder and primer soot. Just make sure you wash your hands after handling the stuff because the primer soot contains lead.

Edited November 8, 2011 by rsrocket1