I may have found a trick to getting better tumbling results

[Dolomite_supafly]

I normally add wax and a few other things to my fine walnut media to help with cleaning polishing. My results have always been pretty good.

My wife tumbles stones and she also adds plastic 6mm airsoft BB's to her media to help take up space and to help her media work better.

I was needing to replace the walnut media because of a mishap. I didn't have enough to completely cover the batch of brass I was working on so I decided to add the same plastic airsoft BB's like my wife does for her tumbling needs. I have never tried adding the BB's to the walnut media before but I figured I would give it a try. I ran some 223 cases then some 45 ACP cases.

I let both batches run for about the same time that I normally would but this time I was greeted with very bright and very smooth brass. Brighter and more polished than when I use actual polish in the media. Doing it with the plastic BB's even seemed to clean the inside of 45 ACP cases better than walnut media alone. They came out comparable to polishing in corn cob media. This can either result in quicker polishing or better than just using walnut media.

I used no polish or any other additive, just the walnut media and the plastic BB's.

Not really sure why the plastic BB's work but they definitely do or at least they did for me.

Dolomite

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Just make sure that the BB's are not peening the lips of the cases.

[peejman]

Plastic media is commonly used for grit blast type cleaning operations. It's great for light work. I'd say the BB's have a similar effect.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Just make sure that the BB's are not peening the lips of the cases.

The plastic BB's are softer than the brass they are in with.

Dolomite

[gregintenn]

Thanks for the tip. My boys have big buckets of those things sitting around.

[Guest FroggyOne2]

The plastic BB's are softer than the brass they are in with.

Dolomite

Yes that may be true.. but it don't take much to ruin accuracy..