baked cases, yea or nay?

[lee n. field]

Every once in a while I'll clean dirty cases in dishwater, rinse thoroughly and dry them in the oven at ~230 degrees Fahrenheit (just over 100C for you non-USonians) for a half hour or so, just enough to drive off the water.

Today, I put 100 pieces of .45ACP brass in the oven in wire deepfry baskets and stepped out for a bit. A couple of my kids preheated the over for pizza, 400+ degrees F, and kept it on until "something smelled funny" and they checked the oven.

Ooops. Paper catches fire spontaneously at not too much hotter than that.

Still OK to use, yeah or nay? Will a 400 degree bake weaken the brass?

 

[HSMITH]

400 is well below the temp that any physical changes to the brass are going to happen. Learn your lesson, load those 45s up and move on.

 

[E357]

I soak in warm soapy water when I pick up a large load of so so looking brass to clean off all the crap prior to inspecting. I've known cops in small NYC apts who reloaded their own and cleaned cases this way for years. About 30 minutes in oven on low.

Elliot

 

[ed dixon]

Hey, if worst came to worst you could add a little picante sauce and diced red onion and have yourself a tasty appetizer. (Sorry.)

 

[Dave R]

People heat their brass (necks) a lot hotter than that, on purpose. Ever heard of annealing?

Should be fine.

 

[Mike Irwin]

I would NOT wash cases in the dishwasher.

The risk for contamination with residual organic lead is simply too high.


Dave,

Heating the neck is a LOT different than heating the case head itself.

The neck needs to be soft to take the stresses of loading.

You want a hard case head, not a soft, annealed one.

You lose the hardness on a casehead on a high-intensity rifle round and you might not like the results in a worst case scenario.

 

[lee n. field]

I would NOT wash cases in the dishwasher.

The risk for contamination with residual organic lead is simply too high.

Not too worry. We don't have one. I used hot water and disk soap in a bucket.

If you don't rinse _thoroughly_ you get detergent residue after the water has boiled away.

 

[Mike Irwin]

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Christ, you said dish WATER, not washer...

Sigh...

I've been washing cases in a 5 gallon bucket with hot water for years. It's the only cleaning regime I do.

Maybe one of these days I'll get a tumbler, but I'm in no hurry to do so.

I normally just spread my cases out on a sheet in the basement and let them dry for a couple of weeks.

I have enough cases that I don't need to worry about the fact that they're out of commmission.

One thing you may want to try doing is to lay them out on a sheet in front of a dehumidifier, which is what I do in the summer.

That blast of nice, dry air really seems to hasten the process.

 

[John Galt]

An aside. To anneal steel, you heat to dull red and let cool slowly.

To anneal brass, you do the opposite:
Stand rifle brass 1/2" of water in a pizza pan. Heat necks to hot, then tip over into the water to quickly cool. That's the opposite of steel.

So, you've actually hardened the brass.

 

[Mark]

Garage sale food dehydrator - $5.

Staying out of the kitchen - priceless.

 

[JPM70535]

I've been washing my empty cases in the sink with dishwashing liquid, pouring them into pie pans and heating them in the oven at 250 degrees until dry which takes about 45 minutes for years. Never had any reason to suspect damage to the cases, besides it sure extends the lifespan of my tumbling media.