Annealing Nickel Plated Brass ?

[SharpsShooter]

I have a fair supply of nickel plated 45-70 brass that I use to keep my smokeless powder loads separate from the good stuff (Black Powder). Generally they are not fired with high pressure loadings, usually 1873ish pressures. I am starting to get split necks after only perhaps 3 reloads. Question is....can it be annealed in the same manner as we do brass? What color would you be watching for as you heated it?


SS

[S.R.Custom]

You can anneal nickel plated brass, but...

First of all, the color change will not be as dramatic. The case mouth will turn a blue-grey color, but don't wait to see the same degree of dramatic color change as you would in regular brass before quenching.

And not all nickel plating turns the same color. Depending on the phosphorous content of the nickel, the color may be a more golden color. In any event, I would time how long it takes to bring a conventional piece of brass to color, and apply the same amount of time heating the nickel brass. Watch the color, and let that color be your gauge for that batch of brass only.

This will anneal the brass, but the downside to all this is you don't know how the nickel will respond. Depending upon the nickel alloy, it is possible for the nickel to actually be hardened, as opposed to annealed. It depends on the nickel alloy, the temps involved, and as a result, whether or not the nickel thinks it's been annealed or heat treated. (Not that it matters, as the plating is so thin as to contribute a meaningless degree of hardening to the case.) More here:

http://www.keytometals.com/Article32.htm

Bottom line: Yes you can anneal the brass. But you won't know how the nickel will behave. It may flake off as a result of the makeup of the alloy and/or the plating process used by the MFR. But even if it does, so what? Beats throwing away the brass... ;)

[Harry O]

I have been using nickel plated 38-40 brass since I started shooting it (to keep it separate from my 44-40 brass -- which is actually brass). Like you, I started having problems with neck cracks fairly quickly, so I annealed them all.

SuperMag is right that they do not show color changes as well as regular brass. Don't overdo it. I ended up with brass that has a bluish neck, somewhat like older British motorcycle exhaust pipes. Since I did that, I have had very few neck cracks. The nickel is starting to wear off in places now because of the number of times they have been reloaded, but I can still easily tell them and the 44-40's apart.

They have been loaded a number of times, since that is the caliber I am using for CAS. BTW, it is MUCH easier to find nickel plated brass in the grass after shooting a stage.

[Ricochet]

I recall reading somewhere that the nickel plating process could cause hydrogen embrittlement of the underlying metal...

[Bill*]

Dang Ricochet... With that purple color and backlighting I thought for a moment your avatar was a picture of Col. Kurtz from "Apocalypse Now" HeHeHe

[shotman]

You may try another way. Take a cookie pan and set the brass up and then take fine sand[playsand at lowes] fill around case to half way . and soak with water. Turn oven on to 500# and put in ther for about 15min. then take out and spray with sink spray. Would try about 10 at a time to get the time right. That should keep nickel bright

[S.R.Custom]

I recall reading somewhere that the nickel plating process could cause hydrogen embrittlement of the underlying metal...

In high strength steel. I'm not aware of it being a problem in brass. Even so, the primary culprit is the acid etching in the pre-plating step of the electro-plate process. And considering that the "part" in question is just a shell casing, I doubt that the MFRs even fool with the acid etch. For that matter, I'm almost certain that shell casings are electroless plated, where H2 embrittlement would be a non-issue.



Turn oven on to 500# and put in ther for about 15min. then take out and spray with sink spray...

At 500° you are only stress relieving brass. It takes 800-1400° or so to properly anneal brass. Link: http://tinyurl.com/n2nqoh

FWIW-- if the color of the nickel plated brass is bothersome after annealing, the color is just an oxide and will come off in the tumbler.

[SharpsShooter]

Thanks guys. I figured it could be done, but had no idea what color to work towards.


SS

[cajun shooter]

That is the downside to nickel cases. I'm talking about the split necks. When I first started to reload in the late sixties I bought nothing but nickel because it looked nice and I knew nothing about tumbling. I soon found out when all my case necks started to split after only a few reloads and then I learned about the anneal process which turned all my pretty brass blue.