Walnut media too fine?

[rb765]

I won an auction for a 25lbs box of crushed walnut shell media which was labeled for tumbling or for sandblasting (I think it is Harbor Freight stuff). When I began to transfer this stuff to smaller containers, I noticed it was as fine as pool sand. Is that too fine for vibratory tumbling? I wanted to use this to clean up some brass that has darkened over the years before loading and for getting lube off after I am done. I have never used walnut, just corn. Also, how much nufinish should I add to keep the brass looking pretty?

BTW, I could not beat the price. I got this with some other stuff that did not work for me, so I turned over the other stuff at a slight profit making the media free to me. Gotta love those deals

[divingin]

No, no problem. Works fine.

If it's small enough, it won't get stuck in flash holes, either.

[stevec223]

[Donny1]

I buy the lizard bedding, same thing, cheaper and it's very fine as well but works well. I put pieces of Never Dull polish in it every few batches.

[Cowboy T]

Yep, sand-grain size is just fine. NuFinish helps. Actually, the way I avoid the clumps is by letting the crushed walnut medium run for about half and hour before putting the cases in. Gives everything a chance to mix together and gets rid of any initial clumps. Then, drop the cases in, walk away for about 3 hours, and presto! Nicely polished, shiny cases.

[Bastard]

I don't think that it could be too fine... the finer it is my actually help clean primer pockets while lessening the chance of plugging up the flash hole.

in the future just swing by your local pet store to get your walnut shell

[rsrocket1]

I finally replenished my first 50# bag of crushed walnut shells with another bag last week. I bought the first one about 12 years ago. Same place, same price $24. Western Feed in Fair Oaks.

Someone got a better deal back then, they said they got a 50# bag at Grainger for $17 but I was in the area of the feed store anyway so I just stopped by and got it.

I reload around 10k rounds a year and run the tumbler about 2-5 times a week so one batch of walnut shells lasts a long time. The trick is to not add any additional junk to the crushed walnut. NuFinish or other polish just lets the soot stick to the media and gets it black faster. Just add a couple of cut up dryer sheets to pick up and hold the soot so it gets dumped after each batch is tumbled. If I want extra shiny brass for rifles, I set the lamp timer to 3-4 hours instead of 2 for pistol cases.

[rb765]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I was able to get some 64oz plastic jars at the dollar store, so I will have one with nufinish, one plain that is being used, and the rest labeled for replacement stuff. I am also saving my dryer sheets to run as dust collection.

[devster55]

I bought a 50lb bag of walnut from oldshooter32 about 8 years ago and am down to my last tumbler full. I need to message him and see if he has more. I checked his profile and he hasn’t been active since 2016 so I hope all is well since he was a very mice man.

[divingin]

Another source for crushed walnut hull is a hardware store that supports media blasting. You can get just about any particle size you'd ever want from a well-stocked supply house.