In the past here on the Forum I've seen reference to ground walnut shell for lizard litter/bedding, being used for brass polishing media. Earlier today was walking by a Petco when I remembered this, went in to see what was there.
I found ground English walnut shell. Not really concerned about the nationality of the nuts being Brit, but the size of the particles is rather fine, about like sugar, possibly a bit larger. Does this sound like the right stuff?
I've only used a corncob based product which is similar in size to speedy-dry.
Can corncob and walnut shell be mixed together, if so is there any advantage?
When I got home my wife spotted the lizard litter pkg, I had some fun about the new member of the household I was getting.
Tks, Kevin

That's exactly what I use. I use probably 75% corn and 25% walnut Lizard bedding. It's probably finer than offical brass cleaning walnut but I have no problem with it at all. Now if you deprime first and then tumble it may stick in the flash hole.
I live in Florida and the Lizards love my garage so I have to make sure I close up the bag. ( they really do hang out in the garage but not in the walnut)

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Still Running Against the Wind

I live in Maine, we have to import or lizards.
Thanks OCD1, I'll give it a try. Kevin

My last bag of media was the lizard litter, but it certainly wasn't as fine as sugar. The particles were about the same size as the usual walnut media; slightly smaller than corn cob grit.

Yes, you can mix the two, but you might want not to. The really anal, see-my-face-reflected-in-the-brass types use BOTH - separately.

CLEAN with one, load, then use the finer to put a nice polish on the case (and bullet, if jacketed), especially rifle shooters. They can't use carbide cases the way most pistol shooters can, and the plain cob media takes the sizing lube off nicely.

Several years ago I got a large Dillon vibratory cleaner and I got a torn bag of walnut media from a friend that lived in Gravette Ar where the Hammond shelling plant was at. They bought black walnuts in the fall and processed them for the meats and sold the crushed shell material to the oil field industries for pumping down oil wells to seal them or something like that. It works great I am still using from that bag. The plant has since burned, I was glad to hear of a cheap source like the pet shop material.

The pet shop material that is available in our area is similar to what you describe. Not quite as fine but close. It works well for those real dirty cases. Really gets in there and gets the grime off.

I use that stuff with a little polish mixed in if I am just loading "range" stuff.

The majority of my other brass though goes into a 50/50 mix of treated corncob and treated walnut. Best of both worlds in my book. The brass I run though there are usually just coated with residue from one firing. Works great. This media is from Lyman.

FWIW

I agree This is what I have used for the last 15 years and I have no problem with any residue left on the cases.

Some of the other polishing media that I have used left a fine coating of red powder on the cases.

The cage litter doesn't

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Semper FI

Probably rouge. Good for polishing; BAD for lizards!

We can all add a polishing agent if and when we need it. I'm still using a quart bottle I got from Midway about a half a decade ago.

I may have told this before, but if I have, please indulge me one more time.

A year or so ago, I bought my first ever tumbler. I got by for about 40 years without one and still really consider it a waste of time and money. Some of my old cases have had residual case lube (the original RCBS that's like STP oil treatment) on them for as much as 40 years and never gave a minute's problems.

In my never ending search for other ways of doing things, I began speculating on the applicability of dried used coffee grounds.

Since it is common practice to use nut hulls of differing hardness to polish gas turbine vanes, I saw there is also a difference in media hardness used by most case polishers.

Just as ground peanut hulls were used for light cleaning of the turbine vanes, the harder pecan hulls were used for a more vigorous cleaning. There is very little difference between the ground waste product known as corncob media and peanut hulls.

Since roasted coffee beans are actually harder than either of those two, it makes sense that it would work too. So, I saved a week's worth of used coffee grounds, dried them and put them in my tumbler along with a little car polish.



The picture above shows some Norma .244, from 1968 or so, that was polished with coffee grounds, polished R-P .244, new R-P .257 Roberts that was resized to 6mm and an unpolished R-P 6mm Rem.

Here's the same brass minus the polished R-P .244, the head stamps tell the story, because it's the same brass as above.



I would have to conclude, based on these results, coffee grounds will polish, but the end results aren't impressive compared to old brass that has been used, but not abused. Like this factory 7mm Mag compared to an unpolished Norma lot #702105, which I take as May 21, 1970. It's only 39 years old, but is indicative of brass that hasn't been abused.

I use a 50/50 mix of lizard litter/lyman treated corncob. Works great and I like it better than just the corncob because it's fine enough to not get stuck in the flash hole.

HINT: Now that you've chosen your media, whatever it is, here's how to keep it cleaner longer.

Take USED dryer sheets and cut them into strips. They will attract and hold a lot of the range dust and, more importantly, primer residue. Toss them after each batch is run - it's not like they're hard to replace.

Amici,

Does your brass have a nice fresh scent?

I started out using Lyman corncob media (the really green stuff), hated it. I could run the vibrator for hours, and the brass would come out almost as dirty as it went in. I found a local guy who grinds up his own stuff, and is untreated - it looks almost white.

It works far far better than the Lyman. I add a little mineral spirits and let it run for a few minutes before dumping the brass in, after a couple hours it is good. My media is almost black now, but it still cleans my brass so I keep using it.

I've never used walnut, but I like the idea of using pet store stuff.

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Common sense isn't so common.

Much of that black is lead residue. New media is FAR cheaper than chelation therapy, rendering the over-use of media an exceptionally false economy.

I would think it would be carbonaceous in nature rather than lead. While it's true the priming material is lead styphnate, there is far less residual from that than there is from the larger amount of powder used.

I used the coffee grounds the other day, after I added another week's accumulation to the tumbler, and cleaned my brass (RA 64) in about 4 hours. I still had the original amount of car polish in the mix, which must have been sufficient for the task.

Amici is right about the use of sodium versenate/sodium edetate/sodium ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid being more expensive as a heavy metal chelation agent than prevention.

I buy walnut bird litter from a local pet shop. 10 pounds for $5 and it last forever. I bought four 5 pound bags and am still on the 1st. Works great, I don't put anything in with it but have noticed that due to the finse grain it has a tendency to get caught inside shells especially .223 so make sure you blow it all out or you could develop some serious issues. I just buy a six pack of canned air at Costco for about $6 and it lasts a year or more.

You can skip the whole tumbling methond of cleaning and wash your brass.

50/50 white vinegar with water and 2 tablespoons of salt. Let brass soak for 10-15 min. Rinse really well with the garden hose and leave it out in the sun to dry. I made a mesh box with 2 x4's and hardware cloth about 2ft square, use it to toss and dry the brass. If you really want bright brass tumble for 30 minutes after washing, your media will last forever.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I reloaded for years without ever cleaning my brass. This was years ago and I quit shooting due to shoulder problems. Since then, my shoulder has been fixed (a lot of titanium in there now) and I'm back to reloading and shooting again. I've decided to run my brass through a tumbler when I saw how dirty my hands were after I was done reloading. I'm not sure if the dirt is powder residue or lead but I do wear rubber gloves now when I'm handling empty fired cases. All the brass I now use is nickle plated so a quick tumbling gets all the dirt off without the need to tumble it for hours to get the brass to shine. Maybe this is over kill to use a tumbler on nickle but they sure look nice when I'm done. I use ground corn cob but will switch to cheaper lizard bedding when I need new media.

I use this stuff:

Blast Media by ECONOLINE - Pneumatic Blasting Media by Zoro Tools Industrial Supplies

It is blast media made of corn cob. It works great for me since I deprime then tumble. The 20 to 40 grit is finer than what you get from reloading suppliers and it rarely sticks in the flash hole but cleans just as good. Shipping is only $5 from this website (or free if you order over $50). So for a total of $28 after shipping you can get 40lbs of corn cob media, that's cheap and will last.

Check Amazon.com for "Zilla ground walnut shells" about $13 for 10 qts., $20 for 25 qts. + shipping. I have been using it for a year or so....works well.

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Pay attention...it pays to win

I have found crushed walnut shells clean dirt brass well. I have found corncob seems to polish brass well. I use a 50/50 mix to try and get both at once. Does it work, i have no idea because I'm too lazy to try walnut alone, then corncob alone and then the 50/50 mix and compare them. lol It certainly can't hurt...

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Pet store crushed shells with a few drops of liquid auto wax works for me. Corn cob plugs flash holes. I tumble to clean, not for an eye-blinding sheen. I only get that when I forget the tumbler's running overnight.

Years ago I got a deal on a 50# bag of crushed walnut hulls with jeweler rouge in it . It lasted forever but I never cared for the red dust and red tint on everything and everywhere.
When I finially ran out of that, I purchased Lizard Litter at the pet store and add a few caps full of a mix of Nu-Car finish wax and mineral spirits. No dust , seems to do a good job , I'm happy with it. I usually let it run 2 to 4 hours.
The only down side I see, a piece of hull can get stuck in the flash hole but I use a progressive press so cases gets ran thru the sizing / depriming station. On rifle stuff I run thru on the single stage I always clean the primer pocket before starting the reloading.

I have been using Blue Buffalo Walnut cat litter. Since we have cats I don't have to go buy anything special.

Amazon.com : Blue Buffalo Naturally Fresh Multi-Cat Clumping Cat Litter, 26-lb : Pet Litter : Pet Supplies@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OHJznONyL.@@AMEPARAM@@41OHJznONyL

that's how I do it I have 2 tumblers but you don't need 2 . I do a couple of hours in wanut and an hour in corn cob with polish,,,, cleaner than a clergy mans conscience


thewelshm

Since we're throwing out what works, I use a tumbler full of long grain white rice to tumble at times. It does not give you a factory new shine, but will clean the brass and leave a more dull shine. I like it because I get no dust at all. And I am OK with dryer sheets with walnut etc., I just saw the rice mentioned on a board and thought what they hey. But you do not want to do it with primers out, as the flash hole jamb can be pretty brutal ;^)

Craig

If using untreated walnut hulls check out the Rooster Labs , Rooster Brite case polish additive for untreated media...It works better than any thing else...I've tried. They stay bright and shiney too.
Gary

fwiw:
Here is my - Dry Tumbling - process:

1st Tumbler: Fine Walnut [Pet Store Lizard Bedding] w/ Nu Finish; OMS-Odorless Mineral Spirits [Do not buy the plastic white bottle version; Std. Metal Container]
^ usually for mixed dirty range cases
- 1 1/2x Cap NF + 1 1/2x Cap OMS [Cap Size: Brake Cleaner Can Cap]
Tumble Media for 1/2 Hour Without Brass to get the NF/OMS evenly distributed in the media.
imho: the OMS helps cut the walnut media dust down A Lot

2nd Tumbler: Corn Cobb w/ Cap of Nu Finish + Small amount of OMS
- 1x Cap NF + 1x Cap OMS [Cap Size: Brake Cleaner Can Cap]
- The Treated Corn Cobb is what gets you that shiny brass & this mixture knocks down any dust left from the walnut

* Start with one, on to the next, fill up buckets & set to reload for several sessions
- Usually clean 2K per session while doing stuff around the house.
- Have both tumblers plugged into an Outdoor On/Off Timer: Set it to 2 hours & never worry about forgetting to turn it off.

Note:
- Add 1x OMS approx. 5-6 tumbles, or when the media starts to get dusty. 1x Cap of NF every few months of continuous cleaning.
- Also I don't leave the Treated Media in the tumbler. Read on another forum the OMS mixture made the tumbler bowl brittle when it was left in, cracked. Don't know how/temp it was stored, but $1.00 plastic container & its gtg.

* Wet Tumbling:
- I'm probably going to switch to wet once I set up a case feeder. imho: Less chance of media getting stuck inside of pistol brass. Have caught a few cases with dry media inside, rare but does happen.

I use the corncob media with dillons polisher agent this is just to polish cases that have been polished many times. Walnut media is used when I get a bunch of mil surp cases. Use the walnut media on that the first time. Does not give a bright shiney finish like the concob and polishing agent. But only serves to remove dirt,and gunk and lightly polish the brass. However the corncob media with the polishing agent will ususally clean up the mil surp brass after the walnut. For a truly sparkling finish, Flitz does make or did a polish that you add to the corncob and cases come out looking almost brand new.The Flitz does turn the corncob almost black after a few uses and you have to replace the corncob. Frank