How Often Do You Change Your Media?

[NHshtr]

I just dumped my tumbler full of media and replenished it. Got to wondering what schedule others use to do the same.
I tumble my spent brass with the spent primer still aboard to keep the flash hole open. Still a lot of unburned powder and primer compounds end up in the media, so it's has to go before it gets toxic!!!
I clean the flash hole on the case prepper. Lots of nasty stuff from that.
Sometimes I load the heck out of the tumbler and other times not so much. So I play it by ear and when I think it's too contaminated to keep using, out it goes.
So how often do you dump your tumbler? Same, or do you have a schedule?

[Grunt67]

I got rid of my dry tumbler years ago, & went wet tumbling. Decap before cleaning & the little SS pins take care of every thing.
No need to change out media. Unless you lose some, you'll never have to worry about media again. Brass like new inside & out.

[Vaquero]

I just changed it when it seemed to be pretty dirty, but last year I went the way of Grunt.
Just run the brass through the universal decapper and into the container. Couple hrs. later new lookin brass.
So much better to me.

RP

[Headhog]

It's hard to say how long my media last. It depends on how much brass I clean and how much shooting I do. I usually judge by the color and amount of dust within the media before decide to change it. Also the type of brass seems to impact how dirty the media gets. I did a lot os pistol shooting and cleaned 9mm and 45 ACP brass. I cleaned thousands of rounds before my media got dirty. On the other hand cleaning rifle brass dirties up the media fast.

What I have started doing is tossing in a dryer anti-static sheet in the media. These things are cheap and collect a lot of dust and dirt. After 4-5 batches I throw out the old sheet and put in a new one. This seems to keep the media from getting dirty as fast.

Paul

[BigAl52]

Change mine when it gets real dirty but cant tell you how often. I have a thumblers tumbler but it needs a new rubber in the drum and lid seal. Just havent ever ordered one.

[RanchRoper]

I use crushed walnut, and change them when I can't tell it from black powder....


kidding aside, it lasts quite a while it seems, I put a little brass polish in with them when tumbling brass.

[Grunt67]

Change mine when it gets real dirty but cant tell you how often. I have a thumblers tumbler but it needs a new rubber in the drum and lid seal. Just havent ever ordered one.

They usually have the parts, but in today's world, who knows. Haven't been on their site lately.

[JEBar]

What I have started doing is tossing in a dryer anti-static sheet in the media. These things are cheap and collect a lot of dust and dirt. After 4-5 batches I throw out the old sheet and put in a new one. This seems to keep the media from getting dirty as fast.

Paul

while our son has liquid, sonic and steel pin tumblers .... I still use use crushed walnut .... if I have a dryer sheet handy I'll throw one in .... if not a couple of pieces of paper towel .... I don't replace the media very often, more or less, if I can tell is isn't doing as good of a job

[Hatchdog]

Lyman used to make a media Re-juvinater (spelling?) which is a liquid you can add to your media to refresh it a bit. Never tried the dryer sheet idea but that sounds great. Like some others have mentioned I went to steel pin wet tumbling a couple of years ago. Nice to be able to decap and clean the primer pockets. I didn’t do that with the media unit as it made the media so much dirtier so much quicker. I did get tired of cleaning primer pockets with a brush.

Not sure if Lyman still makes the product but if they still make the vibratory type cleaners I bet they do.

[NHshtr]

Sounds like the media users follow the same process of judging when to discard it by color or effectiveness (and maybe a little gut feel).
I also throw in a bit of brass polish to spiffy them up a bit.
But since after a while, the toxic residues build up, I don't like to have it hang around too long. So I just plastic bag it all and dump it.