Cleaning Old Corn Cob Media.

[GW Staar]

Maybe you didn't get my sarcasm? I was suggesting they clean their dirty corn media in a wet tumbler!

I use a a secret blend (mix) for Zorro corn cob grades (it is made from the cobs of Orville Redenbacker corn!
I would post pictures of my brass but viewers would need to wear special sunglasses!

I got the sarcasm okay, but it made me realize I was not being totally up front, having moved mostly to wet pins these days. Therefore, I thought those pictures were in order. Corncob indeed makes bling of the highest order, but not in primer pockets, nor is it as fast as lemishine, dawn, and pins. Instead of having to go to work to escape the noise and make the considerable tumbling time pass in quiet.

With wet, I can start a batch when I first rise in the morning, then after a shower and breakfast, rinse & separate, then lay out the wet brass on a towel on the sunny back patio for the day, and come home after work to brilliant hot dry brass, with not a speck of toxic dust anywhere to have to separate.

And about the primer pockets.....I don't miss the time spent cleaning pockets on a Trim Mate....and I AM anal about dirty pockets....whether or not they hurt anything.

 

[Rule3]

I get bling in 2-3 hours. No fuss no muss. Folks talk about dust? If done there is little to not dust. When the media breaks down from over use there is some dust, dump it outside with wind behind you

 

[stchman]

Here is mt media and cleaned .45LC brass. There is a tad of dust in the cases, should I wash the brass after tumbling or would compressed air do the job?

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I got the sarcasm okay, but it made me realize I was not being totally up front, having moved mostly to wet pins these days. Therefore, I thought those pictures were in order. Corncob indeed makes bling of the highest order, but not in primer pockets, nor is it as fast as lemishine, dawn, and pins. Instead of having to go to work to escape the noise and make the considerable tumbling time pass in quiet.

With wet, I can start a batch when I first rise in the morning, then after a shower and breakfast, rinse & separate, then lay out the wet brass on a towel on the sunny back patio for the day, and come home after work to brilliant hot dry brass, with not a speck of toxic dust anywhere to have to separate.

And about the primer pockets.....I don't miss the time spent cleaning pockets on a Trim Mate....and I AM anal about dirty pockets....whether or not they hurt anything.

lol do that around here and you come home to find your tarnished brass covered in yellow-green pine pollen and sopping wet from the 3:00 thunderstorms. Indoors works much better.

 

[GW Staar]

lol do that around here and you come home to find your tarnished brass covered in yellow-green pine pollen and sopping wet from the 3:00 thunderstorms. Indoors works much better.

I feel for you, until I think about how close you are to the beach......but then of course you also have gators and sharks. We have thunderstorms in the afternoon at least 3 or 4 times a year. You could always immigrate to New Mexico.......... where humidity is something that only happens while I'm in the shower. We do appreciate the yearly monsoon season though, most of the time....unless we get it all at once. But no where is perfect. Oh....I should mention that it snows here a few times in winter....I leave the brass in the garage on those days.....have to wait another few hours for it to dry.

 

[CQB45ACP]

It’s interesting to read the “just go down to the feed store” comments as if everyone has such access (or even knows what one is). I know because my wife’s from a farming area in PA and I visited mills and bulk suppliers just to see what the non-suburban world looked like. But today, for me, replacing corn cob media requires an online order or a 70 mile round trip visit to Cabela’s. There are no other cost effective options.

 

[jmorris]

I think it could be cleaned but this sums up my initial thought on the subject.

It's like stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

When I think of all the years I reloaded without a tumbler of any kind...

Wash, rinse, reload.

I finally acquired a dry tumbler in a package deal. I wasn't looking for one.

 

[gifbohane]

It quits working because the sharp edges get worn off with use.

That has my theory anyway....

 

[WrongHanded]

When I clicked on this thread, I really though it was going to involve old pillow cases and washing machines. I'm not sure, but I think I'm a little disappointed.

 

[ballman6711]

Years ago I used glass beads in my sand blasting cabinet. The reason was that as they hit the part being blasted they would break into smaller pieces with new sharp edges. At some point they would just be dust, and wouldn't clean at all. That's when it would get replaced. Sand, corn cob, or walnut would simply wear down and lose the sharp edges slowly and increase the time needed to clean a part.

I think it could be cleaned but this sums up my initial thought on the subject.

It's like stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny.



This ^^^ pretty much sums it up. Use something to catch the dust, and when it takes to long to clean the brass just replace it. The cost for new media is cheap compared to sharpening the edges on each little piece of corn or walnut media.

chris

 

[wcwhitey]

I use walnut, old dryer sheets catch the dust. When things don’t come out too shiny after a few hours I swap it out. I do keep some old around in case I pick up super dirty range brass. That I let go for an hour then swap out good media. I think I have spent $40 over the last five years and I do one or two batches a week.

 

[jonas66]

Well, just to contribute to the fun-- WrongHanded, I got your old pillowcase right here!
Wouldn't want to disappoint. No washing machine though.

I have a couple of old flannel pillowcases I use after tumbling. Throw the brass in there, give it a couple of shakes and it keeps all the dust and stray bits inside.
...
And just because-- I actually did wash my old cob and walnut media...once.
It worked, sort of- after 15,000 rounds of brass or so, it was filthy and less effective.
I had read about someone doing this; I wanted to see if it was worth it.

I put the dirty media in an old 5 gal bucket, added dish detergent and vinegar, agitated thoroughly, dumped the mess thru a large wire strainer into another bucket, and repeated the process multiple times with clean hot water to rinse.

It took forever to rinse and get the old black water and detergent out of it- a couple hours.
And then I worried about how to dispose of that contaminated water- it eventually just went down the toilet.


Spread the wet media out on a commercial size baking sheet in the hot AZ sun for a day or two and done.
It looked almost new and I got almost another two years use out of it.

However- it wasn't quite as effective as new, and the whole process was so time consuming and laborious I don't believe I'll be trying that again. Yeesh.

Matter of fact, next time I have an extra $140 I'm moving to wet tumble.
My friend uses one and he gets spectacular results in half the time- with no dust.
Maybe I'll pitch the walnut and save some cob and nu-finish for a little special bling now and then.

 

[DesertFox]

Using a mix of walnut and corn cob currently with dried out Armor-all sheets to suck up dirt/dust. Cat usually beats me to the dryer sheets...