annealing cases in lead.

[mto7464]

just read about using lead to anneal cases. Has anyone tried this? If so what seems to work best?

[felix]

See your local jeweler and ask him if you can anneal some cases with his torch. He will have fine adjustments on his flame thrower that you can use to your advantage. Ideally, you just want one turn, hand held, on just the neck portion of the brass. That would be a very narrow flame, extremely hot. Most, if not all, hand held personal flame gadgets have way much too width in their flame. For large cases, rapid cooling is not necessary. ... felix

[Ricochet]

I've tried doing it in lead, with my Lee pot stabilized at max temp. Used the fingers on the case head trick to keep from overheating and softening the brass. When I cursed and threw the cases, they were heated long enough. I couldn't tell it made any difference in the excessive springback and inadequate neck tension I was experiencing with the Lee collet dies. For a short time application you need more heat, i.e., a flame.

[James C. Snodgrass]

The stuff will stick to the case some also. I had to try it but had poor results myself. I do use a propane plumbers torch regularly with good results, the key is to practice on some junk cases and watch the color of the brass and flame. Good luck James

[jhalcott]

I normally do NOT anneal cases. I figure they are about done the 3rd time I have to trim them. I will make an exception with some cases that are not commercially available AND take several steps to make. 7tc/u and 6.5JDJ do not qualify!

[beagle]

I've tried this method and it works pretty well. I normally will aneal older brass for my levers such as .25-35, .32-40 and .348. This brass is hard to get and normally old when you get it. The anealing will eliminate some of the cracked necks.

I use a large set of forcepts to hold the case rim. I dip the neck of unprimed cases about a 1/4" into canola oil and then dip the case in melted lead to a point right below the case neck. After a count, I drop the case in hot water.

The length of the count will be have to determined by the color change of the case and you have to determine that on a lot by lot basis.

Insure that the cases are decapped or trapped air inside can cause interesing results and sometimes not good results.

The canola oil keeps lead from sticking to the brass.

After the heating process, I remove the cases from the hot water, shake them out and use a piece of bronze wool to clean the anealed portion. This removes any lead and burned oil.

Then, the cases are dried in front of the fire in wintertime or outside on the patio in the sun until dry. I then tumble them good to remove any oil traces and I'm ready to roll./beagle

[ktw]

The canola oil keeps lead from sticking to the brass.

Thanks for the tip. I have tried this before, with poor results due to lead stuck to the cases. Now I know the trick...

-ktw

[Ricochet]

FWIW, any lead that does stick is easily removed by a quick twist in steel wool while it's hot. If you don't deprime the cases before dipping in the lead, no lead will be on the inside of the neck.

[Slowpoke]

I just did a dozen, CBC .410s, a few days ago, I used a little of the bull plate lube on a Q-tip to lightly swab a 1/4 inch of the necks inside and out, it worked well. Clean up was nill.

good luck