After Annealing - Cleaning inside of neck?

[Leaddog]

After cleaning by the stainless steel method, I anneal with a Benchsource machine (highly recommended). Even though the case necks are clean, there is some 'stickiness' after annealing.

I currently run a bronze brush through the neck a few times followed by a nylon brush wrapped in 0000 steel wool. This gives me a nice mirror finish to the inside of my necks but is very time consuming and hard on my hands after awhile. Anyone have a faster, more expedient method to obtain the same results? Drill, Dremel? What technique works best for you?

Thank you.

 

[Elwood]

Although I don't use stainless steel media to clean my cases, I do run the inside of the necks over a nylon brush with 0000 wire wool. For this I use a RCBS case prep station, I didn't buy it for this purpose but now I find it's about the only use it ever gets, so its an expensive fix, but it does work.

 

[lpreddick]

super shiney necks are not a good thing. there has been a good bit of discussion about the problem. i discovered it the hard way and was set straight on this forum. i polished the inside neck and bullet thinking the super smooth surfaces would allow a smooth bullet release and consistent tension allowing pressures to be the same. PROBLEM: there is a bonding of copper jacket and brass almost like super glue. the velocities were all over the place and accuracy was nil. someone discussed this and suggested seating remaining bullets 5-10 thous and you would hear a POP...breaking this bond and indeed it was there. there needs to be a little bit of seperation between bullet and inside neck to allow the bullet to slip or slide out. a light brushing with a nylon brush seems to be sufficient. annealed necks could be another problem in that the process creates some oxidized copper crust-like stuff that may need more vigorous treatment. this applies to the outside also and should be cleaned before neck sizing. super shiney necks don't seem to be a problem. a super shiney, slick case body is also not good...very pretty, indeed, but will not grab inside of chamber during firing, resulting in excessive bolt thrust.

 

[Elkbane]

I don't over clean my case necks for just the reason lpreddick stated above. But when I tried it once, I used a half worn bronze brush wrapped in steel wool inserted into my power screwdriver, set on low speed. To avid the bond between case neck and bullet, I took one of my wif's small makup contanier (about 1? high and 1.5" diameter, filled it about halfway up with lead shot, then filled the voids with powdered graphite. A quick turn of the necks coats the neck with graphite inside and out.

But it's messy - you have to wipe the graphite off the outside of the case neck. This made the bullets alot easier to seat and the dry lude helped avoid the bond between case neck and bullet.
Elkbane

 

[dave7mm]

Cleaned with the SS pins and annealed on the benchsource.
I use the very same process every time I reload them.
Never seem to notice , 'stickiness'.
Bullets are coated with HBN though.
HBN is your friend.

dave

 

[jlow]

Surprised you do it that way – is there a rationale?

For me, I first deprime the brass, anneal, then followed by SS media cleaning. Works well. I should say I hand anneal in a socket attached to a drill so dirty brass does not bother me.

 

[Torg]

But it's messy - you have to wipe the graphite off the outside of the case neck. This made the bullets alot easier to seat and the dry lude helped avoid the bond between case neck and bullet.
Elkbane

Suggest: HBN

 

[KT]

Surprised you do it that way – is there a rationale?

For me, I first deprime the brass, anneal, then followed by SS media cleaning. Works well. I should say I hand anneal in a socket attached to a drill so dirty brass does not bother me.

I do the same except I use a sonic cleaner.

KT

 

[Cigarcop]

I also found out the hard way when I made my necks very clean with steel wool..But, the problem with bonding only happened after the cases sat for some time, I can't say how long it takes but for me I had ammo that had set for about 3 months or longer....very erratic printing from different pressure spikes. I had to pull the heads up a bit and reseat the ones I had remaing.

I still clean the inside with Steel Wool but I don't remove all the carbon from the inside of the necks, and I definitely don't let them sit longer than needed!

 

[kelbro]

Consistency. If you do something a certain way once and get good results, you have to keep doing it that way.

Take a load with new brass and shoot it. Then tumble the brass and compare. Then US clean it. Then SS tumble it. Throw some annealing in the mix. Your groups will be all over the place.

I have tried all of the case prep ideas and determined that tumbling for an hour in walnut with a capful of mineral spirits gets the cases (necks included) clean enough to shoot very consistent groups. If I anneal a lot of target/match brass, I anneal that lot every time. I think that helps my consistency.

I'm not discounting the other cleaning methods, just relating what works for me.

 

[1shot]

I use a combination of what several of the previous posters do. If I'm going to anneal a group or lot of brass, I do it before tumbling. I always get a better color read if I do it before as opposed to after tumbling. (I back this up with a temp stick) After I tumble in apricot hulls with a little Brasso added once in a while. After tumbling I use a nylon brush with a cordless screwdriver on the necks, then dip a ladies mascara brush in powdered graphite and run the brush in the necks. I've found that I get 4-5 cases done before the brush needs reloaded with graphite. As always it's not the only way, just my way.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd

 

[DennisH]

super shiney necks are not a good thing. there has been a good bit of discussion about the problem. i discovered it the hard way and was set straight on this forum. i polished the inside neck and bullet thinking the super smooth surfaces would allow a smooth bullet release and consistent tension allowing pressures to be the same. PROBLEM: there is a bonding of copper jacket and brass almost like super glue. the velocities were all over the place and accuracy was nil. someone discussed this and suggested seating remaining bullets 5-10 thous and you would hear a POP...breaking this bond and indeed it was there. there needs to be a little bit of seperation between bullet and inside neck to allow the bullet to slip or slide out. a light brushing with a nylon brush seems to be sufficient.

I agree with the above, especially light brushing with a nylon brush. Getting a neck to clean lessen's the next tension which can affect pressure.

Like using Moly bullets, you need to increase your load to achieve the same results as the moly reduces friction between the bullet and barrel. Clean necks reduces friction between the case and bullet, both which affects pressure and your bullets performance!

Super cleaning necks are like lubing, reducing friction and removing carbon deposits. If you jam your bullets, this will also cause a problem with super clean necks.

someone discussed this and suggested seating remaining bullets 5-10 thous and you would hear a POP...breaking this bond and indeed it was there.

This is smiliiar to galvanic corrision. Two metals naturally bonding together!

For the record, I SS clean my brass, then I anneal, then the nylon brush.

 

[jlow]

I would like to know the rationale for the nylon brush in a case that has been SS media cleaned and annealed? Not challenging, just wondering.

 

[Leaddog]

I would like to know the rationale for the nylon brush in a case that has been SS media cleaned and annealed? Not challenging, just wondering.

When a case is annealed, there is a slight roughness in the neck. I am not a metallurgist, but I guess it is the annealed zinc in the brass that causes it. I've found that a nylon brush is not quite adequate. I use a few strokes of a bronze brush followed by a nylon brush with 0000 steel works well in my Lapua brass.

If my cases are only stainless cleaned with no annealing, nothing further is required.

I like my case necks mirror cleaned, but if I am loading for more than 2 weeks out, I load them .020 long and reseat the day before the match. I have some older ammo that shows 'cold welding' after about 8 weeks.

Back to my original post..... What method are you using that expedites the cleaning?

 

[Scott Harris]

Here is my method:
1. Clean for 15 minutes using SSM
2. Anneal
3. Size the case with a bushing only .001 less than loaded diameter. Since the case neck has no lubrication, that's all I need to get decent tension.
4. Load it up.

Works great, my F-Class scores continue to inch higher and my best scores have happened with newly annealed brass.

 

[DennisH]

I've found that a nylon brush is not quite adequate. I use a few strokes of a bronze brush followed by a nylon brush

Some feel a bronze brush is too harsh for the inside of a case neck and reduces neck tension!

 

[jlow]

When a case is annealed, there is a slight roughness in the neck. I am not a metallurgist, but I guess it is the annealed zinc in the brass that causes it. I've found that a nylon brush is not quite adequate. I use a few strokes of a bronze brush followed by a nylon brush with 0000 steel works well in my Lapua brass.

If my cases are only stainless cleaned with no annealing, nothing further is required.

I like my case necks mirror cleaned, but if I am loading for more than 2 weeks out, I load them .020 long and reseat the day before the match. I have some older ammo that shows 'cold welding' after about 8 weeks.

Back to my original post..... What method are you using that expedites the cleaning?

I can understand the usefulness of the nylon brush to remove the slight roughness after annealing, but if you use the SS media after the annealing instead of before it, would the SS media not also remove the roughness from the annealing and would this not expedite the cleaning?

 

[Leaddog]

JLow -probably so, but I don't want to anneal a dirty case or have to ss clean twice.

 

[jlow]

JLow -probably so, but I don't want to anneal a dirty case or have to ss clean twice.

Interesting - rationale for not annealing a dirty case?

 

[Leaddog]

JLow -probably so, but I don't want to anneal a dirty case or have to ss clean twice.

Interesting - rationale for not annealing a dirty case?

Yep... not interested in burning carbon or other residues into the brass at the annealed areas of the case.