One more tumbler media question!

[vanbuzen9]

Hello again,

I see that ceramic media is about twice the cost of regular corn cob media.  Does this mean it's better? Anywone that knows about this stuff please fill me in.

thanks,
vanbuzen9

[KN]

Where are you seeing ceramic media? The only place I have seen that used is for de-burring small parts or maybe polishing rocks. I've never heard of it being used for cleaning brass. Use corn cobb. It polishes better and is cheaper than walnut. Walnut will clean really dirty brass better but wont leave it polished as well. I also find that walnut leaves a messy film of dust behind. Some one on this forum suggested using rice but I haven't tried it yet.   KN

[Mark whiz]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the ceramic media is for cleaning black powder cases.

For regular centerfire cases - you'll want either corn cob or walnut.  I like to use walnut to clean up freshly fired cases and then use corncob to get a good polish on them before adding primer, powder & bullets.

[PA-Joe]

You can fine wlanut and corm media at your local petmart or pet outlet store. They have it in the hamster bedding section.

[Tom W.]

I've used the rice on a whim and it works well, but it's a booger to get out of the flash hole. The Cheapskate that I am, I also went to Wally world and got a big bag of processed corn cob litter. That was a bad idea. The stuff is rather coarse (read Large) and doesn't work as well as the media that I can get from Midway, Lyman, or a host of others. It doesn't work as well as the rice, for that matter. :oops:

So, thinks I, I have a cheapo hand operated food processor, that will usually make short work of anything. Not so, in this case. All I managed to do was to ruin the cutting blades and turn said processor into a device to make pancakes with.

I'll be buying the 3 gallon bucket of treated media from Midway in short order.

[ricciardelli]

A long time ago, when I was in the Air Force, somewhere between the Wright brothers and yesterday, I was assigned to an outfit which flew Super Constellations.  

We had a guy in our outfit that used to use avgas for his car and cigarette lighter, because he was too damn cheap to buy the right stuff.

Well, one day he lit a cigarette, and the lighter went "poof" in his face.  A few weeks later, when he got out of the hospital he tried to drive home, and his car wouldn't run.  Seems he burned the hell out of the valves and the cylinders!

Moral of the story?

If you want tumbling media, buy TUMBLING media!  Not cat litter, swine food, or any of that other stuff.

I have two Lyman 2200 tumblers.  The first had Lyman treated walnut, the second has Lyman treated corncob.  Brass gets 1 hour in the walnut then 1 hour in the corncob.

The Lyman treated media can be purchased for around $1 per pound, depending on how good a buyer you are.  And 12 pounds of each has lasted me for years!

Do I add anything to it?  Hell no...

When it takes longer than an hour for the stuff to do it's job, it gets tossed and a new batch is dumped into the tumbler.

[Tom W.]

But Steve, Polish people are known to be hardheaded. But Yes, I've tried and seen for myself the reason tumbler media is made.

[cal sibley]

I think the Lyman treated media is the way to go on this.  Whether you use corn cob or walnut it's impregnated with jewellers rouge.  Don't add anything else.  You'll have a completely dry operation, and the media will come back out of the case easily when you're finished.  No hassles, and it lasts quite a while.  It took me a long while and several different cleaning agent to realize this.  Just one mans opinion.  Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[sawebbshooter]

Van Man,
I've seen the stuff for smaller cases advertised since reading about the BPCR applications. It seems that it is size specific; the BPCR stuff may not enter the case necks or worse not come out. Unnoticed, a piece of porcelain would be a bad thing.  I digress.  The stuff is used wet, with the proprietary mojo-juice solution, then rinsed and dried.  The media should last forever.  Why bother with normal brass is the question. Seems to adress nonexsistent problem and that at the expense of unneeded effort. I got a sack of walnut from Corbins for $16, and it was 25 or maybe 50#.  I solved the dust problem with a healthy squirt of Marvel mystery oil and it woked great.  The cases came out dry and polished nicely.  Feed store apparently sell bulk ccorncob meal as chicken scratch. I have not pursued this though.  These experiments in alternitive methods and materials shouldn't be judged on cost savings alone.  The satisfaction and knowledge that comes from pursuing one's curiosities can more than outweigh even a negative out come.  I put white jewelers rouge (I am aware that this appears to be a bilingual oxymoron) I had for honing leatherworking tools, in media and let' er rip.  Works great if you like very clean matte brass.  No great loss.  The media got pitched and the brass was loaded, fired, and tumbled normally and I was out 47 cents and learned not to use the white stuff. So now I don't wonder about that anymore.  Without "what if" there would be no new stuff.

[ButlerFord45]

Yes, it does exist. Yes, it does do a better job than walnut or corncob for cleaning, however, it is quite a bit more expensive.

http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod.jhtml?id=0024108&navAction=push&navCount=1&indexId=cat20853&parentId=cat20853&parentType=index&rid=&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fcatalog%2Fpod-link.jhtml_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20712

[Slamfire]

Any body tried grits? My wife transfers new grits to a glass canning jar before it enters the house. Once in a while we find some with moths or weevels in it. I've got two quarts that can't be opened indoors.  :roll: