What's the best all around media additive for cleaning and polishing brass?

[BoKnows]

Wet Tumbling with Stainless Steel Media is the best. Here's some brass my sons and I picked up from an outdoor shooting area. As you can see it's dirty when we started. I'd like to see corn cob media do this.

Before



After

 

[35 Whelen]

That's stuff looks like it works great, I'd love to try it, but I don't have a wet tumbler, and it seems like it'd be a mess to clean up wet brass. Is "Stainless Steel Media" the brand name? Where did you get it?

Somewhere I have an old Handloader magazine around here and it has an article about case cleaning with Cream of Tartar. worked quite well as I recall.

35W

 

[BoKnows]

http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/

I just pick the brass out of the tumbler and set it on a towel to dry over night. Great part is it cleans inside, outside, and the primer pocket come out clean too. Its also nice that its reusable and my expendables are 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap and 1/2 teaspoon Lemi-shine.

 

[noylj]

A solution to a non-existent problem.
May your brass always be so shiny that you think it's gold.
Me? Corn is good enough.

 

[45ACPUSER]

The two best additives are simple

Iosso Case Polish and Flitz Metal Polish.

For Bling Bling Bright nothing beats fresh corn cob media with either of the abovie.

14/20 Grit can be bought at Graingers or order from McMaster Carr.

 

[blarby]

Time.

 

[jcwit]

14/20 Grit can be bought at Graingers or order from McMaster Carr.

Or also from DrillSpot drooped at your front door freight free. No shipping, no gas expense driving to pick it up.

The two best additives are simple

Subjective to say the least. Nu-Finish, or any other auto liquid polish for that matter, is also one of the "BEST" whatever that means. It also deposits a polymer on the cases to prevent/retard tarnish, the other two mentioned do not.

 

[JohnM]

I was all whooped up to go for the stainless media when I first read about it.
There's a couple places to get just the media fairly inexpensively around.
And I had a couple rotary tumblers including a big 15 pounder.
I had also checked out drying wet cases in an old electric food dehydrator and it worked like a top.

Then I thought, aw what the heck.
Crushed walnut and corncob work fine.
Why bother.

 

[BoKnows]

Lets see pictures of the results. Otherwise, just empty promises.

 

[jcwit]

SS wet tumbling works super well. Corn cob and/or crushed walnut works well also at a much lower outlay to start with. Ya I realize the SS pins never wear out, but consider how long a 40 lb. bag of corn cob lasts for the average guy out there polishing brass, let alone how long a bottle on any kind of polish is going to last.

I thought about switching to SS pin wet tumbling but decided against it as I doubt I would ever see a return in satisfaction for the $2/300 bucks spent. But thats just me. My set up has worked for 20/30 years, sooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Uniquedot]

I put some rouge in crushed walnut and tumbled for two hours and fifteen minutes and the cases came out at least as shiny as those in post #76, but there was some that still had some staining present and of course the insides of the cases were not shiny. It was more of an experiment anyway as i don't care about shiny cases. I just want them clean. As has been mentioned before why worry about how shiny something is that is only going to be used for a few firings anyway? I tried the nufinish and the cases come out very clean although they don't look like gold as the ones did that the rouge was tested on they are very clean and it's easy to spot any defects. Whenever i have really tarnished cases I'll be using the nufinish and walnut otherwise i will just wash and dry them.

 

[BoKnows]

Personally I like my cases clean and thats why I just use soap and water. The Lemi-shines is used because I have hard water due to coming from my well. For those of you who claim you just want it clean, how come you're using all sorts of polishing additives? Why noy just use plain media?

Not knocking your choices but giving every my first hand experiences. My choice was easy because the media was $50 and the tumbler I already had for polishing rocks with my kids. Otherwise, I would have spent more for dry media tumbling. Even if I had to do it again I would go wet because the initial cost may be higher but not by much. Then again, you could also polish rocks for the kids too.

 

[LiveLife]

Lets see pictures of the results. Otherwise, just empty promises.

I just did this while I had lunch. These are 9mm indoor range brass cases and I tumbled in fine walnut media + NuFinish + Cabela's (Berry's) tumbler for 30 minutes (yes, exactly 30 minutes). I had done about 4 batches of brass prior to this batch and intentionally did not add any NuFinish to the media.

This is not new media, I had tumbled about 10 batches of 9/40/45 brass and I use about 2 cutup used dryer sheets which I toss as they get dark. I do not need super polished brass, just clean cases with light polish to keep my dies on the clean side. If I want more brilliant shine, I tumble them in corn cob + NuFinish for 1+ hour.


Before and after tumbling:

Bowl filled 2/3 with walnut media and enough cases added to bring media almost up to the rim while tumbling to not spill media and slow down the tumbling action (the cut up dryer sheets are hidden inside the media).

 

[SourMash]

Those of you with the SS, will a tumble type media seperator do the job or do y'all just use magnets? I spent the money and I'm more than happy with it, but the tedious work comes when trying to recover the pins after tumbling.

 

[Rafterman191]

A wealth of knowledge my friends, a wealth. Picked up the NuFinish and like it. Loaded 250 rnds in the last couple days. Need some trigger time now. Thanks all and safe and happy shooting!

 

[brickeyee]

I spent the money and I'm more than happy with it, but the tedious work comes when trying to recover the pins after tumbling.

It is easier with something so low cost it is disposable (like walnut or corn cob).

No one cares if some is lost.

Vacuum it up and throw some new into the tumbler next time you use it.

 

[JohnM]

trying to recover the pins after tumbling

The best way to keep from losing those pins is to do the separating in water.
With the pins falling through whatever your screen is into a bucket below.
Then you can pour off the water and transfer your media back into the tumbler or where ever.

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

I would assume a Thumbler rock/brass tumbler works well with stainless steel media?

Ooops. Just checked out the link and those are Thumbler type tumblers in the photos.

 

[Keeperfaith]

Ok im just getting into reloading (havent even bought my reloader yet) and I have a lot of brass. I just bought the 5 gallon tumbler and fine crushed walnut from Habor Freight Tools. Now How do you use the Nu-Finish in tumbling the brass? Do you just add a few drops to the media? or polish the brass afterwards?
Any help would be great.
How long do you tumble the brass and how much brass should I put in at a time?

THanks

PS: thinking of getting a Lee Pro 1000 reloader, any thoughts, ideas critizisms or additions I should get when purchasing it?

thanks

Steve

 

[LiveLife]

Now How do you use the Nu-Finish in tumbling the brass? Do you just add a few drops to the media? or polish the brass afterwards?

How long do you tumble the brass and how much brass should I put in at a time?

My Cabela's tumbler (same as Berry's 400 tumbler) has 1000 9mm case capacity but I typically tumble with less for faster cleaning/polishing (around 600-800 cases). I normally fill the bowl about 2/3 with fine walnut media and drizzle 2 capfuls of NuFinish polish and run the tumbler for 5-15 minutes or until all the clumps are gone (I will also use a paint stick to stir the media around to speed up the process).

I do not need super shiny cases, just clean cases with light polish to keep my dies clean and with residual polymer on the surface for easier resizing efforts. For most indoor range brass, Cabela's tumbler takes about 30 minutes to clean the brass with a light polish (see post #88 for pics). For brilliant polish, I use corn cob media + NuFinish and about an hour+ in the tumbler (for me, walnut tends to cleans better and corn cob polishes better).

I add additional capful of NuFinish every 3 batches or so as I prefer to keep my media on the dry side (I run the tumbler until all the clumps are gone). If you add too much polish and the media clumps, your cases won't clean/polish and you may get spots on your cases.

As to how much brass to add to the bowl, with 2/3 fill with walnut media, I keep adding cases as long as the tumbling motion does not slow down - so you may need to do some trial and error with your tumbler. Adding cut up used dryer sheets really does help with extending the life of your media (I toss them as they get dark/black).

PS: thinking of getting a Lee Pro 1000 reloader, any thoughts, ideas critizisms or additions I should get when purchasing it?

Pro 1000 is not for everyone as it will require a reloader who has the patience/diligence to clean/lube/adjust/maintain the press regularly and stop to investigate problems instead of forcing the ram lever to cycle. If you are willing to learn the proper operations of the press and apply regular cleaning/lubing/PM schedule with each reloading session, you could end up reloading 450-650 rounds/hour. It is primarily a pistol caliber press as it will only do short rifle cartridges (.223/7.62x39). If you want to reload both pistol and rifle cartridges, I highly recommend the 4 station Lee Classic Turret press with cast iron base.

Pro 1K is a 3 station auto indexing progressive press with case and bullet feeder attachments but most Pro 1K users I know prefer to place the bullets manually with their left hand. The gravity based primer feed attachment will become problematic if the feed ramp is not kept full of primers to push the next primer into station #2 or if any foreign object gets in the feed ramp to keep the primers from sliding freely (I keep a bent paper clip to help push any primer that didn't slide into station #2 fully and a can of compressed air to keep the ramp clear of debris - usually powder granules/flakes).

Check out some of these Lee Precision instructional videos on Pro 1000 press (Start with Pro 1000 Demo video) - http://www.youtube.com/results?sear..._upl=7837l9401l0l9748l9l9l0l8l0l0l84l84l1l1l0

Here's a support thread on Pro 1000 - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=507454