How hot is too hot to dry brass

[refuse2bafool]

I have been experimenting with wet cleaning of brass using on hand materials. I thought I read somewhere that when you dry brass you want to keep it below a certain temp.

I rigged up an “oven” to dry brass using a heat gun that can go up to 400 degrees and a paint can.

Works pretty well.




Anyone have an opinion on if this is a good method or if I am damaging the brass?

 

[King Medallion]

I use my wife's old food dehydrator, spread the brass out and leave it set for about 15 minutes on 140 degrees. Always dries in that time, works like a charm.

 

[JEBruns]

When I'd dry them in the oven, I used 200 degrees. I have Lyman brass dryer, not sure what temp that uses.

 

[MWC1974]

If I have to use an oven due to the weather, it’s usually 225-250 for about 15 mins.

 

[Blue68f100]

This depends on whether primers are still in. With primers removed it will dry a lot faster. But with primers in trapping water it takes a lot longer. I use a FA drier that came with the kit I bought. I think the max temp is 130?, but it has a circulation fan which does most of the work. I'm generally not in a hurry but have mine on a timer so it turns off when I forget about it. Once my rifle brass comes out it goes through the annealer. So any remaining water is then vaporized. There is one member on here that takes his wet brass straight to the annealer. Using the annealer to dry the brass at the same time.

To answer your question, You want to stay under 400F. Above 350 you may discolor your brass. It's time vs temp. So higher the temp shorter the time.

 

[bdb242]

175* for 25 minutes on convection bake with fan running.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Not sure but don’t put it in an aluminum tray in your Weber gas grill and forget to turn it off. Not saying I did that but I’m sure it’s bad so just don’t do it.

If that had been me I was probably in a hurry but one should never rush anything reloading. I let it dry on a towel overnight these days.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I shoot black powder matches and wash every case inside and out.
I preheat the oven to 200 degrees, place the casings flat on a paper towel in an aluminum pie tin, put the tin the oven, turn the oven off, and let 'em dry an hour or two from residual heat.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Water boils at 212F so any hotter than that isn’t necessary. Time and air circulation take care of drying whatever the vapor gets trapped. When I wash my black powder brass I dry them in a toaster oven on the “light brown” setting. It gets them hot enough and the color doesn’t change. What it doesn’t do is dry the primer pockets so I will sometimes get a gooey primer in the catch. Not a problem. I’m only working with 15-30 cases at a time.
That’s a neat rig you come up with. Kinda like an air fryer. For brass.

 

[Yamifrk]

In the summer I spread them on a towel and lay them in the sun. In the winter,I lay them on a towel and run a heat gun over the top of them. Make a “hammock” out of the towel, roll them back and forth, repeat until dry. Doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to do.

 

[Highland Lofts]

When wet tumbling you can not be in a hurry. If you need to hurry on the drying process you need more brass.

I made drying racks for my brass that work nice. I have a whole lot of brass so I don't need to frush the drying process up.


I bought and sold over two tons of range brass and wet tumbled it all. My drying racks completely dries the brass.
(Crap runs down hill, payday is on Friday and never chew your fingernails)
It the primers are still in the cases they take longer to dry.
If I wanted to dry them faster I would put the brass on the racks in the over for atleast twenty-five minutes at 225 degrees after the temperature got up to 225.
With the cases being hung with the case mouth pointing downwards they do dry
Plus I get an accurate count on my dried brass.

 

[reddog81]

I follow the KISS method and usually just let my brass sit on a towel in the basement for a day and they are dry. If I need dry quicker I stand them up on the reloading bench and use a heat gun. Like GeoDudFlorida mentioned, water boils at 212 degrees so anything above that is not needed.

 

[JSneezy]

I typically leave mine out to sit in open air on shop cloths, but I also live in AZ. During the cooler months, I'll put them in an old toaster oven on the warm setting for an hour.

 

[ms6852]

I use a sonic cleaner to clean brass and I used to spread them on a towel and let them dry in the hot Texas heat for a day or two until one day I notice that some of the brass were still wet inside. So I changed my method and have a toaster oven in the garage set at 200º for 20 minutes, and then I just put them in a 5 gal bucket and make sure I don't use that brass for several days.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I use a sonic cleaner to clean brass and I used to spread them on a towel and let them dry in the hot Texas heat for a day or two until one day I notice that some of the brass were still wet inside. So I changed my method and have a toaster oven in the garage set at 200º for 20 minutes, and then I just put them in a 5 gal bucket and make sure I don't use that brass for several days.

This is why I don't do the towel method.
To avoid wet or damp brass I let my cases hang on my drying racks long enough to guarantee 100% dry bras.

I'd like to have a dollar a case for every wet or damp case that was reloaded and failed to fire.
I'd go on a good fishing trip.

 

[Handshaker]

My Kitchen oven has a dehydrator setting, thats how i do it in a simple cookie metal pan. I usually i set it at 150.

 

[dh1633pm]

I just do 250 degrees in the over for 30 using an aluminum pan. Don’t have time to put each one on a holder upside down. They dry quickly. In the summer, I use solar heat. As you can see there are many methods. Mine works for me.

 

[AJC1]

I use the normal oven at 200 when it's to cold or to humid to dry outside. There are very detailed annealing charts that show heat required and duration of heat applied. I stear way clear of all starting limits on those tables.

 

[MWC1974]

Timely thread… I just ran across some pistol brass I prepped a while ago that must not have been completely dry when I stored it, about 250 pieces. Some light tarnishing inside several of the cases. Back into the FART they go.

 

[AJC1]

Timely thread… I just ran across some pistol brass I prepped a while ago that must not have been completely dry when I stored it, about 250 pieces. Some light tarnishing inside several of the cases. Back into the FART they go.

If you use the oven do not use seasoned baking sheets. Their great for cookies not sticking but discolor your beautiful jewelry brass.

 

[kmw1954]

After first starting to wash brass I had a squib fire in a pistol my wife was shooting. Luckily the bullet stuck in the barrel at a point a second round would not chamber and go into battery. Later found 3 more rounds from the same loading that has wet powder in them.

From that experience I now toast all brass in a toaster oven @200* for 30 minutes and then let it sit in there until I can pick it up bare handed. Never going to take the chance of blowing up a loved one again because of wet powder. I don't trust just letting it sit.

 

[MWC1974]

If you use the oven do not use seasoned baking sheets. Their great for cookies not sticking but discolor your beautiful jewelry brass.

Might line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil to make sure that doesn’t happen. This was fully processed, deprimed, flared brass too. About 30% of them had the blue tarnished look inside the bottom of the case. I threw the whole lot in the FART.

 

[AJC1]

Might line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil to make sure that doesn’t happen. This was fully processed, deprimed, flared brass too. About 30% of them had the blue tarnished look inside the bottom of the case. I threw the whole lot in the FART.

If you have a left over turkey aluminum disposable pan they work perfect

 

[CQB45ACP]

If you have a left over turkey aluminum disposable pan they work perfect

New use of leftovers.

Reminds me of why you don’t stuff a turkey with unpopped pop corn…because it’ll blow the *** out of the turkey. Can you imagine what a little smokeless would do?

I don’t reintroduce brass into the rotation for months so mine’ll be dry regardless. Can’t imagine reloading wet.

 

[MWC1974]

I don’t reintroduce brass into the rotation for months so mine’ll be dry regardless. Can’t imagine reloading wet.

Same. This was a lot I processed probably a year ago. It’s been in a sealed Tupperware container under my bench. Must not have been 100% dry or it managed to get some moisture in there over the months. Most likely wasn’t 100% dry when I put it away because I reload and keep all my components indoors.