annealing brass

[Visionz45]

Feel free to poke holes in my method as I dont want to ruin all of my 264 and '06 brass. I'm placing a light band of 650 tempilaq just below the shoulder of the case and I heat the neck until the band begins to darken. The neck doesn't glow more than a really dim amount(under my faint shop light). I know that brass need to be annealed for something like 15 mins at 660 degrees though at 700-750 only a few second(5-7). The casing come out a light pinkish-blue if there were such a color

 

[jmorris]

If any brass is glowing you have gone too far. If its the rim you won't have enough tension. If you anneal the entire case you are looking for disaster.


You should read this
http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

This is a link to the machine I built to do the job is here
http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=434828&highlight=auto+annealer

 

[Visionz45]

I'm going to turn the lights off and do some guess and check with really low light. And, no I'm just annealing the neck.

 

[dagger dog]

Pick up a copy of the latest Handloader April 2010, John Haviland has an article on annealing using Tempilaq,and suggest applying the Tempilaq on the inside of the case neck, so it doesn't come in direct contact with the flame, which causes it to burn off before the correct temperature is reached.

 

[qajaq59]

I just hold them in my fingers. When they get too hot they're done. Seems to work once you get used to it. But if you read enough forums you'll find there are as many ways to do it as there is people doing it.

 

[Visionz45]

Ive used the "inside the neck" method and found getting the dried tempilaq out the case with thinner to be a PITA. Plus that would only heat the necks to slightly over 660.

 

[fguffey]

"something like 15 minutes at 660 degrees"

Heat travels to cold, in 15 minutes at 660 degrees the head of the case will be annealed and too soft to be used. There are some that use a candle, I can not imagine how long that would take, to cut down on heat travel use high heat for a short period of time.

When holding a case in the hand when annealing if the case gets too hot to hold, the case got too hot, again there was a demonstration of annealing using the finger thumb method, the demonstration hardly got started before the hand disappeared and the demonstration continued without an explanation and the hand is no where in sight.

A heat dam works and prevents heat from traveling, deciding where to put the head dam has not been decided, some say shallow pan with water, how much water is never decided, water boils at 212 at sea level, if the pan is deeper and more water us used when annealing a spheroid condition can be observed when the case gets to 212 degree, meaning the case is too hot to allow the water to remain in contact with the water, the boiling water indicates the heat on the case is being given up to the water, again an increase in volume and heat will shorten the time required to anneal the neck, if the cases are to be formed, the case should be annealed to the point the shoulder is formed.

F. Guffey

 

[fguffey]

"too hot to allow the water to remain in contact with the water"

should have been: too hot to allow the water to remain in contact with the case.

Sorry about that,

F. Guffey