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Tumbler dust inside brass


Outlaw714

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I am using a lyman tumblar with Lyman walnut shell media. I tumbled some .40 brass and forgot and left it overnight. So it tumbled for about 15 hours. The brass looks good but inside there is alot of dust from the media. I tried air pressure, still looks nasty inside. I soaked it warm water, now I have mud like residue inside them. What a mess. I can clean out around the case mouth but not down in the bottom. Any suggestions on salvaging these cases?

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change to corn media, get rid of the wal nuts junk. lol. i have not had any luck with walnut stuff, it takes anout 2 hrs. with corn and brass is clean in and out.no dust inside thst i can see. IMO i doesnt hurt ot do it that long, :cheers:

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I like walnut for heavily tarnished brass. I have loaded the "dusty" brass without problems. I now run in corn cob after walnut to remove the dust. Adding a little Nu-Finish to the corn cob makes the brass glide through the carbide sizing die.

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I like walnut for heavily tarnished brass. I have loaded the "dusty" brass without problems. I now run in corn cob after walnut to remove the dust. Adding a little Nu-Finish to the corn cob makes the brass glide through the carbide sizing die.

It's interesting that you mention 'Nu-Finish' car wax.

I just completed a 6 month experiment using 3 different media additives, and Nu Finish came out last with the worst results. I'm not knocking your system, but I found it to tarnish a lot of brass over time, and causes the brass to 'leach' nickel. Something about the compound that causes it to 'spot' brass after a certain period of time over long storage periods. Some of the .223 brass I used came out of storage literally spotted like a leopard.

As for the media being too dusty.

Cut a drier sheet into 1" squares and throw that in the mix at every tumbling. Not only does the drier sheet suck up the gunk, but it also soaks up the dust from the walnut hulls.

Edited by roostershooter
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Seconded for what you came to your conclusions with Rooster, TBH, I have brass in storage that was tumbled with Nu-Finish for a couple of years that don't have any signs of deterioration. I didn't like the smell of Brasso, switched to Nu-Finish & have been happy with the results.

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Am I the only one that mixes walnut and corn cob? It is about a 50/50 mix with a bit of Lymans in it and I have no problems with cleaning the brass, and it has a bit of a lube to it that lets it slide through the dies.

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Am I the only one that mixes walnut and corn cob? It is about a 50/50 mix with a bit of Lymans in it and I have no problems with cleaning the brass, and it has a bit of a lube to it that lets it slide through the dies.

Nope, I mix them as well. The plain corn cob takes longer, but the brass is shinier and slicker, the walnut takes less time, but the brass looks dull and its not as slick. With a mix, the brass seems to get cleaner, quicker, yet it's shinier and more slick through the press. I add the dryer sheets while tumbling, but no other additives. I lube the cases after media separation in a Ziploc baggy, with a some silicone spray lube. Couple of light sprays in the bags, dump in brass, zip up, shake bag vigorously for 1 minute, dump in brass bin beside press.

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I mix plain cob and plain nutshell 50/50 and squirt in a dollop of car polishing compound. 1hr in the tumbler and the brass is super shinny and stays that way for months. Probably any car polish will work. This is what I've currently got. Per ounce it costs about half as much as Berry's or Splitz.

http://www.turtlewax.com/product-detail.aspx?prodid=77

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I am using a lyman tumblar with Lyman walnut shell media. I tumbled some .40 brass and forgot and left it overnight. So it tumbled for about 15 hours. The brass looks good but inside there is alot of dust from the media. I tried air pressure, still looks nasty inside. I soaked it warm water, now I have mud like residue inside them. What a mess. I can clean out around the case mouth but not down in the bottom. Any suggestions on salvaging these cases?

I use the same, but run it through rice for a short while to finish it.

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Brasso used to be the hot ticket as an additive but they changed their formulation some time back and the new stuff just doesn't work, at least, for me. I now use Nu-Finish and have not had the problems noted above.

I'd be interested in hearing what his #1 and #2 choices are, if the Nu-Finish came in #3 ??

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How often do you add polish? I add it when I see the media creating dust which is about once every couple of months. That is only to the batch that I just tumbled. I dump all media into a 5 gallon pail so it is constantly getting mixed with existing media.

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I add about 2-3 Tbsp of dillon polish per batch of 200-300 cases. Works really good. I do tumble for a long time though. 8 hours/day and will often do one batch for 3-4 days. Stuff comes out so shiny it looks like jewelry!

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I'm running 40/60 mix of Lyman Treated Corn Cob and corn blast with 2 used Bounce dryer sheets. The sheets are changed with every brass batch. When it takes longer than 4hrs to clean the brass, I discard the media and start using a new mix.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Am I the only one that mixes walnut and corn cob? It is about a 50/50 mix with a bit of Lymans in it and I have no problems with cleaning the brass, and it has a bit of a lube to it that lets it slide through the dies.

Nope, I mix them as well. The plain corn cob takes longer, but the brass is shinier and slicker, the walnut takes less time, but the brass looks dull and its not as slick. With a mix, the brass seems to get cleaner, quicker, yet it's shinier and more slick through the press. I add the dryer sheets while tumbling, but no other additives. I lube the cases after media separation in a Ziploc baggy, with a some silicone spray lube. Couple of light sprays in the bags, dump in brass, zip up, shake bag vigorously for 1 minute, dump in brass bin beside press.

My media mix, procedure and results are much like Grumpy's. I even use the silicone spray in the Ziploc.

I also use the used dryer cloth trick. definitely cuts down on the powdery stuff. I use some Frankford Arsenal polish, but try not to add much since it seems to eventually gunk up the tumbler and brass if "overloaded". I also spritz in some isopropyl alcohol and Zep citrus cleaner into the media - seems to help.

Try the brass in corncob, which seems to not have the dust problem of walnut. That ought to pull out the powdery stuff in the cases. If you use several dryer sheets in the old media w/o the brass, you may be able to clean out the powdery stuff, and be able to use it again.

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The best way I found to get rid of the walnut media dust is to throw the walnut away and use corn cob! I add a product called Flitz. Works great on the polished stainless on my guns too. 2 or 3 drops on a rag, polish and buff with a dry rag. Beautiful. I put 20 or so drops in the new media once. Cleans and slicks the casings. Works for me...

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  • 3 months later...

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