Made the jump to annealing.

[JFrank]

Once fired Nosler, 7 sec count. Base of the case is still cool, neck went red for a split second.
View attachment 1144386 View attachment 1144387

Have you tried regular propane instead of maps gas ?

 

[Walkalong]

Propane doesn’t burn as hot as MAP gas, and works just fine.

 

[jmorris]

The ideal situation is you use a great source powerful enough to quickly get the heat where you want it and then off before it can effectively spread to undesired parts of the case.

Looks like this.



Using propane, if the flame changes from blue to orange you need to reduce the dwell time in the flames (speed up the index motor). The flame will change color before the brass starts to glow any shade of any color.

 

[N555]

I've never understood this process. If you are getting the neck to 750 degrees to anneal it, the rest of the case has to be at the least 3-4 hundred degrees. I don't see how a person is going to hold a 300 degree piece of metal in their fingers.

Even if it did 300f doesn't effect brass hardness at all. 400f takes somewhere around a year to anneal brass. The temperature could be held at 400f for a month before it starts to soften it at all.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

I used propane.

 

[N555]

Propane doesn’t burn as hot as MAP gas, and works just fine.

Yes use proane. Propane is cheaper, works great and you can get 20lb tank.
I find 14 and 16oz tanks give pressure swing and you can't use the last 10%
to 20% of what's in a small tank because the pressure drops too much as it runs out of fuel. I used a 16oz tank exactly once on the annealeez.

 

[N555]

Looks like this.



Using propane, if the flame changes from blue to orange you need to reduce the dwell time in the flames (speed up the index motor). The flame will change color before the brass starts to glow any shade of any color.

No glow, no annealing.
This is how I do it, before sizing. Target temperature is about 1,500f on the induction machine since the cycle lasts about 6 seconds.

 

[Varminterror]

No glow, no annealing.

Terrible advice, not based on any proven science.

Cartridge brass will glow around 950 degrees, whereas annealing - stress relieving - happens around 200 degrees cooler. Over-cooking brass will promote dead soft necks which won’t hold bullets, such as the smoked cases @LoonWulf pictured here which could be crushed by finger pressure.

 

[N555]

That's why I get it near dead soft and work the hardness back into it...

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

I refill the 1lb tanks from a 20 lb. We can't take the 20 lb tanks inside. It's a big fine. I know someone who got caught. 5k fine. He almost went to jail too. He said if his wife didn't rely on him to care for her. He would have got some jail time.

 

[N555]

There's also refillable 4 and 5lb tanks.
I kept having to mess with speed on the amnealeez with a 1lb tank that was less than half full.
I had to let the torch burn for a minute or 2 before running brass with a 1lb tank.
Do you live in east Germany or something?

 

[Laphroaig]

All objective science around “color change” and “glow” based methods proves both to be a waste of time, neither to be based on any factual science.

The glow occurs when kinetic energy released by heat excited atoms enters the visible spectrum. In metals, that occurs in a narrow band of temperatures around 900* F. Plenty of science behind that. The question is what temperature should you anneal at?

 

[jmorris]

No glow, no annealing.
This is how I do it, before sizing. Target temperature is about 1,500f on the induction machine since the cycle lasts about 6 seconds.

That one looks done, for good.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

No in Pa lol. The stores that sell full propane tanks have signs too. No tanks in the store. They keep them outside in a locked cage. Some towns banned propane grills on the porch. And they have to be so many feet from the house. At least here im allowed to have my grill on the porch or deck.

 

[N555]

That one looks done, for good.

I have already load and fired that one and it's been annealed like that and reloaded again. So you are wrong there.

 

[N555]

No in Pa lol. The stores that sell full propane tanks have signs too. No tanks in the store. They keep them outside in a locked cage. Some towns banned propane grills on the porch. And they have to be so many feet from the house. At least here im allowed to have my grill on the porch or deck.

If you were so inclined there are propane lines available up to 20ft is the longest I have see them.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Yeah i have one of them lines. For in case the power goes out. I can run a portable heater then.

 

[N555]

The glow occurs when kinetic energy released by heat excited atoms enters the visible spectrum. In metals, that occurs in a narrow band of temperatures around 900* F. Plenty of science behind that. The question is what temperature should you anneal at?

There is no correct temperature.
Annealing is what ever you need it to be.
If you want to anneal after sizing and barely heat the brass up to try and knock the hardness down a smidgen to extend brass life that appears work, kind of.
For me I want repeatable results so I knock it down to nearly dead soft and work the hardness back into it so it's very close to factory hardness.

 

[Varminterror]

The glow occurs when kinetic energy released by heat excited atoms enters the visible spectrum. In metals, that occurs in a narrow band of temperatures around 900* F. Plenty of science behind that. The question is what temperature should you anneal at?

If you’d have bothered to read the thread:

Cartridge brass will glow around 950 degrees, whereas annealing - stress relieving - happens around 200 degrees cooler.

 

[Varminterror]

That one looks done, for good.

It is. Absolutely.

 

[Varminterror]

View attachment 1144412

Maybe it’s your lighting here, but these look to have been over cooked also - that pink color is raw copper, suggesting you’ve burnt away zinc by overheating during the “annealing” you did.

 

[N555]

It is. Absolutely.

I have already load and fired that one and it's been annealed just like that and reloaded it again. So you are wrong there.

 

[Skgreen]

Always interesting how some look at what they perceive as annealed while others see burnt brass.
I finally broke down and got some Tempilac for my Anealeez.

 

[JFrank]

I spend a considerable amount of time getting my brass work hardened just the way I like, to take a blow torch to a case might be counterproductive to my program. I do have cases set aside for future consideration and perhaps annealing will show an improvement on paper and perhaps not..

 

[N555]

Always interesting how some look at what they perceive as annealed while others see burnt brass.
I finally broke down and got some Tempilac for my Anealeez.

Placebo effect.
Annealing at templaiq temperatures doesn't appear to do anything to the brass except increase variability. 850f for a few seconds is the edge of where annealing juat starts to happen.
I really don't want to waste $50 on tempilaq, but it appears "annealing to 850f" softens brass that's already way too hard by maybe 1 Webster hardness point. Where factory brass is a 12 to 13 hardness, fired and resized is around a 16, fired and sized several times brass is around 17 to 18.