Annealing Jackets

[mosby's men]

are you guys just pouring the cases in a lead melting pot or are you stacking them one row on top of another. ?

what are you using to bond cores to cases and where can i buy it
tia
MM

[-Mischief]

I haven't tried bonding them yet but to answer your first question...I line my pot (while cold) with foil, then I fill it approximately 1/2 full after it's reached 700 or so. (just drop them in) You can have a thermometer in and it works great! After putting the hulls in, I set the temp to 900 or so. Check periodically for major discoloration and a slight glow.

[Lizard333]

When just annealing jackets, I just dump and cover. When bonding cores, I use nothing but pure lead and the brass. I stack them upright in my Dutch oven and put the spurs to it. 15 minutes over a turkey fryer burner and the brass is bonded. I make sure there is a blueish color on too of the lead. No flux needed.

[newcastter]

I haven't tried bonding them yet but to answer your first question...I line my pot (while cold) with foil, then I fill it approximately 1/2 full after it's reached 700 or so. (just drop them in) You can have a thermometer in and it works great! After putting the hulls in, I set the temp to 900 or so. Check periodically for major discoloration and a slight glow.

I have been wondering if there was a way to use my existing LEE pot by using maybe a tin can or something. So what your saying is you just line your pot with foil and that works? It doesnt permanently attatch the foil to the pot? If so that would be great I would not have to order a second pot just for annealing.

[-Mischief]

Correct! I have had the thermometer over 1000*F and no issues. It works great. I make sure to form as much of the foil as I can while the pot is still cold...tough working on a hot pot.

[newcastter]

Correct! I have had the thermometer over 1000*F and no issues. It works great. I make sure to form as much of the foil as I can while the pot is still cold...tough working on a hot pot.

Awesome. Now I would be using Heavy Duty foil just to be safe but what are you using? Reason I ask is my experience has been that if you have an oven with a hidden bake element and you line it with foil the foil will adhere to the bottom of the oven and you will never get it off. So I just figured the same with the lead pot.

[-Mischief]

My wifes foil out of the drawer.

[spitstickler]

Or do it for 20$. Buy a cast iron skillet with a lid. Fill it full of brass you want to anneal or core bond, and place over a burner on high for fifteen minutes. I am able to do 250-300 40's with bonding the lead in fifteen minutes. I can do more if I'm annealing. Your limited to real estate with the lee pot, and you can only fill it a third of the way full.

Grumpa taught that to me a few weeks ago and works like a charm. You can even add your thermostat in the top to confirm you have reached 800+ degrees.

Lizard, when you are just annealing jackets with this method are you stirring them around at any point?

[Lizard333]

Nope. I just put them in the pot and let them go. It's a pretty good oven with very good heat distribution.

[spitstickler]

I don't have a big cast iron oven, so I tried the Lee 20# Pot annealing method this weekend.

• Pot turned all the way up (no thermometer, so no idea on how hot things were)
• About 1/3 full - (300-ish cases)
• Covered with heavy tin foil pan formed around the top of the pot (like the one you bake a cake in and take somewhere where you don't want to deal with dirty dishes)
• 6 min - stir with tent stake - Cover and then 6 more min.
• Dump jackets in water w/ lemishine

Results seemed good. I could crush the end of the case almost completely flat between my finger and thumb, so I did several thousand.

Something I read (or maybe dreamed about last night) made me think it should be REALLY easy to crush the mouth shut. So, I took a propane torch and cooked a few cases manually this morning. These were softer than what I was doing in the LEE pot.

My question is, do these jackets need to be that soft? From what I've read, if you can close the mouth with finger pressure you're good to go. But is super soft better than soft, or is having uniformity in the amount of annealing what I should be more concerned with. Maybe I'm sweating the small stuff here, but it's hard being OCD.

[BT Sniper]

Uniformity = good!

Too soft is not necessarily better. As long as you can squish them flat in your fingers you will be good.

Your technique sounds like the same I had success with. I would bet you are good to go!

BT

[Renofish]

I have been annealing 22 LR rimfire casing for bullet making for a number of years. I anneal them before the rim gets swagged and then once again just before the casing and now jacket gets made into a bullet. I uses a large kiln for controlled and uniform heat to anneal. I hold the casing at temperature for 20 additional mins. as it seems to equalize the softness in a mixed lot of brass.

If someone is looking for me to anneal their rimfired long rifle brass, I can help you out. The deal is this:
1) you ship me a large flat rate postal box full of long rifle brass (not 3/4 full)
2) I will anneal and ship back to you 1/2 of the brass at my expense to you in a flat rate priority box. (I keep the other 1/2 for my work and for return postage expenses)

You can contact me at renofish@gmail.com Rich

[Prospector Howard]

Good thought Renofish but, most everyone around here anneals after derimming, so I'm not sure how may would take you up on your offer.

[Longhill]

I picked up one of these from an online auction site...

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Spe.../703124?***=24

Was able to to get 1200 degrees in less than 20 minutes.
The platform will hold close to 100 9mm cases.
My new tool for annealing cases.

[tiger762]

That's exactly how I anneal 2-3 lbs of 22LR at a time. I set the toaster oven to 450+ and the timer for 30 minutes. When they darken and look like ****, I know they're ready. My test is if I can crush the mouth of a 22 with thumb and index, it's annealed.

After that, the wet tumbler followed by drying with a heat gun. 1400-2100 more 22LR to now derim

A toaster oven will not do the job.

B.

[Pappa]

I use an old electric kiln that's been converted to a Raku? kiln. Heated with a propane tiger torch. I use an analog temp probe and put the brass in a stainless vegetable rinsing basket. The handles of the basket fit into the grooves where the electrical elements were in the fire brick. There's no problem reaching 1200*F in the kiln but the heat is a bit uneven. Once the temp is at 1200 and some of the brass is glowing, I move the torch to the vent hole in the lid or remove the lid completely and fire the brass from the top with the torch. In a minute or so, it's all glowing nicely. Let it cool and then clean. I use a stainless media tumbler WITH NO media. A squirt of Palmolive orange dish soap and some citric acid and hot tap water. 15 minutes later the brass is sparkly clean! If the brass doesn't come all the way clean, you need more citric acid. Rinse in water and you're good to go.

[anotherred]

I don't have a big cast iron oven, so I tried the Lee 20# Pot annealing method this weekend.

• Pot turned all the way up (no thermometer, so no idea on how hot things were)
• About 1/3 full - (300-ish cases)
• Covered with heavy tin foil pan formed around the top of the pot (like the one you bake a cake in and take somewhere where you don't want to deal with dirty dishes)
• 6 min - stir with tent stake - Cover and then 6 more min.
• Dump jackets in water w/ lemishine

Results seemed good. I could crush the end of the case almost completely flat between my finger and thumb, so I did several thousand.

Something I read (or maybe dreamed about last night) made me think it should be REALLY easy to crush the mouth shut. So, I took a propane torch and cooked a few cases manually this morning. These were softer than what I was doing in the LEE pot.

My question is, do these jackets need to be that soft? From what I've read, if you can close the mouth with finger pressure you're good to go. But is super soft better than soft, or is having uniformity in the amount of annealing what I should be more concerned with. Maybe I'm sweating the small stuff here, but it's hard being OCD.

Old post but this may help someone else. If this is refering to 22LR as jackets, yes you can over anneal them. I was having alot of bullets sticking to the ejector pin. When I stopped annealing them so soft this helped cure the problem. They need to be soft enough to form the point but apparently not too soft.

[Pappa]

I'm thinking this is possible too. Brass was easy to bulge by seating the lead. Wrecked 6 of my first 25. Points formed real easy, but when I loaded them in my 10mm brass, the bullet was left with a seat ring around the nose. Not bad but noticeable. I won't heat the next batch to quite as bright of red. Didn't burn any zinc out but they could be a tad tougher.

[mosby's men]

what am i doing wrong ? i cut my 40 caliber brass to .725 bought a small dutch oven with a lid , filled it up put it on gas bbq cracked the lid enough to slide thermometer in when it got to 650 degrees i set timer for a hour pulled them out .
can not crush any of the case mouths with finger.
tonight drove a bunch of nails into a board went out on my patio and hit them with a propane torch until they all glowed still can not crush them with my fingers
so whats up , are you suppose to crush 40 cal with finger pressure ?

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Generally, no. I tried to do the same with 45 cases after being annealed. They don't crush...easily. They swage fine though. You are good to go. Swage on!!

Side note:

I assume the temp got higher than 650. Any idea whaqt the temp was after the hour?