Tumbler Media

[slopeshunter]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a lyman 1200pro tumbler and recall reading a thread here some time ago about types of media to use.

I don't recall what was mentioned to use but I do recall it was mentioned not to use the media that lyman & others make, due mainly to cost I think, but to purchase some sort of material from pet food stores.

As you can tell my memory is pretty foggy on this one, so if anyone could fill me in on what to use in the tumbler, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Also wondering:
-Once the media is in, how often does it need to be changed out?
-Should I include some kind of liquid polish in with the media? If so, what and how much?


Cheers.

[stanway]

Pet supply stores carry crushed walnut for bird litter. That's what I use. Guys have said that you can get walnut from sand-blasting supply stores as well.

As for changing the media, I run it until I find it takes more than 3 hours to clean the brass.

Another tip, use cut up dryer sheets (used) in with the media as it cuts down on the dust and keeps your media a little cleaner. Sometimes I will put one or two dryer sheet squares in with some turtle wax (car wax) on the sheet - the brass comes out really shiny.

Good luck!


James

[slopeshunter]

Thanks for the reply James.

[35 Whelen]

I have used crushed walnut shells for years and it cleans quite well. When the media started to get a little sluggish in cleaning I used to put in about a tablespoon or so of liquid silver polish to reactivate it. I cleaned hundreds of rifle casings with it. I ended up buying the Lyman media a while back, and it has an additive to clean shells quicker. It was fairly inexspensive...about $12 for a large container of it.

One word of advise. Visually check each shell casing once clean and make sure the primer flash hole didn't have any media in it. You would be surprised how many shells had a piece of the media in the flash hole.....it could cause a misfire if left in.

Hope that helps.

I will have to check the pet stores for crushed walnut when I run out...thanks for the tip

[Greenfields]

Corn cob media also works well, which you can purchase at pet stores.

[35 Whelen]

Just an update.

I tried out the Lyman media last night on some 300 Win mag casings. Poured about half of the jug into the old lapidary tumbler and tossed in around 80 cases. Set a timer for one hour to see where they would be. Came out just the way I like to see them...clean like factory brass, but not mirror polished.

You should never really get your cases to mirror like polish at any rate....if they are like chrome smooth, you take away some of the grip the case needs in the chamber.

The Lyman media is corn cob, but has a green cleaning agent in it....seems to work just great.

Cheers