I was just wondering if the media "wore out?" I have a metric ton of it in my Dillon blue tub.

I don't know if media wears out, meaning that it won't clean efficiently in a given time.

I put paper towels in mine, cut into strips about 1 inch wide. The towels get real dark with filth, just remove them and put in new ones. Using this, I found that the walnut media keeps on cleaning just as well as it did when it was new. That is, if I let it run for an hour or two, it cleans as well as brand new media that has run for an hour or so. That walnut dust that you have with brand new media comes back after you use paper towels for a while.

I do the same for corn media, too. However, I first clean brass in walnut, so my corn media stays pretty clean.

All in all though, I don't believe the claims of run for 30 mins and your brass is clean. I have two Dillon large tub cleaners and one old RCBS unit and none of them will clean brass tolike new condition in 30 mins.

However, if you are using plain media, you do need to add a cleaner with it. That will indeed speed up cleaning quite a bit. I use liquid Turtle Wax in my corn media, as this keeps the brass shinny longer. I use a home brew in my walnut media.

RobertD

RobertD,
What home brew do you use in your walnut?

At the risk of being chastized---
Cheap White rice. Take the quantity you will use and put it in a 3 to 5 gal. bucket.Fill it about 3/4 full of water and stirr vigorously with a big stick to get off all the talc. When you finish sticking it put the hose in the bucket and gently let the water overflow. Gently stirr while it overflows for maybe 3 minutes or until water isn't too cloudy.Strain it and put it in the sun on a plastic table cover from the $.99 store. Spread it out thin and during the day run your hand over it so it dries evenly.
When dry put it in your vibratory mill, add your cleaner or polish and hymogenize, breaking up the lumps now and than.Now you can put in your cases and polish them or clean them. I've been using Midway's brass polish only because that's what I started using.It works. There probably is better stuff than Midway polish but on this I'm no expert.You will hear from some of them I'm sure.
OH! When it gets dirty, and it will, wash it again the same way.