keep the tumbling media clean!

[Bush Pilot]

I feel the same way I why anyone uses the wet system with stainless pins.

Wash, rinse, dry buy and expensive wet tumbler, now they are selling re purposed food dehydrators.

My brass comes out just as clean and shiny after 2 hours in the dry media. No rinsing and drying.

I would get the dry heat autoclave it's only $992.00!

http://www.quickmedical.com/graham-field-grafco-dry-heat-sterilizers.html

But variety is what makes the world go around.

This^^^. I also don't understand people buying expensive media sold by Lyman and RCBS when you can buy crushed walnut at a fraction of the price.

 

[jcwit]

Stop that nonsense. You can be wet tumbling with SS media for less than $100. No dust, no nothing. Every time I tumble, I set the two hoppers on a bench, stick the hosepipe in them and flush them out, drain out the water and good to go. No dust, no nothing.

Don't want to offend anyone, but it is beyond me why anyone is still dry tumbling. Good luck.

I completely understand, but at 70 years old I see little reason to sock $100 bucks into a complete new set up to clean cases. Plus I ordered a 40 lb. bag of 20/40 corn cob a few years ago and normally use the tumbler weekly at least. Likely have enough media to last my lifetime and I hope to live for many more years.

Concerned about dust, add a teaspoon of mineral spirits to the media. Concerned about dirt, add a used dryer sheet each tumbling session.

YMMV & MO

 

[Drop45]

I think some of the post here may have encouraged me to re evaluate my use of new dryer sheets. They do indeed absorb the dust, but I never understood why my cases seemed a bit tacky, I guess now I know.

 

[medalguy]

Plus the used dryer sheets are more of an "open weave" than new ones. The open weave is what seems to catch and hold the dirt and crud.

For clean, dust-free brass use the dryer sheets and a capful or two of mineral spirits. That combo has been the standard for more years than I've been reloading and that's a long time!

 

[Schwing]

One thing that I don't understand is the idea of trying to keep the same media for as long as possible. I know some folks here who have been using the same media for years. I toss mine when it turns gray. I have done that for about a year and a half now and am still on my first bag of media. In fact, I still have about 3/4 of it left and I think it cost me around $20.

 

[USSR]

Agree with you, Schwing. Eventually it reaches a point where it loses it's efficiency, and I'm not so cheap that I won't toss it and put in fresh media.

Don

 

[dickttx]

Since I got back into reloading about four years ago, it continually amazes me how many posts there are on brass cleaning.
It is not science. All you are trying to do is clean off the brass and maybe polish it a little. And since they started making carbide dies it really doesn't even need to be cleaned. When I started again RCBS was still advertising that with their new carbide dies you didn't even need to wipe off your brass before sizing.