Sand/Salt Bath Annealing brass, has anyone tried this?

Sand/Salt Bath Annealing brass, has anyone tried this?

Sand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twtPEQVt63U

Salt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwdTaDLz56Q

Does anyone know the recipe blending the salt bath?

I've used salt bath with good results. You can purchase low temperature salt for annealing from a couple of places. I did not get mine from Ballistic Recreations but got it from high temp tools.

http://www.hightemptools.com/salts.html

Yep, tried it and it’s not worth the hazard. Found that in my unconditioned garage condensation can form on the inside of the case and when the water hits the molten salt it’s explosive. The salts had to be at 1000 degrees to get any type of repeatable results. And no matter what I did I had salts sticking to cases which weren’t easy to remove.

There a lot of inexpensive automated annealers available. They’re a better option in all aspects. The subject of salt bath annealing from time to time. And someone usually states that I did something wrong. This wasn’t the case and I’ve answered particulars questions before. There are better methods available.

dip them in you lead casting pot you aready have everything you need to anneal your brass

I used same salt as Boolit Head . Worked ok at best but my small Lee pot had problems holding temp.
I built and now use an annealer like Elfster shows if that tells you anything.

Not yet, but have been looking into going that route for awhile now, and plan to buy a Ballistic Recreations kit soon.
I'd be interested in the (or a good alternative) salt recipe myself.

I use sand. Its a very fine silica sand used in glass making. I pre heat the 10 pound lyman dipper pot for awhile ( use my lead thermometer to get temp right) and have a rack made to hold cases. work around the circle of holes. It works for me but Im annealing BPCR cases and these are usually thinner than other centerfire cases also. My rack has 12 evenly spaced holes and a stop plate to set depth.

I've used this kit a number of times. The process and results were just as described in the video. Since I was annealing 22k hornet cases, I had to drill out and use part of a 9mm case to keep the 22k hornet case from going in too deep. The water bath washes off what little salt sticks to the case because of immersion. I de primed my cases before doing this to insure no pressure built up in the case for any reason. It also helped them dry off faster.

What is not mentioned in the video is that each case has a bit of salt solution on it when removed so you will need to "top off" the solution if you want to keep your annealing line about the same place after repeated uses and hundreds of cases. You will need either a second container of salt crystals from Ballistic Recreations or from another source to make this work.

I'm happy with the kit and the results I got with it. I found this process no more hazardous than casting and my wife could detect no smell from the process (I did this in the basement without her knowledge ). And its a lot cheaper than buying one of the self propelled gas fired annealers. The kit gave me the consistency I could not get with the hand held, gas fired method.

As always, YMMV

Hi. I too use the Ballistic Recreations salt annealing kit and I'm very happy with it. I've tweaked my set up to use a PID to better control the temperature and a metronome app on my iPhone to control the time in the molten salt. As for cleaning off the remaining salt, I drop the annealed cases into a bucket of water using a chute to prevent splashing (the salt readily dissolves in water.) I set the temperature to 915°F and it only takes five to six seconds to get a good anneal. It works fine with both straight wall and bottle neck cases (I also do .30-06 and .22-250.) As for being dangerous, I think it's no more so than a flame type annealer or casting lead bullets, as long as proper precautions are taken (eye protection being #1, dry/deprimed brass, and no chance of splashing water.) Here's a short video of me annealing some .45-70 brass. Ed

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1t56i6d8u...aling.AVI?dl=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt

Nope! I avoid things that don't make sense to me, like SALT and gun stuff!

I tried the propane gas machines and never felt like I had a real handle on it. I wound up with an AMP machine from Australia. It is all electric induction, fast and simple to use. Basically, plug and play. Just turn it on, plug in the right code for your brass, and run your batch. Fast, easy, clean and 100% repeatable annealing. The only real drawback is the $1,500 price tag!

Look up "Annealing Made Perfect"! I highly recommend it, if you have the cash. I have not regretted my purchase one bit.

You need to use extreme caution around molten salt. It will literally explode when exposed to even the smallest amount of water like dripping sweat...

I have the Ballistic Recreations kit. It works OK, but I never knew if I had things hot enough. You don't get that nice glow in the brass. And the molten salt is crazy dangerous. Looks like water but sets anything it touches on fire. I have switched to induction annealing and use this now: https://www.amazon.com/Solary-Magnet...7755708&sr=8-7
My results are much more uniform an quick.
Chris