Cleaning media source

[Darrell Davis]

Not sure which of the forums I read this tip on, but the poster said that crushed walnut shells were available at pet stores.

Soooo, to day I stopped by the local Pets are people too store and sure enough, this was a valid tip.

They had the walnut shells in 7 and 25lb bags.

Not sure that it is a better price then is available at your local shooting shops or through the catalog, but they did have it and I didn't need to pay S&H to get it here.

7 lbs cost $9.59 plus the governors share.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Land_Owner]

Can someone sound off on what to add to the crushed walnut shells to increase their cleaning capacity?  I bought shells from the Pet Store too.  By themselves, in my new tumbler, they may work in time.  I didn't wait that long and added some cleaning media that I had purchased years ago.  Now that added media is gone, the box it came in too, and I don't know what it was that I added to the shells.  It sure cleaned cases right quick after that.  Much faster than the shells by themselves.

Also, the shells I bought are real small sized - fine ground, about the size of the ground pepper they shake out on your salad at Olive Garden and Red Lobster.  Are there other "gradations" of crushed shells?

[stimpylu32]

LO

Just about any of the liquid metal polishes , like Mothers Mag Polish will speed the process , the thing about walnut is that it does more cleaning than polishing , due to the fact that it's an abbrasive media not a polishing media like corncob .

It ( Walnut ) can be found in a couple of different grain sizes , but most pet shops only carry the fine for reptile litter , local feed stores should have the bigger stuff , however don't go too big though , it will get stuck in the necks of rifle case's and be a royal pain to remove . 

stimpy

[Darrell Davis]

Afternoon guys,

The stuff I picked up today appears to be about equal to what I have bought from shooting sources.

As Per the other question, if/when I use something, I use a product I bought from Midway.

Pour a bit into the tumbler while it is running , wait until it mixes in well and the tumble as normal.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Kurt L]

i use the same stuff i got a #25 bag.
i use the lyman turbo bright with it,just dumped some in and let it mix up and seems to work fine.

[41 mag]

Several years back a couple of friends and I went in on some we got from a local sand blasting supply. We got to pick the size we wanted and it came in 50# bags for like $13 for the cob and $15 for the walnut. Heck I still got some of both in a couple of bags stuffed in a 5 gal bucket. I simply add Flitz or the Frankford Arsenal polish. I hear that several of the car polishes work as well as the mag polishes, just never tried either of them.

[shot1]

Just make sure that none of the polish agents you add has ammonia in them. Ammonia will ruin your brass. Lyman treated corncob media really cleans and polishes up your cases. If I get some real dirty cases i will run them in the Walnut hull media for a couple of hrs to clean off the dirt and then put them in the Lyman treated corncob media and run them a while and it really cleans and shines them up.

[Gun Runner]

Try your local feed and tack store for walnut shell. I get the 40lb bag for about $14.00 a bag. Have been getting it there for about the last 40 yrs (price has increased over the yrs). I have some liquid car wax that I spray about 3 or 4 squirts in with the used media and run it for 15 20 mins and then dump my brass in to clean it. Using a Lyman turbo 1200 vibrator.  HTH

Gun Runner

[Lloyd Smale]

nu finish car polish works great. I also use brasso and ive heard the so called experts claim for years it has amonia in it and it will hurt brass but ive never seen it hurt a thing. I dont think when a guy puts a spoon full in a tumbler your putting enough amonia in the mix to hurt a thing. Like i said ive been doing it for years and what hurts brass is high pressure not what you clean it with.

[gypsyman]

My tumbling media is about a 50/50 mix of the walnut and the corn. To keep the dust down when you put it in new, a couple tablespoons full of one of the citrus cleaners does just fine. (Like any others, put it in and let the tumbler run for 15 minute's or so with no brass in it.Otherwise it clogs up inside your cases. Don't ask me how I know this ) After a couple uses, I've found that Flitz works pretty good, with the Lyman and Dillion additive coming in second. But, use what ya got!! gypsyman

[Land_Owner]

My hunting partner suggested a liquid polish too and to use a side container, small enough to mix the polish and a bit of the walnut shells in before putting the combined mix in the big bowl of the tumbler.  This will get the polish mixed with the shells and prevent the noted clogging.  Thanks for all of the great ideas...

[mbopp]

I had some dried-out car polishing compound I broke up real fine and addd it to my corncob media. And a splash of polishing compound I got from Berry's Bullets. My polisher is real high tech - a 3# coffee can (when coffee came in 3# cans) spun by rollers on a frame made from aluminum plate and old copier parts. If I want a real high shine I'll switch to untreated corncob and let them tumble a few hours.
I forgot to turn it off and let some .45 cases go overnight. Wow, were they shiney!

[Land_Owner]

Good one...Ingenuity strikes again.  Having access to parts and an eye for saving a buck is a very good thing.  Thanks for sharing your invention, which is sure to "revolutionize" the tumbler world...hehe

[Cheesehead]

+1 on the lizard litter. I bought a 25 pound bag some time ago. I add Midway Polish. Works great.

Cheese

[huntducks]

nu finish car polish works great. I also use brasso and ive heard the so called experts claim for years it has amonia in it and it will hurt brass but ive never seen it hurt a thing. I dont think when a guy puts a spoon full in a tumbler your putting enough amonia in the mix to hurt a thing. Like i said ive been doing it for years and what hurts brass is high pressure not what you clean it with.

Lloyd

I use Brasso all the time the primer pockets and necks split long before ammonia would do anything.

I also us chrome polish and liquid car wax.

I heard this BS years ago so I coated a 1/2 doz. 06 cases in brasso and let them sit for 3 years loaded and fired them nothing happened except they went bang.

If you think about it the corn cob or walnut would remover most of the brasso durning tumbling.

[Swampman]

BTW rice make a great media.

[Swampman]

A couple of dryer sheets cut up in your media will make it last longer & work better.