Looking for a quick and EASY way to anneal brass

[amlevin]

Electric drill, socket, and about 9 seconds in a propane torch.

No big deal.

I use as much "flame" as the machines with my 'socket method' and it only takes me 4 sec's per case.

No drying either as I just drop the cases in a stainless steel bowl. All the "quenching" does for the process is give you a wet case. Doesn't add to the annealing process at all.

Loading the socket, heating in the torch, and dropping in bowl takes about 6-7 sec's total. 100 cases take me 15 minutes max.

As for uniformity of annealing, every piece of brass has it's subtle differences even if made by one of the premium companies. With a machine, every piece of brass gets the same amount of "flame time" once adjusted. With my hand method I can stop the heat if the case starts to show signs of overheating (turning too bright a red, excessive color change in flame, etc. A simple, periodic check with a temperature crayon will help see the proper amount of flame time, just like on a machine. Of course if one has no "sense of rhythm" and can't judge the amount of time uniformly, a machine may be the only answer.

 

[Nomad47]

Agreed, amlevin. Although I count in my head, the time in flame varies by a couple seconds. I watch for the blue color to appear at the body/shoulder junction. Then it's out of the flame and dumped on something (depends on where my motorhome is parked) that is not wet.

 

[TC260]

The only reason to anneal is because you are looking for that very high accuracy/precision. To do this, you need to do very accurate and reproducible annealing and the only way to do this is with a machine.

Damn!! I've been doing this all wrong. After making heavily formed cases I've been annealing and getting 15-20 reloads out of them. I didn't realize that I was supposed to be throwing them away when they split after a firing or two and making new ones. Thanks for the tip ;D