My Green Lyman media is dead as a doornail. It won't clean squat anymore, so I added a couple of capfulls of Zymol car polish. I know others have had good luck with other types of car polish, but I have the Zymol. If this actually works, how much effort has to go into cleaning residue off the brass when finished?

Thanks

duckloads,

There shouldn't be any residue. I use liquid Turtle Wax (only cause it was cheapest) sometimes and it never leaves a residue when finished tumbling.

Hope this helps
chris

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Retired LEO, FI, S&W Armorer

No residue, but very slick. It really polishes up nicely. I use Nu-Finish.

Duckloads,
I doubt that you will have to worry about cleaning off any polish residue but I usually give all of mine a quick wipe with a rag, one at the time, as I take them out of the tumbler, then give them a quick blast with a compressed air jet to get the media out.

I know there has been a bit said here recently about brass cleaning so I thought I would add this to the discussion.
I have a couple hundred 357 cases that were very tarnished and after soaking with concoctions of vinegar, lemon juice, then dried off and then put into the tumbler with Turtle Wax Polish added to the media, I still wasn’t happy with them.
I know that a few here reckon the ammonia in Brasso is supposed to weaken the brass cases but I thought what the hell, I’m getting all new cases soon anyway.
I just had to see for myself so I added a good teaspoon full of Brasso to the media and ran the vibrator for about an hour.
So for any of you who may have wondered about using Brasso, trust me, “I have got the shiiiinnnnniest 357 Magnum cases you have ever laid eyes on”.
Now that I have the cases clean I am sure that it will be easier to keep them that way but I don’t think I will make a habit of using the Brasso just in case they do weaken the cases.
Maybe I will try some Dillon Rapid Polish next and hopefully stick with that.

Campfire

After a while the sharp edges on your media are gone and it becomes nothing more than a carrier for whatever additive you're using. Like a lot of guys I use ancient, worn-out walnut pet bedding soaked with NuFinish. Works great. A while back I transitioned to a rotary tumbler for noise reasons. It's so quiet, in fact, that I can tumble grungy range brass for a couple of days. Doesn't keep me awake, and the worst brass comes out shining like new, given enough time.

The Dillon Rapid Polish works OK. FWIW, I always bought the Brasso tales based on my meager chemistry reading and knowledge, but one of our resident posters is apparently a chemist who uses Brasso and says it's much ado about nothing. I decided to defer to his expertise, since he gets paid to know.

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Qui plantavit curabit

Personally, I don't use anything but walnut bird litter that I can get 8 pounds of for $5. As long as it gets the bad "gunk" off which it does I could care less about the highly polished look as it's just going right downrange again! A few reloading manuals actually recommend doing it this way and in over the 20 years I have been reloading it's never caused a problem nor do I anticipate one. Why waste $$ on something not really needed?

The first time I ever used car polish in my tumbler, I used Zymol. That stuff works the best as far as I'm concerned. I use it all the time.

Here's a radical idea: Change your media!

Seriously - you are practicing not just false economy, but an unhealthy one.

1. PetSmart or your local version thereof will sell you crushed walnut shells (ask for lizard litter) for a LOT less than you pay for the magic green stuff from reloading suppliers. Near an industrial supply house? Get the corn cob grit used for fine "sand"-blasting.

2. Using the same media again and again and again means you are concentrating the LEAD dust from the primer compound again and again and again. And BREATHING it each time you sift. It is insidiously fine dust and gets everywhere.

3. With the money you are presently wasting by adding elixirs to "rejuvenate" the media particles - which, being already rounded, won't get any better - and the electricity and tumbler wear from running it 3 or 4 or 8 hours longer than clean media would take, you are COSTING yourself money.

When I was in high school, I worked for a merchant during the summer. I'd notice cars that still had snow tires mounted - sometimes complete with studs - and wondered why, out loud.

His concise answer: Cheap people are STUPID people. Since cheap **** usually costs more in the long run than quality, and repairing broken **** adds aggravation AND cost, I'd have to say he was right.

Just to report, the Zymol laced "dead media" worked well. It took about 1-1/2 - 2 hours to bring the brass back to new. It wasn't pimp-shiny bright, but just nice clean brass.

The next time I'm at the pet store, I'll get some crushed walnut shells, but for now, I've got clean brass. It is good to know that if I want to clean some brass at 8pm, I can dope up my dead media and get the job done.

be safe.

+1,2,3!
With all the money spent on this hobby, the price of media is next to nothing!

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Still Running Against the Wind

How much do you add? I have a Midway tumbler that holds about 500 .38 special cases. Thanks in advance for your info.

Just a couple of spoonfuls. Put it in with just the media and turn the tumbler on for 15 or so minutes to get it mixed up.