polishing media / storeage

[moooose102]

funny thing about the human mind, it is always thinking, and coming up with questions. i guess it is a natural growth thing. anyway, i am wondering if it really matters how you store the media that you are CURRENTLY USING. do you leave it in the tumbler, or put it back into its container after use? what my mind came up with, is will storing the media (i am using walnut shells, with frankford arsenal polish and nu-finish car wax) in the bowl going to cause a long term problem for the bowl. like cause it to harden and break. chemicals can do funny things to plastics sometimes. i usually set the lid on and run the nut down until it touches the lid then add 1 turn. so next time i get the tumbler out, the media does not spill.

 

[ranger335v]

I know not what path others may take but for some 25+ years I've left my media in my old Lyman 1200. So far, so good! Your storage method is as good as any, likely better than some.

Let me suggest you go light on the polish, we don't need much. It appears that some folks add far more polish than the job needs. I suspect that the dried, powdered polish is the "dust" many get concerned about as maybe poisionous.

You can also add an ounce of mineral spirits (oderless paint thinner) to help cleanoff any bullet lube left on cases after shooting cast bullets. M.S. won't hurt the bowl - not mine anyway - and it evaporates in a day or so. Meaning, you need to add it to each batch of brass if you want it to work.

How are you seperating your brass and media?

 

[Walkalong]

I leave it in the tumbler. No problems. Occasionally I clean out the bowl when changing out old media.

 

[moooose102]

How are you seperating your brass and media?

i have an old aluminum strainer that came with some old pot my mother had 40 years ago. for a long time it was out in the garage used to clean auto parts in (put them in the basket, dunk them in a bucket of solvent, swish it around, etc.). when i started tumbling, i needed some way of sorting out the brass. so i drilled the holes oversized, washed the heck out of it several times, in several types of solvents/ detergents, and here we are. oh yes, it sits in a plastic bucket to catch the media. why do you ask?

 

[WNTFW]

Moooose102 (did I the # of o's right)

This is what I do due to work flow not media storage.

I take the finished brass / Media and dump it into a pie pan type separator on top of a container. The tumbler remains empty. Most of the media goes through. Then the brass with less media goes into an enclosed tumbling basket type separator. I separate out the final media. The brass goes where it goes & the remaining media goes back into container. I keep the media in a container, not the tumbler because I don't know what media I want (walnut or corncob) till I go to do brass again. The containers that I use for this are from "Sellars dry shop rags". It looks like a big plastic mug. 10" tall x 10.75" dia with a handle like a mug.

Get next brass, decide what media & pour media from big plastic mug.

Long term storage of new media is in bag/sack it came in. inside

I have all my dirty brass & working media in a small Rubbermaid storage cabinet outside under cover. I like it being outside. All my brass in my reloading area is ready to go to resizing and labeled as to what stage of prep it is. I can tell by examining but I label it.

RTL brass only in one cabinet. Brass in progess is on a shelving unit.
RTL = Ready to Load. All work is completed & ready to accept primer, powder & bullet.

 

[John_galt]

To seperate I use two 5 quart plastic icecream buckets. I peppered the one with 1/4 holes, place them inside each other with the drilled hole bucket inside the untouched one. The lift and twist on the wire bucket handle until media flows out. I should have and will make bigger holes next time. when I am done I store the media in the bucket with a lid on to keep out humidity. Cheap and has worked for last 15 yrs or some with same two buckets.

I should replace them more often I could eat more icecream that way. - "Just trying to save money on fancy expensive equipment by emptying this ice cream bucket Honey. No, really this will save us money. Please pass the butterscotch topping, do we have any bigger bowls? I have a lot of bullets to reload."

 

[evan price]

I keep my media in plastic buckets with snap-on lids, the kind that kitty litter comes in. I have one bucket that I put a colander on and dump the tumbler into it, then I pour in fresh brass and fresh media so the tumbler can start. I set the running tumbler against the bucket with the colander on top and the vibrations of the tumbler shake the media down into the bucket. Still have to shake the colander around to get all the media out of the brass.