cleaning dust from media

Please take this suggestion seriously, try it out. I have never found anything that comes even a tiny bit close as far as functionality.

Get a genuine, real sea sponge. Not an imitation. These can be found at paint stores, craft stores, even places like walmart. They are sold in the cosmetic department quite often.

These things have a rubbery texture, and they hold crud better than anything else in the world.

Here is how to use them. Do you have a full sized tumbler? put a sponge that is about 2-3" in size into your tumbler with the media, even filthy, nasty media. Run it with your brass, just leave it in there as you work. Clean it every once in a while, you know, maybe every 2,000 rounds, or whenever you start seeing dust?

Here is how you clean it, this is the important part. Hold the thing over your tumbler, and gently tap it to knock as much media loose as you can out without knocking out all of the dust along with it. wash the sponge in your kitchen sink with soap and hot water. let it dry. You are done.

When you use one of these, your brass will be brite, it will be dust free, and when you pour your media out of that bowl, there should not be even the tiniest trace of dust. in the bowl. Not kidding at all, not exaggerating.

If you use an abrasive type of polish, you may find that you use more of it than you used to, as the polish can rub off onto the sponge. That isn't a problem, it sits on the sponge, rubs on the brass and polishes just like the media does.

I don't know if a large 3" sponge would work better than two or three small ones. Never tested that.
 
I have bad allergies. So I try to keep dust exposure to a minimum. I switched to wet tumbling with an FART with Stainless steel pins. I do still use the old dry vibratory tumbler when taking lube off of loaded tapered cases like .45-70, or .30 Carbine. I use cleaning patches, and dryer sheets. I put NuFinish car polish on a couple of patches, and then run the tumbler open outside for a half hour or so until there are no clumps or lumps. Then I run the rounds through. About an hour later they are clean and shining.
 
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