Lyman Tumbling Media

[Gryffydd]

Wow, the order I put in with Drillspot on Sunday showed up today (Tuesday).

 

[viking499]

I placed an order today. Will be here by the end of the week.

 

[Seedtick]

Wow, the order I put in with Drillspot on Sunday showed up today (Tuesday).

+1
Me too.

Now if Harbor Freight would just run this walnut on sale I'll be set.
They had the coarse grind on sale for $15 a couple of weeks ago.

ST

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I found that by putting some Meguiars Swirl Remover in even the coarse media, it will make the baddest of the bad looking brass look great in a couple of hours. Best stuff i've ever used.

 

[GW Staar]

I do a little mixing and adding with the three mediums, only because i didn't know which would work best. These are some great ideas you guys are putting out.

There's really no point in mixing walnut with corncobb. Here's why. Walnut is courser. Courser cleans better and cuts faster, which is good for really tarnished brass. Not unlike course sandpaper, the brass finish is ok, but not particularly glossy. The scratches made are too rough for that.

Corncobb, is like very smooth sandpaper. Like the sandpaper it'll clean the tarnish off pretty good, but it takes longer. Since its smoother, a smooth shiny finish is the result....unless you add walnut. With walnut added the finish won't be any smoother or shinier than Walnut by itself can make, because the walnut is harder and scratches deeper.

Corncobb, being softer, scratches shallower, as does really fine sanpaper, but it won't cut fast, unless you add some polishing compound to it, like Dillon polish, Flitz, or Blue Magic. By the same token, the finer the polishing compound the shinier the finish....Meguirs Swirl Remover is about a fine as polish gets. It will cut slower but polishes brighter.

A decent plan would be to tumble a few hours with walnut if you have really tarnished brass, then polish it up with the corncobb spiked with polishing compound. If the brass isn't so bad skip the walnut and just clean and polish with spiked corn cobb. Keep in mind that so far we have only talked about initial cleaning and polishing. Then you size (and deprime if you haven't already done that with a universal depriming die).

Following that size/deprime operation, just plain unspiked corncobb is best to remove lube from your resized brass. 30 to 45 minutes does it for me, and with 20/40 grit corncobb, no flash holes get clogged.

....Just glittery plastic, imitation stuff tho.

Lots of automotive trim "chrome" is just plated plastic, lots of kids toys and electonic stuff too, etc. I don't need that look on my ammo.

Ranger can make all the tarnished reloads he wants, but I much prefer a professional looking product. And what are we "imitating"....nothing! Polished brass, sir, is the real thing! Do I do it 95% to impress at the range? No, that is just the result as I try to impress me. If my ammo looks better...I feel better. If I feel better I shoot better. It's too bad, we can't indulge ourselves, without always having somebody...attempt to rain on the parade.

 

[Hondo 60]

I use the 20/40 corn cob & get a lot of dust on the cover of my tumbler. So it stays out in the garage w/ the door open while tumbling.

Then I use my shop vac to vacuum off the cover before dumping it into the separator.
If the brass is really sooty I use a bit of Cabela's polish in the mix.

I usually run it 3-4 hrs, but sometimes I forget & runs a lot longer. My brass doesn't look "plasticky" it just looks like new factory stuff (especially when I forget it overnight).

I've tried the walnut & found it didn't really clean any better than corn cob & I'm used to the shinier look, so I ended up re-tumbling with corn cob anyway.
I'm sure for some combinations of powders & bullets the walnut works better, but it just didn't seem to help me any.

 

[ole farmerbuck]

Meguirs Swirl Remover is about a fine as polish gets. It will cut slower but polishes brighter.



That is right but I'm not skimpy with it and believe me, it works great.