Did I damage my brass?

crest117 · Jan 20, 2016

I was drying some 45-70 and 308 brass in a toaster oven after cleaning. I didn't realize the temp was set at 450. The brass was in for about 5 minutes when I realized my error. When I took it out, it was quite hot to the touch. Is this enough heat to have damaged it or am I OK?

Gaucho Gringo · Jan 20, 2016

I would say if the color of your brass has not changed you should be ok.

Blue68f100 · Jan 21, 2016

You were not in there long enough to do any annealing. If you were you would have got a slight color change.

Set your temp down below 200F.

Kaldor · Jan 21, 2016

You need to get that brass to around 650 degrees to really do anything. Load and shoot as usual.

Sunray · Jan 21, 2016

Like Kaldor says, 450F isn't hot enough to do anything but burn your fingers. Takes approximately 650-700F to anneal brass.

Lman57 · Jan 21, 2016

I agree the others 450 is not hot enough to do damage.

MDof2 · Jan 21, 2016

Wait till you hear how hot the brass gets when you fire it in the gun!

NeuseRvrRat · Jan 21, 2016

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat it.

I dry mine in the clothes dryer. I put them in mesh bag and close the end of the bag in the dryer door so they just hang down by the door and lint trap. You can use one of the shoe drying racks for your dryer if it came with one. Mine did not.

Wis-Harpo · Jan 21, 2016

toaster oven

See if they smell like warm bagels when shot, the burnt toast smell means they were too hot.

ArchAngelCD · Jan 22, 2016

As you can see, you are good to go. Like said above, keep the temps below 200 in the future, 170 is plenty.

spitballer · Jan 22, 2016

I wouldn't think so, not in five minutes, but brass can be heat-treated if not annealed. Heat-treating make it tough.

MEHavey · Jan 22, 2016

Heat treated brass...
to make it tougher ?

Greg Mercurio · Jan 22, 2016

Please note the temps on the chart are in Centigrade. Nothing happens at all until after 250C or 482F, and only a 10% reduction after 536F. And that chart is predicated on a 1 hour heat soak.

Load and shoot no harm done.

spitballer · Jan 23, 2016

MEHavey said:
Heat treated brass...
to make it tougher ?

Yes. but not on purpose. Stopping short of annealing temperatures has always made my brass tougher.

Did I damage my brass?

crest117

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