Annealing

[KentuckyFisherman]

I took my first shot at annealing yesterday, using some 6PPC brass,I know, I should have practiced on .223). I found a 650 degree TempilStik and tried using it, but to be honest the material was kind of dry and chalky and didn't want to stick to the brass much at all. It helped some, maybe, but not all that much.

I think things went basically OK and I'm not worried that I got any of the case bodies too hot. I do believe, though, that the necks on my first 10-12 pieces may have been overheated as they ended up with kind of a pinkish gold color and no shine. On the later cases I stopped the heating earlier and the necks retained their shine, although I never did really get much of the blue coloration you see on new Lapua.

For those who have experience annealing: If I have some necks that show this dull gold or copper-looking color, are those cases toast? I realize overly soft necks are going to show different neck tension, but are they dangerous otherwise? If fired and neck sized a couple of times,or just bounced back and forth from an expander mandrel to a neck sizer to work the metal), wouldn't they harden up and be fine at that point?

I obviously don't want to use unsafe brass, but I also don't want to throw away fully prepped PPC cases if they're OK to use. What's your take?

 

[Preacher]

Normally if you loose the shine, you've lost the brass... not 100% of the time, but not worth the cost if you loose body parts... toss it and be on the safe side.....

 

[vonb]

The factory Lapua cases don't have any shine on them:

http://www.lapua.com/index.php?id=852

 

[Winchester69]

Softening the brass is the purpose of annealing. If the base gets soft, then you're in trouble. Some people have trouble with the Tempil-Stik, others don't. I have to wonder if it's due to any residual lube on the case. At any rate, once you get your process regulated, the Stik really isn't necessary. Use the Stik to get your method worked out.

 

[NORZ]

Normally if you loose the shine, you've lost the brass... not 100% of the time, but not worth the cost if you loose body parts... toss it and be on the safe side.....

I´ve seen some folks heat the necks to a bright yellow/orange color. Those cartridges have been fired and the shooters still retain all their original bodyparts, and no foreign.

I might be guilty of overheating the neck/shoulder area of a 100 or so Lapua 308 cases,I necksize after annealing).

Can we get some concrete information on the metalurgy of the brass when overheating?

BTW. I´m going to remote-fire a couple of overheated rounds and post the results.

 

[KentuckyFisherman]

Thanks for the photo, Hunt, I don't feel so uneasy now. I thought I remembered new Lapua having lots of dark blue and other colors on the neck, but still pretty shiny. But the photo you posted and the ones on their website look pretty much like what I got from annealing: kind of a milky, coppery look on the neck, with some darkening a little farther down on the shoulder. For sure Lapua's annealing goes much farther down the case body than what I did, so I shouldn't have any safety concern there. I was just worried that I might have over-annealed some of the necks and wondered if that was a safety issue. Sounds like it's not, although I may see some effect on neck tension, which was one of my goals for annealing in the first place.

Thanks for all the input.