Tumbler media is one of those Ford vs Chevy kinda things, walnut shells or corn cob media. You will hear varying reasons behind both choices, they each have pluses and minuses. I have always heard corn cob media polishes better while walnut shells cleans better due to the hardness. Or vice versa, depending on who you talk too.

Right or wrong, the following is what I do……first off I mostly use corn cob media, mainly due to cost and availability. If I luck into both and a deal is there I will buy both and mix them in the tumbler, best of both worlds?????

Years ago I picked up a tip from MidwayUSA to limit dust from the tumbling media, cause who doesn’t hate dust all over your brass…….add a cap full of paint thinner to the media, I use a couple, run for a minute or so then add your brass for cleaning, works great. But I go one step further and add a couple squirts of Brasso polish to the media before dumping brass into the tumbler. Brasso helps polish the cases but also lessens the run time of tumbler so more batches can be run in a day. Added bonus is that the application of Brasso last 2-3 batches before you will need to add more and also helps the media last longer as well.

Karma works in strange ways.......last night I am scrolling around Midway's site and notice they have tumblers on sale along with free shipping on orders over $75, interesting as I have been babying my 30+ year old Midway 1288 tumbler (orange bowl, gotta be a Lyman rebranded item) and am wondering how much longer it will last before dying. The answer to that question came this evening as the motor broke and sent several pieces flying around the gun room. A nice big, new Lyman 2500 Magnum tumbler has been ordered, wonder how long this one will last.

Gunner

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https://www.instagram.com/41gunner/
41 Mags rule, Baers rock!

Bought a cheap thing from Midway .. the motor was the same one in the RCBS ... my RBCS motor was worn out .. I pulled the new one out of the cheap thing and put it in my RCBS and it's working fine.

Years ago I used rice to clean the empties. Worked pretty good. I had about 50 pounds of old rice and instead of throwing it away I tried it and it worked.

I have done the Brasso thing also.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

There are also those I know who use white rice. Grocery store grade, that being the main advantage-ease of procurement.

They say it does a good job w/ the one inconvenience being that rice is prone to lodging in flashholes.

batch seemed worn out tried rice, corn, etc but went back to walnut hulls. The rice in the flashholes bugged me. Anyway, I sourced my walnut media from A pet store where they sold it as bedding for lizards(?). MUCH cheaper (don't know why) and much larger bag, still have quite a bit of it although I inevitably lose some every time I empty the tumbler through a sorting screen.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

I picked up some corn cob media at the pet store. I don't recall what the issue was, but I got the wrong stuff, I think it was too large or maybe it was too small, at any rate I gave it to my grandson for his hamster. Then I got a deal on some media at a small gun store and it worked quite well. It lasts me for YEARS since I only use it when up north. I tried the rice thing as well, but got irritated at the plugging of flash holes and gave it up, but it did do a good job otherwise.

was miserable. The granules are too large and clog up bottle neck cases something fierce. I spent too much time with a sharp pick digging it out of the cases. I may have cussed as well. Pet store walnut works great and I mix it in a very unscientific half and half ratio with Lyman's treated corn cob. I like everything but the dust and will have to try what's mentioned above.

THAT'S what the problem was, thanks for the reminder. It clogged up inside and was a real pain to try and clear out. Dumped what was in the tumbler and gave the rest to my grandson for his hamster. Never did find any walnut at the pet store, but haven't been back to look either.

Forgot to include in above posting, lately I have been using Mineral Spirits as I ran out of paint thinner and had MS on hand, seems like it works better, doesn't evaporate as quickly as paint thinner.

Gunner

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https://www.instagram.com/41gunner/
41 Mags rule, Baers rock!

I use alot of corn cob Media, I get it in 50LB`s for $ 25.00 it come`s from a company that supplies Blasting grit for people to clean Brick buildings and such. there are a few different sizes grit , so if anyone need`s information I suppose I could go out to my garage and look at the bag to see what size I use .

For years I ran two tumblers. Walnut always seemed to work better on really dirty brass and corncob gave me a better polish. About 10 years ago I went to wet tumbling with the stainless pins and never looked back. My two vibratory tumblers have been gathering dust since.

I had to do some experimenting with solutions on the wet tumbler but I settled on 2 to 3 Oz of ArmorAll automotive wash and wax with a little lemishine (citric acid). Even heavily tarnished cases come out looking like new in one to two hours. The only downside is for best results you need to decap before cleaning and it takes the cases a little while to dry.

A huge advantage I have noticed is it is much easier to visually inspect the powder charge since the inside of the case is clean and shiny.

Rice does pretty good if the primers are in. It will clean the messy stuff just fine.

I add one of these to a Midway order, about once a year, and have been real happy with it.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1064203968?pid=557992

But maybe someone else has. For those with a pressure washer has anyone ever thought about hanging some brass in a net bag(like is used for fine washables in a washing machine), squirting them with some sort of detergent like Dawn and blasting them for awhile with a pressure washer? I guess you'd have to give the bag a shuftie every so, and you'd have to dry them, but I like the entertainment value of blasting stuff with my pressure washer.

I do know however, that the same mesh bag can be used in the dryer to, of course, dry the brass PROVIDED two conditions are met: 1. You may want to send your wife on an errand or two and 2. You really need to tie the strings on the bag. Ask me how I know.....

Never thought of that. I HAVE run small batches in a mesh bag through the washing machine.