Annealing with a pilot light lighter?

21 March 2022, 21:08

Jay Gorski

Does anyone remember the guy that used a firestarter/furnace pilot light starter/candle lighter to anneal his cases? I did get a chance to try it and it did soften my case, which at the time I had one case that was seating kinda hard, took the case apart and got one of my wife's candle lighters out and annealed the neck until I couldn't hold the case any longer per the instructions in that thread, let it cool, ran the case into my exp mandrel and it seated just perfect. Anyone else try that?

22 March 2022, 05:38

Wstrnhuntr

I must have missed that discussion. Interesting idea though.

22 March 2022, 07:12

rcraig

A flame is a flame. I use a propane torch.

23 March 2022, 06:10

ted thorn

John Barsness has written in great detail on how to aneal with a candle in his Gun Gack books and magazine articles.

I aneal cases often to get the utmost consistancy and outstanding brass life.

23 March 2022, 10:09

eagle27

Any flame could be used for annealing cases however you do not want too much heat to migrate down to the head end of the case which must retain it's original hardness. The quicker the neck and shoulder area can be brought up to annealing temperature (just to colour change, not dull or cherry red as some think) and then the case is dropped into cool water to stop any heat migration, the better.

Quenching in water does nothing for annealing brass, it is only to stop heat migration and also makes it safer with not having hot brass around on the bench to burn someone or something.

I use a propane torch and an electric drill with a case holder in the chuck so I can slowly rotate the case and evenly heat the area I want annealed. Only takes a few seconds, tip the case into a tub of water and put another in the holder. I use a wooden frame to hold the propane torch in position and similarly the drill goes back into the same position on the frame each time after tipping out the annealed case and replacing a case, so the flame is played onto the same area for each case without having to hold steady or adjust.
All done without burning fingers and gets a consistent anneal.

23 March 2022, 21:13

ted thorn

quote:
Originally posted by eagle27:
Any flame could be used for annealing cases however you do not want too much heat to migrate down to the head end of the case which must retain it's original hardness. The quicker the neck and shoulder area can be brought up to annealing temperature (just to colour change, not dull or cherry red as some think) and then the case is dropped into cool water to stop any heat migration, the better.

Quenching in water does nothing for annealing brass, it is only to stop heat migration and also makes it safer with not having hot brass around on the bench to burn someone or something.

I use a propane torch and an electric drill with a case holder in the chuck so I can slowly rotate the case and evenly heat the area I want annealed. Only takes a few seconds, tip the case into a tub of water and put another in the holder. I use a wooden frame to hold the propane torch in position and similarly the drill goes back into the same position on the frame each time after tipping out the annealed case and replacing a case, so the flame is played onto the same area for each case without having to hold steady or adjust.
All done without burning fingers and gets a consistent anneal.

Dissipating heat traveling to the case head does absolutely nothing in terms of harm to rifle brass.

Not a single brass producer water quenches after the annealing process.

23 March 2022, 22:02

Bobster

I agree. Videos of brass production I have seen show the brass feeding down a raceway neck up. All the while being spun. The brass feeds by a bank of torches that then evenly heat the brass until color change. Then they proceed down the raceway air cooling. If heat migration was an issue, all brass fired in auto and semi-auto guns would be useless.

I replicate that process by putting a case in a LEE case spinner chucked in an electric screwdriver motor. A second or two in a propane flame gives a beautiful color change.

Here is a homemade rig I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPoBSeRIdIw

quote:
Originally posted by ted thorn:

Dissipating heat traveling to the case head does absolutely nothing in terms of harm to rifle brass.

Not a single brass producer water quenches after the annealing process.

27 March 2022, 19:29

Stonecreek

Quenching is unnecessary, but it does prevent burned fingers.

On the rare occasions that I need to anneal, I stand the deprimed case on its base in a pan of water. The water prevents the case head from heating (no matter how much you overheat the neck/shoulder). Once I get the exposed portion to the desired temperature I tip the case over into the water. Tipping it over does nothing to help the process, but if the case has been tipped over you (1) know it has been processed and (2) can't burn a finger or hand by inadvertently touching it before it has cooled.

I'm sure there are better, faster, and more precise methods, but for small batches this works well.