A friend gave me some crushed glass media. I put in a few cases. They came out clean but a matte finish with powder residue on them. The primer pockets looked untouched. Overall I was not impressed.

That's a new one. Might work if the media is small enough.

Crushed glass sounds nasty to me. I'm thinkin'n crushed and ground being the same. Or is it pretty much the same as glass beads?

If you have a household pet, I wouldn't even consider using it. Glass dust will inevitably get on the floor, and just as surely your pet will walk in at least a little of it...maybe a lot of it. Then, as sure as night follows day, he or she will lick their paws clean.

Welcome to potentially large, expensive, problems.

I'd just use something like walnut hulls which, in small amounts, is not nearly so likely to be both expensive AFTER its use in your home, and potentially deadly to your best friends.

For that matter, glass dust is deadly to YOUR lungs too, when inhaled. As with asbestos, it doesn't kill quickly, but it DOES kill, sometimes with great pain.

Correct AC. Silicosis is not a good thing. In some it can be acutely harmmful, others after prolonged exposure. This is what may have killed the philosopher Spinoza, as he was a glass grinder.

I say don't use it.

Not to mention glass hardness trumps your dies inner case hardness

With all the other better medias,glass would be the last you want to use. I'd hate to get any into my eyes or lungs.
The best out there is:
Treated Corn Cob
Walnut shells(crushed)
Stainless-steel blobs/pins. ( last forever can be a chore to get out of .22 cal and smaller necks.)
I've tried ceramic and other media with poor results.
Common BB's work well but rust like the dickens when exposed to the air if used wet.

You can buy crushed walnut hulls at pet shops. The last I bought was $15 for 25 pounds. That is the cheapest I have found for small quantities and it works just like the expensive stuff you can buy from a gun shop.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
I say don't use it.

Exactly!

One way or the other, you will get something nasty from this!

Curious minds would like to know: why would anyone even consider using ground glass as a polishing media?

It's used for removal of coatings and for surface profiling......way too aggressive.

The friend that gave me the media works at a shop where they work on electric motors. Guess it has a use there.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
A friend gave me some crushed glass media. I put in a few cases. They came out clean but a matte finish with powder residue on them. The primer pockets looked untouched. Overall I was not impressed.

Glass is way too hard, that is why your cases are coming out with a matte finish and not polished, they are being worn not polished. Try crushing up glass in a quarry rock crusher you'll soon see the difference in wear when putting glass through, bad news, ditch it.

You're using the wrong kind of glass.
You have to use crushed flouresent tubes to get all the Mercury goodness!

Crushed glass equals sand.

Crushed glass is an abrasive, no different than sanding your brass clean. Even if you wanted an abrasive there are better ones for soft metals than glass.