I Just Annealed Brass For The First Time And Need To Know...

[BattleRife]

I only wish that the knowledge and advice available currently, largely due to the internet and informative forums and discussions such as this thread, was as readily accessible when I was in my earlier years of reloading.

Here, here!

It boggles my mind how long it has taken for good information on case annealing to leak out. The process is not a mystery: the factories have been reliably annealing brass for about 120 years now, but for some reason it never translated into knowledge in the do-it-at-home community.

Ironically, all the good information seems to be on the internet. Every magazine or reloading manual article I ever saw when I was starting reloading 20 years ago espoused the heat-til-red-and-dump-in-water approach. My only guess is that glowing red was the only consistent control parameter the home annealer had available to him, and when you're hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Thank ye gods that in the last 5 years or so, good information based on actual metallurgical principles is starting to get out.

 

[jkajfes]

The article on 6mmbr as Gord pointed out are good. Notice the temperature spread in the bottom part of the article.

There are a couple of good annelaing machines out there... Ken Light's for example and the Brass-O-Matic by Zephyr Dynamics... with these system you can do a years match brass in one session.

there's a few video segments showing the process... watching them will give you an insight...

heating until red is very very misleading... 6-7 seconds on the average seems to work well depends on the case... until you get a handle on it temp sticks would help you understand the window you need to work within.

most of the methods you read about might work well for smalll batches of cases... anything else you need a machine... if you want to maintain you sanity you need a machine... if you want consistency you need a machine etc.

the oven is for cooking... keep your brass out of it...

 

[PEI ROB]

Brass does not act the same as steel. The water does absolutely NOTHING to the brass except cool it down so you can touch it. Quenching does NOT change the hardness or softness at all. I don't use water, saves dealing with wet cases.

I simply place the brass on a baking pan and twist the torch flame evenly around the neck and count. To find out how long all you need to do is barely overheat one and reduce the time it took. Works for me.

 

[Mystic Precision]

I use 650F temp sticks to indicate temp of the brass. I have not found any reliable way to 'view' temp through colour change and have had my share of cooked brass.

The goal is to get the neck and neck shoulder to 750ish F. Some say 800F is ok but much over and things get too soft. Once too soft, toss the brass. There really isn't any way to work harden it while shooting. The accuracy will be horrid anyways.

I put a mark of the temp stick 1/8" below the shoulder/neck junction. Heating over a propane flame with a 'sharp' tip, I slowly spin the case until the mark flashes off and into a pot of water it goes.

The lower temp stick gives me some wiggle room that my necks don't overheat.

Why I use the temp stick is I have seen cases flash off in a few seconds, others take a long time. I have no idea why the difference in time but the temp indicator was the only way I knew the right temp has been reached.

Maybe my technique is not good but if this is typical of multi-use brass, a turntable type annealer will not work as it exposes all brass to the flame for a set amount of time. I am still a novice to this so who knows.

What I find is that the seating force is nice and consistent and SMOOTH after annealing. Work hardened brass will fill a bit 'sticky' when a bullet is seated. That is not good for precision LR accuracy becuase it migh increase vertical stringing.

I will continue to play with annealing as I feel consistent neck tension is the last part of reloading for me to master. My brass can last a very long time and annealing keeps them going strong but more importantly, shooting accurately.

My SWAG way of testing the neck strength is I try and squeeze the necks with my thumb and first finger nail. If the nails bend without moving the neck, the brass is still hard enough to use. If you overheat, you can easily squish the brass using fingernail pressure - recycle.

Jerry