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media questions

Old_Me

Old_Me

SAINT
for those of you that have (or had) the vibrating media cleaner/polishers, how long did you go, before you changed your cleaning media, and did you exchange all of it or a portion of it?

i have walnut media for cleaning in one machine.

then in another machine, i have Lyman's treated polishing corn cob.

as per some opinions, many have said remove maybe about 3/4's of the polishing media, then add fresh....with the remaining old.


but what about the cleaning media..??

one RSO at the range who reloads rifle ammo only says he let's his cleaning media get "as black as possible", before he changes his

so, all, or a portion..of cleaning media......??? (again, i am using walnut cleaning media)

thanks in advance.
 
Old_Me said:
for those of you that have (or had) the vibrating media cleaner/polishers, how long did you go, before you changed your cleaning media, and did you exchange all of it or a portion of it?

i have walnut media for cleaning in one machine.

then in another machine, i have Lyman's treated polishing corn cob.

as per some opinions, many have said remove maybe about 3/4's of the polishing media, then add fresh....with the remaining old.


but what about the cleaning media..??

one RSO at the range who reloads rifle ammo only says he let's his cleaning media get "as black as possible", before he changes his

so, all, or a portion..of cleaning media......??? (again, i am using walnut cleaning media)

thanks in advance.
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When I reloaded, I don’t remember ever changing my corn cob media, I bought the bottle of media rejuvenator, not sure if they even still make it, but it worked, it was made by Lyman
 
Annihilator said:
When I reloaded, I don’t remember ever changing my corn cob media, I bought the bottle of media rejuvenator, not sure if they even still make it, but it worked, it was made by Lyman
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yeah thanks, i have like 20 lbs of Lyman's polishing corn cob media, and like 4 bottles of Lyman's polish, all bought with-in the past 1-2 months.

as for the walnut media, when i bought the reloading room, it came with a 30 lbs box of walnut media. then Harbor Freight gave me a 40% store coupon and i got another 30 lb box of walnut media, and that was months ago, when i got the reloading stuff.

so i got lots of media, for sure......maybe too much..>???.....:eek:
 
I change mine when it gets real dark or every one or two years. I clean a lot of brass. I use lizard litter (walnut) from pet stores or Harbor Freight. I don't recommend treated media because of the abrasives added which will wear on your dies.
I have used two tumblers to run walnut and then corn cob, but stopped that long ago due to laziness. I have also used a mix of the two, but mostly just run walnut. Many shooters have gone to wet tumbling, but it has multiple steps while dry tumbling has less.
 
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You don't have too much, but it would allow you to change more frequently. In your area, I wouldn't think you would get much dirt and grit, just the grunge from firing. Unless your cases pick up dirt or grit, you do not really need to polish them.
 
youngolddude said:
I change mine when it gets real dark or every one or two years. I clean a lot of brass. I use lizard litter (walnut) from pet stores or Harbor Freight. I don't recommend treated media because of the abrasives added which will wear on your dies.
I have used two tumblers to run walnut and then corn cob, but stopped that long ago due to laziness. I have also used a mix of the two, but mostly just run walnut. Many shooters have gone to wet tumbling, but it has multiple steps while dry tumbling has less.
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yes, i looked into wet tumbling, long before i even had any interest in reloading...and yes, the multi-step process, turned me off.

youngolddude said:
You don't have too much, but it would allow you to change more frequently. In your area, I wouldn't think you would get much dirt and grit, just the grunge from firing. Unless your cases pick up dirt or grit, you do not really need to polish them.
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the only "grit/dirt i pick up, is when of course i sweep the floor. but, when i get the brass home, i spin them in the cage to be rid of all of that, then i put it into the bucket that has the 380/.22lr separator.....which all i want is my 45 ACP and 9mm

i gotta look into the pet store stuff.....thanks
 
Old_Me said:
yes, i looked into wet tumbling, long before i even had any interest in reloading...and yes, the multi-step process, turned me off.


the only "grit/dirt i pick up, is when of course i sweep the floor. but, when i get the brass home, i spin them in the cage to be rid of all of that, then i put it into the bucket that has the 380/.22lr separator.....which all i want is my 45 ACP and 9mm

i gotta look into the pet store stuff.....thanks
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I guess I'm kind of a hobo..here's my home tumbler. I just use hot soapy water for about 20-30 minutes. Gets my brass as clean as it needs to be.
 

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i change mine once it gets dirty black,
i sift out the STUFF a few times,
my corn cob media is approaching 12 years old still works very well
i have once added some baking soda to some nasty harvested brass , not sure if it helped or not
speaking of harvested brass, i also wash those pieces in warm soapy water and let them dry before they go in the corn cob stuff
 
It doesn't sound like anyone else has trouble with stuff sticking to their brass.....If I leave my media for 20 boxes of brass or so, stuff will stick to my brass. It looks like little rubber dots or some residue, maybe from my lube? Sometimes if there is only a few cases like this, I can use a hand held wire brush and it will come off. Sometimes, like 100 cases will have the residue on them and I get my wire wheel dremel tool out.
I've tried sifting the media out from time to time, but it doesn't seem to help much. I'm using 1/2 corn cob and 1/2 "Tufnut" Lyman walnut media. And I usually tumble (actually vibrate - I've got an old Lyman orange tub) for a couple of hours. I use 'Cabela's Case Lube', which is really slick and somewhat evaporates after some time when loading.
I'm open to any help I can get to stop the wire brush nonsense. Maybe I need to tumble it longer?
 
the only thing i was having stick to my brass, was the home made lube.....i think i was using the wrong Aloe from what the guy at the shop told me to use..hey, i could not find what he had, so i used a different aloe....and HEET dri-gas (red bottle)

in any event, that stuff stuck to my brass, and i had to wipe them off, before i could plunk test them.

thankfully, it only affected 50 cases.

i now use the Hornady case lube, which evaporates and leaves no residue.

i ain't heard of Cabela's case lube, all i find is cabels'a "food grade" lube..?????
 
Old_Me said:
the only thing i was having stick to my brass, was the home made lube.....i think i was using the wrong Aloe from what the guy at the shop told me to use..hey, i could not find what he had, so i used a different aloe....and HEET dri-gas (red bottle)

in any event, that stuff stuck to my brass, and i had to wipe them off, before i could plunk test them.

thankfully, it only affected 50 cases.

i now use the Hornady case lube, which evaporates and leaves no residue.

i ain't heard of Cabela's case lube, all i find is cabels'a "food grade" lube..?????
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Which type of cases you lube, you don’t lube pistol cases if using carbide dies, there self lubricating
 
I use case lube on most of my revolver cases even with carbide dies because it makes for less effort and is most noticeable on the larger cases. I use it even on .32 mag. cases. I tend to run 1K or more at one time. I spritz a couple of shots of pump lube in my case feeder which spreads it around as it operates. A can or bottle of lube is $10-15 or so and lasts a long time. I can justify that over a cup or two of Starbucks coffee.
 
I have several types of dies, but mostly use some old Pacific Durachrome dies for my 9's, 10's and 45's. I have stuck cases long ago, and don't want to go through that again.....
I pick up stuff on sale, or when I can find what I need. I also have Redding dies, Lee, RCBS, and Hornady. I don't recall any instructions saying not to lube.....but maybe I missed that.
 
I'd post a pic, but I'm not all that tech savy. All I can say is that's what it says on the bottle "Cabela's Case Lube, For use in Metallic Cartridge Reloading". UPC is 400314454306 I picked it up a few years ago. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the 8 oz bottle. Like 'young old dude', I see it as cheap insurance against getting stuck.
 
youngolddude said:
I use case lube on most of my revolver cases even with carbide dies because it makes for less effort and is most noticeable on the larger cases. I use it even on .32 mag. cases. I tend to run 1K or more at one time. I spritz a couple of shots of pump lube in my case feeder which spreads it around as it operates. A can or bottle of lube is $10-15 or so and lasts a long time. I can justify that over a cup or two of Starbucks coffee.
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When I reloaded years ago, I never used any lube on carbide dies, I see no need to waste the lube on them myself, and I loaded thousands or .45acp and .44mags, but I did use it on my .222rem, 220swift rife rounds, but to each there own, no harm no foul.
 
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