Annealing Brass Cases?

[Nosler06]

I had some info supplied by Avalonthas about annealing brass. The you tube clip to which he was supplied states to just bring neck and shoulder to a blue color, but another video states to bring the neck to glowing red for 10 sec. I am now confused as to which is going to bring back the original springness to the case neck. I really do not want to damage a 100+ 30-06 cases or waste my time in going through the annealing process only to do it wrong and put my or someone elses safety at risk. Do you have to have the brass all be tumbled (polished clean) before annealing or can I just run it as is? Will I be able to see the blue color change if it is not tumbled. I do not have a tumbler yet (will be getting one in the future). I wipe clean all brass before the reloading process.

previous thread info provided by

AVALONTHAS

Depends on how many times you fire it and the conditions its stored in. Shoot your brass until it cracks/splits. If you want to save your current brass and like to spend time as a hobby, anneal your brass, heating it up realigns the particles when it comes brittle. see below video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgD5D0Wzu-c

 

[BCRider]

I haven't done ammo cases yet but I know from my model building that taking work hardened brass up to a red glow will anneal it so fully that it's soft like cheeze. And you certainly don't need to hold it there for 10 seconds. Once it's glowing it's done. At that point allow to air cool or dump it into water. Either way it's annealled fully at that point.

It's not hard to do a few cases each to a red heat and a few to a dark blue verging on violet color. From there I'd test them in two ways. First is the obvious one of running them through your loading dies and see if the resizing or bullet seating causes the red glow annealed case to collapse from the pressure. The do the same for the dark color but not full red glow case. With one or two others I'd compare how easy it is to split "hardened" cases vs the blued heat cases vs the red glow heat cases using something tapered that you jam into the necks and force them to split. Between the loading and test splitting of the cases it should give you a pretty good idea of what is needed to best anneal the rest of them.

 

[Pudelpointer]

I just use a parrafin candle. Hold the brass by the base and heat the neck in the flame until it gets too hot to hold, then drop it into the water bucket you have set up below the candle.

I know others use torches and stand the brass in water, etc. I have used a candle for 10 years now and I never get split necks.

Works for me.

 

[Ron AKA]

There is a lot of misinformation out there on annealing. You need to get the brass up to 800 deg. F for about 5 seconds. The issue is measuring it. I think the easiest is to work in a darkened room and heat until the brass in the neck glows a dull red, and then remove the heat. If you heat them until the brass glows red in daylight, you have them too hot.

The best way to hold your case is to use the Lee case trimmer holder intended to be used in a drill. I clamp the drill in a vice or workmate. To work in the near dark, I hook up a lamp to using a Christmas tree foot switch, so you can have it dark while heating and light when changing to the next case.

To cool you can drop it in water, but then you have to dry the cases before you can keep loading. Another way is to lay the cases on a dampened towel to suck the heat out of them, but not get them wet inside. The cooling does not change the metallurgy, but you do not want the case body and especially the head to get too hot. Or, it will lose strength.

This article is very good, except they have the temperature wrong. The neck needs to get to 800F, not 660-665. Also they suggest using a tempilstick to measure temperature. I have tried it and it is very cumbersome. I can't recommend it. Other than that the article is good. Use their method, but work in the near dark, and heat to dull red and then lay to cool.

Hope that helps,

 

[Kodiak99317]

Do you have to have the brass all be tumbled (polished clean) before annealing or can I just run it as is? Will I be able to see the blue color change if it is not tumbled. I do not have a tumbler yet (will be getting one in the future). I wipe clean all brass before the reloading process.

Yup, they have to be clean or your adding carbon to the brass once the brass "changes" it's structure (anneals). Even using a wipe, you had better wash them too first in soap and water, IMO. Annealing is all about time over temp as Ron said and he has hit it right on IMO, 800 for 5 sec. The test, use a set of vise grip's and test them to see if they spring back or not. You can set the VGrips so they just touch and screw it in just a hair from there. This way, you can repeat the test using new Lapua and old case hardened brass and your newly done stuff. Most probably over anneal, unless using a candle method, then you are probably under annealing. The stick temp sucks hard to get it to stick to the brass, the paint type is way better and easier. Tried using temp guns, does not work, brass has way too shiny of a surface. Paint is great to see how far down the case the temps are going. The only time you may have safety issues is if you get the base up to annealing temps. BTW even 200F over enough time is a safety issue if you are using say the stove! Myself and 3 buds joint own a Ken Light with 6 wheels

 

[Sticker]

There is a lot of misinformation out there on annealing. You need to get the brass up to 800 deg. F for about 5 seconds. The issue is measuring it. I think the easiest is to work in a darkened room and heat until the brass in the neck glows a dull red, and then remove the heat. If you heat them until the brass glows red in daylight, you have them too hot.

X2

Yup, dark room, and dull red color. I use a 1/2" deep socket on the end of my 3/8 drill and place the case in the socket and turn on the drill. When the color is right, I point the drill down and the case falls out of the socket and falls in my water bucket. Easy to do in the dark.

When I compare my annealed cases to virgin factory Lapua cases, the colours on the case mouth look the same. Can't do much better then that.

Sticker

 

[crazy_davey]

X3 on what Ron AKA said, very good explanation. My process is basically the same.