Walnut tumbling media question

bigoutside

How does one know when it is "worn out"?
Clumping?
Dirty looking? - how do I tell that?
Small grain size?

I've got an enormous amount of it. But I don't want to be wasteful.

62fuelie

I change mine out when I start to notice a lot of powdery dust when I pour the contents into the brass separator. To me this would indicate that most of the sharper edges on the grains have been knocked off and it's time for some new stuff.

bigoutside

Thank you.
Time to trade out for some new. [;)]

hillbille

some luck I've had is to add ordinary whole grain rice, uncooked to it, just a handfull, the rice will lengthen the life of the walnut 3-4 more tumblings on average, I throw mine away, media and rice, when the rice is almost gone, or as small as the media.

gunnut505

I "renew" my walnut media by putting it in a burlap bag, running a hose into it for about 5 gallons, then spread it out 1/2" deep on garbage can lids in the sun to dry.
Takes care of the dust, excess crud, and makes the little pieces seem new for another 3-4 months.

Navybat

I dump mine when it becomes almost black, and/or when I detect the black powder in the bottom, and I find lots of brass shavings on the bottom (from after I trim my .223 brass) and/or it starts to take a VERY long time to polish the brass to a nice shine, and/or I have to add polish far more than I had to when it was new. All these signs work well for me.

Okie743

I add a fabric softner anti-static towel to the red rouge type walnut media to remove the excess dust and rouge crud. You will be surprised how much of the rouge dust the anti-static paper towellette will remove and you can use pieces of a anti-static towel while doing a brass polish run.
(cut a dryer sheet into about 4 parts or 2 inch by 2 inch squares when running with the hulls)
I change the walnut media when it takes longer run times to get the brass bright or long runs does not get the brass clean.

Mobuck

I've "washed" some at least once. Use an old (but still sturdy) pillow case, a bucket with warm water and dish soap, and a source of rinse water. Kind of messy and the loose media will plug the drain trap if you're not careful. Dried on an old sheet on the picnic table. The result was about 1/2 the life of new media.
If your problem is dust, you need to add more polish.

bigoutside

quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
I've "washed" some at least once. Use an old (but still sturdy) pillow case, a bucket with warm water and dish soap, and a source of rinse water. Kind of messy and the loose media will plug the drain trap if you're not careful. Dried on an old sheet on the picnic table. The result was about 1/2 the life of new media.
If your problem is dust, you need to add more polish.


I asked my wife for a pillowcase and evidently this is not going to be an option for me. [:I]