Polishing Media

Walnut is a very hard media, one we primarily recommend solely for cleaning stained or tarnished cases. For general cleaning and polishing, we suggest corncob.

Jeffery - In no way do I want to argue with anyone from Dillon - yet I have had problems in the past with corn-cob getting stuck in the primer flash hole. I'm one of those guys who process brass and put it up for future loading sessions - ready to load .I can only guess that you may have some case lube remaining on the outside of your cases - what ever so small amount of media that remains inside of the cases that are rolled around while going through the case feeder gets shaken out and deposited to the outside of the still "sticky" case . The rim of the case is a great place for case lube to accumulate - and would transfered to the station 1 locater as the case was being pushed to station 1 of the shell plate. When it comes to case lube and media - guaranteed to gum up the works. I used old tooth brushes and Simple Green to remove built up "gunk" of the grooves of the case locater for station 1 - shell plates I usually use mineral spirits and air pressure dental pick if needed - for that dad burn piece of media that just won't budge . . lightly spray the shell plate with Rem Oil before returning it to the conversion kit storage box . You stated "you noticed station one case ramp the edges were getting chipped".  Would not think that the  brass rim of a case would chip or cut the case locater unless you had one hell of burr on your cases . Also I suppose any bolt of any auto loading weapon can strike the edge / rim of a case hard enough to slightly deform the rim of a case where it may -as it is pushed through the grooves of station 1 locater could deform or ruff up the aluminum grooves in the station one "case ramp". I used an ignition file - the skinny ones that were used to dress up points in the old distributors - does a FINE job of smoothen out the buggered edge ( for what that worth) As far as media goes I only use fine walnut . I get it in 50 pound box at a time from Kramer Industries ,Inc. . .  Some times when I'm just processing brass - after decap and resizing , I throw the bras back into the tumbler - add another cap full of Dillon Rapid Polish to the media let it run a while and then bag it and tag it - Can't say that I've ever found a stuck piece of media in a flash hole of the fore- mentioned brand of media   ALL this is just my opinion and everone's opinion smell different  - - - Joe Andrews <aircavvietnam@yahoo.com>

Joe you got mail :), Thanks for the answer. Good read!
Re: Reply from Dillon, I guess I was not clear. Can Walnut media cause the fractures on the ramps on Station one? I never have an issue with flash holes and sure enough the stuff. I sure seem to have less issues with the media I changed to, and wondered if media selection can cause issues most of us don't think about. I have been loading since 1978, mostly single station. Just this last two years started going all progressive on everything but stuff that is less than forty cases/pieces like High power. I notice this on the Auto rifle, in .223 and .308 mostly. But the .308 is also used for .270, .243 and 8mm I think. Just wondering if the media can wedge in to the rim area of the ramp and cause damage? I really love my machine, and just need to know my limitations. I tossed probably twenty pounds of media cuz I finally thought, this is too abrasive and too large for the cases I am doing. Right or wrong do ya think?

I buy my bags of corncob locally in the 50# sack, look for a local abrasives company and get small corncob.  I believe the size is 14/20 your looking for.  it is small enought that it is hard to get stuck in the flash hole, you can also get smaller as well.

I agree walnut is very hard and agressive, i always use it on my range pickup... with a splash of paint thinner.  Seems to speed up the process and keep the tumbeling time down.