Re: Very HAPPY with Stainless Tumbler!
<span style="font-weight: bold">Be careful using stainless tumbling media.</span>
It's ok to use sparingly and in certain extreme instances, but it will damage brass, metal parts, and anything else you throw in there. After a period of time you will lose thread crispness and even go out of spec! You'd be better off glass blasting than using stainless media. Glass is far less damaging to metals than stainless which is harder than most of the metals people choose to use it with.
How do I know this?
A buddy of mine was religious about using stainless media before he had problems with it in his loaded ammo. The longevity of his brass was suffering greatly! Instead of 5 or 6 loadings from new brass he was only getting 3 or 4 with using stainless media!
If you notice, after every cleaning, shine a flashlight on the 'dirty' water while you're pouring it out. You will see tiny flecks of brass flowing out with the dirty water!
That's the longevity of your brass going down the drain!
Stainless tumbling shot / media was originally designed for use in the machining and plating industry to clean up burred and blemished heavy metal parts. Someone got the wise idea to throw brass, a very soft metal, in with stainless media, and the 'fad' has caught on.
Not me. The internet and all of it's so called 'knowledge' can infect a larger amount of viewers as opposed to a decade ago.
All too often people follow the 'fad' instead of thinking it out!
If that's aluminum that you are cleaning ... I'd not do it too often! It <span style="font-weight: bold">WILL</span> change the dimensions of the part over time. To put it into perspective ... it's the equivalent of using a sandblaster to clean your car!
