What does tumbling media activator do ?, I understand what washing media does (I think), but how does a few drops of this stuff make magic?
Media is cheap in America, but to use it for a long time, I have washed it with dishwash and it comes out clean and works very well. Leave it in the sun to dry.
What is the media activator. I cannot find it it on the internet under that name.
Lymans is called Turbo charge (reactivator )
RCBS calls theres Polishing compound
mid-way sells Flitz tumbler/media additve
or some guys have good luck with liquid car wax
Quote from: Tripodmvr on Nov 18, 2023, 07:58 PMMedia is cheap in America, but to use it for a long time, I have washed it with dishwash and it comes out clean and works very well. Leave it in the sun to dry.
What is the media activator. I cannot find it it on the internet under that name.
Lymans is called Turbo charge (reactivator )
RCBS calls theres Polishing compound
mid-way sells Flitz tumbler/media additve
or some guys have good luck with liquid car wax
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Lymans is called Turbo charge (reactivator ) - I suppose I recalled the generic name incorrectly because I remembered the claims as the name, reactivates etc.
Liquid car wax just polishes and leaves better burnish effect, concerns me in regard to bolt thrust.
The above is a old question I never got to asking, just read and saw a tumbling reactivate liquid, just a few drops will get your brash shiny again.
Looked it up again,**************** Lyman Turbo Charger Media Reactivator is designed to restore previously used corncob media making it a more effective cleaning and polishing material.
There used to be a few of these products, back in the day when I needed to have everything on the market - everything.
Still asking, how would it activate the used media ?
I have never cared for the brand name media additives, mostly because of the price.
What I have used is Shield Mirraplate liquid car polish. It costs R70 per bottle at my local Checkers.
I use it on untreated corn cob media. Unfortunately my source for this media has dried up, so I have to stretch my current stock as far as I can. The Shield polish helps with this.
Eventually, the media gets filled with dirt and needs to be washed. When I'm lazy, I just use a paper towel, torn into 1,5" strips, which I add to the media. The paper absorbs all the dirt, in stead of it sticking to the cases and tumbler. After 3 or 4 runs, I replace the dirty paper.
I doubt that much of the polish remains on the cases. You use very little of it, about a spoon full. I can not detect it on the tumbled cases in any way. Especially with handgun brass, I still need to lightly lube them before sizing in a TC die. I have no actual measurements to prove it, but I don't think using the car polish will increase your bolt thrust measurably.
223, what is the gain in using the polish then ? With no sarcasm meant, your above seems to indicate that it does very little - or is that very little actually enough.
Quote from: 223 on Nov 30, 2023, 07:08 PMI have never cared for the brand name media additives, mostly because of the price.
I use it on untreated corn cob media. Unfortunately my source for this media has dried up, so I have to stretch my current stock as far as I can.
@223 , quite awhile ago I read that crushed peach pip media is one of the best or the best tumbling media to use, besides stainless Steel media pins.
Not sure how true that is and what the price difference would be or the availability your side, as I only load for 9mmP and I hand wash my casings.
Here's a link to what I'm referring to.
https://www.shootingstuff.co.za/shooting-stuff-crushed-peach-pip-media.html
Peach pip and Walnut, but ya, find it first.
I puchased a 20kg bag of it for <R300 lat year December at Wildman Capegate. Haven't used any of it yet as I still have two full Lyman containers.
Got my last Walnut from a jeweller supply store. Cape Watch Maker Supply"s I think
Quote from: Treeman on Dec 03, 2023, 07:29 PMGot my last Walnut from a jeweller supply store. Cape Watch Maker Supply"s I think
I won't support their onlone shop again.
What they deliver is not the same as what is shown on their website. If you are unhappy, you still have to pay the courier service to send it back to them.
Lesson learnt
What advantages does dry vibratory tumplbing offer over wet with pins?
Quote from: oafpatroll on Dec 04, 2023, 07:22 AMWhat advantages does dry vibratory tumplbing offer over wet with pins?
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Product is dry and ready to use after a blow off or just a shake in a towel. Other than that wet cleaning is cleaner, shinier and quicker - excluding drying time.
How ever, if you have a tray and an oven set on lowest with fans running, you can throw the cases in on an old towel in the oven after a mere shake, shake in the towel beforehand. 15 minutes later you have hot dry cases which if moved around on towel once after oven is switched of and fans left on for further 15 mins are totally, absolutely dry and ready for reloading.
One advantage is that it doesn't remove the soot inside bottleneck cases. So you don't have to dry lube the necks before seating bullets.
Quote from: janfred on Dec 04, 2023, 06:21 PMOne advantage is that it doesn't remove the soot inside bottleneck cases. So you don't have to dry lube the necks before seating bullets.
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This I did not think of.
I actually wonder about this whole soot in neck matter.
Quote from: janfred on Dec 04, 2023, 06:21 PMOne advantage is that it doesn't remove the soot inside bottleneck cases. So you don't have to dry lube the necks before seating bullets.
I've not run into the need for that or rather knowledge of the need. What symptoms indicate it?
The going theory is if the necks are squeaky clean, there is some galling hapening between the brass neck and bullet when seating. Also, some say that there is cold welding when left loaded for an extended period. Dry-lubing the necks before seating bullets seem to solve these problems. The results are lower ES/SD numbers with no other changes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGe8XZmD4c
https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/05/ultrasonic-cleaning-case-neck-friction-and-bullet-seating/
For someone that reloads hunting or plinking ammo the differences are probably too small to notice, but the proponents do report improvemens on ES/SD numbers. Enough that even if the theories are wrong, the results justify the extra work for long range shooting.
I use a vibratory tumbler. I do not do wet tumbling. The schlep of drying cases makes me shy away. So, I cannot with first hand knowledge say the above theories are true. What I do know is that, provided I load within a certain velocity band, I have never had a problem getting reasonable SD's, irrespective if I loaded yesterday or last year, without lubing, annealing or neck-turning.
Quote from: janfred on Dec 04, 2023, 11:30 PMThe going theory is if the necks are squeaky clean, there is some galling hapening between the brass neck and bullet when seating. Also, some say that there is cold welding when left loaded for an extended period. Dry-lubing the necks before seating bullets seem to solve these problems. The results are lower ES/SD numbers with no other changes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGe8XZmD4c
https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/05/ultrasonic-cleaning-case-neck-friction-and-bullet-seating/
For someone that reloads hunting or plinking ammo the differences are probably too small to notice, but the proponents do report improvemens on ES/SD numbers. Enough that even if the theories are wrong, the results justify the extra work for long range shooting.
I use a vibratory tumbler. I do not do wet tumbling. The schlep of drying cases makes me shy away. So, I cannot with first hand knowledge say the above theories are true. What I do know is that, provided I load within a certain velocity band, I have never had a problem getting reasonable SD's, irrespective if I loaded yesterday or last year, without lubing, annealing or neck-turning.
Thanks, that's interesting. I can get my head around how that would work. The majority of rifle ammo I load is with cast and powder coated bullets and the jacketed stuff gets used fairly soon after loading. 300m is also about where I give up so that's probably why I haven't noticed issues.
Re the drying of brass, I have a couple of old black towels. When the brass has been rinsed I dump it in the towel, grab two corners in each hand to make a deep pouch. I roll them around in that for 30 seconds and then dump them on a dry towel in the sun and lay the wet towel down next to it. By the time the next batch has finished tumbling the brass and they are generally dry. If they aren't I leave them on the towel overnight and have never found them wet. I use 'waxed' car wash soap as my detergent which leaves a very light film which stops spotting and tarnishing.
What few realise is that the black soot you see on and in the neck is mostly graphite and works great as a dry lubricant when sizing. Seeing as the deposit was done at great expense in powder, I find it counterproductive to remove it, and then have to ad another lubricant for further processing.
To each his own.
If you are battling to find tumbling media, a friend of mine uses tastic rice.
With respect to the activator, it is just polish. What I find interesting, is that when ammo is nice and smooth and shiny, it loads and feeds a lot easier.
just put the oven on low - 70 Cel is usually the lowest temp oven will set at. Put the cases on an old towel in oven tray, put the lot in the oven for 20 minutes.
I usually set two cell phones for 20 and 25 minutes (just incase I wonder off then wifes alarm will bother her)
When done switch oven off shake, rearrange cases and when tray is cooled down to handling without gloves you good to reload.
I have even set oven to 300 cell put case in, it heats up to alarm time and then gets switched off. They dry - properly dry. The temperatures reached are nowhere near annealing or even de-stressing temperatures/ no towel this way ;)
I made a drying rack made of upright bamboo sticks, narrow enough to easily fit through the case mouth, but wide enough to not get stuck in the flash holes.
It was a great idea for drying brass, but the problem is that the water runs down to the case neck and dries there. It then leaves a tiny deposit of salt in the case neck, which messed with my neck tension when seating. I guess its less damaging to have that salt deposit form inside the case.
I have donated my wood work project to my wife, to store her sewing bobbins on ::)
Why was there a salt deposit ? That is the question.
Use purified water or close too such.
All tap water has some dissolved salts in it, usually about 0.5-1g/L depending on the source it comes from. The salts are mainly dissolved calcium carbonate.
Reloading starts to get a bit costly when you now to rinse your cases in distilled water.
Quote from: Againstthegrains on Jan 02, 2024, 11:58 AMAll tap water has some dissolved salts in it, usually about 0.5-1g/L depending on the source it comes from. The salts are mainly dissolved calcium carbonate.
Reloading starts to get a bit costly when you now to rinse your cases in distilled water.
Reverse Osmosis water is almost as pure as distilled water and much cheaper.
Only the last rinse needs to be clean water.
I use borehole water with exceptionally high carbonates content.
The waters EC is above 1000 mikroSiemens/cm. This means the water is slightly saline.
I rinse 3 times after tumbling, to make sure all the acid is gone, then sun-dry.
I have never had any issues with salt stains on my brass.
Yes just a cup of RO water over a lot of brass will carry a lot away, I doubt the remnant salts will even be visible.