How Often Do You Change Your Dry Tumbling Treated Crushed Walnut Shell Material?

[cz74]

I tumble brass from my bolt actions separately from gas guns, the material is not as dirty as tumbling brass from my AR. How often do you dump out the old ones and change to new ones? Thanks!

[operavoice]

I've used the same Russian Buckwheat groats for. . .
It's been so long that it's not even in my Amazon buy again list.

Groats and a squirt of Flitz has lasted for literally years.
Full disclosure, I only reload every few months, but we're probably looking At 10k rounds, and I'm nowhere near changing the media.

Further disclosure, groats often need to get picked out of primer pockets.

[ar15barrels]

I tumble brass from my bolt actions separately from gas guns, the material is not as dirty as tumbling brass from my AR. How often do you dump out the old ones and change to new ones? Thanks!

I use crushed walnut shells and add some Nu-Finish wax.
The media starts out a nice light brown color.
When the light brown changes to light brown with a tinge of gray, I change the media.
I get 40-50 loads of brass and probably run for around 6 hours per load so that's something like 250-300 hours.

[browndude]

Walnuts from harbor freight, and add a tablespoon of nu finish wax each time I tumble a fresh batch of sonic clean brass. And use it till its dark brown or stops polishing. Local feed store has corn cobb but in bigger sacks vs HFreight.

[JackEllis]

I've used the same Russian Buckwheat groats for. . .
It's been so long that it's not even in my Amazon buy again list.

You can also clean buckwheat groats by tumbling just the media with a capful or two of mineral spirits and a cut up used dryer sheet to absorb the dirt.

[Divernhunter]

I use treated corn cob media and a cut up (1/4ths) used dryer sheet replaced ever batch. It has been several years since I changed it and it still is working great. almost wish I had not bought a large box and a Lyman brand jug of it long ago for changing it. I use the unit a lot.

[tabascoz28]

When 30mins or 1hour starts not being enough time to do a great job.

[bigbossman]

I change it when it gets too dirty to clean properly. The interval varies depending on what I'm cleaning and how much I'm cleaning it, so real time table. It lasts a long time, though.

I use a combination of walnut/corn, and add Brasso or something similar to the mix. Lately, I've been using cymbal polish - I found a big bottle of it at a thrift store for a buck, and it seems to be working great. When the media starts to get inefficient, I dribble in some mineral spirits and that seems to rejuvenate it for quite some time.

[anyracoon]

Walnut hull and Nu-Finish here. When it starts turning grey, Dump!

[bigbossman]

One of the indicators I get is a ring of black schmutz where the neck joins the shoulder. When I see that, I add mineral spirits. It it doesn't disappear, I change the media.

[dragon7]

What Randall said. He always has great advice.

[bruce381]

I clean walnut with a teaspoon of mineral spirts NO BRASS and a used dryer lint thing. Do that a few time changing out the lint paper and walnut will go from brown black to light amber again. So I add more as I lose it in brass or on the floor.

[bergmen]

When I first started reloading I went with corn cob media + various polishing compounds. I switched to crushed walnut shells once since it is much cheaper and available locally pretty much everywhere. I didn't like it as much since it creates a lot of dust (I leave my vibrator polisher open at the top).

So I switched back to corn cob + Nu-Finish polish. I typically start the polisher at night just before going to bed and run it all night. The media lasts a long, long time and I only change it if an all-nighter doesn't completely clean all the brass.

Dan

[Divernhunter]

Put a used dryer sheet cut into 1/4ths in when using the tumbler and replace it each batch. No dust and media stays clean for a very long time