Help with tumblers

[Bama Man]

My friend just found a rock tumbler in a yard sell for $1.00.
He wants to tumble some brass he found at the range, but doesn't know what to use.
I have some corn cob/walnut media mixed 50/50, plus some corn media with the green treatment (what ever that green stuff is), and some Tuff Nut media with the red rouge treatment.
He is welcome to any of it, but, I need to know which to give him.
Any suggestions?
Should I just give him a batch of all three, and see which works best?
Has anyone tried a rock tumbler before? (Come on, fess up guys).

[cephas]

Have a thumlers tumbler that I think was originally designed for rock hounds. Also a yard sell relic. Came with some walnut media with red rouge that made a bit of a mess. i've found straight walnut will clean the best, corn cob with a dab of new finish car polish will polish the best. Put a chunk of dryer sheet in with it and it'll catch allot of the dirt and prolong the media. However recently went to stainless steel media, wet with a shot of lemushine, and at this point not looking back.

[Bama Man]

Stainless steel?

[cephas]

http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/
Didn't get anything there but it'll give you info.
Also search the forum, you'll find a few posts about it.

[dk99358]

I just use "Lizard Litter" from Petco or whatever your local pet shop is. It's walnut shells and a hell of lot cheaper than the gunshop stuff. I don't care about shine, so I don't add any polishing stuff. I mostly tumble to get rid of case lube after sizing.

Second the dryer sheet idea, but I use used ones and cut them in half or quarters.

Dale

[markshere2]

Walnut lizard litter. Petsmart has is cheap.
It's fine enough it doesn't clog primer holes.

If you have dryer sheets, start saving the used ones, and put a dryer sheet in with the lizard litter & brass. soaks up dirt & dust.

To go fully whizbang, add a capful ( couple ounces NOT a CUP full) of mineral spirits to help bust up the carbon for more betterer cleaning.

I've worn out 3 vibratory tumblers ( they are designed to shake themselves).
I shifted to a Harbor freight rubber drum rock tumbler. Quieter and less self-destructive = a better job of engineering IMHO.

3/4 full of shells and media is a good fill for cleaning quickly. Too full or too empty = longer tumbling times.

[Remington788]

I use a Harbor Freight rubber rock tumbler (the barrel is rubber, nice and quiet).

I load a couple handfulls of brass (never bothered to count them) in it at a time. For media I use corn cob, I got a bag of it cheap. A splash of Simoniz wax to give them some extra shine.

I de-prime them first, that reduces exposure to all the nasty stuff in the spent primer, and extends the media life.

Alternately, I can fill the tub with hot water, some LemiShine dishwasher stuff and some BBs. Effective, but messy and the BBs get rusty. If I could get a very small amount of those stainless steel things I probably would.

[Lycanthrope]

I really like the walnut litter. Works on tough stuff better than corncob, but doesn't make quite as much shine. The real secret is a couple tablespoons of liquid car wax (Nu Finish is excellent). Stir it in so it mixes well. When you're done you have waxed casings that are silky and repel water.


Lycanoldsecretthrope

[Fred762]

I use pure walnut media...does a pretty good job.

I use 2 batches...#1 has a dash of Wright's brass polish in it, like about 1/8th cup per load. I vibrate the cases for at least an hour, dump them out and switch the media to #2 which is straight walnut hulls..to get rid of any brass polish. This works great for me and I get nice brite cases, faster than when I was using NO brass polish.

I keep the 2 batches of media in 2 plastic buckets and pour it [with the cases] thru an old FryDaddy wire basket, to get rid of the media in each load of cases. Run #2 is usually only 30 minutes. No problems so far....

[87hurricane]

I have a question for you guys using rock tumblers, how long do you run the tumbler for? I know they run a lot slower than a vibratory setup, just wondering how big of a time difference there was, if any