Annealing Brass

[BD1]

Great responses Greenheadcaller, trying to guess the dwell time of a case in the flame has led to many a ruined case including those standing in a tray of water. IMHO and experience, Tempilac is pretty cheap insurance to prevent that.
I also use the Bench Source annealer. Though the upfront cost was a little expensive, I feel that it's been continually paying for itself with the amount of cases I've run through it and those of some of my buddies, the last run was about 500 cases. Regarding the article above written by John Barsness outlining Fred Barkers method, it was intended for very small batches of cases. IIRC, John uses a AnnealRite machine himself.
One additional thing I might add that may be worth while for those that choose to use the Tempilac is to also pick up a bottle of their thinner as Tempilac will thicken in the bottle over time.

 

[waveslayer]

I take 5 cases and use 650 Tempilac and use the timer on my cell phone. I take the average for all 5 and then write it down. I have a little book of annealing with all the times for each type of brass and caliber. It works perfectly. Then use a socket to hold the cases. I take a metal bowl and soak a rag in water and place it at the bottom of the bowl to help cool down the brass, I can just drop them in and it enables me to reload the brass right after once it's cooled.

 

[HOGWILD338-378]

http://www.accurateshooter.com/technica ... annealing/

Not a bad read! Explains the does and do not's and why!

 

[gahunter12]

Ok I tried to Anneal a few cases tonight. I used the 1 Mississippi method counting to 7. Here's my results. You can see the color line just below the shoulder. My only concern is they never turned a dull orange at all. I also Annealed a old 7mm case to see how long it takes to start turning a dull red. I could never get it to glow at all. Does this appear to be enough? Could my torch not be getting hit enough? It is a old torch.

 

[BD1]

Are you using Tempilac and working out a count method? When I use 700 or 750 degree Tempilac there is no glowing color whatsoever. What I've read and been told over the years is that if you get the neck and shoulder glowing at all, you have over annealed your cases and additionaly if the case head goes over 400 degrees your brass is ruined. From the pic your case looks ok to me, neck and shoulder should have a light iridescence .

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Ok I tried to Anneal a few cases tonight. I used the 1 Mississippi method counting to 7. Here's my results. You can see the color line just below the shoulder. My only concern is they never turned a dull orange at all. I also Annealed a old 7mm case to see how long it takes to start turning a dull red. I could never get it to glow at all. Does this appear to be enough? Could my torch not be getting hit enough? It is a old torch.

Too much light in the room maybe....dim it down a bit.

 

[gahunter12]

Ok I tried to Anneal a few cases tonight. I used the 1 Mississippi method counting to 7. Here's my results. You can see the color line just below the shoulder. My only concern is they never turned a dull orange at all. I also Annealed a old 7mm case to see how long it takes to start turning a dull red. I could never get it to glow at all. Does this appear to be enough? Could my torch not be getting hit enough? It is a old torch.

Too much light in the room maybe....dim it down a bit.

When I tried this one it was total darkness. I think my torch was worn out. I tried to overheat an old case, but it never did turn red at all. I picked up a new torch Saturday, and it's a lot hotter. I can count to 8 Miss, and dunk, and I get a nice bluish line just below the shoulder. I made a test run first with the finger method, and at 8 Miss it starts get pretty warm on the fingers.