Rice for media

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FROGO207 said:
That's why the commercial media has red rouge in it. It will continue polishing well after the sharp corners of the corn cob or walnut are worn off. The beach sand dust will be a breathing hazard similar to asbestos. Both are abrasive to the barrel over time as you can't get all of it out of the inside of the brass easily. Blowing it with compressed air will just contaminate the air and anything around you it will land on. I went to a Thumlers tumbler and SS media using the wet method. LOTS faster and much brighter IMHO. If I want more shine like a mirror it goes into a vibratory tumbler with Nu Finish and corn cob media for a half hour after wet polishing.
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I think once I’ve burned up all the lives that ugly dull LC brass has left I’ll be onto something else to nitpick. The other brass I’ve been working with looks nice and shiny once I’m all done.

I bought a Hornady sonic cleaner to clean up caked on carbon from my used and abused Glock barrels and BCG’s.

Is that something you’d use for brass as well?

I was pretty thrilled it took thousands of rounds of neglect from my “beater” guns and made them look pretty new in 10 min.
 
I tumbled 40 cases with rice and dry powder polish, they turned out good . 2 lbs.Bag of
Rice $ 1.39 and dry powder polish $ 6 !!
 
I tried beach sand and there was no residual grit on the brass (I inspect every case I process), but it was pretty aggressive and left a dull, matte finish. After trying dozens of tumbling media (from beach sand to Good Mews cat litter, wood chunks to ceramic pieces and many more and a couple different kinds of rice) and the rice turned to powder quickly and cleaned just so-so. The best for all around brass cleaning is corn cob blast media 14-20. I've been using it for 20+ years and if I want shiny brass, I just leave the cases in the tumbler (rotary) a little longer...
 
jmorris said:
I have tried it as well as just about everything thing else out there or I ever heard of. The only ones I use now are corncob, walnut, stainless steel or nothing but brass.

Rice won’t hurt anything, it’s just not as good as others. Kitty litter was a disaster though.

No need to have to wait for anything though, just get a rag and wipe them off, you will be fine. You could wash them with soap if you like but you will have to dry them at that point.
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I've only got one other material I've been curious about. Has anyone tried glass bead blasting media. spherical and pure, it's not as rough as sand blasting media....it looks like diamond sand. Surely a metal guy like jmorris has used it to clean parts, but did you try it in a wet or dry tumbler? I wonder if it might "peen" less than stainless?
 
I have some but never tried it, if it breaks down, it will become very abrasive quickly and be very difficult (I hate to say impossible but...) to sort the smooth media from the not smooth.
 
I know it can break down under blast pressure.......but rolling or vibrating, I wouldn't know. Still curious, but not enough to buy a bag. If it's an un-turned stone with gold underneath.....I'll never know.;)
 
I might still have some I could try a small batch. I think most of what I have is more aggressive these days. I used to run my blast-n-peen off a 40 hp screw compressor, now I just have a couple of reciprocating compressors and try to spend less time at the cabinet.
 
So what would you try, wet or dry? Might be fun to get all the grit out of the insides of wet brass.....maybe it's not such a great idea after all. Would dry make silica dust?
 
I initially used a vibratory tumbler with media. I left it behind for wet with ss pins. However, my final media blend was 2 parts corn cob, one part walnut shell, 1 part medium grain rice (Calrose variety) and some shavings off a block of Jewelers Rouge. This resulted in my best dry cleaning ever...primer pockets clean, inside clean, outside polished...but the worst to unplug the primer pockets. That was the last straw...great results, but I spent far too much time clearing media out of the flash holes. Time that I could have spent actually reloading. Still haven’t tossed my walnut and corn cob, but haven’t used any since March or April.
 
Keyfer55 asked:
Anyone use rice as media?
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Yes.

Processed, packaged, rice has been used as a tumbling media. It can be used successfully - provided the brass is dry, the rice will otherwise expand due to the moisture and prove difficult to remover from inside cartridge cases - in experiments by many other posters.

There are, in my opinion, better choices.

But, if you are dead-set on using rice, then unprocessed rice, with its husk and seed coat intact, would be preferred to processed rice, for tumbling.
 
I prefer walnut shell, I didn't have any at the time, the rice worked ok .
 
Pet stores have lizard bedding, crushed walnut, for cheap. Been using it for 20+ years. To keep dust down I take two sheets of Bounce and tear them in half which keeps the dust down to almost nothing. I believe Harbor Freight also sells crushed walnut shells.
I don't understand why people bother with anything other than walnut or corn cob media in vibratory tumbler.
 
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