Roger that, but if they are annealed at the factory then why would they need to be annealed again?
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Annealing
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I just read up on the process and the science behind self annealing. It looks like the Battenfield tech. machine is the way to go. Although it does look costly.
Resizing brass work hardens the brass. When the brass work hardens it splits. By annealing, you soften the brass at the neck and shoulder enough so the cases do not split. It also makes the brass flexible so you can load the round and it stay tight. You do not anneal beyond the shoulder as then you may cause case failures. You want the rest of the case to stay hard. Neck sizing reduces the work hardening of the brass and may reduce the need to anneal when reloading a given piece of brass several times.
Brass is a unique material as it actually softens when you heat it and then cool it, many other metals like steel for example gets harder when you heat it and cool it.
Rosewood
I mainly anneal .308/7.62x51 and 20VT brass i form from 5.56LC brass. In the process of ordering parts now to make the induction annealer. Will report back.
For any cases that I reform to other calibers, I anneal them also. Converting 30-30 to 7-30 and converting .243 to .260, I anneal them. I am too cheap to buy one of those fancy annealing machines even though I know they are more precise than hand annealing. I find a deep well socket that the case will just fit in, put it on a power drill, then light a torch with it standing up. I then turn the neck and shoulder of the brass slowly in the tip of the flame for a count of 10-14 seconds which usually hits the temperature about right. I bought some of the heat indicator paint from Midway and put it on the inside of the neck for a given piece of brass to determine the count inside the flame for the paint to melt. I drop the brass in a bowl of water to cool and then dry afterwards. This process has worked pretty well for me, although, you have to handle each piece of brass individually and probably takes you 20-30 seconds for each piece of brass.
Rosewood
Rosewood
This is the system I've been looking at. Relatively inexpensive and seems like it would be pretty fast:
http://ballisticrecreations.ca/
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He's a Canuck, what did you expect?
I think it was a simple typo. In his video, he mentions 550C as being close to ideal for an annealing temperature (5-7 second exposure). In reading his YouTube responses, he obviously understands metallurgy.
It would be interesting to find out what his salt composition really is. The case holder would be easy to fabricate, and thermocouples and digital thermometers are easy enough to buy. Although he only charges $9 for the salt, his shipping charges are around $19-20 to the U.S. due to being shipped ground (hazardous material).
From his website:
"Due to Transport of Dangerous Goods regulations any one shipment is limited to 1kg (3 jars) maximum of salt. Orders containing salt may not ship via air.
Predominately a blend of potassium nitrate and sodium nitrite, this salt closely matches the old MIL-S-10699 Type I heat treating salt used by US government armouries for heat treating metals including copper alloys. Ideal for annealing and stress relieving of cold worked brass cartridge cases, the salt melts at 142°C and can be used up to 590°C. Will not affect your brass cases, and is not overly corrosive to the steel pot of the Lee Precision Melter."
Here's more good info (along with a homebrew setup), along with a link to a commercial outlet for annealing salt:
http://www.65creedmoor.com/index.php?topic=6019.0
