How in the world do you get your brass to shine like new again? I use a tumbler (Lyman) with crushed walnuts and corn cob that I buy at pet stores. I also add a little liquid wax or chrome cleaner that is an automotive product. The best I can get is a lighter color looking brass. What am I doing wrong that won’t produce that factory shine? Is there some more steps in the tumbling process that I’m leaving out? Or is it a fact that a tumbler won’t produce this factory luster that I’m trying to achieve? I tumble about 4+ hours a load. :blink:
Time and polish. With your current setup you can achieve a shine but it takes a good polish like Flitz and many hours but I’ve heard “pet store” media is NOT the same beast.
What media should I be using then? And where can I find it? I’ve never heard of Flitz. Where is this polish found, is it an auto product? Do you add it to your tumbler, or polish your brass by hand?
Stainless tumbling.
I know that you’re talking about doing batches in a tumbler, but when I was a kid, I used to keep individual cartidges shiny and new looking with a pencil eraser (yes, my borderline-OCD was apparent even as a child)…
Maybe you could try tumbling with a bunch of pencil erasers…?
I tumble with medium corn cob & a squirt of Cabelas brass case polish, it gets them bright & shiny but I let them run all day while at work or while doing other things.
I run them much longer than your average reloader, but I like them clean & shiny & I don’t really care if I wear out a tumbler before its time. I intend to convert to stainless pin media when my current tumbler dies anyway.
I always thought stainless media was meant for those water tumblers. So you’re saying I can use the stainless media in a regular ole vibrating tumbler? That would rid all that dust from the other media. And do you need to add any type of polish with stainless media if you use it in a tumbler?
Some people use some sort of liquid wash. Not sure how to make it though. I gave up trying to get mine to shine.
Stainless pins are for liquid tumbling.
Hornady tumbler, RCBS walnut media w/o any additive, and Flitz tumbler additive. I throw in a ripped up piece of damp paper towel to keep the media clean and the dust down. If I keep the number of .223 cases under 200 and tumble for about 4 hours they shine like glass, annealing marks removed and everything. I typically tumble 300 cases for 2 hours and they end up pretty damn clean.
This. I don’t work with nasty brass EVER any more.
There’s no real functional gain… but if you take pride in your work, it’s worthwhile.
Agree with markm that there is no functional gain. But the shiniest brass I ever got (looked brand new) was using Lyman’s Turbo Brass Treated Corn cob, with a couple tablespoons of Frankford Arsenal’s Brass Polish. I let it run only two hours in my RCBS tumbler. Both items available at MidwayUSA.
A capful of NuFinish car polish in with the Cobb media and brass…
From what I have read Stainless is supposed to be the be all end all for recycling nasty brass into like new polished brass.
However if you don’t have the setup it can get pricy.
I have found that (at least with dry tumbling using vibratory type) cleaning really bad brass with walnut helps a lot. The walnut is coarser and seems to excel at cleaning. However it can leave behind a bit of dust, and leaves the brass with a dull but clean finish. For mirror polishing I tumble again using corn cob with nufinish and mineral spirits. I also let it got a fairly long time if Im looking for what my dad refers to as “show grade” brass.
I use a Thumlers tumbler and stainless steel media and my brass looks brand new. Even old brass that has been sitting on the ground at the range awhile that gets gathered up will look new.
The only issues would be the initial cost, the time (as I tumble for 2 hours then drying time), the tumbler is pretty loud, and the pins get stuck in the flash holes every one in awhile (because I deprime before I tumble so the primer pockets get clean).
My friends are all amazed at how clean and shiny my cases are.
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Yep… I run mine in the garage for 3 hours. Decap prior to tumble is almost mandatory. The primers will hold water and the pockets don’t get clean if you leave burnt primers in the brass.
Do you decap dirty brass then tumble? Or tumble, decap and tumble again?
I didn’t think about that. Never tried to tumble before decapping. Good to know.
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I decap dirty brass. I use the Lee universal decapper. It is cheap and pretty much indestructible.
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Yep… I use latex gloves and decap a days worth of shooting at at time. The left glove gets black and nasty from silencer fired brass.
Then i goes into the Tumbler.