Case polishing question

[PennsyPlinker]

Greetings all

I spent a big chunk of today getting the rest of my reloading stuff organized. The bad news with that is I called Mrs. Plinker in to impress her with my industriousness. She walked into the room, looked around for a few seconds, and said,

"I had no idea you had so much stuff!"

I said, !!!

But anyway...

I have a Cabela's case tumbler. How many cases of a given size could I realistically expect to get in the thing? Can I just cram them in until they won't fit, should I spread them out, or what?

Also, I threw in a few caps full of the polish that came with it, which shined 'em up real nice. But I noticed some clumping of the media, mostly sticking inside some of the cartridges. Blowing them out with some compressed air is easy enough, but is there a way to avoid this next time?

Thanks.

[shooter357]

I have the Lyman Pro 2500 and use the treated corncob media. I have no problems with it. I haven't had to add any polish so I'm not sure what it does.

[phill]

You probably put too much polish in. Let the tumbler run and spread the polish through the media.. I do not use polish every time.
There should be an estimate of the load in the manual. I usually clean about 300 pistol cases at a time. If there is more it takes too long to clean. Change the media and wash the bowl when it gets dark.

[Lycanthrope]

Don't bother with expensive media polish.

A couple tablespoons of liquid Nu-finish car polish works wonders and helps lube the cases for sizing. Stir the media after you add the wax.

For pistols, large chunk pet bedding/corncob works great for a fraction of the price. Agway has it cheap. For rifles, smaller media is essential so you don't get it caught in the primer pockets. A few clumps of corncob in a rfle case can spike pressure greatly. Check every one.

Don't pack casings tight in the media. Movement is what cleans them.

Lycanafewtipsthrope

[WVBob]

It has to do with the size of the drum. Small drum will hold 150 .357's and a large drum will hold 300. As has been said, don't pack them in. It's better to do two light loads than one very full one. That also goes for the amount of media you put in the drum. I fill mine about 2/3 full of media so it has room to work. I like walnut media to clean the brass but will use corn cob to put a very nice polish on it. To keep the dust down I cut up a dryer sheet and put it in with each load. They pick up a lot of the dust and dirt and are cheap.

How can you have to much reloading equipment?

[PennsyPlinker]

Thanks for the answers guys!

You probably put too much polish in. Let the tumbler run and spread the polish through the media.. I do not use polish every time.

I followed the directions for the amount, but I think what happened was that I threw everything in at once. I probably should have thrown the polish in first and let it run for a few minutes. I ran a second batch through without any extra polish and had no problems.

Don't bother with expensive media polish.

...

Don't pack casings tight in the media. Movement is what cleans them.

Lycanafewtipsthrope

This is stuff that came with the kit, but I appreciate the car polish tip. They auto supply store is closer than Cabela's too!

It has to do with the size of the drum. Small drum will hold 150 .357's and a large drum will hold 300. As has been said, don't pack them in. It's better to do two light loads than one very full one.

I sort of figured this would be the answer. I fit about half of my .45 LC cases that I could find into the first load, and that came out to 108 cases. I could have put a few more in, but even so the second load was smaller. What I am wondering is what happened to all the rest of them!

I have the Lyman Pro 2500 and use the treated corncob media. I have no problems with it. I haven't had to add any polish so I'm not sure what it does.

It polishes them! Seriously though, you need to come on over and see the set up. Let me know when you have some time and the inclination. And, if we need to, we can check out your new toy.