Tumbling brass

[Alpha1]

The media arrived to day I now have bucket loads of the stuff.

[phaedra1106]

Everyone round to your place for a mass tumbling session this weekend then :)

Or ....... pile it all together and rent it out as a "Rough Sand Pit and Child Cleaning Area" :)

[TomH]

Just need to pop the lid on and plug it in and she is off. She is currently burbling away I will check on her later I thought two hours for starters. So watch this space.

Well that was Wednesday night. So if you've forgotten about them, they should be nice and shiny...

[Alpha1]

Some of it is really fine its like sand. I have refilled it and its burbling away again.

[Alpha1]

Well it was a pretty easy experiment in the end for me anyway. As I said in the beginning cleaning brass is not high on my priorities re loading and shooting does it for me. My cases have to be pretty manky before I think about cleaning them.
Any way I settled on two grades of media. This is the one I started off with I will add the grades later.

(media 1)It cleaned the brass to an acceptable level they are clean but not super shiny I left them in for 4 hours I did not add anything to the media no polishes etc.Any defects in the cases would be easily picked up. It blocked the flash holes. (The finnish is acceptable to me.

(media 2) I then used this grade of media which is like sand it also cleaned the cases to an acceptable level they are clean but not super shiny. I left them in for four hours I did not add anything to the media to polish etc. Any defects in the cases would be easily picked up. It did not block the flash holes. (The finnish is acceptable to me.)

In future I would probably tumble for four hours with (media 1) and maybe add a polish or jewelers rouge. Probably jewelers rouge.
I would then tumble for two hours in (media2) with jewelers rouge added.

The results are acceptable to me but I know some other people feel the need to be able to use there brass as shaving mirrors so obviously this will not suit them.

[Alpha1]

(media 2) Results

(media 1) does the job but blocks primer pocket flash holes. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401116353315
(media 2) is 25/52 grit. Does not block primer pocket flash hole.

The pictures don't do them justice they are not bad in the flesh.

[Gazza]

Has anyone tried mixing walnut media and pins?
I'm not sure if there would be an advantage, just curious

[rox]

Has anyone tried mixing walnut media and pins?
I'm not sure if there would be an advantage, just curious

One is a dry process and the other a wet process. Pins won't work dry, and walnut won't work wet. I can't see an advantage.

..

[rox]

In future I would probably tumble for four hours with (media 1) and maybe add a polish or jewelers rouge. Probably jewelers rouge. I would then tumble for two hours in (media2) with jewelers rouge added.

Why would you use media 1 when it blocks the flash holes (and creates more work to clear them)?

Why would you use 2 different media, so you have to separate twice (again more unnecessary work)?

Why choose jeweller's rouge - the messy dusty option?

And if you don't really care about the finish, why tumble for 6 hours (plus the 2 media separations & blocked flash hole clearing)?

..

[Alpha1]

Because I can.
Jewelers rouge is not messy its a powder you just add to the media. The next time I clean cases is probably months away as I said its not high on my list of priorities. It hardly takes up lots of my time.