No more corn cob

[stimpylu32]

Never again will i use corn cob in the tumbler with bottle necked cases , just spent the last 3 hours digging the stuff out of 60 , 243 cases with a dental pick , what a pain .    may save it for my 45/70 and 45lc's but then again it may just end up in the trash .

stimpy

PS --- Off to the local feed store in the morning for crushed walnut hulls .

[Old Syko]

Make sure what you get at the feed store is ground finely enough or you may just have other similar problems such as plugged flash holes and packed small capacity cases.  I get mine from a pet supply place as lizard litter and it works fine.  They also have a fine and coarse grade.  It's all i've used for many years. 

[Lloyd Smale]

did the same thing once with about a 1000 223s what a job! I know keep one of my tumblers filled with walunt and do all the bottle necks in that one.

[LaOtto222]

Stimpy - I found the same thing if I leave my cases in the tumbler (I have an old Thumber's Tumbler) too long. If I only leave them in there 5 hours or so, I do not get that. Over night, and I have a problem. I found out the hard way that I have to be careful when mixing different cases in the tumbler at the same time. I had a devil of a time getting 22 Hornet cases out of some 44 Mag cases. The media was packed in there pretty tight making it very difficult to get the Hornet cases out of the 44 Mag cases. I learned another lesson there. It seems I learn a lot of stuff the hard way.

[LaOtto222]

One other thought. When I got them packed in there that tight, I used a small drill bit (about 1/2 case mouth diameter) in a cordless drill and drilled them out. Once the media was loose I could dump it out.

 any one - I have never used crushed walnut - will it clean up the brass as well as corn cob and what conditioner do you use as a brass polish?

[Michael H]

corn cob cleans
walnut and pecan polishes

[steve4102]

corn cob cleans
walnut and pecan polishes

Backwards.

[dave375hh]

LaOtto222,

For general cleaning I use the walnut media with an oz of lacquer thinner added. The thinner cleans off bullet lube and fingerprints etc. For polishing the brass I add two tsp of jewelers rouge to a separate batch of media. Using two batches of media makes the polishing media last a much longer time. The cleaning media gets dirty but still works with the thinner added to it for a long time.

[Lloyd Smale]

yes it will. But keep in mind im not one that is anal about having brass i can see my reflection in. (im to dammed ugly)  what i want is basicaly brass cleaned so it doesnt hurt my dies and i also want all the lube removed from the case after sizing. If i was entering my brass in a beauty contest id put either  a spoon full of brasso or a spoonfull of liquid car wax like nu-finish in it. that shines them up all nice and pretty but doesnt make them shoot a bit better. I figure why worry about shiny brass when its just going to get dirty again very soon anyway.

One other thought. When I got them packed in there that tight, I used a small drill bit (about 1/2 case mouth diameter) in a cordless drill and drilled them out. Once the media was loose I could dump it out.

 any one - I have never used crushed walnut - will it clean up the brass as well as corn cob and what conditioner do you use as a brass polish?

[Old Syko]

If all you want is clean and fast add some mineral spirits to your media every time.  It cleans fast and evaporates in the process.  That's what most brass salvage operations use.  It works, it's fast, and it's cheap.

[Lawful Larry]

I go to  Petco and buy the large bags of crushed walnut.  They sell  it for reptile cages.  It comes in 25 lbs bags and the nuggets are very small in size.  It is perfect and no more problems.  The corn cob would drive me nuts.   

[Graybeard]

IF you get the right size corn cob media comes out just as easily as does walnut hull media. I picked up a couple of large bags at a gunshow many years ago and am still using it with satisfaction. I use treated walnut hull media with rouge added for cleaning of really grungy cases but once they are clean 24 hours in that corn cob media will give them a shine not even new brass has.

But my primary use of it is to dump lubed cases into it to remove the lube rather than doing it by hand. A few hours in there and all lube is gone and the cases are polished up nicely. My procedure is to pick up a pair at a time and tap them against the side of my media separator and it flows out with no problems.

If you're having problems with it coming out of even small cases like the .223 then you either got the wrong size or you've got way too much moisture in the media making it clump. NOTHING is more difficult to get out than walnum media IF it clumps and gets hard. I've seen it almost like concrete and ended up just tossing the cases rather than mess with it.

[stimpylu32]

Stimpy - I found the same thing if I leave my cases in the tumbler (I have an old Thumber's Tumbler) too long. If I only leave them in there 5 hours or so, I do not get that. Over night, and I have a problem. I found out the hard way that I have to be careful when mixing different cases in the tumbler at the same time. I had a devil of a time getting 22 Hornet cases out of some 44 Mag cases. The media was packed in there pretty tight making it very difficult to get the Hornet cases out of the 44 Mag cases. I learned another lesson there. It seems I learn a lot of stuff the hard way.

Boy do i kinow what you mean about mixing cases , did that with some 45LC and 32 H&R brass , man was that ugly , will never do that again . 

As for my tumblers , i have them all on timers set to run no more that 4 hours just to avoid the over night thing .

stimpy

[~Ace~]

If you use the Pet Litter size corn cob, it's a chore to remove, the Small stuff works great, just keep it DRY.

I switched to using Rice a few months ago and have not looked back, it's inbetween CornCob and Walnut, Cleans plenty and polishes plenty. I add a cap full of Brasso (Yes, I know.... ) and let it run with the lid off about 10 min before adding the brass, I like it. The First time with new rice there was some starch "film" but not after that. ~Ace~

[beemanbeme]

Ace, how is the rice about sticking in the flash hole? 

FWIW, I've never had any probs with the corn cob media sticking in the cases.  I use regular Lymans media.

[Hairtrigger]

If  . I add a cap full of Brasso (Yes, I know.... ) and let it run with the lid off about 10 min before adding the brass, I like it. 

 I was at a brass wholesaler and watched them use brasso on military brass. Since then I have added Brasso as well with great results

[Castaway]

I've used rice for over 5 years and have never looked back.  I've never had a problem with it gunking up in a case, straight or bottlenecked.  Readily available  and cheap. 

[~Ace~]

Most cases with Rice get a grain lodged in the flash hole, but it takes one lil poke with a pick to remove it.

[stimpylu32]

beemanbeme

Thats what i was using ,the only thing that i can come up with was too much moisture . it was in a Lyman vibrator for just under 3 hours , never had this problem with walnut .

stimpy

[Lloyd Smale]

ived used it for years to without problems. Some people will tell you that its not good to use because it has amonia in it and it will harden brass and make it brittle but ive never seen where it affected anything for me.  Problem with corn cob for me is all thats available local on the cheap is the larger grind. I can get a 50 lb bag of it for the same price as a 10 lb bag of the small stuff and walnut when you can find it is only in 10 lb bags and is alot more expensive. Thats why i use it only on bottle necked rounds.  I dont worry much about media getting stuck in flasholes. I usually tumble dirty brass then size decap and reprime and then tumble again to remove lubricant and ammo that uses carbide dies is just tumbled after firing and loaded on a progressive

If  . I add a cap full of Brasso (Yes, I know.... ) and let it run with the lid off about 10 min before adding the brass, I like it. 

 I was at a brass wholesaler and watched them use brasso on military brass. Since then I have added Brasso as well with great results

[Tom W.]

I've tried the rice and the pet litter, and found out that the corncob media marketed by Lyman or whoever is just the right stuff for what it needs to be. Experiment if you want to, because maybe you'll find something that works well for you. I don't have the patience to be digging the stuff out.

My son found some blackened grains of rice on his shooting bench, and he is very anal about his loads and procedure.

[DWTim]

Sometimes I get damp media. Damp corn cob doesn't clean the brass so well. I'll put a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in the media to absorb the moisture. Downside is that it may leave a dusting on the brass. It doesn't accumulate for me because I use a Lyman Auto-flo, and heavier materials tend to settle in the tray below the bowl.

I replace my media after no more than a year. I use Lyman-branded corn cob media.

[Glanceblamm]

Stimpy - I found the same thing if I leave my cases in the tumbler (I have an old Thumber's Tumbler) too long. If I only leave them in there 5 hours or so, I do not get that. Over night, and I have a problem. I found out the hard way that I have to be careful when mixing different cases in the tumbler at the same time. I had a devil of a time getting 22 Hornet cases out of some 44 Mag cases. The media was packed in there pretty tight making it very difficult to get the Hornet cases out of the 44 Mag cases. I learned another lesson there. It seems I learn a lot of stuff the hard way.

This was my thoughts exactly (leaving the cases in the shutoff tumbler too long)
It is an easy fix as you can just turn the tumbler back on for an hour or so and then the media comes out fairly easy. I always dump a little out and then put a finger on the case mouth and give the thing a quick shake and the rest comes out easily.
What I really need has not been manufactured yet, It would be a primer pocket cleaning tool that has a nipple in the center to knock the media out of the primer flash hole.

[Lloyd Smale]

stimply one more little hint. When i did it and had my 223s alll plugged up I split them up into all three of my tumblers with no media in them and let them run overnight like that and most of it came out. there were a few stubborn ones that i fooled with till i got impaitent and just threw the rest in the scrap bucket. Ive got two pails of 223 brass so loosing a couple hundred wasnt a big deal to me. There was about 2000 of them to start with and loosing a couple hundred was an exceptable loss to me considering the time involved in recovering them.