Globs of media polish inside my tumbled cases, how to remove?

Y

yober

New member
OK, newbie bonehead move here. I put some of the media polish supplied in Franklin Armory's tumbler kit on top of the brass/media mixture at the very start, instead of putting it in ahead of time and letting it disperse. Out of 300 pieces I got about 10% with caked up media or a semi-dried white residue inside. I plucked them out, picked out the media globs, and tried to remove as much residue as practicable with the pick, and re-ran them for an hour or so by themselves. While the media was gone and some of the residue was smoothed out, enough remains against the side of the walls that I think it might affect the pressures. Anyone encounter this before, and is my only resort to inspect each and every case for this phenomenon and scrub them out with a bristle brush?
 
put in 5 gallon bucket....add boiling water and soap, dry in sun or oven

I generally do a precursory wash before resizing and tumbling. I use a mix of hot water and white vinegar and salt. cleans anything. swish it around with a toilet brush, maybe not one that has been used in the toilet, although they say a toilet is cleaner than your keyboard.....
 
OP stated he "picked" out most of the goop and there is still some on the interior walls. I might just reload 'em and shoot 'em. Since the polish prolly has a petroleum base, I'd rinse them in mineral spirits.
 
put them in an old sock, tie off the opening and toss them in the washer with other clothing, on hot, and you will be fine
 
Although I'm tempted to put them in the old sock just to see what it would sound like in a washer, I soaked them for a couple of hours in a solution of vinegar and salt. It seemed to flatten everything up but left a white "stain" where the goop had been. Decapped and sized a couple with no hangups. I think I will try the mineral spirits, however.
 
Before washing with soap, I'd try to figure out if the media polish was water soluble or petroleum soluble. If it is petroleum based, you might need something more potent to get it out (like mineral spirits or alcohol).
 
just google: vinegar salt water, you'll see lots of people that use it for metal cleaning. I was turned onto it by this forum as well, I forgot the magic ingredient though....lemon juice.
 
NEXT TIME make sure your polish gets fully mixed in the media before putting cases in tumbler.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured that. This stuff seems like it wouldn't mix that easily after 15 min., but it was free....
 
More globs ...

OK, so I pour a generous amount of the polish this time and run it for a half hour and check on it -- it's still clumpy, large ones, like cat turds in a litter box. Moist, too. So I have to stick my hands in and find and break up the cat turds. Surely this is not the right way to do this.
 
Yober
Yes, insert a hand into the media while the tumbler is running, without brass added of course, and break up the clumps with the fingers. Nothing wrong with doing it that way and will get the job done much faster than just letting the tumbler run on its own.
 
You can do without the media polish next time. Use Zilla (pet store bedding for lizards - less expensive than what you find at the local gun retailer) or something comparable for 2 1/2 hours or longer. You won't know the difference between the media with or without the polish. Oh yeah, don't forget the dryer cloth, makes a world of difference picking up the dirt.

I like the "sock" idea, protect the finish on the washing machine, gains movement and hopefully shakes out the caked-in media.

Good luck.
 
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