Tumbling media

It just occurred to me dry tumbling dirty brass with ceramic balls or anything would produce a prodigious amount of dust. At least corn cob or walnut absorb some of the dust and any polish creates a sticky surface.

packetloss said:

I wet and dry tumble. Wet tumble with steel pins and the usual citric acid/dawn combo initially to get rid of the lead dust and crud. No way do I want to dry tumble that toxic mess. After I load up my rounds I dry tumble for 10 minutes in corncob and nufinish.

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I agree on dry tumbling dirty brass. You tumble and polish loaded cartridges?

Tumbling brass wet or dry with anything that does not scour the primer pockets just doesn’t interest me. Thus, no ceramic or porcelain balls.

AJC1 said:

https://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Porcelain-Polishing-Tumbling-Non-Abrasive/dp/B08QH6JQPB/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_sspa?c=ts&dchild=1&keywords=Tumbling+Media&qid=1617982594&refinements=p_n_feature_eight_browse-bin:4539389011&s=industrial&sr=1-2-spons&ts_id=256192011&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExSjhQMVg5VkxTR1k5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzQxODgxNjNOQVVUSExNMFY3JmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA3MzMyNjgyWTdQOTk1STVaQ1UzJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

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Interesting. Also, scroll down the page a little and you’ll see the pyramids I use.

CQB45ACP said:

I agree on dry tumbling dirty brass. You tumble and polish loaded cartridges?

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Yes. There were a bunch of threads on it. No issues with it affecting the powder, nor any issues setting off primers. Some folks left them tumbling for a full day and also did accuracy and load tests and there was no impact.

packetloss said:

Yes. There were a bunch of threads on it. No issues with it affecting the powder, nor any issues setting off primers. Some folks left them tumbling for a full day and also did accuracy and load tests and there was no impact.

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Sometimes its the only way to make dirty loaded ammo useful. I had some Silver Bear ammo that the zinc plating corroded. Tumbled them smooth and they shot fine. Ugly as sin but they shot.

The only problem I know about with tumbling loaded ammo is the lead tips on some types of rifle bullets will get distorted and blunted. Kind of maybe hurts long range accuracy a bit.

Nearly universal advice you find when doing loading instruction research is to NOT dry tumble brass after you have deprimed. Claim is media will get left behind in primer pocket to clog up the works.

Is that true or a myth? Corn cob would seem to be a bigger problem than walnut shell. But either way, seems that a tumble with primer missing would help clean the pocket. And one could always hit the primer pocket with a blast of compressed air?

The problem I see with ceramic is that it's dust is abrasive. So you will need to make sure you clean the brass of dust. If you want clean, the best way is the wet systems, with or without media. Blast media does break down, loosing it sharp edges over time. Adding chemical/liquids soften the media, but may help on polishing compounds. Pet bedding is just waste material not good enough for anything else, except disposal.

Walnut hulls for cleaning, corncob for polishing. All have different grit sizes. Finer the grit finer the finish.

Howa 9700 said:

Nearly universal advice you find when doing loading instruction research is to NOT dry tumble brass after you have deprimed. Claim is media will get left behind in primer pocket to clog up the works.

Is that true or a myth? Corn cob would seem to be a bigger problem than walnut shell. But either way, seems that a tumble with primer missing would help clean the pocket. And one could always hit the primer pocket with a blast of compressed air?

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That’s the only time I tumble brass and yes, corncob media in the flash hole is common. It comes out easily though.

packetloss said:

Yes. There were a bunch of threads on it. No issues with it affecting the powder, nor any issues setting off primers. Some folks left them tumbling for a full day and also did accuracy and load tests and there was no impact.

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Thanks. I didn’t recall the prior discussions.

When I was lurking on here that's how I discovered wet pin tumbling.

AJC1 said:

They should call it pin spreading. They are in every space in my garage. I need a big magnet

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New reloader-only holiday: Degaussing Day - The day when pin-tumblers sweep their reloading areas with powerful magnets, hoping to find all of the lost pins from the previous year, then degauss all of their metal equipment.

Blue68f100 said:

Walnut hulls for cleaning, corncob for polishing.

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Kind of funny but I do it the other way around: corncob for cleaning and walnut for polishing. Seems to work better in my FA tumbler that way. The walnut I have now is very, very fine and impregnated with Flitz.

In like my balls dry, thanks. Although, they do work wet or dry so I doubt the vibratory equipment is necessary.

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TMI

Is there a dry media that can be used in a vibratory cleaner, but doesn’t create as much dust as walnut or corncob?

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Used anti stat dryer sheets help with the dust, free if you use them when you dry clothes, just save the used ones.
Back when I dry tumbled I would cut them into about 4 pieces and toss them in, seemed to help.

They should call it pin spreading

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Found two on the carpet in my bathroom, how they managed to make it from my reloading shed in the backyard, across the lawn, through the living room, down the hall and into the bathroom amazes me.
I rounded them up gave them a lecture and told them they were going back to work!

Howa 9700 said:

Nearly universal advice you find when doing loading instruction research is to NOT dry tumble brass after you have deprimed. Claim is media will get left behind in primer pocket to clog up the works.

Is that true or a myth? Corn cob would seem to be a bigger problem than walnut shell. But either way, seems that a tumble with primer missing would help clean the pocket. And one could always hit the primer pocket with a blast of compressed air?

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I dry tumble occasionally in corn cob media after depriming so I can get the primer pocket somewhat cleaned out.

Compressed air won't work as the media isn't uniform and air can get around it in the flashole.

What I use (that is 100% effective) is a toothpick. I do it in the same step I'm looking over brass.

You fill find that even primed smaller corn cob media will still get stuck in a large flash hole. This is popped out during sizing; although you'll still occasionally see a "sliver" of media in the flash hole that has to get poked out. My spent primer tray on the press is usually full of primers and corn media that comes out with the primers.

I haven't bothered to check if the ones I have are magnetic. They're supposed to be 304 stainless steel, which isn't magnetic.

Zendude said:

The lid is tight. It’s just the dust when emptying the tumbler and refilling it. It’s not a big problem, but I’m always open to better solutions.

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The better solution is "WET TUMBLE"

Howa 9700 said:

Nearly universal advice you find when doing loading instruction research is to NOT dry tumble brass after you have deprimed. Claim is media will get left behind in primer pocket to clog up the works.

Is that true or a myth? Corn cob would seem to be a bigger problem than walnut shell. But either way, seems that a tumble with primer missing would help clean the pocket. And one could always hit the primer pocket with a blast of compressed air?

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Dry media cloging the flash hole is no myth. Media will plug up the flash hole. When I use to tumble with dry media I would push the media out with a small pick I bought at harbor freight.
Now I wet tumble I don't have that problem and have nice 100% clean brass.

When I was cleaning my deprimed brass in walnut I used my Lee universal deprimer held in my hand to poke the media out of primer holes when inspecting the brass after tumbling. Now I inspect after wet tumbling when I wipe the water off the outside of my brass before drying it to keep water spots away.