Sure it has been asked about annealing brass cases

[brstevns]

Read the sticky but still wondering. When annealing brass cases to form bullets, will water dropping make them any softer then air cooling?

[Reload3006]

because brass is a nonferrous metal quenching in water or air cooling will have no effect.

[ReloaderFred]

Nope, they will come out the same whether air cooled or water quenched. When I first started I was using a torch to anneal 3 cases at a time (very slow and cumbersome) and I would drop the hot cases into a water container, but it was only because I was limited in room and didn't want to have hot brass laying around while putting 3 more cases on the rods. Now I use a ceramics kiln for my annealing, and they cool overnight, just because it's more convenient.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[brstevns]

Nope, they will come out the same whether air cooled or water quenched. When I first started I was using a torch to anneal 3 cases at a time (very slow and cumbersome) and I would drop the hot cases into a water container, but it was only because I was limited in room and didn't want to have hot brass laying around while putting 3 more cases on the rods. Now I use a ceramics kiln for my annealing, and they cool overnight, just because it's more convenient.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Thanks. Asking for the same reason. I have been doing 6 at a time and was going to drop them in water so I could do another 6.

[ReloaderFred]

That was what I figured you were asking for. It was just a simple matter for me in that I didn't want to get burned from brass that was still hot. I turned the lights off in my shop so I could get a better feel for the color, and in the gloom, I didn't want to lay my hand in the wrong spot. The water container took care of that problem.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Lizard333]

I water drop my brass as well. The less 800 degree pieces of metal lying around the less I get burned. If you drop the freshly annealed brass into water that has had citic acid added to it you will help to remove the tarnish.

[brstevns]

I water drop my brass as well. The less 800 degree pieces of metal lying around the less I get burned. If you drop the freshly annealed brass into water that has had citic acid added to it you will help to remove the tarnish.

Thanks Guys I am glad you are around to help this old man.

[ricklaut]

I was reading the Corbin swaging book .pdf just last night and understood from it that dropping in water also has the positive side effect of reducing the amount of scaling that forms after annealing. I'm not quite all set up yet as I don't have my dies, but intend to quench mine for that purpose.

[MIBULLETS]

Someone already mentioned using citric acid in the quench, some vinigar works pretty well too.

[a.squibload]

I do 'em in rows. That one got a little too red, I was tryin' to concentrate
on the shot.
Dump 'em in water with citric acid, dry, then tumble in rice (it's cheap).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G1UxrlnkR7k/T73LR3uSGKI/AAAAAAAAAdc/r4qM0JeEdHA/s640/annealing%2520brass.jpg

[DukeInFlorida]

The best way to anneal is use a dedicated LEE 20 pound dipper type casting pot.

It gets up to the right temperature, you won't ever go over the critical temperature where the brass starts to sag, and it processes the brass rather quickly.

I held off spending the money for this for the longest time (I'm as frugal as any of you are!)..

Now, I wonder why I waited so long to buy it.

As others do, I run it at max temperature setting, and a metal cover on top. It takes about ten minutes to anneal a full batch, which is an amount 1/3 full. I dump right from the pot into a bucket of water with lemishine in it. I ran a BUNCH of brass in no time recently, and it goes faster than the torch method, since I don't have to stand there with the torch.

[Mozz]

Duke

Does the LEE 20 pounder work for 9mm cases as well 22RF?

Dave

[DukeInFlorida]

Yes. I am annealing everything in the pot.

[toolz568]

Sounds like an inexpensive way to anneal brass. Is it a 220v or 110v and does it matter?

[DukeInFlorida]

110 volts

I bought it new, just to do the annealing, and the pot will NEVER see any lead.