Annealing questions????

[jeeptim]

Fellas how are we??
So I do my reloading in 500 to 2000 batches. I am currently sizing and depriming a boat load of lake city once fired 5.56.
So here' s my question all the brass has the annealing discoloration.
At what point dose the annealing go away? Or the brass go soft ? Is it time or temp or working the brass? Once it' fired? Once the color is polished off?
Really don't think it' Something I'll do a lot of but I want to learn how and build a machine to do it .
Thanx

 

[farmerboy78]

Well, annealing a actually softens the brass... as far as when the anneal goes away, well that has alot of variables and begins at the first firing. Brass is work hardened. Some people anneal every firing, others every other. What is does is makes the brass last longer and usually provide more reloadings for a case.

 

[Blue68f100]

Any working of the brass will work harden it. It's accumulative effect, sizing/expanding, firing etc. It all adds up and each step will increase the hardness. I've had friends/neighbors have current brass splitting on the first reload/firing. They now bring me there brass to anneal for them. Now there are different degrees of hardness. For our use it better to draw the brass back to around 1/4 hard. It's all about temp vs time. Hotter the temp, less time required. When done right you will not get any of the scaling on the inside of the necks. Your target temp is 650F on the inside of the necks. This is reached just before you see a color change on the flame (propane torch). The upside of annealing every cycle is that you have the same neck tension every time. You will also find that sizing is much easier, and will require you to adj your sizing die back to keep from moving the shoulder back too far the first time.

I have some LC brass with over 10 cycles and still going.

 

[Walkalong]

If all you want to do is extend the life of the cases, every third or fourth firing is plenty. But like Blue68f100, I get 8 to 12 firings easily out of LC 5.56/.223 brass, and more isn't unusual. If you run hot, you will loosen primer pockets before you wear the case out otherwise. If you size correctly (Don't move the shoulder back too far), and don't run too high of a pressure, case life will be very good.

 

[RainDodger]

Annealing also contributes to more consistent neck tension, which is a good thing. The best tip I can give you is to get a bottle of 750 degree Tempilaq and use it to get set up initially. That will help prevent overheating of cases, which ruins them. There’s plenty of documents out there about how to proceed.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[RainDodger]

By the way, if you're looking for a reasonably priced annealing machine that works quite well, check out the Mike's Reloading Bench site ( http://www.mikesreloadingbench.com/index.html ). I have one of his machines and I like it - absolutely first rate build quality and he stands behind his stuff. If anyone buys one of these, I have a ton of tips to pass along when it comes time to set it up and use it.

 

[MDof2]

Read:
http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

Then buy:
http://www.annealeez.com/dbprod/annealeezannealer.asp

 

[bikemutt]

I just bought an annealer from a manufacturer who's done the hard work, not the guesswork. Their testing indicates the work hardening of brass, as a percentage, is greatest from start to finish. In other words, if we use the virgin brass as the benchmark for softness, the first time the brass is fired yields the largest percentage change in hardness, the second firing is right behind it, and so on until terminal hardness is reached.

Accordingly, they recommend annealing after every firing.

Obviously, if annealing is a chore, we might prefer to delay it until it's "really" needed. If a shooter gets satisfactory results with several reloads without annealing then why bother anneal. Given what these machines cost and the time/energy spent operating them, it may be cheaper to just ditch the brass and start over.

But, if you want the brass to be the same every time, it needs to be the same, every time.