74 replies to this topic

[bball97]

Ok, now I know that I am going with the CV-750 Vibratory case cleaner and the CM-500 media separator. Now, which media should I get? I have one jug of Lymans corn cob that my Dad gave me for my birthday, so I am leaning toward getting the walnut shells so that I have some of both. What do you recommend? I am currently reloading mostly silver colored 38 special cases, but will eventually start reloading 9mm & 45 ACP brass. Thank you all for your input, it is priceless..."In the multitude of counselors there is safety."

[Paul Burtchell]

I'd get the walnut. I use the walnut hulls or (lizard litter) from the pet store, for found range brass that is very dirty. I run it for a couple of hours in the walnut and then about an hour in the corncob media for a high shine. Necessary? No, but my brass sure looks "purdy".

Edited by baerburtchell, 12 July 2009 - 05:48 AM.

[Sarge]

Same here. Walnut to clean it and corncob with nufinish to shine it. Looks like new ammo. I change mine more than others have recommended here also. For the walnut shells I keep new stuff on hand and compare it to what I am using at the time. After 10 batches or so you can really feel the difference in the sharpness or grit. Soon after it will quit working as well. Corncob turns gray eventually and will take longer to polish. Both products are cheap and keeping it fresh should lengthen the life of the tumbler.

Something else I learned about putting new finish in the mix. Mix it with some mineral spirits to thin it out. SHAKE WELL before adding it in as it will separate in the bottle. I used a clear bottle and was amazed at how fast it separates. Also use care when adding it to the corncob as it can end up inside a case. It can dry hard in the bottom of a case reducing capacity. I shoot a little in to the corn and run it awhile before adding brass to prevent this.

[MemphisMechanic]

If you want it fast and good enough, walnut

If you want it to take longer and look absolutely perfect, corn cob.



I'm not anal. If feeds 100%, doesn't hurt the dies, and looks decent, I'm good. I vote walnut.

Edited by MemphisMechanic, 12 July 2009 - 10:19 AM.

[SiG Lady]

I use both: A run in the walnut (desert mix lizard litter) for about 40 minutes, then a run in a mix of coarse corn cob and fine-grind corn cob for 40 minutes. Both media need changing now and then but you can tell when they're past their prime, for sure, by texture and color as mentioned above... or by the amount of leftover gunpowder fines in the bottom of your tumbler bowl. I wipe the bowl down with alcohol before the second run with corn cob. No sense recycling the dirt you've already loosened up with the first run. This keeps the corn cob media cleaner longer, too.

To "save money" I tried actually washing the walnut media once and drying it in the oven on "low." The stench stayed in the house for weeks and the media was still dirty. Never did THAT again. Just go ahead and buy new media.

[G-ManBart]

I use walnut that I buy at Petsmart in a 4lb bag...it's cheap and works great. It cleans faster than corn cob and if you let it run long enough you can get it nearly as shiny....but I don't do that. I left some overnight by accident and they came out like new cases Normally I just let them run a couple of hours and that's it. I use permanent marker in the extractor groove to make my brass so I just run them until the color is 99% gone and I know they're done. R,

[Duane Thomas]

It depends on what's important to you. Walnut cleans faster than corn cob, but leaves your casings looking, for lack of a better term, "frosted". Walnut is what you want if you want to (1) clean very dirty casings, (2) want to clean casings as fast as possible. Corn cob, by contrast, can leave casings looking shiny and brand new, granted they don't start out very dirty to start with. If they are farily dirty to start with, corn cob is not going to get the job done nearly as fast or completely as walnut.

Myself, I'm utilitarian oriented, I don't really care how "pretty" my casings look. I just run walnut and call it good. Your sense of priorities may vary.

[Matt Cheely]

I get 50lb bags of corncob for less than $14, guess what I use.

[bball97]

Same here. Walnut to clean it and corncob with nufinish to shine it. Looks like new ammo. I change mine more than others have recommended here also. For the walnut shells I keep new stuff on hand and compare it to what I am using at the time. After 10 batches or so you can really feel the difference in the sharpness or grit. Soon after it will quit working as well. Corncob turns gray eventually and will take longer to polish. Both products are cheap and keeping it fresh should lengthen the life of the tumbler.

Something else I learned about putting new finish in the mix. Mix it with some mineral spirits to thin it out. SHAKE WELL before adding it in as it will separate in the bottle. I used a clear bottle and was amazed at how fast it separates. Also use care when adding it to the corncob as it can end up inside a case. It can dry hard in the bottom of a case reducing capacity. I shoot a little in to the corn and run it awhile before adding brass to prevent this.

I noticed that Dillon polish says that it doesn't have any ammonia in it. Does Nu Finish have ammonia?

[bball97]

I get 50lb bags of corncob for less than $14, guess what I use.

Wow, where do you find that?

[Duane Thomas]

Probably a farm supply store. Huge bags of corn cob are sold as chicken scratch.

[Matt Cheely]

It's actually for media blasting. I hear it cleans pretty good.

Check your local farm supply store.

[lugnut]

Walnut for me. Cheap at the local pet stores and with a little case polish or whatever the stuff is.. I get a decent finish!

[Storm52]

To "save money" I tried actually washing the walnut media once and drying it in the oven on "low." The stench stayed in the house for weeks and the media was still dirty. Never did THAT again. Just go ahead and buy new media.

I just have a great deal of difficulty wrapping my head around that!

[TheBlackSheep]

+1 for both !!!!! Just mix them up and let it shake .... Honestly does fast even come in to play? I can clean about 5 times faster than i can load them ... or at least before I get tired of loading them

[Rocket35]

I think it largely depends on how dirty the brass is. Walnut works better for dirty brass, but tends to leave the surface "matte". Where as corn cob polishes to more of a shine. YMMV Nickle brass tends to be easier to clean and resist the stuck on carbon residue, so corn cob should be suffiscient.

[Vulture]

I think i must be backwards. When i put stuff in the corncob (green) it comes out frosted. When i put it in walnut (red) it comes out shiney. I also tried to wash some walnut when i was getting too much dust. Although i did it outside and let it air dry. It did not solve the dust problem so i chucked it and got new stuff.

[THM7]

I use the sheets (static sheets) my wife discards from the laundry. They pick up a lot of the dust and allows you to use the media longer.

[Carlos]

"frosted" appearance tends to come from too many brass casings and not enough media. The brass "becomes" the media and nicks up other pieces of brass. Just change the brass to media ratio.

[Yagi]

"frosted" appearance tends to come from too many brass casings and not enough media. The brass "becomes" the media and nicks up other pieces of brass. Just change the brass to media ratio.

Walnut is my vote... Tried Corncob media but dusty.... Also did a side by side comparison just for sanity... same amount of brass, same amount of time... and same amount wax... Walnut .. came out better...

[Matt Cheely]

"frosted" appearance tends to come from too many brass casings and not enough media. The brass "becomes" the media and nicks up other pieces of brass. Just change the brass to media ratio.

I've never seen that effect from too much brass. And I've packed it in the tumbler. I only get frosted brass when the media is too dirty.

[SiG Lady]

"frosted" appearance tends to come from too many brass casings and not enough media. The brass "becomes" the media and nicks up other pieces of brass. Just change the brass to media ratio."

That's something else I meant to mention: Not that I let the media get too dirty or anything, but I'm generous with the media-to-brass ratio and allow a fairly generous quantity of media. I use an older Lyman Turbo 600 tumbler, which is small, and tumble only about 200-210 casings at one time. Sure, I could put more casings in the tumbler, but I need to leave room for the amount of media that best does the job in the shortest amount of time.

[raz-0]

Tried corncob. Gets dirty too easily and takes forever.

Tried walnut, and got way too much nasty dust. Also the brass looked like crud. Had that frosty look, and although it knocked the big chunks off faster, they were covered with walnut dust.

I got nowhere NEAR the lifespan out of either that I see lots of people claim.

Then I saw a number of folks say they use rice. So i hit up costco for a 50lb bag of the cheapest bleached white parboiled stuff.

3 hours and I have nice shiny cases that are nicer looking than I was getting with corn cob and polish (or straight corn cob). Also very little dust, and less crap building up in my tumbler.

YMMV but I like rice.

[SoonerPast]

Does rice maintain its integrity or does it break down? Thanks

[benos]

Probably a farm supply store. Huge bags of corn cob are sold as chicken scratch.

I'd get a big ol' bag of COARSE grade (fine is way too dusty/powdery) corncob media for cheap. If the media was clean, in 30 minutes the brass would be clean enough to load. As the media got dirtier it the time would be more like an hour or more. At that point just replace it some new...

Never cared about shiny so that's all I did.
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