Walnut media question

[Pester]

Folks,
I was gifted an unused tumbler and a bag of walnut media so I started cleaning all the brass I have sitting around. This being my first effort I am wondering how long the media should last?

Any guidance on case count would be appreciated.

I looked at the sticky's and did not see anything nor did a search turn up anything specific. If there is a thread out there on this please point me in that direction.

Thanks....

 

[Bear24]

Use it until you are not getting the desired results then trash it and buy some walnut lizard litter at a Pet store. Much cheaper and does the same job as the walnut "tumbling media" you buy. Get some brass polish that is made for reloading such as lyman. dillon, or flitz and add a little to your media for really good shine. You can also throw in a dryer sheet to catch most of the dust that is generated from the process.

I normally toss my media after about 6-8 hours of tumbling

 

[CMH]

You can get a lot of life out of media by continuing to add polishing compound. Liquid car polish works as do others mentioned above. I have had media with over 40 hours on it when supplemented with additional polish. Dryer sheets are a must for any media that has rouge in it - otherwise you end up with red dust on everything. Ultimately I switched to the stainless setup.

Casey

 

[Pester]

Thanks and thats very helpful. Next time I am in town I will look for walnut lizard litter and I will order some polish as well.

One last question. The system is an older Midway orange vibrating tumbler that is about 12 inches across. Would I normally put in 200 45acp cases to be cleaned?

Thanks again.

 

[armorpl8chikn]

Don't flame me but...
I have actually washed my media with Dawn and brought it back to new numerous times, both corncob and walnut. Wash it, dry it, just like new. I have the same corncob I have had for 15 years, been washed 5 or 6 times. Some have called me nuts but it only takes 15 minutes to launder the stuff. put it in a pan on the woodstove to dry.

I use corncob for knocking lube off and walnut treated with Lyman activator to polish. I prefer the larger size walnut you get at pet stores for pistol cases and 30 cal bottleneck cases. The bigger media won't get stuck in a flash hole and cleans just as well as the fine stuff.

 

[waste_knot]

Don't flame me but...
I have actually washed my media with Dawn and brought it back to new numerous times, both corncob and walnut. Wash it, dry it, just like new. I have the same corncob I have had for 15 years, been washed 5 or 6 times. Some have called me nuts but it only takes 15 minutes to launder the stuff. put it in a pan on the woodstove to dry.

I use corncob for knocking lube off and walnut treated with Lyman activator to polish. I prefer the larger size walnut you get at pet stores for pistol cases and 30 cal bottleneck cases. The bigger media won't get stuck in a flash hole and cleans just as well as the fine stuff.

I've washed mine with industrial paper towels cut into stips ("Box O Rag" towels or whatever they are called) with about half a cup of mineral spirits. Just run it with some brass about an hour and dry the media on some paper if the mineral spirits havent evaporated. Toss the towel strips, they will be full of rouge and brass filings.

 

[Fuzzball]

"I am wondering how long the media should last? Any guidance on case count would be appreciated."

I could tell you exactly.

But I'd have to lie to do it because NO ONE knows how grungy your cases are, when you are going to be satisfied with it nor how long you're going to let things run after it's good enough nor how much excessive polish you're going to add and clog the media up. Whatever, media will last so long you'll have no idea how many cases you've done; that's why you'll find no fixed answer to your question.

And there's no practical difference between the effects of nut or cob media but some guys agonise over getting the right one so much they use a mix of both just to be safe!

 

[TRAAV]

As mentioned before use the dryer sheets and some flitz and it will last a long time. Just be sure the flitz doesn't build up on the inside of your drum. It will not allow the media to rotate like it should.

 

[81Z4ME]

I haven't changed mine out in a year or more. I sometimes think about changing it out but just haven't done it. It has a few thousand pieces of .223, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, 9MM, 45 acp and a little bit of .300 black out.

I couldn't guess the hours I have on it. I have forgotten it was running and let it run 16 or 18 hrs. at a stretch (start it this afternoon, find it running in the morning when I go to the garage to get in the car for work). I use it for initial cleaning after coming back from the range, I use it again to remove the resizing lube from the brass after sizing and again to dry the brass out after soaking the brass in water/lemishine and it just keeps going (the lizard bedding walnut shells from the local pet store).

I may be running the polisher longer than necessary (due to break down/wear of the sharper corners on the pieces of shell) but I've never kept a record of initial appearance vs. time in the polisher = brass appearance when finished and how long it took. I just run it till I'm happy with the way it looks. Brass I don't like the look of go back into the polisher for a few more hours.

I should probably replace it.

 

[Sniper Uncle]

I use the walnut shell also. I just fill my tumbler---the Lyman 12"?--- about 23 full of cases, then put on as much media as I can and close the lid. Then, I turn it on and pour more media in through the slots until it is full, quiet, and churning nicely. Then, after sizing, I run them again, this time adding a little Denatured Alcohol, to remove the sizing lube. I run it then about an hour or so, and the alcohol evaporates while doing so. I haven't changed my media yet, and have done about 2000 or so 5.56, 2000 or more various handgun rounds, 1000 or so 30.06, and several hundred 338LM. I'm sure there are more that I have forgotten, but the media seems to be doing a fine job still. I am looking to get some polish to add to the media to give a little kick, but I haven't really seen any degradation in performance yet.