Stupid Move Raises Stupid Question...

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BikerNut

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I cleaned about 250 mixed 9mm and .38 Spcl. in my new tumbler over the weekend, then after removing the corn media, I put them in one of my wife's colanders and rinsed off the dust in the sink. Then I set them outside to dry off. THEN it started pouring rain.

So I put the shiny gold brass on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 200 degrees. I meant to take them out after 5-10 minutes.

Then a bunch of other things popped up (happens when you have teenagers in the house) and I forgot the brass in the oven.

When I took them out... ahem, two hours later... they were all really dark brown. Did I totally screw myself? Part of me wants to reload them, since they are all just once-shot brass... but part of me is thinking that I just made them too brittle to be safely reloaded and fired (especially with a 65-year old .38 and a 40-year old 9mm).

Pitch the brass and mark this episode in my Dumbass column?
 
BikerNut if you want to save a lot of that time then add something to your media like Nu Finish car polish and you won't have the dust to wash off. Also add a used dryer sheet or paper towel cut into around 10 or 12 pieces and add those. They will help keep the media clean. Don't use anything with ammonia. I add about 3/4 cap full of Nu Finish with every load of brass. Add the NF and let run for 5 minutes, then add the dryer sheet and brass and they will come out clean and dust free.
Rusty
 
pretty d******* myself
Click to expand...

That was helpful.

It depends on how hot they got. I do not know how hot that is either. If the case heads got hot enough to soften, you are out of luck, but again, I don't know what temp will do it. They are probably OK, but I would be very cautious. Maybe someone who has tried it will come along and let us know.
 
I dry mine at 200 degrees when I find it necessary to wash them and have never had a problem. I'm not sure that the time would matter unless it got quite a bit hotter. My tailgate gets close to this temp in the hot summer. I would probably load a few pretty light and try them but thats me!!! Oh yeah and I also use my wifes cooking utensils(but I don't usually give them back).
 
THROW THEM AWAY!

Putting brass in an oven is literally like playing a game of Russian roulette. If the case head is allow to reach a temp of around 500 degrees it will completely anneal and become dead soft destroying it's ability to contain pressure.

How much do you trust your Hecho En Mexico oven?
 
I am not a metalurgist (nor can I spell it) but I think you will be ok. I don't have my heat treat books with me right now or I would look it up for you.
I think 200 degs is below the level that is gonna break anything down.
For the heck of it send Norma or somebody like an email and see what they say.
 
Brass is the most expensive reloading component unless you use it several times. In the grand scheme of things its a whole lot cheaper to sacrifice some brass than your pistol or your fingers or your face.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'll add them to my bucket of unreloadable .22RF brass.

I was just flipping through my copy of "The ABC's of Reloading" and it said you could dry brass in the oven at NO MORE THAN 150 DEGREES.

I was up around 200. And, no, it's not an accurate oven.

BTW, the cookie sheet I used is the scoured and scraped one that only gets used to sort nails and things like that.

But I cleaned the colander REALLY WELL!
 
Toss 'em and don't do it again. There's no need or point to putting brass in the oven.

But don't feel too bad. I once set a Mauser stock on fire by leaving it in the oven too long. I was cleaning cosmoline. I'm still convinced the theory was sound.
 
I do not understand the obsession with cleaning brass. The point is to avoid scratching dies with dirty brass. The solution is to tumble your brass for an hour or so. Some people like "shiny" so they add a cap full of one polish or another. (Dillon works well.)

Beyond that, what are we trying to accomplish?
 
THE BRASS SHOULD BE FINE!

200 degrees wont anneal anything. the darkening is tarnish that was sped up by the hot conditions.

if you want to be sure then take a darkened one and try to dent it with a push pin or needle. see how it compares to a good one.
 
There ya go. :D
Click to expand...

Yabut... like I said, a cap full of one of the polishes makes your brass look better than new, carries no risk, and requires no additional steps. I simply can't imagine a need to "rinse the dust off" my brass and then contaminate my wife's cooking utensils and oven with it.

Each to his own, I guess...
 
Just what you said .38, to avoid scratching your dies with dirty brass. I've tumbled everything from .410 shells up to 50 cal. cases, with glass beads to speedy dry. Just the other day I melted Johnsons paste wax , 2 table spoons and added 1teaspoon of alcohal and added that to 200 cases of .45 cases. Tumbled for 3 hrs. and looked like new. EXPERIMENT !
 
Shiney is good, it helps finding them again :)

I've shot plenty of "weathered brown" brass that just doesn't shine up, never for max loads, but then I don't do max loads. Other than they being harder to find, never had an issue with them.

--wally.
 
I am not a metalurgist (nor can I spell it) but I think you will be ok. I don't have my heat treat books with me right now or I would look it up for you.
I think 200 degs is below the level that is gonna break anything down.
Click to expand...

I agree. If it was on 200F, nothing should have happened. I believe brass will be fine up to ~480F.
 
Tumble them again and see if the tarnish comes right off, or if the metal is pinkish underneath. If it looks pink, junk 'em. If not, shoot 'em. And don't worry about the dust next time. I dump mine out on an old towel and roll them a little and the dust comes right off.
If yo utake used dryer sheets and tear them into 4 pieces, stick 4-6 pieces in your tumbler with the brass and media as it runs, it will help absorb the dust and keep everything cleaner. Throw out the used pieces between each batch.
 
if you do toss the brass (i probably would) smash them with a hammer before you toss them in the bucket. If you deem them unsafe, make sure no one could use them ever again.
 
Dust on the cases can be mostly be eliminated with using polish, dryer clothes, and sprinkling a bit of water in the media occasionally if it gets too dry
 
My take

first he is not a dumbazzz. so im sorry for that post. people do use ovens i do.

one time i needed some 300 bullets to go shooting the next day. thus i had just set some out on some wax paper with lee alox lube. I knew i was screwed then i remember what i read. So i carefully took the cookie sheet took it to the oven placed the oven on 150 and left them in the oven for 30 minutes. then i pulled them out let them cool down. They were ready to load. I have also used the oven for drying brass a lot of people do. you just have to pay better attention. As for dryer sheets, nu finish, papertowels. All of it works and is the best stuff to use. Overall though. after tumbeling the brass i would be more concerned about loading them then wiping off the dust. as they would have to lubed sized thend loaded. You may want to throw them in the tumbler after you load them. then they will be really really shiney. Only remember you should only throw in jacketed rounds not lead rounds. As the tumbling action will wear down the lead. and also remove lube. Especially on full lubed bullets like lla bullets.
 
I agree 200 degrees wouldn't hurt them.
But 200 degrees won't make them turn brown either!

It appears to me your oven thermostat has a very wide temperature swing between off & on.

At some point your brass got cooked and ruined.

Toss it!

rcmodel
 
Get rid of them...

Not only that, but bail the corn cob and go crushed walnut and some nu-finish as mentioned before.

Also buy yourself a media separator.
 
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