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I annealed some brass today. A few showed none of that bluish discoloration we see when a proper annealing is done. Not seeing that discoloration, I annealed the cold cases a second time not too long after the first event. Is it possible to bugger-up a case by too-frequent annealing, even if the case is not over-annealed? I spin the cases with an electric drill in a 14mm deep socket (for .532" heads; half-inch for .473" heads) over the long finger of the bright blue flame we see at the center of a Bernz-o-matic propane torch. As soon as I see the neck turn even a tiny bit orange, the cases get flipped into a sink of cold water. I never let the neck get a bright orange; that's much too far down the road to the destruction of the case's elasticity. I made that mistake the first time I annealed my brass. I got them bright, bright orange. I had no idea I was ruining my brass...

annealing-tool-02.JPG annealed at home.JPG
 
It is possible to over anneal your brass brother. If you over anneal it you will start to heat up the body of the brass and it could lead to a failure. You want to make sure that you just do the neck. I am spoiled as I have one of these. If your in the market they work great and I think the cost is really cheap at $275.00

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It is possible to over-anneal your brass. If you over-anneal it … will start to heat-up the body of the brass and it could lead to a failure. You want to make sure that you just do the neck.
I bathe the conical portion of the case in the flame because the case must be run through four dies (three to form and one to resize) in order to get a .375 Ruger case to chamber in each of two rifles that are not chambered in .375 Ruger. As you well know, working brass to such an extent will harden it and will certainly lead to a failure of some sort that nobody desires. I am beyond confident that I am not getting the case overly hot toward the head because as soon as I see even the slightest orange coloration in the neck, the case gets flipped into the sink of cold water. I did over-anneal my brass the first time I ever tried it; the appearance of that brass was decidedly different than what is shown in the above first post. I've gotten a little better at it since those days of six or seven years ago...
 
Ya the annealeez takes all the guess work out of it. It spins the brass for you and it should be in the flame for 3 seconds. Once you get it set up to the brass it is pretty painless. Best money I ever spent.

Oh wait I had a buddy give it to me for my birthday so I guess free kicks azz :s0139:
 
As long as you don't REALLY over do it, you can "Work Harden" your brass once or twice with out loosing it's strength. Over cooking brass is a lot more common then folks think, but it can be fixed as long as you didn't really get it glowing bright! It actually doesn't take much heat to get it done and you can get a little more life out of your brass that way! I have a simmiler system to the one above, but it angles the flame so that the focused heat is right at the case mouth and the heat "Flows" down through the neck and into the shoulder, about 3 seconds spin and the flame is all it takes for most brass and i'm good to go! I do a lot of .375 Weatherby Magnum from .375 Holland & Holland brass, and while I can fire form the Holland & Holland, I get a better shoulder if I form the brass with the dies, and get better case life out of them! I also do a bunch of 6.5/.300 WSM, which is a hard one to form, and needs a little more heat to get it just right!
 
. . . about 3 seconds . . .
I've got it under heat longer than that. I'll estimate it takes maybe as much as ten seconds to get the first of a dull, orange glow to appear at the mouth of the case. I do not time my annealing, and never have. I go by what I see in the low light. It can be a bit difficult to see the change in the much brighter light of the bright blue flame, so I have to keep my eyes open and my mind on the immediate task.
 
I use a Blue Lens Welding goggles ( like you would use for Tigging Aluminum) so I can see the part with out the flame hiding it!
I also use Nap-Gas ( yellow bottle) so I get a lot more heat a lot quicker! For a much bigger batch, I switch to Acetylene and 02, or better, Propane and 02!
 
Thank You to the mods who moved this thread away from New Member Introductions. I made the original post before I was aware I was not in the General Firearm Discussion Forum. I wanted to notify Admin, but saw no way to do it. In any event, I'm satisfied it's now where it should be...
 
Anyone astute enough to bake cookies without burning them, can anneal brass by hand. Just a matter of a little research, paying attention, and adjusting things accordingly.
I anneal by hand every other reload, albeit low volume, maybe 1 to 2K over all the calibers I load for over a years time. I anneal 100 pieces in about ten minutes, fifteen if you include getting out and putting away the socket and torch. 100 pieces is my usual reload quantity though less when I'm working up loads.
I use 1# propane bottle but have been known to use Mapp gas if the torch is already out, do not use water, just drop in a box to cool. it takes six to eight seconds max depending on case and flame adjustment. some larger brass like 45-70 .270 and 30-06 I just twirl with my fingers. For others, I use appropriate size regular or deep socket in a small low speed drill. . Low light in my shop most times, no temp goo. I resize after anneal, and just because I like it, I polish before reload.
I would have to anneal tens of thousands before I could justify a machines cost. Sorta like a donut machine, yah, they're cool, but I would have to be in the bakery business to justify something I can easily do by hand when only once in a while.
 

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