Anneailing..300 weatherby brass!!! Be nice please!!!!

Not slow. Very very fast. Every time I drop 3 in, I pull the last 3 out. I'm guessing 3 second (less?) intervals, which once hot, puts volume at 3600 per hour in theory. Several times faster than all the automated flame annealers I've seen. And the occasional singed fingers are free! ;)

I really have to stress (!!!) that my methods have been *seat of the pants* though. The *best processes* require more scientific methods. But the concept IMO is an excellent one. I sincerely WISH I could say it was my idea!

Foolproof? I don't know, but I think I have proved it somewhat fool resistant! :D
 
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If the brass is hitting 750*F before pullout, then you are reaping 85%-90% of the benefits of annealing.

A little tempilaq will tell you if you are hitting 750 or not.
 
I too like the idea. Not sure I would change from what I have but as JH said, it solves a whole host of issues.

I hadn't seen his tight die idea but the lead thing has been discussed (and I found it a real stretch)

Let me know (PM) if you want the Templiaq, I have spare as it does not work for induction that I am using.

If you have a digital thermometer (or get one) that would confirm your media temperature and how accurate (you can get probes for digital volt meters as well if you have that)

I think it would be great to have this succeed as another option.

I don't know if JH agrees, but as one of the cross checks, I watch carefully to see what the brass appearance is/does. I don't shoot for the silvery looking as that is also an aspect of ageing. Also its not my "sole" check. At most it looks like a slight color change and that should polish off.

If it does not polish off over two or three cycles then I think its gone to far heat wise.
 
Hey, Smokey, sorry for the lengthy hijack. I sort of assumed more folks were doing this- thus the offhand suggestion.

I just ordered a proper gauge and probes to eliminate most of the guesstimating. When I get the gauge, I'll try and chisel out some time to do some less redneckish process testing. Normally I wouldn't be tempting fate semi-blind, but keep in mind- I wasn't annealing with the traditional goals, but merely trying to take enough spring out of the brass to allow proper sizing. Though pipe dreams *were* taking shape! :D

RC20- thanks for the offer, probably not worth the hassle. I kinda like the crayon- I use it for goofy preheat welding processes anyhow.

And when I get to it, I'll take it to a new thread. Hopefully I haven't already chased away all the 300 Weatherby specialists! :eek:
 
Tempilaq isn't accurate on brass!
I thought I posted that, my 800 was melting before 750, so I stayed on them until I got to an engineer.
About the 10 phone call the engineer finally admitted it.
The copper screws with the base, and components in the paint are electrically conductive, so electrical induction heating screws with it even more.

Should be more or less accurate in glass beads, particularly if you are controlling the temp of the glass to just over your set point.

I'm REALLY dense sometimes, I tried molten lead annealing, got tired of the lead sticking to everything and gave it up, and you know, it's time over lead vapors (I loose enough IQ points without lead poisoning)
I tried hot dies and gave that up because it was so hard to get the cases out of the dies consistantly...
This solves a crap load of issues with serious overheating, die seizing, it's all common stuff & cheap to boot...

As for holders, what about stripper clips?
The come in a crap load of sizes, are dirt cheap & easy to mount on a handle/depth stop?
After a few uses they are easy to load/unload...
 
Well let me know. I have an excess of at least one bottle each in 750 and 800 degrees.

My go to is the crayon as well, as the liquid did not work, with the induction heater I can hit the button, get the crayon close to the case and lay it on as the time expires.

There are some obvious possible quality issues, the crayon will draw heat (thin brass is not a good heat retainer!) and how soon fast etc.

But its a good basic check and I don't push the temp up to where it will over do it.

I am in the over 650 and under 750 area safely.

No glow on the cases inside or out in a dark room (spate cases to check that) and it does polish the discoloration off.
 
I must have been doing it wrong all these years. I would just hold the case head while turning the case neck in the flame of a propane torch till it got too hot to hold. Must have done thousands of cases that way and it did reduce neck splits. I have some cases that have lasted more than 20 reloads.
 
I must have been doing it wrong all these years. I would just hold the case head while turning the case neck in the flame of a propane torch till it got too hot to hold. Must have done thousands of cases that way and it did reduce neck splits. I have some cases that have lasted more than 20 reloads.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that if it gets too soft it still works. Its not optimal but depending on how accurate you want to be, too soft as long as it does not weaken the base is going to stop the neck splits.

How much that affects things is? I shot 30-06 that was over annealed and it was still ok hunting accuracy. I have not directly cross checked to see what it would do target wise.

So if the goal was to reduce splits and not blow up a case, sweet!

If the goal was to get correct annealing (or close) then ........

But if you are happy and no blow ups that is good.
 
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