Is it OK to boil cases?

Is it OK to boil cases? Or would the heat cause a problem? A number of people that I know use sonic cleaners to clean their brass, after sizing and trimming. I have been retumbling to clean them before loading, but it is a pain to get the media out of the flash holes. I am just looking for an easier way.

Any thoughts?

Steve

Go to an industrial supply house such as Graingers and buy a bag of 20/40 corn cob blasting compound. Add a capful of auto cleaner wax like Nu-Finish and tumble. This type of media is fine enough to not get caught in the flash holes but will still polish like the coarser kind.

BTW a 40 lb. bag only costs about $25.00 Good Luck

For pistol I tumble fired brass, size it, prime it, load it, and shoot it. I never clean primer pockets for pistol calibers, only rifle. I don't think boiling them would hurt them, but I still think you would have to pick out some media. I use some fine media from Grainger and I don't have to pick out a lot of it.

14/20 (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2MVR4)

20/40 (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2MVR5)

If you pick it up at the store they won't charge shipping even if they have to order it for you.

Well... I rather doubt I'd want to do it, but no, it shouldn't hurt anything.

Boiling water - at 212 degrees or less, depending on your altititude - means that your cases won't get hotter than the boiling water. I'm not sure how much heat you need to start the annealing cases, but it's way above the temp of boiling water.

I could see maybe if you'd want to remove case lube or something from your brass, but I wipe mine down. I did to that with some .22 Hornet brass in the dishwasher once, and was surprised that the water pressure forced some of them out of the basket they were sitting in, and got sumped into the diswasher's pump drain :eek:

No damage to the brass though... :scrutiny:

It's way more trouble to get the water out of the cases and insure they are completely dry then is to poke out a few specks of media while getting ready to prime them!

After tumbling I set 50 cases moth down in a loading block and poke the few with media in them with a sharp pointy awl.

rc

Would recommend use distilled water you can get cheap at the grocery store and could even add just a touch of dish soap to the water . I did this on some old Lake City 30-06 brass many years back for an old friend I met who was a fly by night reloader. He never cleaned his brass and it was real dark and felt like flypaper . I dropped his dies in with them too , did a clean boil rinse, low temp oven dried them all and of course relubed the brass as well as lightly oiled the dies . The brass wasnt shiney but it was 100% better for sure .

Why? You stated you have a tumbler. Use it. To solve the problem of media stuck in flash holes and primer pockets either use a finer media or get a throttle/choke pull cable and shorten it to 1" and use it to remove media and clean pockets.

Use caution when oven-drying.

Some oven thermostats fluctuate in temperature enough between off & on enough to anneal cases if you ain't careful.

rc

Jjohnson
Thanks for the input. After I tumble, lube, trim, and deburr the cases, they get pretty nasty (mostly lube). I have been tumbling them a second time to clean them up. The lube mixed with media seems to get stuck in the cases pretty good. Wiping the with a rag works ok on the outside, but cleaning inside the neck (223) is a bit harder. I’m never sure that I get it all.

Thanks all

Steve

ABC's of Modern Reloading states that if your going to OVEN dry brass don't exceed 150F. Water boils at 100C, or 212F. This seems like a bad idea to me.

Like RC mentioned, make damn sure of your oven temp. Just setting it at 150F means it will probably average 125-200, depending on the oven. So always use a thermometer and watch it closely. I found out with my oven if I set it at 100F it will go between 100-150F.

only if they exposed to something contagious:scrutiny:

If you get your household oven hot enough to anneal brass, you will have much bigger problems than soft brass:

http://www.metalsuppliersonline.com/Research/Property/metals/1267.asp

"The annealing temperature for this alloy is between 800 and 1400 F."

Tim

boil cases--
only if they exposed to something contagious

or you're making some funky kind of soup

Guys
Boil not bake. Sorry for the confusion. I wanted to boil them to get hot water and agitation to clean the lube from the inside of the cases. Some friends use sonic cleaners, but I don’t have one, and it seems like boiling would do the same thing on the cheap. So again, Will it hurt the cases?
Steve

No, it won't hurt the cases.

But a better question is:
How is case lube getting inside them in the first place?

Fix that, and you won't need to boil them.

rc

This has been addressed before. Unless you are using a special water that reaches above 428 F, you are not going to do anything to your brass.



http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=423031&highlight=annealing+brass

"Heavy Water"??

Steve you could try a wax type lube like Imperial or Lee.Don't let the size of the container scare you away,a little goes a long way.

Augh..... :banghead:

The question was whether boiling hot water will damage brass.

The answer is "NO."

He didn't ask for opinions on the other stuff - jeez.

"I am just looking for an easier way.

Any thoughts?"

Steve

On topic JJ.Bad day at the range or what?

I use walnut media. I found that after I tumble 223 cases to remove the lube I use to have a walnut kernel in a few flash holes. I bought a media separator to make that process easier and found less walnut stuck in the flash holes with all of the rattling around that the cases do in the media separator.
jjohnson:
Augh.....

The question was whether boiling hot water will damage brass.

The answer is "NO."

He didn't ask for opinions on the other stuff - jeez.
Sorry for going off topic.:D
Rusty

I have poured boiling water over .223 brass to try and remove the lube.
Call it an old redneck shortcut if you want.
Cases were fine but they had to dry for 2 days to be sure. That kind of shortcut sucks.
It didn’t get all the lube off either.:(



Well I only did it once.:rolleyes:

I slosh mine around in a coffee can with some gas in it. I know, I know it dangerous, so is filling a hot lawnmower, or lots of other things we do every day.

With that said it does get the lube off, and dries very quickly.

BTW Do it outside and don't smoke.

Oh ya Don't boil the gas.

I have used water to remove RCBS Case Lube II, but the pain is waiting for them to dry. I just tumble them now.


He didn't ask for opinions on the other stuff - jeez.Hey, he might as well get used to a little thread veer now and then. :D

Yep, boiling won't hurt, but waiting for them to dry is a pain.

Yep. Boiling probably wont hurt a thing, Just don't drink the water afterwards. :scrutiny:

Hey, he might as well get used to a little thread veer now and then.


Tell me about it, Walkalong. I seen veers in some threads that turn into around the world tours and go on for days on end LOL...:D



LGB

FWIW, cases come out of the gun hot enough to boil water. Seen it many times where the case lands in a little water or on a little snow.

as far as drying your brass afterwards, i use 2 methods. 1 (preffered) set them out in the sun for several hours (doesn't work in the winter obviously). 2 preheat the oven to 200 degrees, shut it off and insert your brass on a dedicated cookie sheet. let them sit in there until the oven cools. i have done both for a while now with no real problems, except the wife turing on the oven to bake dinner (@450f) once. she discovered the brass when she went to put dinner in the oven. it was HOT! i just threw out that load of brass. now, i make sure i tell her there is brass in the oven!

boil cases--

Only if you're having Pelosi over for tea!

:D

From Handloader’s Manual,
Early Naramore, Major Ordnance Dept Reserve, Small Arms Publishing , 1937


“The best and surest way of drying cases is with the use of artificial heat, but care must be taken not to overheat them, as too much heat will soften the brass and may render it incapable of withstanding normal pressures. Most modern stoves, whether electric, gas, or coal, have oven thermometers that are, at least, fairly accurate. For stoves sold in the United States, these thermometers register degrees Fahrenheit and brass can be heated up to 428 degrees Fahrenheit without undergoing any change in its grain structure. For drying cases it is best to keep the temperature as low as 300 degrees. This heat is amply high for the purpose and offers a liberal allowance for any inaccuracy of the thermometer. If you oven has no thermometer, one can be purchased at small expense in almost any department or five and ten cent store. The thermometer should be placed near the cases as the temperature will not be the same in all parts of the oven. It is also well to place the cases on one of the sliding shelves or racks, away from the bottom of the oven, or the heating element if it is an electric stove.”

I doubt anyone has coal fired ovens anymore; this was written in 1937.

From reading Major Naramore’s book, it is obvious that the gentleman had a technical education in materials or materials engineering. He also worked in an era when the Army actually made rifles, cannons, cartridges and had research labs. Today everything is contracted out and contractors just do not share data, with the Army or anyone else. But then, he could call up an Army buddy and find out who and whom had material data on cartridge cases.

I am surprised that brass will anneal at 428 F, I would have thought, based on the diagram I have, that it is much higher. Still, I put my cases in a stainless colander, set the oven on low, and in a half hour or so, my “five and dime” store thermometers read 212F, and don’t go any higher. Since water boils at 212F (at sea level) I know my brass is dry. I don’t set the oven any higher than warm because if the oven temperature increases by much, all the grease in the oven evaporates on my brass.




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/SlamFire/BrassAnnealDiagram.bmp