Looking for someone to anneal brass
- Thread starter J.S.G
- Start date
Water in a pan and stick em in the oven for a while base down.
That is what I remember being told.
Don't quote me on it, but I think I recall that you can anneal the brass by standing them up in a pan of water and heating the neck shoulder area with a torch, and then knocking them over in the water to cool. I think it may be a little more complicated than that. For instance, what is the exact temperature and how could one be assured that the heat is being distributed evenly. If you can't find anyone to do it, look on the internet. I'm sure people have done it and do describe the process in depth.
Like Quigly said I have been doing it for years put about 3/4 of an inch of water in a pan put the deprimed brass standing in the water dim the lights take a propane torch and heat the neck and part of the shoulder when you see the brass start to turn red tip it in the water and you are good to go.
I do what the gunwriter John Barsness does and highly recommends: get an ordinary household candle, hold the brass at the midway point up the case and slowly turn the neck in the blue cone of the flame until you can't hold it any longer - wipe neck immediately with wet towel to get soot off of it. Works good for me.
"...pan of water and heating the neck shoulder area with a propane torch, and then knocking them over in the water to cool..." Yep. Heat 'em until the brass changes colour and tip 'em. No need to go to red hot.
An oven won't get hot enough. On a cookie sheet in an oven, set on 'warm', for 15 to 20 minutes is a good way to dry 'em though.
An oven won't get hot enough. On a cookie sheet in an oven, set on 'warm', for 15 to 20 minutes is a good way to dry 'em though.
Thanks for the information guys. What I'm concerned about is, that if you do not heat the brass enough you have waisted your time. If you over heat the brass you have created a very dangerous situation by making the brass to soft. There has been a lot written on annealing brass because it is so important to have the right temperature for the right amount of time. I would rather resize new brass than lose my eye sight. I need someone with experience .
Well, I took the advice of aletheuo and read the link he gave me on John Barnsness' info. I tryed the candle method and when I resized the cases, the brass did seem softer, like when it was new. I am going to shoot a few loads in the morning and see if a bullet will fit in the neck after firing. (ArtyMan) the bullet not fitting in the neck after firing was the problem on some of my cases.
I have to say, that some of these reloading issues throw me for a loop, because I don't understand how if you are employing a press, a bullet will not start into the case mouth , after a casing has been resized. I also don't understand how annealing relates to not being able to seat a bullet. As I understand it hardening of the brass would make it lose it's elasticity, therefore when the casing is resized would the case mouth not be too loose rather than too tight. Am I wrong in my understanding of case hardening, or is it that I can't comprehend what is being written. Please help me to understand.
I believe that the problem that J.S.G. seems to be telling us about is that the necks of his cases have gotten so hard that even after firing they spring-back to a size that is smaller than the diameter of his bullets.
I'm sure that J.S.G. has checked his neck thickness and is sure that he has sufficient clearance to safely release his bullet on firing and has checked his case length to ensure that he's not closing-up the case mouth by jamming it into the end of the chamber.
I'm sure that J.S.G. has checked his neck thickness and is sure that he has sufficient clearance to safely release his bullet on firing and has checked his case length to ensure that he's not closing-up the case mouth by jamming it into the end of the chamber.
Before I annealed my cases, I had a bunch that I could not size down to hold a bullet. I ground down the expander on one of my dies to get the necks smaller. Worked fine. Then I read more about annealing, and held the cases in my thumb and finger and heated the necks with a torch, in a dark room until they changed colour, and dropped in a bucket of water. No more loose necks.
It's raining again this morning! I hope to shoot today. 'Splatter' you are correct in your understanding of my problem. I have 2.5 thou per side for neck clearance and 30 thou case length clearance. I'm hoping annealing will cure this problem, I have no other explanation to why this is happening.
I've got a bunch of .221 Fireball cases that are getting annealed before they get loaded again. I was setting-up to do the -molten lead- thing, as I've done it before, with good results, and this time I have one of the Lyman casting thermometers, so I was looking for more consistent results.
But frankly, this -candle- trick seems to be the "cat's pajamas" and it's what I'll be using.
But frankly, this -candle- trick seems to be the "cat's pajamas" and it's what I'll be using.
I will post my results as soon as I have some concrete evidence that this ''candle'' method works. I have my reservations that the necks might not be hot enough to fully reach the temperature required. If it does work, this method is sure simple. I used 0000 steel wool to easily remove the black soot off the neck, left behind from the candle flame.
My plans for the molten lead annealing called for the first run to be at 750°F for one second, that seems very possible in a candle flame.
The thin brass of the neck.shoulder should heat quite quickly, being a copper alloy means the heat should distribute pretty evenly eliminating the possibility of uneven hardness... I've just got to find the time/weather to empty the loaded brass.
The thin brass of the neck.shoulder should heat quite quickly, being a copper alloy means the heat should distribute pretty evenly eliminating the possibility of uneven hardness... I've just got to find the time/weather to empty the loaded brass.
I had a chance to fire nine rounds from the annealed brass. The results look good. All nine cases allowed a bullet to just slip inside the necks of the fired brass, telling me the spring back is consistant. The neck tention felt more consistant when seating the bullets than before annealing. Now I wonder, I resized some brass that needs annealing, would I have to resize the brass again after annealing or could I just load it?
