Thread: anealing service

A water bath heat, case in,neck out,treat nice straw colour,push over? Annealed, Easy, but I only shoot BP so no real pressure or shock, plenty of heat and corrosion, the bastards still split if I don't

Originally Posted by Tussock

You probably dont need to push them over, just let them cool slow.

Push them over and you don't burn yourself!

Thats interesting putting them in the oven. havent heard of that before. But how do you keep the water cool?! To me annealing over a 'longer' period is just asking for trouble if you cant keep the bottom cool enough. But i mean , i reloaded some cases this afternoon, annealing was done and cases cooled in 5 minutes ready to continue. The other thing is how do you heat around the case evenly if they are all standing up in a water tray? Also pushing a hot case over into the water, might mean that one side of the case cools faster than the other.

If i remember rightly, the brass has to get to or reach a certain temperature for it to anneal which i think is why people use temperature indicating fluid for this (You can use a similar method to anneal work hardened aluminuim using the soot from an acetylene torch). And you want to do that without annealing the rest of the case. Also if you get the brass too hot, it will be just as bad for case life as over work hardened brass

What would be a reasonable price to pay for an annealing service, per x100 say ? ?

Thoughts anybody. . . .?

You could do it commercially with a variable speed conveyor, even heat source and a spray cooll,is there a business op here?

Courier would make all the money?

its not worth it really, buy a few tools etc and youre sorted forever!

Originally Posted by scoped

its not worth it really, buy a few tools etc and youre sorted forever!

Yep that's my thought as well, but there some" uncoordinated "people out there, I know from the questions I get in my bus

Originally Posted by Tussock

You need to protect the rest of the case from the heat, in a bath with cooling liquid.

Annealing slowly is fine. Believe it or not, cases anneal at room temperature. Just very very slowly. Work hardening is a process where the metal is deformed, and defects accumulate in its crystal structure. In order for metal to stretch smoothly, it needs a nice, homogenous crystal structure, where each atom can slide past the adjacent atoms unimpeded. The defects from deformation (work) created gaps etc where that impede that smooth slide. These correct themselves over time, as the brass goes back to its preferred structure, but its very slow.

You can speed up that healing process by heating the metal up. This opens up the crystal structure and lets everything relax back to where it wants to be faster. Fast or slow, the end result is the same. No more defects, and soft, homogenous metal. 5 seconds at 500 degrees or 5 minutes at 150 degrees, same result (I made those numbers up but you get the idea).

Because it would be more even, my preference would be slow annealing in an even heat, like an oven. Then there is no hot spot like with a blow torch.

The you just have to keep the lower part of the case cool. For that you can use a water bath.

I have not done it, but it should do a good job.

Not sure you are correct on annealing all the case including the web and over a long time. There is a report on this and I will try to locate it again.

Look at this for an analysis about all case annealing. Scroll down the paragraph headed OVER ANNEALING /UNDER ANNEALING.

Sorry forgot to include link

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

I can appreciate that if you are not an engineer / techy you have not done anealing in tech but really its pretty easy once you have looked at it. I dont think you can get it to wrong, interesting that mil brass is usually (always?) anealed, they even glue often?

Which leads me to, I had a chat to an experienced reloader & shooter over the weekend, he shoots mil now rather than palma so I dnt think he's as closed lipped as others. Anyway, He seemed to think that neck tension was one of the biggest factors in accuracy. Which suggests to me anealing is important, plus consistant wall thickness, and concentricity, which points me at better quality brass. So prep and care in this area would be where to spend the time by the sound of it. He likes Lee kit a lot except for the chamfer tool, buy something better. Thinks the "better" competition stuff is a rip off.

thoughts?

My one is buy the Lee 50th kit and the lyman vld tool...spend the money saved on a better scope or shooting.

I like the idea of running sane pressures so primer pockets aren't ruined, minimally sizing, and annealing after every so many firings to make my expensive brass last forever

However I don't actually do it as it's too much effort compared to emailing Belmont for more

Originally Posted by gimp

I like the idea of running sane pressures so primer pockets aren't ruined, minimally sizing, and annealing after every so many firings to make my expensive brass last forever

However I don't actually do it as it's too much effort compared to emailing Belmont for more

How is it too much effort? Drill, propane torch ,socket/adaptor. 5 seconds for 223.

I bought the Lee and the only thing from it I use is the press and powder thrower. I only use the thrower cause it's easy and the press because I can't afford to upgrade yet.

If doing it again I wouldn't buy a kit. I'd get a good press, a set of good digital scales with trickler and all the other accessories all seperately. Plus a load data manual.