tumbler

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oldbear1950

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what do ya'll add to your corn cob media in tumbler to really clean and polish your brass? Mine sorta comes clean most of the time, but not really shinny
 
Crushed walnut (lizard litter from the pet store) is a much better cleaner. I’ve used both, but prefer crushed walnut.

Either way, I add some Iosso liquid case polish to both.
 
I wet tumble now, but i did dry tumble for a while.

I did not like corn cob, it got stuck in the flash holes and took too long to clean the brass, had much better luck with walnut.

with both corn cob and walnut I had good luck with nu-finish car wax. its has a mild polish in in, and keeps the brass from tarnishing.
 
When I used corn cobb, I used Nu Finish car polish and denatured alcohol. The polish went in as pretreatment (run at least 30 min) and the alcohol was used before each batch to collect the dust to the sides of the bowl.

Now I use Harbor Freight blast media, same pretreatment and used dryer sheets. The blast media doesn't plug up 223 cases.
 
You can make up a thin paste of odorless mineral spirits and diatomaceous earth (same mild abrasive used in toothpaste and as a cereal filler). A four-pound bag of food-grade stuff is $10 and will last you a lifetime. Add a few tablespoons to new media and test the effectiveness and adjust if needed, then replenish with a teaspoonful as needed.
 
Mix corn cob and walnut media with at least 2/3 corn cob in there to 1/3 or less walnut. For the shine, eyeball approx. one teaspoon of Nu-Finish, it works great since switching recently from Flitz.

Key to this process is not loading brass to the top. You get shiny brass for about an hour per load if its not crammed in. Remove the brass after, and load more in the tumbler with the same corn cob and walnut as the last batch. Give the brass room to tumble!
 
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The only thing I even use my tumbler for anymore is a final shine with Nufinish in crushed walnut. Otherwise I just wet tumble with Dawn and citric acid, no stainless pins. I leave the pins out because I like the carbon inside the necks, no need for neck lubing then.
 
I stopped using the pins. Way too much hasle, and they were harder to size. Gotta run em 2hrs now instead of 1, but they come out just as clean
 
I only run mine for an hour, I’ve found some brass doesn’t like the citric acid so well and turns pink if left too long. I only use a pinch of citric, it’s powerful stuff. I use a pretty concentrated solution to soak rust off small parts, works like magic. It usually only takes a couple hours to clean of fairly heavy rust.
 
+1 for the Harbor Freight walnut. I use the #12. They do have the #24, haven't tried it yet. One box has lasted me a few years. More cost effective than reloading branded walnut. As far as I can tell it is the same thing unless we are talking about the one with Jewlers rust added. I have tried lizard litter in the past, found it to be too dusty for me.

+1 for the mineral spirits. Add some to the media when it starts to take longer to clean than normal. Ran a batch last week with this and was amazed with the results. Dare I say better than the F.A.R.T wet tumble as far as shine (primer pockets excluded).

Just my 2 cents.
 
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