corn cob polishing media

[bullet maker]

Hey gang
   I got a question for you all and if its been answered somewhere before, I apologise. Question is, once my corn cob media gets dirty from all them rifle brass i polish, what do I clean the midia up with to renew it, or can it be renewed? and how do you do it?
  I been throwing it away once it got dirty, but someone said you can renew it, but he didnt know how. Thanks
bullet maker

[John Traveler]

I've experimented with washing out and renewing granulated walnut hulls and corncobs by putting them into a loose-stitched sack (cornmeal sack) and squirting in some liquid detergent, and then wsashing in the washing machine.

The polishing media tends to wear out though.  When the sharp corners are rounded off, it just won't polish as well as when new.

[Castaway]

Two years ago I started to use rice.  You can get 20 lbs. of it for just a few dollars at the right store and it cleans just as good as corn-cob.

[jhalcott]

Several companies sell products to help your media last longer,Dillon has one such product. The problem is though , the cost is similar to getting new media.As said earlier,once the sharp edges of walnut hulls are gone,it takes much longer to clean your brass. I have awfull visions of my wifes washer/drier if a 5# bag of media developed a hole! I might develope a few holes myself! The wife would swear I committed suicide by ruining her appliances :oops:

[John Traveler]

Oh, yeah:

I forgot to mention that you can also use industrial polishing media for cleaning brass------FAST!  the stuff is made for west polishing (vibratory, tumbling, or agitating) and de-burring small machined parts.  The media comes in cones, rods, triangles, etc. shapes.

You obtain it at jewelry supply shops or industrial tumbling and polishing supply stores.  It comes in different geometrical shapes.  The ones that I found work best for cartridge brass polishing are about 3/8" long x 1/8" diameter rods with tapered ends.

To use, you need a water-tight tumbler or vibrator media bowl, a squirt of dish washing detergent, and a couple pounds of the ceramic polishing pellets.  Load up your brass, fill the tumbler with warm water, and seal it up and tumple away!

[Carl l.]

I add Turbo Brite to my meda. It is made by Lyman. This will help for a while. When it looks dirty I throw it out and put in some new. Carl

[PA-Joe]

You can also go to your local petmart or equal and in the rodent bedding area they have corn and walnut in several sizes.

[Questor]

Castaway:

Thanks for the idea. I'll try it.  By the way, I wonder if using one of the short grain rices would be best. There's a specie used in making Thai style sticky rice that is sold as "sweet rice" in oriental grocery stores.  It's not polished like white rice and the kernels are small and egg shaped. I think that would be a better shape than long grain rice.  Sweet rice costs no more than long grain, if you can find it.

[jhm]

Castaway:  Do you use anything in the rice to help clean the brass, as I havent ever heard of using it but it sounds great, ( And when you are finished you can just add some seasoning and instant dirty rice I love the idea)  thanks for the tip.   JIM

[Questor]

JHM:

I like some black beans, a little cumin, chopped green peppers, and onions in mine.

Just kidding, but I couldn't resist.

[jhm]

hush your mouth you are making me hungry.  :-D   JIM

[Lvl1trauma]

I use 2 tumblers. In one I have the bird bedding ground up corn cob that I put a little brasso and mineral spirits in. It is so dirty it is almost black. I tumble my brass for about 15 minutes or so in this one.

Next I put that brass in untreated corn cob media- different tumbler. I guess you could use the same tumbler as long as you got out all of the old media and keep it separate. In about 5 minutes I have new looking brass. You can really turn out the brass this way. It beats tumbling brass for 12 hours like I have seen some people do. Makes tumblers last a lot longer, too.

Beau

[snuffy]

The trick is to not let it get dirty in the first place. Take a sheet of paper towel, cut it into 4 peices and put it in with whatever you're tumbling. The pieces pick up the dirt being taken off the brass. Throw them away after each tumbling session.

I got some of that corn cob bedding from pet-smart. It is too big to be used for rifle brass, but works great for straight walled pistol brass.

I use Flitz tumbler media for all my brass polishing. A good healthy 10 second squirt in new media lasts for thousands of cases. I buy the corn cob media at a local gun shopin gallon milk jugs for $6.95. It lasts for over a year.

[Questor]

I'm having an afterthought about using rice. It seems to be quite a bit heavier by volume than corn cob media. I wonder if that will introduce more wear and tear on my tumbler.

[1GLOCK]

I use Tuffnut for my initial cleaning and treated corn cob for my final polish. I personaly think that for only 10 bucks for 10lbs its not worth messing with trying to make it last forever. Once its worn out I use it for filling my bench sandbags. Its lighter than sand and seems to be just as stable.

[Castaway]

I don't know if rice is more or less dense than corn cob or walnut.  If it happens to be denser, I wouldn't worry about the extra mass in my tumbler.  I routinely tumble LOTS of 30-06, 45 ACP or 45 Colt brass at a time.  I don't think the difference in density of rice or any other media would be significant when compared to the added mass of even a few extra pieces of brass.

On another note, you need to be careful about what you put in the media.  Polishing compounds that contain ammonia will weaken the brass.    [/i]