Too much Polish in corn cob media?

[slavex]

so I put fresh corn cob media in my tumblers the other day (Two Midways, one old style, one new and a Dillon). Normally the Dillon is the preclean, and the two Midways do the final polish. However this time the cases will not come out shiny. They are clean, but not sparkly like I normally get them. Is it possible to much Flitz Brass Polisher could cause that to happen? the media turned dark pretty quick. which it normally doesn't. These cases had been washed previous to hitting the fresh media in the Dillon, and then going into the Midways. I've dumped it all out into a spare pail, and I'm trying just straight corn cob, no polish, to see if the cases get shiny. I won't know till later tonight if it works.

[Sarge]

Hmmm, something caused the cob to turn dark. Probably too much polish as you say. I know when mine turns gray with use it quits cleaning the brass so it stands to reason this is probably your problem.

Also, since I often times wash really muddy brass before I tumble it I know from experience that ANY amount of moisture left over will do a number on corn cob media. I also know that leaving the lid off of the tumbler will result in uncleaned brass. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

[kaiserb]

... I also know that leaving the lid off of the tumbler will result in uncleaned brass. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

How so? I have always cleaned with the lid off and the brass comes out shiny and new looking? Do the vibe tumblers clean faster with the lid on?

[Toolguy]

I have found that if I put in too much brass (over 1/2 full) at one time, the brass comes out clean but dull. If there is too much brass,

it is grinding brass against brass instead of flowing through the media. With 1/3 to 1/2 full of brass, then fill remainder with media,

it comes out polished and shiny.

[SA Friday]

too much polish can leave residue on the cases and make it look dull. Also, changing the media and not cleaning the bowl can cause the media to pick up dirt/polish residue left on the inside of the bowl.

I would remove the media, clean the bowl and lid, and then put half the polish treated media back with 1/2 new untreated media and run the brass again for about an hour.

[Classic_jon]

I remember one time, before I had my own tumbler and press, I was using a friends that was teaching me how to reload...

I had a bag of brass and just dumped it all into his tumbler ...without sorting it or screening out the "range floor crud"... it pretty much destroyed his media and put a black tarish goop all over it. The brass had a "film" on it that was kind of oily.

He got another can of media and tossed the brass in there and it cleaned up but I learned my lesson on "range floor crud"....

I think I still owe him a can of media for that now that I think about it (I wonder if he is going to read this .... )

[Sarge]

... I also know that leaving the lid off of the tumbler will result in uncleaned brass. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

How so? I have always cleaned with the lid off and the brass comes out shiny and new looking? Do the vibe tumblers clean faster with the lid on?

With my Dillon tumbler if I leave the lid off it just sort of goes round and round with very little turn over of brass. If I grab the shaft tight to limit it's vibration the brass nosedives right under immediately. That should replicate putting the lid on tight? I figured this out once when I forgot to put the lid on and the brass was not as shiny as usual when it finished.

This is by no means a claim that tumblers work faster with the lid on but for me that seemed to be the case.

[WDB]

I find that if I put to much polish in, the brass turns over slowly because the media is get to thick. I usually put the media in, let it get going and brass by the handful until it gets to circulating pretty good, maybe one more handful and let it run all day. Next morning change to polish media, only a couple capfuls of polish, repeat fill process and let run all day. I have the luxury of doing it at work. My tumbler (Franklin Arsenal) came with a clear lid so I can see that if I screw the lid on, the brass does turn over slower so, I leave the lid off, just put a paper towel over the top to try to keep the dust down and my brass comes out overkill SHINY. Then again 8 hours of cleaning and 8 hours of polishing will do that.

[kamikaze1a]

I just read on another thread that adding a drier sheet (unscented) helps clean out some of the crud from the media. Gonna try that out, nothing to lose. Anyone heard of or tried that?

[Sarge]

I just read on another thread that adding a drier sheet (unscented) helps clean out some of the crud from the media. Gonna try that out, nothing to lose. Anyone heard of or tried that?

I use dryer sheets cut into three strips. I put them in with walnut shell. They seem to trap alot of the brown dust and some black crud. I think the jury is still out as far as I am concerned since I usually change both media's once the corn turns gray and the walnut gets dull edges.

[Matt P.]

have you ever tried adding the lyman rouge with the corn media?

i mix 1 part rouge to 3 parts corn cob and all my brass sparkle better than new without messy polish or anything like that.

[gmantwo]

I've got a friend who destroyed a set of Dillon Carbide .223 dies by putting too much rouge in his media. He sent them back to Dillon to see what was causing problems with his sizer die and they knew immediatley what the problem was. The rouge left on the brass had eaten away the inside of the die. I never use anything other than treated(by the maker) corn cob media.

[slavex]

tired posting from my Blackberry last night, apparently it didn't go through.

I checked the brass last night, sparkly shiny like new. Untreated corn media. I added a small amount of polish to it and threw in some more dull brass. It was all nice and shiny this morning and the media had changed color slightly. It still looked like new media last night when I swapped out the brass. I also loaded up the Dillon with new media (no polish) and some dull cases. They were still dull this morning. for some reason the Dillon will clean them fine, but it won't polish them like the Midway tumblers will. Different agitation I guess. The Dillon gets them moving fast, but maybe not vibrating the same? I'm just throwing out the over treated media, I've got about 80lbs of corn sitting in a barrel, so it's not like I need to scrounge for it. And it's almost that special time of the year on the farm, so I'll probably grab a couple more bags when my dad orders his. much cheaper that way.