Lee Loader

Hi,
what's your favourite media ?
I use round rice (in Germany we use it for rice pudding) and a bit of metal polish.
After tumbling for 2h, I put the brass into boiling water, along with baking soda an a drop of dishwashing liquid.
BR Jörg

I clean my brass several ways depending on how much I have to do. Large batches go into the FART with some SS pins, citric acid and dish soap (Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler ) . Smaller batches go into a 2 quart ultrasonic cleaner with dish soap and citric acid for about 10 minutes . All brass is finished in a tumbler with ground walnut shells and car polish for about 30 minutes. They are quite slick and shinny when they come out of the Walnut shells.
Over here we make beer with those small bits or rice.

My usual process is: deprime, citric acid and a drop of detergent in a ultrasonic cleaner, dry and if the brass is really dull it gets some time in a vibrating tumbler with cob media and a few drops of brass polish.. The other day I was distracted and dumped the cases into the tumbler first. Rather then having to screen them out I just turned it on and went on to other things. An hour later I screened and then deprimed and put in ultrasonic cleaner. Brass came out spotless and shining.

When I come in from Shootin, I just dump Em in the Tumbler with ground Walnut and a used Dryer Sheet....

I'm a K.I.S.S advocate, so I presently use 14-20 corn cob blast media. Sometimes I'll drop in a bit of auto wax/polish, and 99% of the time that's it. When I got my first tumbler (I reloaded 12 years before I bought one), I went the walnut pet litter route, then started experimenting; I tried everything from beach sand to rice, dried peas/beans, cat litter (Good Mews worked OK), charcoal, wood chunks, glass beads, commercial resin tiles and a few others I don't remember right now. The best, easiest media I found was blast media either corn cob or walnut shells, 14-20 grit. No formula, just media and occasionally auto polish...

Macd wrote:My usual process is: deprime, citric acid and a drop of detergent in a ultrasonic cleaner, dry and if the brass is really dull it gets some time in a vibrating tumbler with cob media and a few drops of brass polish.. The other day I was distracted and dumped the cases into the tumbler first. Rather then having to screen them out I just turned it on and went on to other things. An hour later I screened and then deprimed and put in ultrasonic cleaner. Brass came out spotless and shining.

Three things...

• Boiling water
• drop of dish soap
• pinch of LemiShine

There is no dust to clean up and no blocked flash holes. When I dry tumbled I had to wash them all anyway because of dust. A coffee can riding in the bed of the truck dries them with no effort.

Lyman Corn Cob Plus

I stopped picking up range brass as the larders are full. When I did I liked SS pins in a tumbler. But once the brass has had that treatment it becomes redundant. A long time ago I went to a local Grangers and pick up a 60 or 80 lbs bag of corn cob at a local Grangers, ( at that time I knew what size blasting media to use). I'll never run out in my life time. When I change out the corn cob I add about a 1/4 cup of liquid car wax and let it get mixed in the buzz bucket for about 30 to 45 minutes. It does and excellent job on making the brass pretty and clean or for removing imperial wax or the lanolin/alcohol mix. The nice thing about Lee lube is removal isn't required. So I am no longer fascinated about super shiney brass, buzz buckets or tumbling. It's only done if the brass is super dirty. Just a visual check to make sure the brass is clean and empty of bugs, dirt, etc and reload.

I have my dad's Herters dies that are 60+ years old and still are not worn out or scratched. These were used by him and me before I started worrying about this shiney "requirement" so I don't believe shiney improves anything but the ego. If the brass is clean enough to be inspected for cracks, dents, etc, then it's clean enough.

I'm still using crushed walnut with a dryer sheet added into it to cut down on dirt and dust going airborn.

I use a rebel17 rotary tumbler and the stainless pins that came with it. I little drop of dish soap and a tiny bit of lemi shine. Tumble for 30-45 minutes.