First attempt at annealing

[chuckshoots]

Hey guys,

First post here after coming to this forum for the wealth of knowledge. I started reloading about a year ago and have about 400 rds loaded and shot. I am loading for my 308 bolt gun and am at the point where I am thinking I should anneal my brass that has been fired 3 times.

I used a socket to hold the brass and rotated it with a drill and held it to a stationary propane torch. I played around for a couple dozen cases with scrapped brass to try and find a baseline for timing and other variables.

Here are the results, do they look good? I was doing it for 6 seconds under the flame then dropping into water.



thanks

chuck

 

[Tnslim]

That's the way I do it and so far it's worked very well for me. I anneal after 5 firings, full length size and trim for length. After that I neck size and my brass has lasted very well.

 

[260Ravage]

Save yourself a step..they do not have to be quelched in water. The annealing process stops the instant you remove the heat.

 

[Tim Singleton]

looking good I might suggest tempilaque until you have a confidence in the time in flame. I follow this procedure. This is a quote from another member

I just started annealing a couple of months ago with an annealer from Bench Source.
A few things I have learned:
Clean cases seem to anneal easier, faster and more uniformly. From what I have read, any contaminant such as oil or carbon on the case acts as an insulator impeading heat flow.
Buy Tempilaq and use it. It will keep you from overheating and is a real confidence builder. Put the 650 degree Tempilaq on the inside of the neck, the torch tends to heat it too fast on the outside and you don't get the color change. 400 degree Tempilaq on the outside helps assure you that the base isn't getting to warm.
I have annealed about 8000 cases so far from .222 up to .50 BMG. The time heating is less than Bench Source instructions recommend to start with but my cases a coming out with coloring just like new Lapua has on it, with the color moving down one quarter to three eights inch below the shoulder.
I have not had the time to check if it is making a real difference in neck tension.
I am even doing new Win. and Rem. brass as that I have bought in the last two years is much harded to push an expander through than the older stuff.
I want to try annealing short cartridges like the .221 and .20 Vartarg but since the machine only air cools I don't know if I can keep from overheating the head.
I do set up to drop the cases in water when they leave the machine, it is not supposed to be necessary but I feel better about it.

 

[Tim Singleton]

As you can see on your pics the blue line is not consistent from one piece to the other. even tho you are annealing each piece they are not consistent

 

[chuckshoots]

As you can see on your pics the blue line is not consistent from one piece to the other. even tho you are annealing each piece they are not consistent

Well this is the practice batch, so by the time I do it on my active brass I am hoping to have the timing better so everything is more consistent.

 

[Tim Singleton]

no offense intended. hope you didnt take any

just trying to point out the usefulness of the tempilaque to aid in consistent timing.

its always better to attach pics so others can see whats going on


good shooting

 

[JThorsby]

I use the German Salizar method...

 

[TC260]

As you can see on your pics the blue line is not consistent from one piece to the other. even tho you are annealing each piece they are not consistent

The most important part is the neck followed by the shoulder area. From a practical standpoint, as long as those areas of the case get up to temperature I doubt it makes much difference if the annealed portion of the body is a little higher or lower from case to case even though it looks nice to see them even.

 

[Nomad47]

I agree, TC260.

 

[firearmdoc1]

I use the same basic method that you are using, but I also use Tempilaq. The cases look good to me. My first attempts at annealing went horribly wrong. I was having trouble seeing the color change on the case and was going too far. After using Tempilaq I have good results. I know others say not to bother with quenching, but I do. Yes you have to dry the cases after you're done, but whatever makes you comfortable.

 

[Hoot]

IMHO, to help reduce overheating the neck before the color line moves down the slower conducting shoulder area, use a smaller, pencil flame, precisely aimed, for a longer period if time.
The temp migrates faster toward the neck than toward the body, so direct the pencil point about halfway down the shoulder. About the time the color makes it to the mouth, it also makes it down below the shoulder.
Really broad flamed and/or hot torches are too fast to react to in time, making uniformity much more challenging. Just my particular experience.

Hoot

 

[chuckshoots]

no offense intended. hope you didnt take any

just trying to point out the usefulness of the tempilaque to aid in consistent timing.

its always better to attach pics so others can see whats going on


good shooting

No worries nontaken. I will be picking up some tempilaque just to make sure I get the temperature right and don't over do it. I get pretty OCD so will likely try and get that line as close as possible on all the cases, atleast until I decide I should get one of the annealing machines on the market.

thanks for the input.

 

[CarolinaBrass]

Looks good for first time....as stated u don't need to quench them and the drill method is good if you don't have a high dollar machine, which I don't either.. keep working at it and good luck