Polishing vs. Cleaning Media

[litl rooster]

.  It really ain't rocket surgery or brain science.


SHB

  Jeffi (Wilford) technically it is Rocket science

[kflach]

  Jeffi (Wilford) technically it is Rocket science

Does that mean I need to wear my NASA shirt when I reload?


{I have one that someone gave to me as a gift. I love the fact that when I wear it people think I work for NASA and treat me like I'm smart!}

[will52100]

I'll add anouther plug for DD's ceramic media, I use it for nearly everything, except bottle necked 30 cal stuff.  It did a real good job on the 7.62x54R, but was a pain to get out of the case.  For everything else, including 45 ACP and anything else loaded with black or smokless I use it.  A squirt of Dawn, a couple tea spoons of lemon juice and 2-4 hours later it's glistening.  I haven't used my vibratory tumbler in a long time.  It does take a little while for the ceramic media to break in, but it last forever if you don't loose it a piece at a time.

I use it in a thumbler's tumbler I got from cabela's.

The thing with black powder residue is that it's got salts in it.  I don't know about the PH, if it's an acid or base, but the salts pull moister out of the air and that's what will rust a bore or turn brass grean.  I had a 1860 army I left in my folks house on a shelf for close to 10 years after firing and no rust when I finaly got it and cleaned it up and fixed the springs.  The thing is it was dry in the house.  On brass I'm not so sure there isn't a chemicle reaction going on as well as I've had brass turn green sitting dry in the house for 2 weeks.  Now after a match I just dump them in water with a little Dawn and they can stay like that till I find time to rinse them out and put them in the liquid tumbler.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Yep - the residue is (and I hope I'm spelling it correctly) hygroscopic ... like Will wrote, it acts like it'll pull moisture out of the surrounding air.

[Noz]

While digging thru an area of my desk that has no use (desk is an old door and is way too big) I found an ammo box. Upon opening I found 45 44-40 cases that were probably fired last spring. Really nasty with green corrosion crawling out of and down the sides of each case.
Salvage time if possible.

Put them in the tumbler with DD's ceramic media and cleaning solution. Three hours later I have, lightly stained around the neck, sparkling clean cases inside and out.

Thanks again DD

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks Noz,

I just fire formed a batch of 30-30 brass for my 38-55.  I tumbled the ff brass and it came out cruddy grey.  I tumbled it again and same thing.   So, then I put a tea spoon of TSP in my next gallon of tumbling fluid mix and WALLAH!  Sparkling clean brass.  Seems that Holy Black cleans rite easy with the DD Brass Cleaning system, but for some reason smokeyless didn't.  It could be the PL-II used as a wad that simply wouldn't come clean.  Whatever, next time you get some really stubborn grey film on your brass after tumbling it in DD CP media, try adding a little TSP to your mix.

Worked wonders for me.

DD-DLoS

[trickshot]

I use it for nearly everything, except bottle necked 30 cal stuff.  It did a real good job on the 7.62x54R, but was a pain to get out of the case.

So the ceramic media would not be a good choice for 32-20 brass because because it would be difficult to get the media out of the case?

[will52100]

Not sure on the 32-20, it depends on how long the brass is, 7.62x54 has a small opening and a large/long body.  It wasn't that hard to remove, but unless it's extreamly dirty I'll stick with a vibratroy cleaner for it.  30-30 has been cleaned with no real problems, think it's mainly the long 30-06 type case with the sharp bottle neck that will give you problems.

[Noz]

I've used mine on 38s for a friend, 44-40s for me and a few stray 38-40s. The 38s were easier to get the media out of than the 44-40s. I've found that if I add a bit extra of the cleaning solution the media come out of the cases easier.