I was happy using walnut media in my tumbler to clean cases before decapping and sizing. Back into the tumbler with corncob media and Nu Finish polish. This was for my weekend range brass.
I got a chance at cleaning up a local police range for the cases. 223, 556, 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, 380 auto, 38spl, 357, brass, steel and aluminum cases had sat on the range for months. 3 buckets of steel, 3 buckets of Berdan brass and 1 bucket of aluminum cases went to the scrap dealer. Tumbling the brass in walnut left them tarnished from the weather.
I built a wet tumbler from a treadmill, cut it down for 1 cylinder at a time. 6"X20" PVC for the wet tumbler. I mounted three 1" aluminum angle strips inside to stir the cases. Boxer primers were decapped and wet tumbled with 1 45 ACP case of Dawn, 1 9mm case of Lemi Shine and 10 lbs of pins for 2 hours. They were bright, shiny again. After rinsing 5 times onto cookie sheets and into the oven at 125 for 30 minutes. They came out orange. Back into the dry tumbler with walnut media for an hour didn't help.
I read up on cool drying. Built an 8"X20" PVC cylinder with screened windows, place it on the mill with a squirrel cage blower behind it for 2 hours. Cases came out shiny. Into the tumbler with corncob media with Nu Finish for an hour.
I reload 38spl, 357 and 223. My weekend brass gets tumbled in walnut media then reloaded. They stay shiny. Some have been reloaded 30 to 50 times.
I had a problem with 223 cases. I'll make a new thread about that.
I got a chance at cleaning up a local police range for the cases. 223, 556, 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, 380 auto, 38spl, 357, brass, steel and aluminum cases had sat on the range for months. 3 buckets of steel, 3 buckets of Berdan brass and 1 bucket of aluminum cases went to the scrap dealer. Tumbling the brass in walnut left them tarnished from the weather.
I built a wet tumbler from a treadmill, cut it down for 1 cylinder at a time. 6"X20" PVC for the wet tumbler. I mounted three 1" aluminum angle strips inside to stir the cases. Boxer primers were decapped and wet tumbled with 1 45 ACP case of Dawn, 1 9mm case of Lemi Shine and 10 lbs of pins for 2 hours. They were bright, shiny again. After rinsing 5 times onto cookie sheets and into the oven at 125 for 30 minutes. They came out orange. Back into the dry tumbler with walnut media for an hour didn't help.
I read up on cool drying. Built an 8"X20" PVC cylinder with screened windows, place it on the mill with a squirrel cage blower behind it for 2 hours. Cases came out shiny. Into the tumbler with corncob media with Nu Finish for an hour.
I reload 38spl, 357 and 223. My weekend brass gets tumbled in walnut media then reloaded. They stay shiny. Some have been reloaded 30 to 50 times.
I had a problem with 223 cases. I'll make a new thread about that.
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