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christopherharding
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Myg30
johnblackwell
If you get it cherry red you’ve gone to far and your brass will be to soft.
There’s several ways to anneal your brass and several outlined on the castboolit site. Lots of reading there. I highly suggest it.
I anneal my brass in a dark room by spinning it in a socket on a extension in my hand. I count while spinning it in the flame and look for a lite glow from the case mouth of the brass. Different size and thicknesses of brass will begin to glow at different rates. The goal for me is to keep it consistent and uniform for accuracy , and that’s why I count and watch for the glow to achieve a routine. Case to bullet tension plays a large part in accuracy and annealing brass will weaken the case neck strength. It’s not hard, you just need to be consistent. The cases will begin to harden again just as soon as you begin to use them. Your experience and preferred method may vary.adamsutherland
I prefer Tempillaq to Tempilstick, I find it easier to apply.
If you do get Tempillaq then be sure to get a bottle of the thinners as well.
I put three dabs of 650 degrees around the top of the case shoulder and three dabs of 350 degrees around the case about 1/4 of the way up the case from the case head.
I use an annealing cup in a drill and a blow torch with the flame just touching case mouth.
When the 650 turn I stop. If the 350 turns then I’ve over heated the case and the anneal is further down than I want, rarely happens but if it does I batch those cases separately.
As has been said consistency is the key, for cast bullets I like my case mouths to be on the springy side rather than soft, annealing give me base point to work from so I can work harden the brass up to the springyness I want
daveridenour
I use an annealing procedure much like Dromia described in his post. I like the Temp-Sticks to determine how long to heat a few pieces of the brass, and then I use that length of time to anneal all the others. I also use the Lee case holders from their trimmers to hold the brass. Otherwise, my method is basically the same as Dromia’s.
There are a couple of really good articles on brass case annealing that you should read. Both of these articles explain how annealing brass cartridge cases is a function of temperature and time. They also explain why some of the typical ways people try to anneal brass cases is either simply a waste of time, or perhaps even dangerous.
One of the articles is by Dr. Ken Howell, and is entitled “Annealing Cases”. See: http://www.24hourcampfire.com/annealing.html Kenny recommends using a 650 degree to 660 degree Temp-Stick to mark the case necks. He also recommends polishing a few of the brass cases, so you can easily see the slight color shift to a light blue color, as the brass rapidly oxidizes from the heat of the torch. Once you know how long it takes to bring the brass to the proper temperature, then use this time for all the others. This is the method I use.
Another really good article is by Jim Harris and Ken Light, and is entitled “The Art and Science of Annealing”. See: http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html This article gets more into what it actually takes to anneal brass. It also discusses why some of the commonly used techniques like twirling the brass in your fingers over some type of flame doesn’t really anneal the brass, as well as why heating the brass until it glows is downright dangerous.
If you can’t find Temp-Stick at a local welding supply store, go to McMaster-Carr on-line. See: http://www.mcmaster.com/#temperature-sticks/=w7frow
Dave
Mike Bambauer
Simple and cheap..
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Fred+Barker+candle+annealing+method&rlz=1C1GGGE_enCA399CA401&oq=Fred+Barker+candle+annealing+method&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8keithsharp
Buy a 1/4″ socket adaptor for your cordless drill. Use a snug fitting 1/4″ drive socket to hold case. Spin case in dark room while directing flame at shoulder of case. Try to be consistant and touch blue tip of flame to shoulder. When case neck “just starts” to turn cherry red dump it into bucket of water. You can quickly anneal 50 cases this way. Always use brass from the same lot for best accuracy.
Ranch Dog
I do quite a bit of handloading and have become quite the case annealer since my purchase of the Ballistic Edge Annealer! I use 650° & 400° Tempilaq as described by others above.
samuelfarrington
I use the drill and socket method with a smallish propane torch just as posted earlier. A darkened room and a bucket of water to cool. Seems like temperature/time information is often conflicted, as is color determination. My experience is limited to trying to preserve cases, and I’ve been applying heat to just turning slightly red in the dark, what I understood to be about 750-850 degrees, and drop in bucket. Seems to work, as case mouths retain their springiness afterwards. I understand 650 degrees would require longer exposure, and I’m not aware of any technique to achieve that at home while keeping the high heat localized at the neck and shoulder. The rapid cooling does not effect brass, and the temperature color spectrum is the same regardless of material as far as I understand it. Heating to cherry red in a lighted room would indicate over 1600 degrees.
Samchristopherharding
Hi I purchased a annealing cup in .308 thinking it would do for my mas36 cases but unfortunately the mas case is slightly bigger. I toyed with the idea of altering the annealing cup to fit. But its such a beautiful piece of machining I could not bring my self to do it. So today I grabbed a piece of aluminium bar stock out of my scrap bin and made one for the mas it works a treat. I am using tempilaq 650F indicator I just put a blob on the case shoulder let it dry then spun the case in the annealing cup in a cordless drill and heated it up until the tempilaq melted then dunked the case into water.
I’m new to this so its all a learning curve.
Myg30
johnblackwell
adamsutherland
daveridenour
Mike Bambauer
keithsharp
samuelfarrington
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