Mineral Spirits in tumbling media

[harleyvet02]

I saw a thread where people where using mineral spirits in their tumbling media. I used some for the last batch and the brass came out looking great. I just wonder how much and how often people are using mineral spirits. How often do you change media? I've never been overly concerned with shiny brass but this made it easy.

Thanks,

George

[twistrate]

I typically add a capful when I start a batch or two. If I do Batch back to back I don't add any. It's basically whenever I can tell the media has dried out and the spirits have vaporized out.

Also, if you use a good polish in your media the mineral spirits help to reactivate the polish.

I use Nupolish car polish like a lot of others and it works great.

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[Sean Gaines]

when your media gets dry, adds more friction, and cuts down on the dust. you can also try some NuFinish car wax on top of that (cap full) and you will see some bright brass....I like to add car wax, and mineral spirits and let it run for a little and take something(dowel rod) and break up the clumps so that the media can be spread through the bowl, then add brass. But everyone is different in this regard.

[Graham Smith]

In general people use it with walnut but use polish with corn cob. But not everyone does the same thing.

[coordinator]

Mineral spirits and car wax leave your brass looking very shiny and clean. In addition, I still use the dryer sheets for dust control.

[DEADEYE]

dumb question I have walnut and corn cob media use both one vs the other or one for a coarse then other for fine cant seem too find and answer?

[Steve RA]

I just use the fine grade walnut hull from Harbor Freight, small enough to not stick in primer holes, with NuFinish.

[johnsons1480]

dumb question I have walnut and corn cob media use both one vs the other or one for a coarse then other for fine cant seem too find and answer?

If I understand your question, then the answer would seemingly be most people use walnut for dirty range brass, or when you have gunk or buildiup that you need to knock off of the brass. Corn cob seems to be used more for polishing and light cleaning. Some people use both on different steps. I just use corn cob all the time.

[harleyvet02]

I use only walnut media, but only because I get it cheap and my brass is always dirty. I haven't tried car polish yet. I still have Dillon polish left.

[DEADEYE]

My brass just doesnt get real shinny if I only use one or the other if I use both then it gets better i will try the mineral spirits once and see....

[dferrier]

My brass just doesnt get real shinny if I only use one or the other if I use both then it gets better i will try the mineral spirits once and see....

Oh yeah mineral spirits definitely helps IMHO of course.

[warpspeed]

I've used both corn & walnut ( and rice for that matter ) and found the walnut to be the best.

I use the NuFinish Polish and find it more than adequate. I like my brass bright though so YMMV.

I have used walnut and mineral spirits when tumbling rifle brass that has been sized to remove the lanolin case lube though and found it to be very good at that but it only gets tumbled for a short time ~ 1 hr.

[BBQDawg]

I am really happy with the brass I'm turning out these days. Picked up the idea on Internet somewhere to put my dirty brass in Lemi-Shine to soak. I have a bucket I put my spent brass in that has a mark that shows when I have accumulated about 500 rounds. I add about four 1/2 teaspoons of Lemi-Shine, gallon of hot tap water, few squirts of Dawn dishwashing soap, mix and shake it all up, let sit about 20 minutes, rinse and let dry, put in my corncob media, with a little NuFinish, mineral spirits, and dryer sheets for about 2 1/2 hours, and comes out looking shiny and like new. The soak in the Lemi-Shine and dawn gets all the black carbon off the brass which makes my media last a lot longer. Prior to that, after about 3-4 batches it was really turning black.