[Murray in N.Z.]

Hi guys…
I’m a total newbie, living on the other side of the world in New Zealand. I have questions about tumbler media. Now… I cant just order up stuff from Harbour Freight, Cabalas or Midway… I used to be able to then the blinking Post Office went & did away with surface mail & we gotta send every thing by airmail.. $50.00 US min. Thats a lot in our dodgy dollars.
I’ve been reading about reloading & case prep & worked out a coupla things
Ground walnut shells…These R not available here. It seems that I need a hard crystal stuff to clean the crud offa the case, so what about salt, sugar, polenta(grits)? My local beach is black iron sand that’s very very fine & sure polishes up the ol car bonnet to a mirror when we tow it round behind the 4x4 playing sand sledges. Its also magnetic so we can pull the last little bits out of the cases no probs which is just as well coz we cant get any of those brass magnets for getting brass shells outa walnut stuff for love or money. Some use rice but others say it don’t get into corners & gets stuck in the flash hole so aint using that.
The sand is real real fine, too fine for concrete apparently, I can also get blasting sand & blasting garnit if that’s any good.

Corncob for polishing… That aint round here either…. Cat poop tray stuff here is made outa some sort of baked hard stink absorbent clay & crushed oyster shell so that’s no good.( must be hard on a cats Bhind!!!) We got plenty of sawdust tho & what about rolled oats or other bowel friendly breakfast stuff. But far as I can see they only gonna clog up the flash hole. Do I need to polish… theys only going to go bang then repeat the cycle.. theys not in a fashion show.

I’m using old dirty 5.56/223 cases that I had lying round for an age.. Mrs Muzza found out I spent over $1400 on a new rifle & Lee reloading gear just to make the most of all the free empty cases I found at the airforce range & wasn’t too happy,:cuss: we had several high level discussions about income/expenditure ratios & typically I was wrong again. As a result I will be using a homemade coffee can/power drill tumbler not the fancy double drum one I had on order for a surprise for her birthday!!!! She sounded real disappointed about that, maybe she will learn about making hasty decisions from it.

My plan was to washem in the clothes machine about 50 at a time. Mrs Muzza no longer empties pockets after getting bit by a fishhook in my shirt pocket once & just biffs males stuff all in together. She reckons its our own darned dum fault if important stuff get ruined, so she is used to seeing nuts n bolts n rocks n nails n bits paper n pet bugs n other intresting stuff in the bottom of the machine once shes done the boys washing.
Wash’ em , tumble’em, deprime/resize, polish ?????, reload, take’em for a walk out in the bush, bang’em off, repeat procedure.
I checked with a feeler probe & so far theys all single hole primers, yes I will check primer in each one B4 I put em thru the die, Yes I will be checking the case length but what about the tumbling media. Yes I will be using the lee primer hole cleaner doodad.
Was thinking of doing the sand wet for some reason- dunno why.
Thanks a lot….
Muzza.

[dagger dog]

Welcome Murray,

Got a pet store close by? They carry a corn cob media that is used to bed reptiles, snakes lizards and such. It is a little larger particle size but it works well.

I'm going to got to a lapidary (rock polishing) shop and see if I can find a ceramic media, they would use it in the tumblers to polish the gem stones, I have heard it will polish brass to a like new condition.

[jcwit]

My plan was to washem in the clothes machine about 50 at a time. Mrs Muzza no longer empties pockets after getting bit by a fishhook in my shirt pocket once & just biffs males stuff all in together. She reckons its our own darned dum fault if important stuff get ruined, so she is used to seeing nuts n bolts n rocks n nails n bits paper n pet bugs n other intresting stuff in the bottom of the machine once shes done the boys washing.


Not a good idea as there is lead residue from the primers and I doubt you wish to expose your family to that.

For tumbling media, I'd try "and it does work OK" bulk white rice. then maybe later on get some ceramic media that can be cleaned. I realize you'll pay somewhat dearly for it but it would be a one time thing.

Just wondering, don't they have blasting companies there? Like for cleaning housed for painting or removing graffiti ect.?

[TonyAngel]

I was going to mention rice as well. It won't get them shiny, but it'll get the brass clean.

[bds]

Murray, raw/uncooked rice works fine as tumbling media in a snap.

I tested it after being curious about it (many on different forums posted good results) and it does work well. It primarily cleans the brass than polish the brass. It works better after about 3-4 tumblings as the surface of the rice granules gets rougher.

Even in New Zealand, you should be able to find rice readily and they are cheap (about $20US for 50 lb bag in the US - virtually life-time supply). If you are skeptical, buy a small bag (enough to fill your tumbler 1/2-2/3 full) and try it. Remember, first few tumblings may not do a great job as the surface of the rice granules are smooth out of the bag. As the rice surface gets rougher and swells a bit, it really starts to clean the black fouling off the brass and makes them clean (it will get newer/once fired cases shiny but not polished. It will certainly get older tarnished cases clean for resizing and won't dirty up your dies).

Just remember, rice will absorb moisture. Keep the rice media dry and don't drip any water.

Hope this helps.

[Ed Gallop]

I have a State Trooper mate down under in NZ and he would send me Australian Opossum fur and feathers for fly tying. I would send him fur and feathers (off the skin) and materials he couldn't get there. I did this for friends is several other countries around the world, including Australia. NZ had the most strict regulations. They confiscated some sourwood honey produced from my bees that had to go through a very expensive incubation period. It was too expensive to get so I'm sure whoever worked there enjoyed it. My friend would order things from catalogs in the USA and had the items sent to me. I would in turn send them to him. It was a lot less expensive that way. It has been a few years and the postage wasn't too bad. Not sure what it is now. You can get postage cost at http://ircalc.usps.gov/ If necessary, I will do the same for you. Ed.

[momchenr]

I second the bulk white rice. I bought a 20lb bag to tumble 1,000 pcs of FILTHY once-fired .223 I bought, and aside from turning the rice a god-awful shade of soot, it did the job awesome. I also squirted in some "Brasso" for good measure. It left the brass completely clean. Just as good of a job, if not better, than the old tumbling media that I've been using.

[walksbyhimself]

Brasso contains ammonia, which I'm told can leach the zinc out of the brass, and make it brittle. I've never tried it myself though. Just a heads up.

[jcwit]

Brasso contains ammonia, which I'm told can leach the zinc out of the brass, and make it brittle. I've never tried it myself though. Just a heads up.

This is true, but after the ammonia dries out leaving only the polishing compount every things AOK.

[Buzzard]

Get a bottle of Nu-Finish liquid car polish to go with that rice. No ammonia and W O W :cool: do they get bright!

[1SOW]

For the 'inside' and outside of the cases, , you could also pre-clean them with water, laundry detergent, a little white vinegar and a dash of salt. Soak for 20 minutes or so and then pour off the liquid to be be re-used and then blast with the garden hose.

It works.

[jcwit]

Get a bottle of Nu-Finish liquid car polish to go with that rice. No ammonia and W O W do they get bright!


Or any liquid or paste car polish/cleaner wax. I use whatever I have left over in the garage.

[wrench]

Find a place that sells welding or metalworking supplies. They'll almost certainly have ground walnut and corncob for blasting purposes.
Works great in a tumbler.
Good luck!

[Ruger GP100 fan]

Why not blasting sand? Or crushed granite at $8/50lb bag.

[Murray in N.Z.]

Thanks guys..
Dagger- The only snakes & poisonous reptiles we got in our country are all locked up in the government buildings….. we only let them out every 3 years to come kiss our buts/ babies & tell us big lies about how much they care for us taxpayers. They don’t use fancy corn cob for pooping on… they got us. Pretty much the same world over I reckon. Wonder if’n that ceramic stuff will get the primer spotless like those foters of the cases cleaned by the stainless stuff.

Ed- Yip N.Z. has pretty stringent laws, specially about hunny n meats n fruits. I trap possums part time so anytime y’all want some fluff I can just grab a handful outa the bag n mail it your way, same to anyone else. Just need to know how y’all want it. Our possums are really fluffy not like your big white rat possums.

Jcwit –got the warning too late.. theres a sockfull doing final spin now….

Buzz/1sow- will try that also, got plenty of time. Maybe a very good idea in light of JCWIT,s warning.

Rest of y’all…. We got plenty of rice, unfortunately that means we got plenty of rice eaters also… darned fools cant drive for shirt & make millionears of panelbeaters n repair shops. Theres one in every accident somewhere, usually the cause of it!

Ok will try rice, gotta finish the tumbler first… the boy don’t know it yet but his skateboard is donating its wheels to act as bearings.

Will keep y’all updated & maybe even have some foters if’n I can figure posting them

Thanks agin
Muzza.

[bensdad]

Why not blasting sand? Or crushed granite at $8/50lb bag.
My guess is, that would play hell on the brass.

[Lee Roder]

Why not blasting sand? Or crushed granite at $8/50lb bag.

I'd be interested to know this too. TRY IT. I've never tried sand but I don't see how it would differ physically in its effects from the oft recommended "ceramic" tumbling media. "High tech" ceramics are extremely hard but just plain silica is certainly hard enough to abraid (aka polish) brass. Just need a good grit size. Polishing would probably be extremely fast without the "dust" issue of organics. Diatomaceous earth might even work wet or dry.

[Buzzard]

Why not blasting sand? Or crushed granite at $8/50lb bag.

The dust from sand is just as tough as the grains themselves and would get into your dies unless thoroughly cleaned off the cases. Crushed granite is just as bad and far too hard. You don't want either kind of dust inside the dies as its so hard it could gall the interior surface of the die. Not to mention the cases.

Ceramic media must be used wet, same with steel or porcelain.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=67104 <-- Using rice in a tumbler. Deprime after you polish, not before, or you'll get those little buggers jammed in the flash hole.

[jcwit]

[QUOTE][You don't want either kind of dust inside the dies as its so hard it could gall the interior surface of the die./QUOTE]

True if we're talking steel dies, will not harm carbide dies tho.

[rjrivero]

Take a look at automotive stores. Look at the different kinds of oil absorbent compounds they have. Some of them are no more than crushed walnut, very fine, and work well in a tumbler. FWIW.

[ranger335v]

Murry, I just have to ask, will you need to run your new tumbler upside down to get it to work on that side of the world? ;)

[Sunray]

"...won't get them shiny(SIC)..." Doesn't have to be shiney. Just clean.
As mentioned, pet supply shops sell crushed walnut shells and corn cobs for small pet bedding. Cheap, here. Less than $20Cdn for a great big bag. 18 kilos, I think. Industrial supply places might have it too. Used to deburr molded plastic parts.
Rice will create a cloud of dust. Rice flour.
"...Australian Opossum fur and feathers..." 'Possums don't have feathers. Even in Australia. snicker.
You write for a living? You turn a phrase well. Funny.

[Hillbillyz]

You might already have your tumbler and not know it. Does the Misses have a clothes dryer? For quite a few years the clothes dryer doubled as my tumbler. I put my brass and media in a plastic gallon jar. Wired the lid on and then tied this inside an old pillow case. Dryer was set on tumble and away it went. It clunks a bit but the Misses was far enough from home that she didn't care about the noise.

[Ruger GP100 fan]

I bought a double drum rock tumbler from Harbor Freight for $40. They also have a single drum unit for $30. Built to run for days at a time....quieter,too. Since I reload 357 only I don't need anything bigger. I tumble 50 cases in each drum all night using TufNuts and they come out looking brand new. And,when grandpa isn't using it for brass the grandkids have a rock tumbler.

[otblue]

G'Day Muzza. You the same Muzza on ARF?

The best/cheapest way to import this sort of stuff from the US is from Cabelas. They have a real good vibratory tumbler kit with all the accessories including corn cob. They charge I think 45% of the value of the kit for UPS delivery which only takes a few days. Given the weight of these items this is a bargain!

The only problem is the unit is 110V. Stepdown transformers aren't real expensive though.

The alternative is buying an ultrasonic cleaner on eBay. New dental ones from PRC will land in NZ for around $200. Really clean, not shiny though.

However you don't really need any of these to get started. Deprime the cases and simply wash them in hot water with dishwasher powder added. Agitate well and rinse thoroughly, dry in the sun or over a heating duct.

More than adequately clean for most purposes but again not shiny.

[rhoggman]

Although white rice can get stuck in flash holes and primer pockets I find that very few pieces of brass actually suffer from this illness. If you are like me and clean before depriming pistol brass this really is not an issue at all.

For a cheap, readily available media that actually cleans pretty well.... try white rice.

I personally know people who use it.... just because it is easy. I keep a little white rice in my walnut to gauge how dirty the rest of my media is.

[rtpzwms]

Murry check the bird isle in the pet shop, is it possible that they might have walnut litter for the birds?

[EddieNFL]

Why not blasting sand? Or crushed granite at $8/50lb bag.
I tried sand (playground stuff) some years ago on some badly stained, hard to find cases. After a couple of hours in the tumbler they looked as if I had sandblasted them. I followed with a few hours in corncob with a polishing agent and they came out looking new. I don't recall them having a noticeably shorter service life.

[zxcvbob]

The metal shops will have *something* nonabrasive that they use for blasting or tumbling castings. In the USA it's crushed corncobs or crushed walnut shells. Who knows what it is in NZ, but there will be something. (I bought a huge bag of crushed corncobs at Granger, I think it is grade "2014") Or you can use rice or some other small hard grain. Whatever you use, it'll help if you add a little powdered red rouge. You can get that at a jewelry supply store, it is used for buffing brass or gold. Don't use too much or it will make a big mess.