Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpercle
Tumble the brass unsized, with the fired primers in place. Next step is to size the and deprime the clean cases. Clean cases are easier to size and the depriming will take care of any pesky hole cloggers.
After many years of trying stuff that's not made for case polishing I can tell you the treated shell media sold by Midway USA is the best value.
Pet bedding materials are usually not the correct size. The treated shell polishes and lasts a long time. Corn cobb is softer and doesn't polish like the treated nut shell.
You can get the nutshell lizard stuff but it's not treated....now you have to buy additives and the proper additives ( Rooster Labs polishing additives) is expensive...it eats up your savings...just get the stuff from Midway USA...much better deal than DIY with lizard litter.
Gary
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I'm on board with all this, except ....
I've always used the "red" treated walnut, such as Lyman sells. It's red because it's treated with red rouge. I buy red rouge powder for a buck or two an ounce and re-treat the media 2-3 times before tossing it. I also bought some cerium oxide powder( about $10 for 8 ounces) which is used to polish glass....windshields and headlights for instance.
The expense for those compounds is pretty nominal...maybe 50 cents to treat a batch of media that will polish several thousand cases.
Since I'm buying the polishing powders to get the most out of my media, I decided to try some lizard bedding walnut. The combo of walnut and powder additive is pretty much a wash with buying treated media. Both types of walnut do a fine job of polishing with different handling characteristics. I'll use both until I run out and since I'll probably run out of walnut before additives, I'll likely stay with the lizard bedding.
In 50 years of handloading I've never "washed" brass. Guess I'd rather fish than cut bait.