Thread: Cooked my brass, Whoops

I forgot about my brass I put in the oven to dry after tumbling. Looks like I annealed the whole batch.
180 degrees for 30 minutes, I was meant to lightly warm the oven then turn off leaving the fan going. Bloody TV distracted me.

Would you still use it?

I am not a metallurgical whizz but no I personally wouldn't use it.

50°-100° is all you need but for a bit longer.
Dehydrator if ya have one works better.

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Yeah thanks, I thought the same.
I've binned them.

In theory though you should be alright. The temperature at which strength begins to be affected in brass is close to 240 celcius according to the chart below. Despite this I'm inclined to agree with R93 and err on the side of caution.

I too would err on the side of caution, but it would be interesting to do the crush test with pliers to see how much softer they are than virgin brass.

Where'd you get that graph from @Puffin ?

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Is that a graph? Looks like a drawing from my 2 yo

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

How hot do they get during firing?

In my understanding they get very hot for a very short period of time. There is not a huge amount of heat energy released per shot.

So annealing metals is a time a temperature equation, so low heat- long time or high heat - short time for brass. It's different for different metals depending on Crystal structure.

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Id use em, well below annealing temp.

Originally Posted by Feather or Shoot

Where'd you get that graph from @Puffin ?

Hmmm... tricky to recall now, but my best guess would be that I copied it from a posting by The Firing Line & Shooters' Forum stalwart Unclenick. It appears to be taken from a metallurgy text.

I park em for 30 mins at 100 degrees C (with the timer on) cos I'm a dumb shit and bound to forget and miss the timer. Worst case is I just have very very dry brass. Then, once timer goes, I just switch the oven off and crack the door for half an hour to let them cool.

If you look at that graph it says it's for one hour. I'm guessing if you left the brass hot for ages the temperature required to anneal would be less.

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From what I've read that isn't the case. Annealing doesn't start at all until a particular temperature is reached. Then it proceeds very quickly. Is that right? I'm no expert.

@Feather or Shoot I recently came across the following:
http://web.nchu.edu.tw/~jillc/me/Ch1...0Treatment.pdf
Pages 33-37

I would use them, they look badass in that colour, and you don't want to miss an opportunity to have some badass looking ammo

Where do people think they would fail? They are encased by a solid metal chamber and can only expand as far as that allows. After all it is not the brass itself that contains the pressure is it. It is the bolt face at the rear and the barrel surrounding the case????? Will it split at the neck? Be extracted in two pieces?