Discolored brass from heat

[bigedp51]

Question: Could the heat from a light bulb cause the brass to become softer.

I was tumbling a high volume of .223 cases with stainless steel pins and after partially drying them by shaking then in a towel. The cases were placed in a five gallon bucket and a utility drop light was placed in the bucket as a heat source.

The light slid into the bucket while drying and the bulb ended up touching some of the cases. These cases are now a different color, could a 75 watt light bulb anneal brass and make these cases softer? Or I'm I seeing some other type of reaction to heat, moisture and drying?

I have no problem chucking these cases but I'm just wondering if any of you have seen the same thing when drying cases in the oven or by other methods.

Below, cases from the same bucket of drying brass and just inches apart, the case on the left was touching the light bulb.

 

[jsn]

Can you get an oven thermometer near the light to see what kind of temperatures it is generating?

Also, can you confirm that the discolored brass are only those in contact with the light? No others anywhere else?

 

[bigedp51]

Can you get an oven thermometer near the light to see what kind of temperatures it is generating?

Also, can you confirm that the discolored brass are only those in contact with the light? No others anywhere else?

I normally do not dry the brass by this method and was just trying to speed things up. I do not plan to duplicate this and possibly damage more cases to get a temp reading for your curiosity. And Yes I can confirm these cases were in contact with the light bulb.

I asked a simple question and do not want to get involved in a science project and play 50 questions. I'm sorry if I come across as overly harsh but to duplicate what happened would involve the same possible mistake twice and damaging even more brass. It would also involve falling asleep in the Lazy Boy recliner and leaving the cases in the five gallon bucket most of the night with the light bulb on.

Does anyone have eyeballs calibrated to brass over temp anomalies?
(or screwed up and done this yourself)

Does this brass appear to have reached annealing temperatures by its color?

 

[BoydAllen]

I would chuck them. Why take a chance?

 

[bheadboy]

some years ago, a friend in the laundry business, had a lot of 45acp brass that was pickup, etc, dirty, he ran it in a washing maching,soap and all, then dryed it in a dryer using a net bag to keep it contained.

it came out discolored, split on sizing and went to the trash can, a commercail clothes dryer usually is limited to 145f,

FYI

Bob

 

[shooter63]

theyre not worth what it could cost looks like theyve been too hot a 75 wat bulb laying on 1 or real close to them would probably get them way to hot id toss them regards shooter63

 

[Mudcat]

exactly how hot does a 75 watt bulb get? I doubt it gets hot enough to anneal brass. That discoloring looks more like chemical discoloration than heat.

 

[necchi]

exactly how hot does a 75 watt bulb get?

The Element get's over 4,500 degrees.

Biged,
Toss'm in the scrap bucket.

 

[Bowman44]

+1 toss them, not worth damage to you or your weapon. T.S.

 

[bigedp51]

Thank you for your relies, I tossed them in the trash once and then asked myself how hot does a light bulb get and pulled them out again and took the photo and posted my question.

They will go back in the trash can again for the second time. I asked the question mainly because in 45 years of reloading I have never annealed a single case and the color of these cases made me wonder how hot did they really get.

My hats off to necchi, I never knew Thomas Edison personally or how hot a light bulb got.

I was hoping Bozo would answer the question and tell me to just grease the cases and shoot them. Oh well I'm going to stick with the elevated hair drier held over the bucket trick and not worry about waking up the wife at 01:00 in the morning.

 

[necchi]

For goodness sakes start a scrap bucket.
The local salvage yard will give me over $30 for an icecream pail full at the going rate for scrap brass.
(That's a pound of Powder)

 

[Taildrag15X]

For goodness sakes start a scrap bucket.
The local salvage yard will give me over $30 for an icecream pail full at the going rate for scrap brass.
(That's a pound of Powder)

You should see what a 40,000 lb. truck load brings.....

 

[wapiti25]

If you burn the wife's hair dryer up drying brass she will not be a happy woman.

 

[MrMajestic]

I have seen this color coming out of my ultrasonic cleaner during the heating cycle. I am on the "other side of the fence" and hazard to say they are not damaged. Don't they use a light bulb to incubate eggs and not hard boil them! : I have annealed, sized, loaded and fired many that resembled yours. I do agree that if it isn't a large lot there isn't much lost though. If the outside of the bulb reached 4500 degrees wouldn't it burn down your house?

 

[bigedp51]

I have three five gallon buckets full of .233/5.56 brass and a 40 year old Rockchucker press and I have never done this much volume reloading at one time before. Two of the bucket have crimped primers and to say the least I have some very sore fingers from removing the crimp.

I bought the WFT trimmer, a Hornady Lock-N-Load Case Prep Trio, and yesterday the boss and head finance minister said OK to a RCBS Chargemaster Dispenser and Scale Combo. And I never realized I could save so much money by reloading.

A little over a year ago all I had were bolt action rifles and my sons talked me into rifles that automatically throw my brass away. :'( And now I have two of them and I'm now I'm planing to make a brass catcher to set alongside of the bench.

 

[Tozguy]

BigEd,

Can I do your science project for you?

Gonna leave a scrap case sitting on a 100 watt light bulb and see if it makes a rainbow tatoo.

Then smack the base good with a hammer to see if it rings different than a regular case.

Then grease it and shoot it (if I can find a volunteer for this part)

 

[bigedp51]

I have seen this color coming out of my ultrasonic cleaner during the heating cycle. I am on the "other side of the fence" and hazard to say they are not damaged. Don't they use a light bulb to incubate eggs and not hard boil them! : I have annealed, sized, loaded and fired many that resembled yours. I do agree that if it isn't a large lot there isn't much lost though. If the outside of the bulb reached 4500 degrees wouldn't it burn down your house?

This is "WHY" I asked my question after seeing postings on case annealing here, and I wanted a case annealers opinion of the color. I have seen this color before but half as dark when using boiling water to make the cases dry faster and that was 220 degrees.

I very seldom use any method other than air drying but I was trying to speed up the cleaning operation and get into FL resizing these cases. The problem after vigorously agitating these cases twice using a towel was I still had water in a few of the flash holes.

 

[MrMajestic]

Big Ed, for a case catcher I position a cardboard box of appropriate size next to the ejection port. A towel in the bottom slows them down. Works at the range anyhow. Best off its cheap and I use it to carry gear in to the bench. Alright lets start the cheap ethnic(Mennonite here in Lancaster County) jokes! :-[

 

[bozo699]

Thank you for your relies, I tossed them in the trash once and then asked myself how hot does a light bulb get and pulled them out again and took the photo and posted my question.

They will go back in the trash can again for the second time. I asked the question mainly because in 45 years of reloading I have never annealed a single case and the color of these cases made me wonder how hot did they really get.

My hats off to necchi, I never knew Thomas Edison personally or how hot a light bulb got.

I was hoping Bozo would answer the question and tell me to just grease the cases and shoot them. Oh well I'm going to stick with the elevated hair drier held over the bucket trick and not worry about waking up the wife at 01:00 in the morning.

Ed,
I will check later for you the possible temps a 75 watt bulb can reach, I do know that my lamp by my chair broke and fell down on the t.v remote, when I woke up to a stinking house the t.v remote was completely destroyed, melted into a blob, and was lucky I was home and the house didn't burn down, I agree with others to pitch it and even I wouldn't grease those cases Ed, happy shooting buddy
Wayne.

 

[bigedp51]

Below are 34 .223 cases effected by the heat, meaning any case that had "ANY" discoloration due to the heat. All other cases looked like they just came out of my tumbler using stainless steel pins bright and shiny.

Below are the half processed cases and part of a five gallon bucket full of Remington brass that are tumbled and ready for resizing in the clear plastic tub. And the two coffee cans are sized and ready to reload. When I'm done the clear plastic tub will be full and at least four more coffee cans more. Tossing 34 pieces of brass is nothing compared to what remains. And I still have two more five gallon buckets of crimped military brass that need processed and reloaded.

Below on the left one of my heat damaged cases next to a Federal and Lake City type M193 ammo. The photo doesn't show the true coloration but the military case neck annealing will give you an idea and comparison of the colors. Bottom line, I never thought a light bulb would get hot enough to change the color of the cartridge case.