Can anybody explain a simple procedure to anneal brass??? Thanks MD

I'm surprised you haven't gotten a million responses by now.

I've tried a number of ways of annealing. For me the easiest, fastest and cheapest is with a small propane torch. Don't even consider anything hotter, like oxy-acetylene. What I do is sit on a milk crate; anything kind of low where you can put the propane bottle under your thigh to hold it. I fire up the torch, adjust the blue cone to about 1" or less. Put the bottle horizontal under one thigh. I use the left one. I�m right handed. The flame should point way from you. Right under the flame place a bucket about a quarter full of water where you are going to drop the cases as you anneal. You're best off in a semi dark room. I close off all daylight in my shop and turn out the light in the daytime. I work principally with the light of the torch so I can see the color of the brass as I anneal. Now, you have the torch going with your bucket of water on the ground between your legs. Take a clean and polished case in your hand holding it by the base between thumb and base of the forefinger. Put it in the flame of the torch so that the neck of the case is just forward of the blue cone, and roll the case in the flame with your fingers. If you observe the color of the flame as it plays across the mouth of the case, when blue flame turns orange, start rolling the case. You are principally interested in the necks and that is where you keep your eyes. You will see the brass change to a golden, orange color as you roll the case. If you started with a polished case, the shine starts getting a bit dull. When you see this color, it's done. Drop it in the bucket to quench it and you are through with that case. It takes only 5-6 seconds. If it turns red or cherry red, it�s too hot and you�ve probably ruined it. If you twirl well you will have a very uniform discoloration to just below the shoulder into the body all the way around. You only have to twirl about 180 degrees. I can do about 50 cases in about 15 minutes or less. If you don't heat it enough you aren't hurting anything, you just won't anneal. If you overheat, the brass gets way too soft and you've ruined it. It needs to get to 700 degrees to accomplish annealing. If it gets to 1400 or so, you've not only ruined the brass, but you've burned your fingers!!! You can't hold the base when it hits 130-140 degrees, so you can't hurt the bottom of the case. It takes more than 400 degrees to affect the brass in any way. Even if you don�t see the colors properly, the heat of the base of the case will cause you to drop it and it�s likely you�ve annealed it, at least partially, and you haven�t over heated the base. If there isn�t a clear indication, you can do it again, but even when I�ve thought I didn�t get one hot enough, it was annealed.

This topic has been very well discussed previously and the threads are well worth reading.

Hit the "search" button in the top right of your screen then fill in "anneal"

HTH,

jpb