Methods of Brass Drying

[kludge]

Why do you get your brass wet after annealing ?

I heat the case neck/shoulder with a torch to achieve a light blue color (can bee seen in a dark room) in order to anneal the brass and then drop the case in cold water. When the brass is annealed it softens the brass that has been work hardened by reforming the brass case for wildcat ammo. A work hardened neck can split after the first firing. Case necks are annealed at the factory after forming for the same reason. Many factories polish the brass after annealing to make it pretty and remove the blueish tint on the brass below the shoulder to make it pretty. Many military ammo specs require that the brass not be polished after annealing as a QA check - it proves that the batch of brass went through the annealing process.

It is a myth that dumping the case in water "quenches" the brass - that works for steel, not brass. Annealed is annealed. Steel is quenched to retain a certain molecular structure for hardness, which except for files and drill bits, etc. is too hard and the steel needs to be heat treated (tempered), which removes some of the hardness and gives it toughness without removing all of the hardness. Annealing brass is similar, except heat can't harden brass it can only soften it. Brass is hardened by working it.

The water is to quickly cool the brass so that the heat does not travel to the case head. The case head is work hardened to withstand high pressure and give the brass some "spring" -- after the bullet leaves the barrel the pressure drops and the brass springs back and allows the case to be removed from the chamber. Allowing the head and body to be annealed will result in soft brass which will result in stuck cases or worse.

Also there are two levels of brass annealing... the light blue color indicates the temperature of the first level and it will still have some spring to it. If you get to red, the brass is dead soft -no spring - and is weak and very malleable... too soft to do its job of holding onto the bullet and springing back from the chamber.

 

[mac45]

I use a media separator pan on a 5 gallon bucket.
Drop them in, give it a shake or two, and come back the next day.
If I'm in a hurry, I can try a batch in 15 min w/ an old hair dryer.

 

[Brian Ski]

It has been a while but I would toss em on a cookie sheet in the oven on very low for a while. I remember one time I air dried them over night. I thought it was good enough... I was getting hang fires from damp powder or primers. Kind of spooky. After that I would dry them very well.

 

[17 squirrel]

I heat the case neck/shoulder with a torch to achieve a light blue color (can bee seen in a dark room) in order to anneal the brass and then drop the case in cold water. When the brass is annealed it softens the brass that has been work hardened by reforming the brass case for wildcat ammo. A work hardened neck can split after the first firing. Case necks are annealed at the factory after forming for the same reason. Many factories polish the brass after annealing to make it pretty and remove the blueish tint on the brass below the shoulder to make it pretty. Many military ammo specs require that the brass not be polished after annealing as a QA check - it proves that the batch of brass went through the annealing process.

It is a myth that dumping the case in water "quenches" the brass - that works for steel, not brass. Annealed is annealed. Steel is quenched to retain a certain molecular structure for hardness, which except for files and drill bits, etc. is too hard and the steel needs to be heat treated (tempered), which removes some of the hardness and gives it toughness without removing all of the hardness. Annealing brass is similar, except heat can't harden brass it can only soften it. Brass is hardened by working it.

The water is to quickly cool the brass so that the heat does not travel to the case head. The case head is work hardened to withstand high pressure and give the brass some "spring" -- after the bullet leaves the barrel the pressure drops and the brass springs back and allows the case to be removed from the chamber. Allowing the head and body to be annealed will result in soft brass which will result in stuck cases or worse.

Also there are two levels of brass annealing... the light blue color indicates the temperature of the first level and it will still have some spring to it. If you get to red, the brass is dead soft -no spring - and is weak and very malleable... too soft to do its job of holding onto the bullet and springing back from the chamber.

Thanks for the lesson but its not needed by me, i started forming cases over 45 years ago. I own a Giraud Cartridge Case Annealer and there is no need for you to cool off your brass to stop the annealing process. As soon as the heat is removed the annealing process with brass stops. You must have heat to continue the annealing to go on. You are buying into another wifes tail.

 

[tsm]

Lay on a bath towel, fold the towel over and rub them around for a few seconds, open up the towel and setup an old fan to blow air over them until dry. When the insides no longer have any drops of water, they're done.

 

[Gluemanz28]

I inspect carefully after and the bag keeps all the crud out of the dryer. To each their own. I don't think my wife would like the oven method very much.

I'm not using my Wife's oven either. Everything used for reloading is dedicated specifically for that application and not used else where. I mostly dry tumble all my brass but I might start using the three sonic cleaners including the Hornady Hot tub. If I do I will be picking up one of the FA brass dryers or find a used dehydrator so that I can just set it and forget it with a timer like I do the tumblers. I use the cheap timers that have a green tab to start and a red tab to stop it. I remove the green tab so it doesn't restart in 24 hours and just use the red stop tab. Three hours in walnut with some polish and I have shiny clean brass ready to reload. A little mark on the timer with a sharpie where the start should be for three hours works great.

 

[nascarfantoo]

My method ... Spread my brass on an old flannel sheet, laid on the floor. Then turn a box fan on them. Periodically I will move the brass around. I am never in a hurry and the brass may dry for several hours before I get around to picking it up. Have done hundreds at a time.

 

[Slawburger]

Metal screen salvaged from a window, sitting in the sun when possible.

 

[Broom_jm]

Thanks for the lesson but its not needed by me, i started forming cases over 45 years ago. I own a Giraud Cartridge Case Annealer and there is no need for you to cool off your brass to stop the annealing process. As soon as the heat is removed the annealing process with brass stops. You must have heat to continue the annealing to go on. You are buying into another wifes tail.

Heat used to anneal doesn't "stop" once the source is removed. Hold onto the head of a cartridge that was just annealed long enough, even with the flame off, and you'll get a very good understanding of what Kludge is alluding to. I drop annealed cases onto a damp towel. They are never immersed in water and there is never any concern about them needing to dry. I wipe off the soot from the candle and they go back in the tumbler before a final neck-sizing.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Thanks, learning bunches.

Got to learn more about metals too.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Don't get 'em wet in the first place.

Pretty much my answer. Other than range pickups that have some dirt and mud on them, why get them wet? Of course, I also don't care if my brass is shiny or not. If's not for display, and it runs fine even if its darkened.

 

[Gluemanz28]

Thanks, learning bunches.

Got to learn more about metals too.

Here is some metal advise. Handcuffs hurt your wrist.... so I have been told

 

[Rob377]

Pretty much my answer. Other than range pickups that have some dirt and mud on them, why get them wet? Of course, I also don't care if my brass is shiny or not. If's not for display, and it runs fine even if its darkened.

best reason is that if you're picking up unknown range brass and loading 1000+/week, it's far easier to spot a cracked case when the inside and out are clean. It's also easier to see inside a clean case than a soot blackened case to verify powder level while loading, if your press setup doesn't allow a lockout or powder cop station.


If you've got unlimited time and patience, and/ or load a fairly small volume, then it probably doesn't matter as much.

 

[17 squirrel]

Heat used to anneal doesn't "stop" once the source is removed. Hold onto the head of a cartridge that was just annealed long enough, even with the flame off, and you'll get a very good understanding of what Kludge is alluding to. I drop annealed cases onto a damp towel. They are never immersed in water and there is never any concern about them needing to dry. I wipe off the soot from the candle and they go back in the tumbler before a final neck-sizing.

It absolutely stops getting hotter when the heat source is removed. If the neck is the hottest point of the piece of brass when the heat is removed below that point has no way to get get hotter than the neck. Certainly the bottom of the brass will get warmer from the neck and shoulder but you can't get enough heat off the neck and shoulder that's at the proper temp for annealing and overheat the body of the brass to have any affect. Its a waste of time and effort to drop your brass in water. With you dropping you hot cases on a wet towel is not the same as the time wasted dropping them in water and then having to dry them.

 

[Gluemanz28]

Broom and Squirrel are both correct. It depends on the case length if the case can air cool or if it needs a faster cooling process by means of a damp towel or water bath.

Here is an article that gives some good advise on the process.

Ballistic Edge MFG | How to Anneal

 

[BehindBlueI's]

best reason is that if you're picking up unknown range brass and loading 1000+/week, it's far easier to spot a cracked case when the inside and out are clean. It's also easier to see inside a clean case than a soot blackened case to verify powder level while loading, if your press setup doesn't allow a lockout or powder cop station.


If you've got unlimited time and patience, and/ or load a fairly small volume, then it probably doesn't matter as much.

Yeah, neither affect me much. I use a turret so I load each powder charge individually. Most of my brass is just that, my brass. I'll wet wash range pickups when I get them off an outdoor range, but I'd say about 80% of my brass just gets picked back up, tossed in the range bag, and then back through the reloading process. I only reload pistol rounds and only straight wall, so cracking isn't a real big deal for me either.

 

[17 squirrel]

Broom and Squirrel are both correct. It depends on the case length if the case can air cool or if it needs a faster cooling process by means of a damp towel or water bath.

Here is an article that gives some good advise on the process.

Ballistic Edge MFG | How to Anneal

The whole point here is the annealed brass does not need any help cooling unless you want it to for convenience's sake.
And case length is irrelevant with annealing, the shortest case I form or a 17 squirrel, its a 22 hornet case with about 5/8ths of a inch cut off. OAL is a bit longer that a 22LR round. I anneal those cases in the middle of necking down the brass and at the end of forming and final trim. As short as those cases are I don't drop them in water. In short cases I form 17 squirrel and 19 calhoon from 22 hornet cases and 17 beebee from 221 fireball cases and 19 badger from 30 carbine cases. And I get larger from there. I have formed and annealed a bazillion cases.
All you need to anneal brass is to time and heat.
You can anneal brass at 400 degrees it it will take a hour or more to do so.
Normal temps for annealing brass is around 650 to 700 degrees in the neck of the brass for maybe a second or so. And with the neck at 700 degrees for such a short period of time there is no way possible for the body or the base of the brass to hit 400 degrees much less for the hour that's needed to do any molecular changes to the brass. Its simple... Time and heat.

 

[WhitleyStu]

After coming out of the ultrasonic cleaner I spread the brass on a towel then have my air hose nozzle laying under my right hand on the towel. I blow a short puff of air into the mouth of the case to remove the moisture then toss it into vibratory tumbler with my left hand for a short 10 minute "shine up". I have a small air compressor under my reloading bench that finds many uses like this. I can do several hundred .45 cases in a few minutes. It all goes pretty fast.

 

[Gluemanz28]

The whole point here is the annealed brass does not need any help cooling unless you want it to for convenience's sake.
And case length is irrelevant with annealing, the shortest case I form or a 17 squirrel, its a 22 hornet case with about 5/8ths of a inch cut off. OAL is a bit longer that a 22LR round. I anneal those cases in the middle of necking down the brass and at the end of forming and final trim. As short as those cases are I don't drop them in water. In short cases I form 17 squirrel and 19 calhoon from 22 hornet cases and 17 beebee from 221 fireball cases and 19 badger from 30 carbine cases. And I get larger from there. I have formed and annealed a bazillion cases.
All you need to anneal brass is to time and heat.
You can anneal brass at 400 degrees it it will take a hour or more to do so.
Normal temps for annealing brass is around 650 to 700 degrees in the neck of the brass for maybe a second or so. And with the neck at 700 degrees for such a short period of time there is no way possible for the body or the base of the brass to hit 400 degrees much less for the hour that's needed to do any molecular changes to the brass. Its simple... Time and heat.

Did you read the article? If not read it. If so, then click on the contact us and debate with them.

No Offense Squirrel I'm not sayin your nutty or anything, but I will stick with a company that sells annealing equipment for my proper technique source.

 

[17 squirrel]

Lol.. Nuts... You're funny... I guess it depends on whether or not you inhale the glue fumes or not.
Bench Source Annealers... New Case Neck Annealing Machine
They say nothing about using water to cool off brass.
Giraud says do what you feel about cooling off the brass. They don't want to enter the conversation.
Ken Light Manufacturing says nothing about cooling off with water in their instructions.
Like Giraud say, do what makes you happy.