Thread: Annealing

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.

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.

What Zimmer said ..... confirms what I've found by trial and error, 7 - 8 secs with a single burner and the drill does it nicely for me. Varies a bit with brass manufacturer. Be wary, not all things loaded onto YouTube are from experts or folks who actually know what they're doing.