Thread: Annealing

Ok so today I bought a little gas torch from Mitre 10. I got some 8 times fired cases, put them in a socket and rotated them slowly in the flame. (saw someone doing that on youtube. It works.) Never done it before, not really sure what it's supposed to look like. It was quite bright in the room and I couldn't see them glowing or pink as such but the colour changed and a band of silvery colouration at the edge of the heated area appeared after about 20 seconds. Not particularly powerful torch. So I gave them about that long and they all look kind of annealed. What do I do now? Load a few and see how it feels when the bullet seats? Should I start by loading down? Can over heating make them unsafe, if I've totally stuffed it?

Get a pair of pliers and crush a fresh case and then an annealed case to get a feel for how much is too much. You don't want to over anneal as that can lead to case rupture. Watch more you tube videos. I like to hold the case in my hands because then it's impossible to over anneal.

Cheers mate that's a good tip. So it should be done before it's too hot to hold? I might have overcooked these.

I found a guy on trade me with one of those amp annealing machines. $25 and postage and he did all my 338 and 264 brass perfect.

About the same cost as a gas torch....

An option.

Yes and a good option - ironically enough, this whole thing has started because I know a guy who anneals and took some cases out to him to get him to do them - but in talking to him I thought I should be able to do it myself. I think it's just going to take a little practice. I did the crush test last night and the necks on the ones I've done are very, very soft. You can really tell the difference. I'll assume I've ruined these cases as it's possible the case heads are softened. That seems to be the most important consideration. Anyway, thanks for the input. The other option would be just to discard cases after 8 to 10 firings and save some time if not money. But if I'm discarding them anyway, I might as well practice annealing them before discarding. Ha ha.

Originally Posted by WillB

I might as well practice annealing them before discarding. Ha ha.

Not a fan of the long socket method despite all the posts saying how well it works. It doesn’t give the consistency that I need. I have a Bench Source annealer with twin burners and a CAC 308 case gets 3.6 seconds whilst a Lapua 308 case gets 3.4 seconds. I have done all my setups and do a quick recheck on the day using 2 different temperature tempilacs. When first setting up I took a few cases thru to death – cooked the low temp tempilac right down to the base – it took around 8 seconds with my setup IIRC.

Any rate enough of that, no good me banging on about mine – if you want to practice I suggest a good single burner (fast) flame which should do the job in around 8 seconds. Work in an almost dark room. Heat at the shoulder neck junction – my burners direct the flames at a slight angle slightly favouring mid shoulder. Look for the change to a dull glow and then STOP. I view down into the necks on mine and just see the dull glow begin before the machine indexes. The dull glow appearance is only fleeting. Also helps if your cases are nice and clean, no lube burning off. No need to toss them in water as once you remove them from the flame no damage can be done.

Have fun.

Not that this is a big help, look at cases that have been proffessionaly annealed and then look at your results when they cool down, does the colour band look the same?

Picture of cases overheated

The low temp Omegalaq (tempilaq alterative) was applied 2/3 the way up from the base to the start of the shoulder, the high temp was applied up the rest. No laq was applied inside the neck.

Originally Posted by johnd

Not that this is a big help, look at cases that have been proffessionaly annealed and then look at your results when they cool down, does the colour band look the same?

Spot on. Here is a photo of 308 ADI brass cooked to perfection. I changed my flame distance a tad so had to increase the time. They look like factory Lapua

Zimmer where do you get hold of your "templaque" form overseas? local engineering companies here just look at me weird here ....but thats usually the case with anything I ask

Originally Posted by johnd

Zimmer where do you get hold of your "templaque" form overseas? local engineering companies here just look at me weird here ....but thats usually the case with anything I ask

Got mine here Temperature Indicating Lacquers
They were good to deal with and no issues with exporting or receiving at this end that included the bottle of thinners (have yet to use) I ordered at the same time.
Their product is exactly the same as Tempilaq right down to almost matching bottle colour schemes. The devils.

Initially couldn't find anyone who would send Tempilaq from USA to NZ so went with Omega. Sincethen have seen Tempilaq on Brownells site IIRC and had heard of others sourcing from Amazon or Ebay cannot remember which.

As far a local sourcing the closest I got to something was from a plastics extrusion outfit in Auckland - totally the wrong temp and hugely expensive. Apparently their are crayons as well but other forums opinions don't recommend these.

Sorry about the thread hijack WillB

Heres some of my 308 cases done with the socket / drill bit count method, probably a bit on the low side for temp, as Zimmer says it can be a hit miss affair, so long as the flame / time is constant it is repeatable
I have turned them into 260 rem, havent found out how they shoot yet. Its been a bit of a muck around over christmas.

post a pic @WillB

So this is what I got. Hey thanks for all the input guys really appreciate it, and thanks for posting the photos too. That really helps out. I reckon I'll have another go one evening this week when I can get low light in the workshop. Oh and JohnD you are most welcome - I'm learning too.

Btw these cases certainly looked clean when I started on them - so that carbon staining around the neck is coloration which appeared as a result of the annealing. Certainly it wasn't as apparent as it is now.