Thread: Blow torch for annealing

Originally Posted by Oli1102

Also, I would say the hopper hasn’t saved me anytime yet as I’m still working on getting it 100% reliable so I usually end up watching it anyway to catch the 1 in 50 cases that bounces off or stops halfway down the ramp. I have only done maybe 250cases total so far on it.

The bit of experimenting I did to see if I can get the synch the second motor is the challenge. And if you anneal more than one type of brass then you have to calibrate the two each time (which just wastes time).

Seeing that the manual feeding works well, it was not a big enough issue to put too much effort into automating it. But auto feeding will be a big plus if you want to anneal a lot of brass at a time.


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Greetings,
As mentioned above the real trick with annealing is not to over do it. Too much heat will ruin the case by making the neck dead soft or dangerous to use if the heat gets to the head. A couple of years back I started using the candle method. John Barsness, who writes for the Wolfe Publishing group of magazines covered this method recently. Holding the case about half way along the case rotate the neck of the case in the tip of a candle flame until the case gets almost too hot to hold. Wipe the case all over with a damp Chux cloth and you are done. The method had been tested using Tempilac and found to give good results. You can use a torch as mentioned above. I usually anneal after 3 firings as most cases last this long.

If you can afford one or know someone with one, a AMP Annealer is the way to go.
One of my favourite tools.


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If you start reading the science about annealing with flame you will soon be using the amp annealer instead.
My 2c

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Ive never annealed but remember in the day folks using lead baths to do so. Aka lead melted in a pot. The idea was placing the case mouth down to required depth in that would provide more uniform heating than randomly blowtorching them. Anyway, thats all I know about annealing.

Originally Posted by sixtus

Ive never annealed but remember in the day folks using lead baths to do so. Aka lead melted in a pot.

Found this one that is similar concept to what you describe but it uses salt:

https://youtu.be/qaHGwrKzQYY


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After decades of pissing around with different annealing techniques I finally spat the dummy and splashed out on an AMP annealing machine. One the best purchases I have made. They're made here in NZ.

You can do it with a blow torch. A trick is to put a lee shell holder in a drill to hold the case, and spin it in the flame.
The important part is figuring out how long to actually keep it in the flame for. You can figure this out via below method.

Do the first one in the dark, and watch the colour of the flame coming off the brass. I suggest doing it in the dark so you can better see the change in flame colour while you get an idea of how long you need to keep it in the flame.

Once you have gone too far, and its starting to burn elements out of the brass, the colour of the flame that is coming off the brass will change to a sort of orange colour. This signifies you have gone too far and zinc? is burning up.
So, what you want to do is count how long it takes for that orange tinge to appear in the flame (easier to see in the dark), and then anneal your brass for a second or so less than that time.

It usually ends up at about 5-6 seconds in the flame for the cases I load using a gas torch with a blue bottle.

I use a battery drill with a deep socket that is about the size of the case and hold and rotate it in the flame until the brass changes colour, not to red. I size 204 Ruger cases to 22-204, 6mm-204 and 25-204 and the two larger ones will start cracking necks if I don't anneal every so often. I also form 6.5x58R From 9.3x72R and usually have to anneal twice during the swaging process. I just dump them out of the socket onto a damp towel, it sucks the heat out of them and keeps them from rolling around, and I don't get any water in the case.

L to R 243 Win., 6.5x58r Sauer, 9.3x72R(the parent case for the 6.5x58R) it works the brass a lot and will harden it halfway through swaging it down and needs a second anneal to finish without rippling/creasing the brass.

No offence meant to all the flame annealers but the science proves that it is not a satisfactory awnser to the problem of consistent annealing.
It seems to be a bit like a mate of mine is a rabid antivaxer who ignores science and runs with snake oil crew.
I have had my share of fun winding him up when he insists on putting his vitriol up on social media.
And yes I did buy an amp annealler and yes I had my three boys vaccinated.
My brass is great and my boys are no stranger than myself.

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