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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
Annealing with lead - process?
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<blockquote data-quote="tlk" data-source="post: 450824" data-attributes="member: 11397"><p>OK Folks - I got some updates and DATA: </p><p> </p><p> The Setup: I had 50 rounds of Lapua 30-06 brass that had been shot 10 times, had been annealed once and was in need to re-annealing. Like in a bad way. My last attempt at lead annealing worked OK, but I didn;t have a thermometer to keep everything in a tight range between brass and didn't use near enough lead to keep temperature variability to a minimum as the lead cooled inside of several pieces of brass inside the case body, making lead removal impossible and ruining several good cases. </p><p> </p><p> The New Way: I bought a Lyman thermometer, stuck my pot on high and temped it. It pegged at 750 and dipped to 725 before turning on again. Based on the graphs that were provided earlier in this thread I decided that that temperature range would yield little in the way of variability in annealing differences between the brass. Basically higher than what Mike does but lower than Loner. And based on another thread elsewhere around here, about 300 degrees higher than others. </p><p> </p><p> The overall process is was as Mike described, with the following differences: </p><p> </p><p> 1. temp was 725-750, trying to keep the dips at the higher portion of that range. </p><p> 2. dip time was 20 seconds, longer than previously discussed. </p><p> 3. dip depth was to the shoulder only - no dips past the neck, as the shoulder was going to get hot enough 20 seconds in to get the job done and the risk of lead turds in my brass was minimized. </p><p> </p><p> Keep in mind too that the necks were trimmed to .014&quot; thickness - all brass was uniform. </p><p> </p><p> What came of this? Here are the post-shot results of the first four (only ones I have shot yet), 2880 fps:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu155/screwdriver2/P1010904a.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> The shot string had very little verticle, which is telling me that the velocity is also fairly constant between the brass. After annealing, the brass was cleaned and reasized. Case neck id was tested with a pin guage to ensure .306 before loading (i.e., tension was consistent), and bullets were measured for identical bearing surfaces; this was done to see what the results would be of brass that was annealed in this fashion.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The powder line is uniform across the necks, ending about 1/8&quot; before the shoulder. This is exactly what I wanted, as this brass was beginning to have powders marks creep onto the shoulder. I think this uniformity is a function of both the identical thickness and paying close attention to the temperature range between cases. So it does seem that 750 degrees will not ruin a case and appears to do a fine job of annealing, even at an extreme of 20 seconds. </p><p> </p><p>Hopefully this sheds some light on this process. Any helpful comments/advice that would make this better is very welcome. BTW - wear protective clothing and masks (just to be safe) !! </p><p></p><p>Thanks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tlk, post: 450824, member: 11397"] OK Folks - I got some updates and DATA: The Setup: I had 50 rounds of Lapua 30-06 brass that had been shot 10 times, had been annealed once and was in need to re-annealing. Like in a bad way. My last attempt at lead annealing worked OK, but I didn;t have a thermometer to keep everything in a tight range between brass and didn't use near enough lead to keep temperature variability to a minimum as the lead cooled inside of several pieces of brass inside the case body, making lead removal impossible and ruining several good cases. The New Way: I bought a Lyman thermometer, stuck my pot on high and temped it. It pegged at 750 and dipped to 725 before turning on again. Based on the graphs that were provided earlier in this thread I decided that that temperature range would yield little in the way of variability in annealing differences between the brass. Basically higher than what Mike does but lower than Loner. And based on another thread elsewhere around here, about 300 degrees higher than others. The overall process is was as Mike described, with the following differences: 1. temp was 725-750, trying to keep the dips at the higher portion of that range. 2. dip time was 20 seconds, longer than previously discussed. 3. dip depth was to the shoulder only - no dips past the neck, as the shoulder was going to get hot enough 20 seconds in to get the job done and the risk of lead turds in my brass was minimized. Keep in mind too that the necks were trimmed to .014" thickness - all brass was uniform. What came of this? Here are the post-shot results of the first four (only ones I have shot yet), 2880 fps: [IMG]http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu155/screwdriver2/P1010904a.jpg[/IMG] The shot string had very little verticle, which is telling me that the velocity is also fairly constant between the brass. After annealing, the brass was cleaned and reasized. Case neck id was tested with a pin guage to ensure .306 before loading (i.e., tension was consistent), and bullets were measured for identical bearing surfaces; this was done to see what the results would be of brass that was annealed in this fashion. The powder line is uniform across the necks, ending about 1/8" before the shoulder. This is exactly what I wanted, as this brass was beginning to have powders marks creep onto the shoulder. I think this uniformity is a function of both the identical thickness and paying close attention to the temperature range between cases. So it does seem that 750 degrees will not ruin a case and appears to do a fine job of annealing, even at an extreme of 20 seconds. Hopefully this sheds some light on this process. Any helpful comments/advice that would make this better is very welcome. BTW - wear protective clothing and masks (just to be safe) !! Thanks. [/QUOTE]
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Annealing with lead - process?
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