HELP!!! Media stuck in 223 cases

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Ahhhh, full cases is a whole different animal than a plugged flash hole. Dental pick and a whole lot more time involved. A PITA for sure.
 
Tumbling them without media shook a lot more loose but they always turned over and then the rest stay in there. Then I rubber banded a bunch together. and held them primer-side up by looping around the center post.
I was kidding about throwing them out unless the ants really would eat the corn cobb?
Initially I tried to poke a depriming tool thru them till it broke a depriming pin.
If I had to try any remedy while watching today's TV, I'd end up chewing them out myself, brass and all. heh :banghead:
I'm afraid of doing any drilling inside the case except maybe by hand. That REALLY is tedious.
I'm throwing the rest of that bag of corn cobb in with the kitty litter and getting that smaller stuff that's been suggested.
Meanwhile I have plenty of 223 brass so I'll just push this to the back and just work it a little at a time.
 
What about chucking a drywall screw in a drill to use as an auger to remove the media? should be fast and easy as long as the media isnt too big.
 
SauceNM said:
Tumbling them without media shook a lot more loose but they always turned over and then the rest stay in there. Then I rubber banded a bunch together. and held them primer-side up by looping around the center post....
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If they are banded to the center post they cannot move properly to loosen the packed media. Put them in the bowl loose.

Sounds like you are using a Vibratory Case Cleaner (VCC) rather than a true tumbler.

How long are you leaving them in there?

Did you add some liquid to that media prior to use?

I just find it hard to imagine that dry CC media that has packed itself into cases (even .5.56 cases) will not completely loosen up after a several hours of loosely vibrating in an media-less VCC.

Relative to the cause of this Issue ...

When you first ran those cases in the VCC, did you assure that there were not so many in the bowl that they could not "swim" with the toroidal current?
 
Whatever polishing liquid that was added to the media must have clumped the media and then turned almost like cement. That's the only way I can see something like this happening.
Whenever I add something to the media I run the tumbler without brass for about five minutes to mix it in well and break up any clumps that form. I actually like pretreated media for exactly this reason.
 
GBExpat said:
I just find it hard to imagine that dry CC media that has packed itself into cases (even .5.56 cases) will not completely loosen up after a several hours of loosely vibrating in an media-less VCC.

Relative to the cause of this Issue ...

When you first ran those cases in the VCC, did you assure that there were not so many in the bowl that they could not "swim" with the toroidal current?
Click to expand...
I completely agree, I can't imagine how the media got so packed into the cases.

tcoz said:
Whatever polishing liquid that was added to the media must have clumped the media and then turned almost like cement. That's the only way I can see something like this happening.
Whenever I add something to the media I run the tumbler without brass for about five minutes to mix it in well and break up any clumps that form. I actually like pretreated media for exactly this reason.
Click to expand...
The OP said it's about 1000 cases that have media stuck in them. I think he would have had to add a gallon of polishing liquid to cause that!
 
Did you add some liquid to that media prior to use?
Click to expand...
I bet too much liquid. Doesn't take much to get the media sticky. I did that once! And I made it even worse tried to rinse the media out in water! Spent hours dug the stuff out with a paper clip!
 
The first time (many years ago) that I tumbled .223 cases in corn cob media was the last time I used it. No fun sitting in front of the TV with a paper clip trying to clean out the media from inside the case.

Now, I only use crushed walnut media and don't have to worry about media stuck inside the cases.

Lesson learned.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
I completely agree, I can't imagine how the media got so packed into the cases.


The OP said it's about 1000 cases that have media stuck in them. I think he would have had to add a gallon of polishing liquid to cause that!
Click to expand...
It isn't really packed in them. It fell in and is so light it won't easily fall back out.
 
Whatever polishing liquid that was added to the media must have clumped the media and then turned almost like cement. That's the only way I can see something like this happening.
Click to expand...

SauceNM, I haven't seen where you addressed this. Was a liquid added to the corn cob media when it was tumbled? If so, was it simply water (or water + detergent) or did you have an acid, like Lemishine, added as well?

The reason I ask is that corn cobs have (amongst grain stalks) a fairly high fiber, protein and carbohydrate content. An added acid would cause the proteins to "relax", the water would cause the fibers to swell and the carbohydrates would cause it to set up like a ceramic.

IF this is what happened, you could try soaking the cases in a different weak acid to get the proteins to "relax" again hopefully softening the mixture. A weak acid that shouldn't damage the brass would be vinegar. In fact the Hornady manual, 4th Edition, suggests tumbling in vinegar to improve the shine on cases. I can only guess, but maybe 1 cup of vinegar to a quart of water might be a good place to start.

I suggest not leaving the cases in the vinegar for more than about four hours. When I was in graduate school, I used concentrated acetic acid to "chemically mill" brass and achieved measurable changes in dimension in as little as 48 hours, so soaking your brass in vinegar for days could damage your brass.
 
hdwhit said:
SauceNM, I haven't seen where you addressed this. Was a liquid added to the corn cob media when it was tumbled? If so, was it simply water (or water + detergent) or did you have an acid, like Lemishine, added as well?

The reason I ask is that corn cobs have (amongst grain stalks) a fairly high fiber, protein and carbohydrate content. An added acid would cause the proteins to "relax", the water would cause the fibers to swell and the carbohydrates would cause it to set up like a ceramic.

IF this is what happened, you could try soaking the cases in a different weak acid to get the proteins to "relax" again hopefully softening the mixture. A weak acid that shouldn't damage the brass would be vinegar. In fact the Hornady manual, 4th Edition, suggests tumbling in vinegar to improve the shine on cases. I can only guess, but maybe 1 cup of vinegar to a quart of water might be a good place to start.

I suggest not leaving the cases in the vinegar for more than about four hours. When I was in graduate school, I used concentrated acetic acid to "chemically mill" brass and achieved measurable changes in dimension in as little as 48 hours, so soaking your brass in vinegar for days could damage your brass.
Click to expand...
UPDATE: I isolated all of the cases left that still had corn cob packed in them and spent a few hours with some spring hooks and got them all cleaned out and deprimed.
There was never any liquid in the media.
I just finished tumbling them in that fine Zilla media and they look GREAT.
Thanks to all that offered suggestions!
 
Glad you got it worked out! Unless they are mangled don't ever throw cases away. Even then brass is probably worth something per pound!
 
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