Share Your Tumbling Recipes

[Triumph]

Wanted to see if everyone would be willing to share Tumbling recipes. Whether it be dry or wet, materials you use, how much time and any other tips & tricks.

I know some use walnut, corncob or some mixture of the two. Some others have all kinds of different wet tumbling methods.

Please share & pictures also - if you have them.

 

[hardcorehunter5]

lizard bedding. ordered a 25lb bag off amazon for around $25. Then I add nufinish and let that run for 30 minutes to season the walnut media. Add decapped cased and run for 2-2 1/2 hrs., prep cases then run for around 30 min to get lube off. tumbler is controlled by an outlet timer so as not to forget to turn it off..

-Hardcore

 

[silicosys4]

Wet tumbling here, stainless steel pins in a thumblers tumbler. 5 lbs of pins, 500 .38spcl brass, 1 teaspoon dawn dish soap, 1 tablespoon of lemishine. I try not to run for longer than two hours, the only thing you get after that is a media blast look to your brass, matte shiny instead of mirror shiny.

 

[savanahsdad]

for bolt action rifles I have a mix of Lyman walnut shell and Black Magic blast media, it gives the brass a glass beed blast look that helps the case grip the chamber giveing less rear thrust, and it seem to help seal the neck for less gas leak , 1 large coffee can of walnut, and only one coffee cup of blast media, run for 1hr then wash off brass , you dont want any of that grit in your gun or your dies,

for hand guns and auto loaders I use 60/40 mix Lyman red walnut and untreated corn-cob and run over night ,(about 9hrs) brass comes out better that new ,

for cases with a lot of carbon inside them ,I run my brass for 3hrs with Lyman turbo sonic wash in my 2400 tumbler ,I mix about 1gal, H2o to 4oz lyman acid wash , rinse and dry

Note: I'm on the road now , will post pics after I get home ,

 

[gamestalker]

I tumble about 20 minutes the first time in just plain corn cob media, to knock off grit and general debris before resizing. After I resized and trimmed, I use walnut that has been treated with cutting cream, and I add a shredded cotton ball to pick up any media dust. That final tumble will usually be about 6 - 8 hrs., longer if I'm working with badly tarnished brass. Works like a charm.
I don't particularly measure the amount of cutting cream I use, just a glob or two with each new untreated bowel of walnut media. I run the tumbler uncovered for about an hour to get the cutting cream distributed evenly, and dry.

GS

 

[rondog]

Cement mixer, 25# of SS pins, 25# of brass, tsp. of Lemishine, squirt of Dawn. My latest endeavor, works great! I need to make a lid for it to keep the water and suds in, but I've figured out a way to use a trash bag and some string to cover the hole up.

It also works very well with a bucket of 20/40 corncob, a big squirt of NuFinish car polish, and a bucket of brass. Did that to get the sizing lube off, and they came out even shinier.

Click on photo to run video.

 

[Reefinmike]

harbor freight small vibratory tumbler filled up to the first washer with walnut media. every 3-4 runs of 200 38 or 45 casings I will pull out a few handfulls of media and manually mix in a capfull of nufinish and then put the media back in the tumbler. much faster and zero clumps!

 

[Triumph]

media blast look to your brass, matte shiny instead of mirror shiny.

What is "media blast" look?

 

[Ironbar]

I use the corn cob media from Drillspot: http://www.drillspot.com/products/521055/econoline_526040g-40_40_lbs_blast_media

I fill my tumbler about 2/3 full, then drop in a dollop of Mother's Aluminum polish. My brass comes out looking brand new, just as good as a wet tumbler in fact, and I don't have the hassle of drying my brass after wet tumbling.

It's a good idea to toss in some cut strips of dryer sheet to cut down on the static cling with corn cob media.

 

[wild willy]

About the same as Ironbar only I use Turtle Wax scratch and swirl remover

 

[cfullgraf]

Dry--Generally ground walnut shells. Might add a little polish as the walnut ages.

Wet--Water, Dawn, Lemishine, and stainless pins

 

[mljdeckard]

I am a rule follower, I used walnut shells with the treatment, and once, I ran out of treatment, so I ran it dry.....and it worked just fine. That's what I usually use.

 

[Matt Dillon]

I use a Frankfort arsenal tumbler with corn cob and a little Nufinish to clean my brass before I deprime it. As I deprime it, I toss it into a huge Harbor Freight tumbler(3-4 times larger than the Franklin Arsenal tumbler) s that I can clean ou the primer pockets without getting t flash holes stuck with media as the ground up walnut is so much finer tan the corn cob.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I use standard RCBS corncob and walnut with a couple squirts of Turtle Ice car polish.

I use a Lyman ultra sonic cleaner with either Hornady one shot solution or the standard Lemi-shine and Dawn detergent.

After my pistol shells are loaded I run them through my tumbler to get the lube off.
My tumbler is a homemade rotary tumbler I built 25 years ago. The drum turns at about 100 rpms.

 

[Triumph]

So I have a Berry's 400 tumbler with a bag of Cabela's corn cob. Do I also need Walnut? If so, what's the best brand?

 

[returningfire]

Corn cob, dry with a squirt of Brasso every so often.

 

[GLOOB]

Lyman corn cob media.

1. Put media in tumbler. Turn it on. Add a squirt of NuFinish. And sometimes a bit of mineral spirits.
2. Put brass in my colander-style media separator and dip in a bucket of water. Shake around.
3. Thoroughly drain off excess water.
4. Put wet brass in tumbler, lid off (outdoors!)

Repeat 2-4 as necessary.

5. After all the brass is in, I top the tumbler off with more media, til it's up to the brim.
6. in 45 min remove clean, shiny, dry brass.

When the media gets dirty (bowl starts to get dirty), which takes a long, long time, I wash it out and reuse it. Put the media in a plastic bag and add water. Swish, knead, and then squeeze out the dirty water. Place in a tray in the sun to dry.

 

[mljdeckard]

I use crushed walnut shell lizard cage liner from Petsmart.

 

[Triumph]

Do any of you wet tumble & then use the dry tumbler to dry off brass? Sorry if anyone has already mentioned.

 

[jim243]

50/50 mix of Zilla lizard litter (Walnut) and fine corn cobb with a squart of polish.

Works well.

Jim

 

[CMC]

Sinclair media is the best I ever used.
http://www.sinclairintl.com/reloadi...rite-media-5-lb-sku749002203-33918-66013.aspx

 

[silicosys4]

What is "media blast" look?

My cases are completely clean after two hours of wet tumbling, and they are still mirror shiny for the first few reload and tumbling cycles if I don't tumble them longer. After the first couple of tumble cycles, or if I tumble them the first time for longer, say four hours, they are no longer see-your-face shiny, they are a satin type of shine. Still clean but definitely affected by the impact of the pins on the brass or nickel. Whether that "works" the brass enough to affect its physical properties, I can't say. I have batches of .38spcl cases that I've loaded 6 times and haven't shown any indications of being weaker, they just aren't mirror bright after tumbling anymore.

 

[Hondo 60]

I use a 16 oz cottage cheese container to scoop out corn cob.
2 containers worth & a drizzle of Nu Finish car wax.
Takes about 2 hrs to clean with new media, or longer as the media gets dirty.

The corn cob I use is 20/40, which is small enough to NOT plug flash holes.
A 40# bag is $34.90 + 3 Business Day Shipping $5.09.
(shipping used to be free)

http://www.drillspot.com/products/521055/econoline_526040g-40_40_lbs_blast_media

 

[68lemans462]

lizard bedding with a squirt of whatever extra car wax I have laying around. works great and cheap!

 

[Rodfac]

Pet store walnut bedding material for ?hamsters?, half a teaspoon of NuFinish car cleaner/wax (the orange bottle kind), and a sheet of dryer anti static cut into 2" squares.

The NuFinish adds a good polish to the brass, the dry sheets collect the primer and powder residue, keeping the media clean...Rod