Tumbling brass?

[ghostrider]

BTW, I hear that you can get tumbling media cheaper by going to pet supply
stores and get the (walnut?) media used to line reptile tanks.

[mktacop]

BTW, I hear that you can get tumbling media cheaper by going to pet supply
stores and get the (walnut?) media used to line reptile tanks.

Very true. I bought a 10 lb bag of crushed walnut shells at the pet store that is designed for lining a bird cage. Cost was about $10. The stuff looks identical to crushed walnut cleaning media, was cheaper, works great, and I didn't have to drive a long way to the closest retailer that sells reloading supplies.

[J Wilson]

Try a sand blasting supply store.We used to buy crushed walnut shells in 50lb bags.Where do you think the guys at the gun shows that sell it in 2ltr bottles get it from?

Google CLEMTEX

[NcongruNt]

Try a sand blasting supply store.We used to buy crushed walnut shells in 50lb bags.Where do you think the guys at the gun shows that sell it in 2ltr bottles get it from?

Google CLEMTEX

Yeah, Grainger carries both corn cob and walnut media. That's my plan once my current stock runs out.

[MoJo]

Walnut shell and corncob are available at most pet supply stores. WalMart and PetSmart are two places I get mine. Fill the tumbler add a little liquid auto polish (I use Turtle Wax cause it's cheap and works) run for 15 minutes to mix toss in the brass and in an hour or so clean brass.

Another cheap tumbling media that will clean but won't polish very well is plain old rice.

Walnut, cleans and burnishes, for really shiny brass, tumble twice. Walnut then corncob - - - your brass will look like jewelry if that's important to you.

edit: Do not use Brasso!
Brasso contains ammonia, ammonia will weaken your brass. This may not be a problem with pistol brass but, I've read accounts of rifle brass cleaned with Brasso failing catastrophically.

[SQLGeek]

How many cases do y'all usually tumble at once? I didn't realize how long of a process it was.

[NcongruNt]

Depends on the caliber. Around 400 .223 will run in my tumbler, but it will hold 2-3 times that in .380 or 9mm. The instructions say it will do 650 ".38 cal cases". I'm assuming by that they mean .38spl.

How much I actually do depends on how much I bring back from the range.