bradhe Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 I don't do anything as elaborate as people describe with steel media. I think I have 5 pounds (but it was whatever was recommended), fill the tumbler with 9mm or 45 brass and big heafty squirt of dawn, a good dash of lemishine, water almost to the top and then run it for about 3-4 hours. You should still have visable suds when you open it. I also found that if you run it more than 4 hours, the crud somehow gets redeposited on the cases. I just dry in the sun on a couple of black cookie sheets. They come out like new every time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardguy Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Corn cob media and Turtle Wax liquid. Amazingly bright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Vark WSO Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Hmmm... bradhe's experience sounds like mine. Maybe more Dawn and LemiShine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recoil45 Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Currently using Frankford but I am going to try NuFinish when I run out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhbob Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I was lucky enough to be at a local car dealer when they threw-out a few cases of brand name (auto manufacturer's) paint sealer! The charge $ for paint sealing a new car is astronomical, and they don't even use the whole 4 ounce bottle per car. The paint sealer I brought home makes very pretty brass, so if you can unload some from your neighbor car dealership, do it it's worth a try. By the way it smells and feels like Dillon's stuff... just ain't purple Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sounder Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Nu Finish here as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
echase1 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 +1 on the NuFinish and Mineral Spirits. Works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extractor Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 What exactly is mineral spirits? Is it mineral turpentine like what you clean oil paint out of paint brushes with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhbob Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Turpentine comes from pine trees. Mineral spirits is a light petroleum product sometimes used in dry cleaning but mostly for paint thinner for oil based paints. At The Home Depot stores or Wal Mart stores just look for paint thinner. And for a couple bucks more per gallon you can buy odorless paint thinner/(mineral spirits). It's good for cleaning greasy engine parts too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roostershooter Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 (edited) First off, I'm fairly new here myself, but I will post my experiences and you can take them with a grain of salt, or heed my warning. Nu-Finish car wax is NOT good for your brass. I know some guys who swear by it, but they have never studied the long term affects on brass like I have. Several years ago I did a 6 month study on the use of various brass media additives, and found Nu Finish to be one of the worst. Long term, it caused dirt and grime to adhere to cases, melted a few styrofoam storage trays, left deposits in sizing dies, and even caused chamber dimension changes after 2500 rounds in a test barrel. To elaborate a little. 1) Almost all of the treated cases (200 of 250) took on an orange 'leopard spot' appearance after only 4 months in storage. 2) Dust, dirt, and grime adhered more readily to fired cases than to non-treated cases. 3) Three of five 223 / 5.56 brass styrofoam storage inserts showed signs of 'petroleum' style degradation and damage after only 3 months. 4) The inside of the sizing die used exclusively for the sizing of the treated brass showed signs of waxy deposits throughout. 5) A standard ER Shaw 5.56 barrel showed signs of dimension changes after being used to fire 5 - 500 round test firings with cleaning in between. Evidently, CLP does not break down Carnauba Wax and some of the other additives that are in Nu Finish. Furthermore, a car wax is designed to create a thin barrier over a surface to protect the surface from the elements. It is not heat resistant! Have you ever picked up a hot piece of brass after firing? Of course you have. The melting point of carnauba wax is around 160 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the grade. Since The Law of Conservation of Mass teaches us that "Matter is neither created nor destroyed" it has to go somewhere! The wax isn't gasified, so it remains a solid. So, after all of these tests using 4 other brands or styles of 'media polish' I settled on Flitz Media Additive. It performs the best out of the 5 I tested. As a note ... Don't use Brasso or Metal Flitz on your brass. Just a warning. Brasso weakens brass and can cause them to rupture due to the decreased elasticity caused by the leaching of elements from the brass. Edited August 7, 2012 by roostershooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcracco Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Good stuff and makes sense. Thanks. Frankly, I use Lyman's treated corn cob media way too long and the brass always comes out shiny. But I recently stated adding Flitz Media Additive and it definitely kicked up the shine a few notches. Great stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extractor Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I'm in Australia and I don't ever remember seeing "White Spirits" on the hardware shelves for paint thinning. We use "Turps" which is mineral turpentine and has a very high odour to it. I can't imagine putting that in my tumbler <confused>? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtysanchez Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I'm in Australia and I don't ever remember seeing "White Spirits" on the hardware shelves for paint thinning. We use "Turps" which is mineral turpentine and has a very high odour to it. I can't imagine putting that in my tumbler <confused>? Mineral spirits is what you and I call methylated spirits. Works great to thin a bit of car polish. I use it with rice as the media. Brass looks like new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewst359 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Chunks of birthday candle work well and a used dryer sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hondo 60 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Nufinish & a used dryer sheet. (I don't put in a dryer sheet when I add Nu Finish.) I use used dryer sheets on subsequent tumbles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidnal Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Flits and a shot of mineral spirits to keep the dust down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZombieHunter Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 steel media and a rotary tumbler is so much better than any media. Brass is cleaner and shinerier than new I did that for a while, but found it was making the brass shed A LOT of brass "flecks" (like fine glitter) that was sticking to my hands and everywhere else. That can't be good if you plan on using the same brass for any length of time. I've since quit using it, as it was a giant pain to use IMO. Seems the brass tarnished really quick too (a few days)...never did try throwing it in corn cob afterwards with some polish to see if that would keep it from tarnishing so quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extractor Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 I'm in Australia and I don't ever remember seeing "White Spirits" on the hardware shelves for paint thinning. We use "Turps" which is mineral turpentine and has a very high odour to it. I can't imagine putting that in my tumbler <confused>? Mineral spirits is what you and I call methylated spirits. Works great to thin a bit of car polish. I use it with rice as the media. Brass looks like new. I'm not sure about that. Methylated spirits or "metho" is derived from ethanol (denatured alcohol) and can't be used a paint thinner, where as Mineral Turpentine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extractor Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 (edited) I'm in Australia and I don't ever remember seeing "White Spirits" on the hardware shelves for paint thinning. We use "Turps" which is mineral turpentine and has a very high odour to it. I can't imagine putting that in my tumbler <confused>? Mineral spirits is what you and I call methylated spirits. Works great to thin a bit of car polish. I use it with rice as the media. Brass looks like new. I'm not sure about that. Methylated spirits or "metho" is derived from ethanol (denatured alcohol) and can't be used a paint thinner, where as Mineral Turpentine is petroleum based. Edited August 13, 2012 by Blueheeler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constable79 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 OVW, With Lemishine, more is not better. Don' t use more than 1/4 teaspoon. Also, I have noticed that nickel covered brass may tend to "grey" out and not come out shiny. Did this to all of my .357 Winchester brass. I'm not sure why this happens but if I tumble them a second time they come out shiny again. My mix is per the original instructions: 1 tablespoon Dawn dishwashing detergent, 1/4 teaspoon Lemishine, fill tumbler to 1 inch below the rim. Wanting to try Flitz liquid version but haven't found any local yet. Hi bradhe - Don't want to make the thread drift too far off the OP's question. I started using SS media in a tumbler about a year ago and got spectacular results initially. Using 5 lbs. pins, 1/2 gallon water, tablespoon Dawn dish soap, and varying amounts of crystal LemiShine (1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon). I had 45 ACP range pick up brass quite tarnished come out looking near new. Now tumbling 38 Special - they come out clean - but shiny? - not really. What are you mixing with your SS media? I am trying to replicate my first batches of brass with not much luck. Any tips appreciated. OVW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) Here are some 10mm cases. Middle pic is pinned and air dried, third pic is tumbled in corncob with Nu-Finish after the air drying. Edited August 14, 2012 by Steve RA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Vark WSO Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 constable79 - I have read on other forums that more Lemishine is not better - so I varied the amounts to experiment. I have noticed a couple of things. When I open my tumbler after tumbling for four hours or so and empty the water, the brass in the container looks very shiny. After rinsing and separating from the pins, the brass shine quickly dulls up. I figure it might be the water coming out of the garden hose. I've read some posts where guys use distilled water for rinsing - way over the top for me. For S&Gs, I tumbled some dull brass afterward in corn cob (with a little Flitz) - came out much more shiny. A little more work, especially when the media gets stuck in the flash holes. I have also noticed that the larger (45 ACP) cases come out of the SS media/water shinier than the .38s. I figured this might be due to the pins being able to "bounce around" more readily in a larger case. (??) Just read Steve RA's post - think I will try some Cascade next time. OVW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 If you have a problem with the brass not looking good after a # of good looking loads, use some boiling hot water with some Cascade in your tumbler with just the pins and run for an hour or so, then drain and run with just water for 10 or 15 minutes. Crud slowly builds up on everything and getting rid of it usually restores the operation to normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laz2011 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 (edited) I go with the Frankford Arsenal.The brass comes out clean and you can refress your treated media with rubbing alcohol . I have tryed Dillon,Hornady,NuFinish,and Brazos i went back to Frakford Arsenal. Also toss in some used dryer sheets to keep the dust down.Or strips of clean cotton rags. Edited August 16, 2012 by laz2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Termite74 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Does Walmart sell NuFinish? Yes Walmart has it in auto section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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