Do you use dryer sheets in your media?

[Guest Hi Point]

I was just wondering if people use dryer sheets in their media, or if they have an alternative.

[TGO David]

No, but I do add a little liquid car wax.

[Guest Hi Point]

I use liquid car wax as well, I use "Nu" wax in the orange bottle. That is meant to polish the brass though, the dryer sheet is meant to pick up the dirt in the media so the dryer sheet gets dirty and the media doesn't.

I actually just took my first load of brass out in which I used a "used" dryer sheet, I think the used dryer sheet versus a brand new one worked better. Either that or the brass was dirtier than usual because they seemed to come out quite dirty.

[Guest Mugster]

Nope, never heard of that. Does it work?

I do add a jigger of brasso if its some nasty range pickup.

[Westwindmike]

Brasso is a definate no-no in brass tumbling. The ammonia in Brasso will weaken the brass and it could fail.

Just stick to car polish and dryer sheets and you will be fine.

[Westwindmike]

For really grungy range brass, use this easy to make liquid cleaner.

I found this on CastBoolits.com

Here is a recipe for cleaning grungy brass,

1 quart of water

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup liquid laundry or dishwashing detergent

I use a net bag to place brass in and dip it into cleaner and let soak for 20 to 30 minutes, aggitating every 5 minutes or so. Rinse with water and towl dry, I usually tumble for 2 to 4 hours after.

[Guest Hi Point]

Westwind is definitely correct. Brass-o is BIG no no when cleaning brass. It eats away the brass and makes the cases thinner and more likely to fail.

The dryer sheets work very well, next time you tumble some take a dryer sheet from the dryer and cut it up into 3 or more pieces and throw it in with the brass.

[Guest Mugster]

Hmmm. Never thought about it. But a little common sense of just sticking a capfull into a large tumbler and letting it run awhile before sticking the brass in there is probably necessary.

I'll tell you what, next time I add some brasso on a nasty batch, I'll weigh every piece and keep a running total. And then reweigh it after I'm done and re-total. And report back. I guess I'll have to clean it first to get the worst of the crap off.

[Guest Hi Point]

What did you mean when you said "But a little common sense of just sticking a capfull into a large tumbler and letting it run awhile before sticking the brass in there is probably necessary. "

I have read and re-read that and can't figure it out.

There is no way you are going to be able to get reliable test results with that method. Things like pieces of media stuck in the cases will throw the results off. You would also need very precise scales, and not just knock the worst crap off, the brass would need to be the same cleanness before and after the brasso was applied. You would also need to keep track of which case was which if you where going to weigh individually, that would also be difficult.

Instead of the brass-o why don't you try west's recipe. It would work fine. Or if you really just want to pour something out of a bottle you could give Low Odor Mineral Spirits a shot, should work fine.

[gregintenn]

I'll try one. Thanks for the tip.

[gsbell]

Started with dryer sheets now I use a Nu-Finish thinned just a touch with mineral spirits.

[Guest GimpyLeg]

Dryer sheets attract the dirt and residue, keeping the media cleaner longer. I don't believe it lends to the polish process.

[musicman]

IME the dryer sheets just made one more thing in the tumbler that got in the way when I separated my media from my brass. I don't buy the over-priced "tumbling media" from the gunshops, but I get the exact same thing sold as blasting media (corn cob) or pet bedding (walnut) for literally 10% or so of the price by volume.

I use car polish because I like really shiny brass and it seems to slick up the cases as they go through my dies. (especially resizing-depriming!) When my media seems to stop working so well or gets really nasty... I throw it out! That's usually once or twice a year. I figure I've got about a buck... maybe a buck and a quarter in that media. I figure that much over about 5,000 cases equals out to be next to nothing, so I just don't sweat it.

[Guest Hi Point]

I have cleaned probably 15K brass (mostly pistol brass a few K rifle brass) with my tumbler media, which is less than a gallon of media without changing it. The dryer sheets are just for those of us that don't want to throw out media, even if we get it relatively cheap. I also do not buy mine from the gun store, I get lizard litter as well, but it still isn't free and I don't want to throw it away.

Gimpy Leg that is 100% correct.

[Guest Mugster]

What did you mean when you said "But a little common sense of just sticking a capfull into a large tumbler and letting it run awhile before sticking the brass in there is probably necessary. "

I have read and re-read that and can't figure it out.

There is no way you are going to be able to get reliable test results with that method. Things like pieces of media stuck in the cases will throw the results off. You would also need very precise scales, and not just knock the worst crap off, the brass would need to be the same cleanness before and after the brasso was applied. You would also need to keep track of which case was which if you where going to weigh individually, that would also be difficult.

Instead of the brass-o why don't you try west's recipe. It would work fine. Or if you really just want to pour something out of a bottle you could give Low Odor Mineral Spirits a shot, should work fine.

Ok, I'll go buy some dryer sheets and turtle wax.

[Westwindmike]

Ok, I'll go buy some dryer sheets and turtle wax.

Not Turtle Wax. The hot setup seems to be the Once a Year Polish in the orange bottle. NU Finish or something like that. Get it at Wally World.