Brass tumbling question

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Racer X

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What do people "charge" their walnut shells with when tumbling their brass?

I have a huge 25# commercial vibratory tumbler that handles metal or rocks (for lapidary tumbling). I have large rotary wet tumblers as well. I know about stainless pins, dish soap and LemiShine (or a packet of unsweetened CoolAid)

I have a 40# box of walnut shells, but don't know what to add, if anything.
 
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I often add a capful of liquid polish (no ammonia), liquid car wax like NuFinish or something like that works well. I still dry tumble because it still works (Hornady M3) after 25 years or so, and I don't want to have to dry wet brass.

To each his/her own I reckon. I may try the mineral spirit thing,..... many times I just run the old walnut shells as is. But polish does make them shine more. Just don't overdo it, or you may gum up your dies.

Anybody ever tumble their dies??? Just a thought.....
 
I still have my Lyman 3200 vibratory tumbler and still use it ocassionally. I use the Lyman treated walnut media. Several years ago I got a Frankford Arsenal rotary tumbler and have used it since. I've used it with, and without the stainless pins. Without the pins, the outside gets just as clean, but the inside and primer pocket do not get quite as clean. Depends how much effort you want to put into the cleaning of your brass. :-)
 
I use a lapidary tumbler as well, and I use Nufinish car polish with crushed walnut shells. Works great, and puts a mirror shine on the brass.
 
scattershot said:
...I use Nufinish car polish with crushed walnut shells. Works great, and puts a mirror shine on the brass.
Click to expand...

I have a vibratory tumbler that is still doing the job since 1980.

I can't remember the last time I changed out the walnut shell media, but I like to add a little Mothers mag polish from time to time.

Now you have me thinking about adding a car "liquid scratch remover" of some type that I have on hand but never use...hmm.
 
I use brass polish and also add ripped up used drier sheets, the sheets help keep the media clean, they come out black and you throw them away.
 
I'm still using a 50-50 mix of corncobs and walnut shells. This works fine for me, though if I let the vibrator run for more than an hour, the primer holes start to get packed with the walnut shell. I then will use the pocket cleaner to take care of that (only happens on ~5% of brass).

I agree with an earlier post about the inside of the brass does not clean up as well. For that I use a bore brush... ;)
 
Walnut shell media works fine by itself. A few drops of Nufinish polish will leave the cases a bit shinier and slicker but isn't necessary.
 
MyDads38 said:
Several years ago I got a Frankford Arsenal rotary tumbler and have used it since. I've used it with, and without the stainless pins. Without the pins, the outside gets just as clean, but the inside and primer pocket do not get quite as clean.
Click to expand...

I like to wet tumble dirty un-deprimed brass with just dawn detergent and no pins. Then after decapping, I’ll tumble with pins, dawn detergent, and a pinch of Lemishine. Gets the insides and primer pockets nice and clean.
 
I use a squirt of Frankford Arsenal Brass Polish (it was on sale at Midway USA); I'm sure other brands work fine too. It gives a nice aesthetic shine to brass. I also throw in either a used dryer sheet or 1/2 sheet of paper towel dampened with mineral spirts. Mineral spirits seems to cut the left over bullet lube and soot better. The paper towel or dryer sheet removes a lot of 'dirt' from the tumbling media and is easily discarded. I think it keeps the media cleaner longer but I could be wrong. Wet pin tumbling is reserved for cartridges fired with black powder.
 
You will notice that the walnut shells will start to get darker and dirty as well as a fine dust that will start when dumping the cases.

At this time I will toss out the used material and add a new batch to the cleaning unit.

It really last a long time for the number of pistol/rifle cases that it will clean, so there is no need to make it clean more, if you have some new material on hand that is not that expensive.

Good shooting.
 
Midway USA sells some walnut media additives , the ones I've used are Rooster Labs Rooster Bright , it's a liquid polish additive and another made by Iosso - Liquid Brass Case Polish .
Both are used to treat untreated walnut shell media and when the polishing action begins to weaken you can use it as an additive to the old treated shell .
Be sure and follow the directions of each ... most people use too much , too often and the media loads up and losses it's polishing action .
More ain't better ...trust me .
Gary
 
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