What grit media is best for brass cleaning?

[Wallyl]

Tractor Supply Corp offers crushed Walnut shells @ $12.99/10 Lbs.: they offer Corase or Fine grit; I assume coarse is best (won't stick in flash holes)...can anyone offer me some advice before I buy ten lbs please?

 

[Rick]

I wouldn't worry about the flash holes, just polish before decapping. Would be tough to recommend their fine or course without seeing first how fine is their fine and how course is their course.

 

[Wallyl]

The coarse grit is 12/20 mesh; the fine is 35/60 mesh....it is used as blasting media and the mesh is important for its application. They also offer a medium grit 18/40 mesh but it costs more. I would guess it's better than lizard bedding as the later is not screened and one would get particles of all different sizes.

 

[Brad]

I would go fine. More surface area to contact the case.
You also can easily get coarse enough that it sticks in cases and won’t’ easily come out.
Far easier to poke media out of a flash hole than it is to fish it out of a case mouth. Been there, done that. Media got use one time.

 

[Wallyl]

Rick

BTW I clean with older crushed walnut, then re-size. My "plan" was to do a secondary tumble with new media; the new media wou;d have some polish added to make the cases sparkle better. I am into SS pin tumbling but the drying and pin seperation is a PITA...sure the cases are sparkling, but they soon tarnish.

 

[shuz]

I have found that about a tablespoon of citric acid in a quart of water works wonders to clean brass with a little dish washing soap added. The solution can be stored and used several times.

 

[Cherokee]

This is what I bought last time and it works great. Cleans flash hole pockets but fine enough to not clog them. I'm on my second bag.

https://www.grainger.com/product/2MVR5?Pid=search

 

[Wallyl]

Thank you Brad...some opine the coarse is better as it cleans more aggrsively due to the thicker granuales.

 

[Wallyl]

Cherokee that is like a Medium grit offered by Tractor Supply... but it is corn cob not walnut ...Thank you...!

 

[CZ93X62]

At least 10 years ago I bought a 50# box of untreated corn cob grit from Kramer Industries in NJ. Shipped to my house, it was $104 all-in. They offered a variety of grit sizes, and I got the 14/20 grit size. It has done fine work as untreated media by itself for CLEANING brass cases, but its polishing ability is minimal. It does OK for my spoiled-rotten over-indulged totally-pampered brass that starts out as new Starline cases and never sees mud, snow, rain, or saltwater. It worst environment is dry desert dust, and for all I know that might be what helps give the brass the small bit of polishing it does get. 10 years in, I have about half of that media on a garage shelf in reserve.

 

[JWFilips]

Lizard litter from the pet store Cheap and the same walnut hulls they sell for big $

 

[358156 hp]

I use ground walnut from the local pet store, it's used for lizards, and is generally referred to as Lizard Litter". Around here, the most common brand seems to be "Zilla". The stuff I use is pretty fine, and I normally run it for about a half hour or so with a couple of caps (or more) full of NuFinish car polish to treat it before adding brass. Be prepared for lots of dust the first few times you use fresh media, seriously, lots of dust. The dust will subside after a few initial uses.

 

[Cherokee]

The dust from walnuts is what made me switch to corn cob, to me it seemed the corn cob did a better job.

 

[Wallyl]

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. The nearest Pet Smart store says pickup is unavaiable...I'll have to go there to see if they stock the Zilla Lizaed bedding. 356156hp...if one adds some mineral spirits or charcoal lighter fluid, the media will be dust free.

 

[JWFilips]

358156hp Yes this is the exact stuff! Seems to last forever!
Cherokee
Yes some folks are allergic to walnut dust....The hull dust doesn't bother me but I dislike building walnut Stocked guns the wood Dust & I have a problem

 

[358156 hp]

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. The nearest Pet Smart store says pickup is unavaiable...I'll have to go there to see if they stock the Zilla Lizaed bedding. 356156hp...if one adds some mineral spirits or charcoal lighter fluid, the media will be dust free.

I neglected to mention that I do use equal parts of polish and mineral spirits when I "charge" my media. The first bowl or two still produce a fair amount of dust until after a couple of additional charges.

Walnut cleans brass very, very, well. However it doesn't leave the mirror type polished finish that corn cob does. At one point, I used one tumbler with walnut to clean, then another one with corn cob to polish. This procedure was just a bit too anal, even for me. So now I rotary tumble with steel, then do a final polish with walnut & polish. I really didn't reduce my work load, but I did make it seem a bit less fussy.

 

[Wallyl]

358156hp... Sounds like a great solution....using your two step process.

 

[Ian]

A couple tablespoons of liquid car wax in the rinse water after a wet tumble with citric acid/Dawn does a fair job of preventing tarnish and makes carbide sizing easier. Nothing beats cob and nu-finish for a lasting shine, though. I hate abrasive, dry media so much that I haven't used my vibratory tumbler one single time since I went SSTM a few years ago.

As for media size, I tend to agree with Brad on smaller size for polishing.

 

[fiver]

use a couple of ripped up USED dryer sheets to pull the dust and gunk out.
paper towels don't work,,, cloth strips work okay if that's what you got.
don't use new dryer sheets they put a mess of gunk on the cases.

 

[Ian]

New dryer sheets clean the media very well......all the loose dust, grit, and primer residue gets encapsulated in the gooey waxy dryer sheet coating and is removed from the tumbler very efficiently via the extractor grooves of your cases.