Berry tumbler question and fine grit stuck in flash hole

bmash

bmash

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
May 21, 2018
297
252
Zachary, LA
#1
1) As several have suggested, I am trying fine media after sizing brass. I went with “fine” 24 grit from Harbor freight and it still gets stuck in my 6x47 L brass flash hole. Not many - maybe 15 out of 300, so not a real big deal, but I still have to check every one of them. Is there a better choice of media or is the Lapua flash hole just so small or is Harbor freight stuff poor quality?
2) My Lyman 1200 tumbler lid doesn’t seal well anymore (It is pretty old) so even with dryer sheets I am getting dust on the floor. Does the Berry QD-500 seal very well?
3) for those using fine grit, I assume you still wipe it off the exterior before proceeding to load?
Thanks!
 
#2
bmash said:
or is Harbor freight stuff poor quality?
Click to expand...
Yes, HF media is low quality.

There are some brands of ground walnut media that are marketed to other purposes than cartridge cleaning that work very well and are less expensive than the ones designated for us. One was called Zilla Desert Blend, but I haven't run this in a while since my local pet supply place closed.

There are some folks who have tested leaving media in flash hole to see if this affects the performance. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but it has been tested many times and has no ill effects.

I have the same OCD about my reloads that doesn't want to see media stuck in flash holes, so I just use stuff that doesn't do it.

As far as the need to wipe it off, I am going to assume that since you have the HF grit size problem you probably also have their dust problem. When you get decent quality media, they have removed that dust to a large degree. You typically don't need to do anything after you run the brass through the media separator.

I will suggest the following to if you want to try to use this media. See if you can locate a sieve of the right mesh and screen out the oversized grains. If you take the media outside and pour it from a height where a small fan can hit the stream as you pour, you can play with flow to allow the grains to drop while the just the dust is blown away. Then take the tumbler outside to a well ventilated area where the dust don't matter and run it with the lid off for a while with the fan blowing over the top. This is what we did back in the stone age but it ain't worth my time so I just get good media.
 
  • Like
Reactions: secondofangle2 and bmash
#4
you want a real problem with stuff stuck in flash holes, use rice. I let Porkan convince me to try that, and I sat at the coffee table one night with a paper clip manual disimpacting about 15% of them, and they get stuck real good. Pain in the ass to remove. I also dont want errant pieces of rice stuck inside the case where I can't see them, as they will take up volume and I presume cause pressure spikes. My advice: avoid Porkan's brain child (which he sells on his website in a branded version - "specially ground" or simething like that).

I want to "screen" mine to make it last longer with less dust - gotta remember to pick up a screen next time I'm at Lowe's. For now, I've been tearing old t-shirts into small strips and throwing in 5-6 of them. They work way better than dryer sheets. you could wash and reuse if you wanted, I just throw them away.

I'm going to have to try the open tumbler outside with a fan trick next time.
 
#5
secondofangle2 said:
you want a real problem with stuff stuck in flash holes, use rice. I let Porkan convince me to try that, and I sat at the coffee table one night with a paper clip manual disimpacting about 15% of them, and they get stuck real good. Pain in the ass to remove. I also dont want errant pieces of rice stuck inside the case where I can't see them, as they will take up volume and I presume cause pressure spikes. My advice: avoid Porkan's brain child (which he sells on his website in a branded version - "specially ground" or simething like that).

I want to "screen" mine to make it last longer with less dust - gotta remember to pick up a screen next time I'm at Lowe's. For now, I've been tearing old t-shirts into small strips and throwing in 5-6 of them. They work way better than dryer sheets. you could wash and reuse if you wanted, I just throw them away.

I'm going to have to try the open tumbler outside with a fan trick next time.
Click to expand...
I don't know what kind of Rice you used, because it does make a difference. I get no rice of the kind I listed stuck in the flash holes on both 5.56mm or 6.5 Creedmoor cases, which is all I use nowadays.

Since you use a disparaging name for Orken I can only assume you have a personal animus against the man. A man who, BTW I've never met, and I've never bought any product from. The rice method works, without dust, and without any rice being stuck in flash holes.

IMHO and YMMV
 
#8
BobinNC said:
I don't know what kind of Rice you used, because it does make a difference. I get no rice of the kind I listed stuck in the flash holes on both 5.56mm or 6.5 Creedmoor cases, which is all I use nowadays.

Since you use a disparaging name for Orken I can only assume you have a personal animus against the man. A man who, BTW I've never met, and I've never bought any product from. The rice method works, without dust, and without any rice being stuck in flash holes.

IMHO and YMMV
Click to expand...
Porkan is very deserving of puerile jabs. One need not meet him, as his reputation precedes him.

I just bought a 25# bag of white rice from costco. My wife is still making her way through it, after my first trial run ended with terrible impactions. Of course, I threw out the sample from my trial run, I didn't put it back in the bag!
 
#9
secondofangle2 said:
Porkan is very deserving of puerile jabs. One need not meet him, as his reputation precedes him.

I just bought a 25# bag of white rice from costco. My wife is still making her way through it, after my first trial run ended with terrible impactions. Of course, I threw out the sample from my trial run, I didn't put it back in the bag!
Click to expand...
Again Orken maybe an asshole of the first order, and deserving of your sophomoric jabs, but the fact remains you used the wrong rice. Nishiki Rice is a larger grain rice and won't get stuck in your flash holes or cause impactions.

​

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Haney and secondofangle2
#10
If it helps, in the shop I used an 18/40 mesh (400/1000 in microns) set of sieves to classify the size of the tumbling media grit with walnut or corn cob. (Don't go bigger than 14 mesh if you run Lapua or small flash holes.)

Dry vibe tumbling was as much of an art as it was a science and we used it for many topics. There are folks in some operations that are so specialized that tumbling and vibe polishing is all they do. They were wizards and their black magic would amaze you.

I don't bother with this at home any more cause it is just too easy to get decent quality dry tumble media without the hassle.

If you are curious and just want to learn to do this, sometimes you can find the sieves cheaply at industrial surplus sites as us dinosaurs are going extinct.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bmash
#12
Ha ha! Some day you can sit around a fire and tell them what it was like when you got tissue paper catalogs in the mail from little outfits like Herter's, Graf's, and Midway before the internet. Or waited in anticipation to get the big thick one from Sears or JC Penny.....

At least your kids and grands know what a tractor looks like. At the clubs I shoot at we have work parties to mow and weed and such on every first Saturday of a month. I have young men show up that have never touched a tractor, mower, chain saw, string trimmer, or worked outside..... I practically have to show them how to dress for working outside around mowers and trimmers to keep them from getting hurt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: straightshooter1 and bmash
#14
But this is after I deprime. I anneal, clean (with course media), wipe off, full length size, clean with fine media which gets the lube off, then prime.
I just finish about 140 lapua 223 cases on the porch to avoid the dust issue with nothing in the flash holes. Maybe it’s just the small flash holes on the lapua 6x47 brass. 🤷
 
#15
Zoro Select 20 to 40 Grit corn cob blast media is $43 for a 50 pound bag. You'll never have to worry about clogged flash holes again.

1744065389435.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cascade Hemi, RegionRat and bmash
#17
BobinNC said:
I don't know what kind of Rice you used, because it does make a difference. I get no rice of the kind I listed stuck in the flash holes on both 5.56mm or 6.5 Creedmoor cases, which is all I use nowadays.

Since you use a disparaging name for Orken I can only assume you have a personal animus against the man. A man who, BTW I've never met, and I've never bought any product from. The rice method works, without dust, and without any rice being stuck in flash holes.

IMHO and YMMV
Click to expand...
I use rice as well . . . all the time. Definitely don't use long grain rice, as they'll certainly stick in a lot of flash holes. I use "medium" grain rice which has a larger diameter than long grain rice. Though the larger grain rice doesn't get stuck in flash holes, a few of them tend to be broken after some use where any broken pieces (small chips of rice) do get into LRP holes; not very many of them, but some. The rice does a very good job and with no dust issue like one will have with some other media.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RegionRat, secondofangle2 and BobinNC
#18
bmash said:
1) As several have suggested, I am trying fine media after sizing brass. I went with “fine” 24 grit from Harbor freight and it still gets stuck in my 6x47 L brass flash hole. Not many - maybe 15 out of 300, so not a real big deal, but I still have to check every one of them. Is there a better choice of media or is the Lapua flash hole just so small or is Harbor freight stuff poor quality?
2) My Lyman 1200 tumbler lid doesn’t seal well anymore (It is pretty old) so even with dryer sheets I am getting dust on the floor. Does the Berry QD-500 seal very well?
3) for those using fine grit, I assume you still wipe it off the exterior before proceeding to load?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have a 400 and use Berry's corncob media. I've tried every media ever tried on this forum. 18 or 20/40 would probably work great too.
 
#19
bmash said:
But this is after I deprime
Click to expand...
To ME, 95% of the reason to polish brass is to make it easier to size. So doing it afterwards makes no sense.

(It doesn't matter how many separate steps I'm doing it all in, I deprime after I tumble. Only time I don't is BPCR, where I deprime as soon as the case comes out of the gun, right before it goes in the water bottle)
 
  • Like
Reactions: secondofangle2 and BobinNC
#20
cas6969 said:
To ME, 95% of the reason to polish brass is to make it easier to size. So doing it afterwards makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Maybe try one of these:

Lee Decapping Unit

or if Lee products are too cheap and not to your liking:

Redding Decapping dies

They're magic. You can decap your brass and then clean it & your primer pockets, all before actual resizing.
 
#21
cas6969 said:
To ME, 95% of the reason to polish brass is to make it easier to size. So doing it afterwards makes no sense.

(It doesn't matter how many separate steps I'm doing it all in, I deprime after I tumble. Only time I don't is BPCR, where I deprime as soon as the case comes out of the gun, right before it goes in the water bottle)
Click to expand...
I clean BEFORE with course media then after I resize with fine media.
 
#26
BobinNC said:
Sorry, It wasn't clear to me that's what you were doing. 😟
Click to expand...
After I fire the black powder cartridge, I de-cap it right there at the bench. Then I drop the empty into a jug of soapy water, where I let it soak anywhere from a couple hours to many years. lmao
I've also been known to put them in my wet tumbler for a few hours, then let them soak in there for six or eight months.
I can't remember the last time I shot any, probably 10 years. Which means there's probably some down there right now soaking for a new record.
:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Dry Tumbling - Lead exposure? Wet - Neck peening? Ultrasonic instead?
Replies
35
Views
1K
supercorndogs
supercorndogs
stilts75
Question-Stainless chips vs pins
Replies
7
Views
710
Agent Entropy
Agent Entropy
S
Why you should get Triebel dies AND their shell holder
Replies
1
Views
2K
918v
918v
sirhrmechanic
A Bit of Interesting "Vintage" Reloading
Replies
30
Views
3K
nitehawk
N
D
Hate waiting for tumbler or dryer, or media separating? Me too
Replies
17
Views
821
918v
918v
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Merch
Alerts