When to anneal?

[Chris]

Jim. I'll do my best. I'll get a good count on time and go from there. I'll dump them into cold water to make sure the head does not get hot.

Back to annealing. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant, but what I do is put a case into a Lee case spinner in drill. Then put the neck into the flame while rotating the case. Watch the colors move down past the neck and dunk the neck in a glass of water. I keep my left hand primary finger in contact with the case head during the procedure... dunk it when uou feel the color is right or if you feel pain.

 

[JWFilips]

I have a few ways of doing this based on caliber....all work equally as well ( You just have to understand them)

1.) I spin .223 cases by hand back & forth in the torch flame I hold them 1/3 up the case.
When I cant hold I drop in cold water I will also do this with .243

2.) 30 cal & up I use the drill thing : but you can do it two ways.
If you work in a "totally dark" room you can watch the dull red color form in the case neck. When it reaches the shoulder Dump in cold water!

3.) Or if you work in a bright lite room and you have "shiny brass" then watch the anneal color dark blue /purple; run down the case when it gets to the neck
Drop in cold water

All of these methods produce equal results

 

[waco]

This is a client of mine His stuff really works ( He is a doctor)

Thank you Sir. I'll give it a try.

 

[waco]

I picked the right deep socket that fit the 30-06 case just right. Maybe a 1/4" below the shoulder sticking out above the socket. Spinning slowly in the drill and about a seven count worked good. I sacrificed a couple cases to see when the started to turn dull red. Then backed off about a second. I think I did okay.

 

[waco]

 

[KHornet]

Nice job Waco, very consistant. I always anneal new (old brass, emphasis on Mil).
I anneal after 4-5 loadings or when I get my first neck split. (Depends on Ctg).
I anneal like JW, only I hand twirl in flame regardless of size of ctg.

Paul

 

[Intheshop]

Very nice Waco!

Quick description of setup here;we have a swiveling vise in welding cell.Drill motor gets lightly clamped in it,swivel lock-loose.

Prope bttle on steel table,lit.How far "out" of the flame is not important,that's where shell gets loaded,unloaded.....turned aluminum socket with inserts to shorten cavity length (308 vs '06).Hot case gets pulled with welding gloved hand,drop in water.

The only trick part is a positive"stop" .....welding clamp,so swiveling drill/case....locates the spinning case exactly the same spot.Allows for more concentrated count for time.

At first,wasn't gonna bother annealing,cases are cheap right?NOT.Now it's so easy,I anneal every 2nd-3rd firing.Some get it every firing.

 

[KHornet]

Have never heard of annealing after every fireing. Wonder how many others
have heard of it, or do it?

Paul

 

[fiver]

the long range black powder silhouette shooter guy's anneal after every firing.

 

[L1A1Rocker]

Here's my annealer that I made:

Another photo showing how the case holder spins.

 

[fiver]

how did you hook the Harley up to the spinner?

I don't know how I pulled that off, but here is what I use.
first picture ever

 

[Rick]

The Ken Light BC-1000. Can do a couple of hundred an hour. Center of cartridge wheel is filled with water to keep the wheel & case heads cool & the brass stays dry. Just drop a case in each hole at the left of the opening cases rotate within the wheel 7 as the wheel rotates they drop out into a box.

 

[freebullet]

I'm pretty fortunate to have collected enough brass for most of my calibers it's fairly rare to need annealing. You'll know it's time as the case necks start splitting on sizing.

I've stood them in an ole cake pan fill w/water to just below the shoulder and use 2 Mapp gas torches in unison. It takes almost no time as Mapp gas burns pretty warm.

Those are some neat units posted above. I especially like the dual torch units as that seems the easiest way to get quick consistent results in my limited tests.

 

[waco]

Lamar and Rick. I've looked at each of those units. Very cool. On my wish list on goodies I'd like to buy.

 

[Gary]

the long range black powder silhouette shooter guy's anneal after every firing.

I think most long range, benchrest, and other competition shooters anneal after every firing.

Hear's one source for info:
http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

 

[fiver]

that article on annealing is very, very good and has the right information.
it explains the process very well.

I looked at the Ken Light annealer and went with the other one for some reason or another.
it might have been as simple as Graf's had some brass I wanted.
or it took different wheels or something.

either way they are very quick.
it takes about 4 seconds for the bigger cases like the 308 & 30-06.
the 223 is a bit over 3 seconds.
it can keep you hopping filling the machine and removing the bucket full of cases.
[I really need to find another bucket for longer runs of brass]

 

[Rick]

That article is a bit irritating to me considering it's off my website even including my picture that I took of the BC-1000. I contacted them when they published it and was informed they had permission. Water under the bridge now, it's been there for years. Anyway that article in it's entirety (less the pictures) was the owners manual that came with the unit so I had no copyright on the article. Pictures a different story.

Cartridge Case Annealing with the BC-1000 Annealer - When, why, how and if to anneal - By Ken Light
.

 

[Gary]

Sorry Rick, I had no idea.

 

[Rick]

Certainly not your fault Gary. That's been a lot of years ago now, guess I got over it. Well, almost.

 

[fiver]

I don't think I knew that either.
before I bought the machine I read just about everything I could find on the subject.