Lee 45acp Expanding die

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vaalpens said:
I will probably go the walnut/Nu finish route first to see how it works.
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I have found dry walnut tends to clean better and corn cob tends to polish better.

By adding liquid NuFinish polish to walnut, I get fast cleaning and polish in one. For around 600-800 9mm brass in my Berry's tumbler with fine grit walnut media from Harbor Freight, 20-30 minute tumble will clean and lightly polish the brass for reloading. If I want better polish, I will tumble for 1 hour.

Other benefits of residual NuFinish on brass surface is that brass tends to size easier (even for 9mm) so I do not need to use any lube for pistol brass with my Lee carbide dies and brass stay polished longer without tarnishing for months (years if stored in tightly closed containers).
 
I use a mix of 50/50 in my tumbler. Gives a better shine and still cleans good. You can adj the mix to 75% walnut hulls for a fast clean with just a little corncob to do the polishing.
 
Walnut is course grit, corncob is fine grit. So if you mix it you still get course scratches, which cleans faster to be sure, but it leaves a courser finish. You wouldn't buy fine sandpaper with half and half fine and course grit. That said there's nothing wrong with just walnut. Clean, just not Bling. So if bling is for some reason important to you....keep the corncob pure.....or wet tumble.

Before s.s. media, some people cleaned nasty brass with two tumbles.....walnut, then corncob. Before the Thumblers in my life, I only did corn......Put it in before work at 7:30 AM. Took it out at 5 PM.... so I didn't have to listen to the noise all day.

I think for me its just self gratification for my dim eyes. I appreciate, bling. Makes me happy. One of the bright things in life, along with wife and family, and friends and faith.:)
 
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GW Staar said:
Walnut is [coarse] grit
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Walnut comes in extra fine to coarse grit.

I use Harbor Freight fine grit and media size is small enough to not get stuck in flash holes. HF walnut media is clean out of the box with less issue with dust.
 
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I think for me its just self gratification for my dim eyes. I appreciate, bling. Makes me happy.
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Nice shiny cases with clean primer pockets may not shoot any better, but they make me smile so it's worth the little extra effort.
 
Grit (sieve size) or what the walnut and corncob particles can plug up, what bds gave us a list of, is a source of confusion. It's not the same as polish grit.

I'm talking about grit as in polishes starting with 1000 grit to 6000 grit.....now often measured in microns because the the sieve size confusion.

Sand paper "grit" goes from 40 grit to 2400 grit and maybe more....using the local PPG auto paint store selection for an example of the high number end. Polish starts after that.....yes higher numbers. So compare 60 grit to 6000 grit. It's the 6000 that produces the bling in Walkalong's picture above polished with the 20/40 corncob.

"Home Depot Extra Fine (35-60 grit, $28/25 lbs)" as bds listed will not clog up flash holes....neither will 20-40 grit but that isn't the grit at which it polishes.

I don't care how fine a sieve grit you can find walnut, it won't polish like corncob, because polish grit is rougher.
 
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bds said:
I have found dry walnut tends to clean better and corn cob tends to polish better.

By adding liquid NuFinish polish to walnut, I get fast cleaning and polish in one. For around 600-800 9mm brass in my Berry's tumbler with fine grit walnut media from Harbor Freight, 20-30 minute tumble will clean and lightly polish the brass for reloading. If I want better polish, I will tumble for 1 hour.

Other benefits of residual NuFinish on brass surface is that brass tends to size easier (even for 9mm) so I do not need to use any lube for pistol brass with my Lee carbide dies and brass stay polished longer without tarnishing for months (years if stored in tightly closed containers).
Click to expand...

The corncob I use does polish the cases nicely, but sometimes leave some of the black fouling in the cases. I am definitely going to try some walnut to see if I can get rid of the black fouling.
 
Corncob doesn't get the black out of the inside of the cases. I don't know if walnut does or not. I tried some of both very early on, both alone and mixed, but went with corncob.
 
GW Staar said:
Grit (sieve size) or what the walnut and corncob particles can plug up, what bds gave us a list of, is a source of confusion. It's not the same as polish grit.

I'm talking about grit as in polishes starting with 1000 grit to 6000 grit.....now often measured in microns because the the sieve size confusion.

Sand paper "grit" goes from 40 grit to 2400 grit and maybe more....using the local PPG auto paint store selection for an example of the high number end. Polish starts after that.....yes higher numbers. So compare 60 grit to 6000 grit. It's the 6000 that produces the bling in Walkalong's picture above polished with the 20/40 corncob.

"Home Depot Extra Fine (35-60 grit, $28/25 lbs)" as bds listed will not clog up flash holes....neither will 20-40 grit but that isn't the grit at which it polishes.

I don't care how fine a sieve grit you can find walnut, it won't polish like corncob, because polish grit is rougher.
Click to expand...

It seems I will be trying the extra fine walnut. In 357sig the Lyman corncob does clog up the flash hole. With 357sig you sometimes get the smaller flash hole, which maybe contributes to the media clogging it.
 
Dudedog said:
Nice shiny cases with clean primer pockets may not shoot any better, but they make me smile so it's worth the little extra effort.
Click to expand...

If Dudedog is happy, then we are happy. The good thing to know is that you are entering the matches smiling, but hopefully after the matches you are still smiling.
 
Off thread but since it's your thread,
still smiling, even after making smiles on a couple no-shoots
Ok, well maybe not smiles but eyes for sure........:eek: (Hey I did something good, there are no longer 3 blind no-shoots in the world, I knew there was a reason I did it, I just didn't realize it until now;))
I enjoyed the match and that's what's important to me, left :), like always.
 
Walkalong said:
vaalpens said:
corncob ... sometimes leave some of the black fouling in the cases. I am definitely going to try some walnut to see if I can get rid of the black fouling.
Click to expand...
Corncob doesn't get the black out of the inside of the cases. I don't know if walnut does or not.
Click to expand...
Walnut definitely does a better job of "scrubbing" than corncob.

I don't load my Berry's tumbler to max capacity (I put around 600-800 9mm cases with max capacity of 1000) and it does a good cleaning of outside of brass with light polish using fine grit walnut media and NuFinish in about 20-30 minutes. 20-30 minute tumble will remove most of black fouling from inside of cases enough for me to reload.

If I want more brilliant shine, I will tumble for 1 hour or more and inside of cases come out essentially clean with most of black fouling gone but not shiny. If I want the inside of brass cleaned faster, I will lighten the bowl load even more.

I think key to cleaning inside of brass is ability for the tumbler/motor to move the media in and out of cases. You shouldn't overload the bowl so media barely moves packed inside the cases. But loading light enough so media moves freely in and out as cases tumble should clean the inside of cases better.

When changing media, I will fill my Berry's tumbler about 1-1.5 inch below the top. This amount of media with about 600-800 9mm cases will clean fast enough. If I load more, cleaning will slow down.
 
I'm not sure how many cases I load in my Lyman, but normally I process (tumble and resize) one container (25 oz Milk Bone plastic container) which holds around 700 40s&w/357sig cases and maybe 1000 9mm cases at a time. I will tumble half a container at a time, so maybe 350 40s&w/357sig or 500 9mm cases. One of these days I should count how many cases fits in one container.
 
Dudedog said:
Off thread but since it's your thread,
still smiling, even after making smiles on a couple no-shoots
Ok, well maybe not smiles but eyes for sure........:eek: (Hey I did something good, there are no longer 3 blind no-shoots in the world, I knew there was a reason I did it, I just didn't realize it until now;))
I enjoyed the match and that's what's important to me, left :), like always.
Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed the match! I did not want to mention the "no-shoots", but I am glad you found the root cause.
 
vaalpens said:
I'm not sure how many cases I load in my Lyman, but normally I process (tumble and resize) one container (25 oz Milk Bone plastic container) which holds around 700 40s&w/357sig cases and maybe 1000 9mm cases at a time. I will tumble half a container at a time, so maybe 350 40s&w/357sig or 500 9mm cases. One of these days I should count how many cases fits in one container.
Click to expand...

For those that want to see pictures, here is one of the containers with some 357sig cases, ready 2b cleaned.
2bcleaned.png
 
Ain't Nut Jars the bees knees!!!:)

IMG_2752.JPG
I drilled a hole in this one and screw it in a Redding Grx die upside down for presizing my .40's This is after ironing.....;)

IMG_2754.JPG
Then in a couple of hours....bling! We need a dancing Snoopie smilie....oh well...:thumbup:
 
GW Staar said:
I drilled a hole in this one and screw it in a Redding Grx die upside down for presizing my .40's This is after ironing.....;)
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Great idea!

I don't debulge my 40s&w cases, but I do debulge 357sig. I still remove the debulged cases by hand from the top, but your idea might just work with the Lee FCD (internals removed) die also.
 
Oughta work. Just be sure to measure with calipers the diameter of the "inside" thread of the die.....drill that size or the next size under, then file to fit with a half round. First "force" start will make a start thread in the soft plastic.....then it's easy....tightens right up.
 
GW Staar said:
Oughta work. Just be sure to measure with calipers the diameter of the "inside" thread of the die.....drill that size or the next size under, then file to fit with a half round. First "force" start will make a start thread in the soft plastic.....then it's easy....tightens right up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the additional "how-to" information.

I have a question though. After you have mounted the container upside down, how do you remove the die and container from the press. You can't unscrew just the upside down container since it will just spill the collected cases.
 
Just unscrew. The last case is still sticking into the top of the die. When you get it unscrewed and you tip you won't lose much if anything.
 
A read through this thread was very interesting and informative but I want to add a question that is bit off topic but related to cleaning. I want to get some NuFinish or Flitz to add to my media in my old RCBS brass cleaning shaker when the following question came to mind. Has anyone used walnut or corn dry media in their Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler with any success? I know its a wet system unit but may it work with dry media too. I'll go away now with a brown paper bag over my head.
 
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