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Cleaning media questions from a newbie

1K views 18 replies 14 participants last post by  gdmoody 
#1 ·
I am new to this reloading and purchased a Lyman vibratory tumbler. It came with walnut shell media. I ran a couple of hundred 9mm cases for 3 hours and they did come out nice and shiny but--- many 20% or so had the media packed in the primer pocket and 90% had the flash hole occluded with a single grain of media. I had to physically clean the flash hole with a ice pick. On those that did not have any media packed in the pocket it did a nice job cleaning the pocket, but it is very labor intensive to push out the media from the flash hole. Of course, I got impatient and pissed and managed to poke a hole in my finger twice, but really is this the way it is supposed to work? Would corn cobs be a better choice?
 
#2 ·
Thats what happens when you clean them after you deprime them. Most guys will leave the primers in for cleaning.

Walnut cleans but doesn't shine. Corncob shines but doesn't get nasty brass as clean.
 
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#3 ·
I have a Lyman turbo also and have worn out two motors in the past 35 years. I prefer corncob media, walnut just does not get it shiny enough for me. Three hours won't even touch them, in my opinion, but then, I use the media until it turns to dust. I usually load it up in the afternoon and pour them out the next morning and they look really good.

Like howln said, you need to do the tumbling before you knock the primer out and you won't have the problem with having to clean the flash hole. All of the folks here who wet tumble have basically "talked" me into going to wet tumbling.

By the way, welcome to The Firearms Forum.
 
#6 ·
I have a Lyman cleaner too and I use Corncob media. I clean before I deprime. I too have never been real impressed on the job it does. It takes a long time to get them really clean. But it is good enough. I too clean the primer pocket with a stubby brush, one end has the brush for a small pocket and the other end has a brush for a large pocket. I do it by hand. But I am not reloading thousands of rounds at a time so time is of no concern. All I have is time and I just sit there and do my thing and sing along to County Western songs. Life is good and I am alone so no one is telling me to shut up.
 
#9 ·
I have always deprimed before tumbling, and I've spent a lot of time picking crud out of the flash hole as a result. You've convinced me; I quit. From now on, I'm tumbling before decapping and resizing. It shouldn't cost me anything, since the time I spend now picking cob out of the flash holes would be better spent cleaning primer pockets. Thanks, db!
 
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#8 ·
Wow, thanks for all the reponses so quickly. OK seems to be a concensus that I deprime after I tumble. I was hoping the media would clean the primer pocket so I didn't have too but--- doesn't look like it works that way. I will try corn cob just to see the difference but looks like that primer pocket will need separate attention one way or another. Now I am reading about wet tumbling. I may need to spend more time than I planned on this new hobby! Thanks for the input.
 
#10 ·
Since I usually have a few different cases when I get to reloading, I use a universal decapping die, then I tumble them all, sort them out and when they get run through the right sizing die any media left in the pocket is gone. I'm seriously starting to think about wet tumblers.
 
#11 ·
Wet tumbling has several advantages over dry vibrating cleaners. You can deprime before cleaning and the primer pockets come out like new and there is no crud in the flash holes. The pins never wear out so you never have to buy new ones. The tumbler will make brass look like new in about 1/2 - 1/3 the time of a vibrating cleaner. When you include the drying time required for wet cleaning the total time is about the same, but you don't have all the noise of a vibrating cleaner and there is no dust.
 
#12 ·
I resize/deprime after tumbling too. It's about the only way to keep the media from jamming up the flash hole with a dry media cleaner. As for cleaning the primer pockets, I actually don't do it every loading anymore...only if the pockets have a lot of garbage in them.

Most of the time the media doesn't get in the primer pocket and clean the garbage out anyways. If the crud is loose and fluffy it'll come loose but if it's caked on hard you'll need to scrape it anyways while you're also picking media from the flash hole.
 
#14 ·
For a 9mm (or any handgun caliber) don't worry about clean primer pockets. If you took a poll you'd see mebbe 90% of those that reload handgun ammo don't clean the primer pockets (I haven't cleaned one in nearly 30 years...).

During your "after cleaning inspection" just look inside each case and a tap on the bench will usually knock out any media stuck in a flash hole (but you'll be depriming and push out anything stuck there anyway).
 
#16 ·
I purchased a small wet tumbler from Harbor Freight ($42) to try out and see what all the talk is about wet tumbling being a better way to go. This unit is inexpensive but sure does a great job. It doesn't handle a lot of cases but larger capacity and more expensive models are out there. From what I can see the wet tumbler with the stainless pins seems superior to vibratory cleaning.
 
#17 ·
I am satisfied with the results using a 50/50 mix of corncob and walnut (lizard litter) - maybe a teaspoon of liquid car polish and a couple cut up used dryer sheets to control any dust. I put the tumbler on a lamp timer - set it when I go to bed and forget it.

I deprime/prime on my turret press the way the gods and Richard Lee intended - lol
 
#18 ·
Like most I tumble before sizing. I use corn cob media 95% of the time but do switch to crushed walnut hulls if I have some really cruddy brass. I do add a cap full of Dillion's Rapid Polish to the corn cobs occasionally. I am still using a Thumbler's Tumbler I bought decades ago. Last year I tuned it up with some new rollers and a new belt but it has been a good tool.

Weather sucked this weekend so I worked some .223 brass. Here are the results of tumbling, sizing, depriming, trimming and deburring, yikes, now I can finally reload them, ha. I just used corn cobs on these.
 

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#19 ·
For years and years, I used corncob media - until yesterday. I got one of those Harbor Freight tumblers and some of the SS pins. In a little over three house, instead of overnight, the brass I did came out absolutely beautiful. I am truly a convert to the wet tumbling.
 
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