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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
Annealing Brass
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<blockquote data-quote="Trickymissfit" data-source="post: 988450" data-attributes="member: 25383"><p>Flip will probably chime in here as he's even more up to date than this old man. </p><p> </p><p>Steel is a generic name that covers anything from hot rolled plate to 19 series stainless steel and high speed steel. To harden that piece of steel, you need two things first. Heat and carbon. Be looking for something like 1460 degrees with a complete soak of heat. Some steels use water for the quench, and some need oil. Yet some others want to be air cooled. Yet not every piece of steel will harden, no matter how hot you get it. High speed steel and air hardening steels want more heat than say a piece of O-1. Some steels will flame harden, but these are usually just hardened in a small area. Some steels harden like glass, and will actually shatter if dropped. To fix this problem we often draw them back in hardness (similar to annealing, but much more precise). Every alloy number draws back differently, and this can also change from brand name to brand name to a certain extent. Now I left one form of steel out of this, and the is the 5**** series steels. Most are specialty grades used in ball bearing manufacture plus a couple other uses that I'm not allowed to broadcast. These are usually hardened via magnetic inductance, and are never drawn back (I've never seen it done anyway). There are processes to add carbon to an existing piece of steel. With something like 8620, this is a must if you want it hardened (even then it's only a case). Without the carburizing process, that piece of steel will never harden. I will not go into quenching processes, as these often are very secretive. </p><p> </p><p>Now brass is a different animal from steels and irons. It's heat properties are similar to aluminum and copper. They retain heat very well! You must get rid of all the heat asap, or it will continue to soften the metal. A test to confirm this can be done with a welder's temp stick. Draw two lines lengthways on a brass case. One line being 450 degrees, and the other being 200 degrees. Anneal the case without quenching it. You say 200 degrees don't mean anything? The brass starts to anneal close to 200 degrees! Although not very much. The heat in brass and aluminum travels very fast, and actually still moves during the quench. The warmer the quench, the easier for the heat to travel. Warm water will not shock the brass to stop the heat transfer. Although it certainly slows it down greatly. Yet if your one of the guys heating brass to about 700 to 800 degrees, your in trouble with warm water. 430 degrees is about perfect for annealing brass.</p><p>gary</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Trickymissfit, post: 988450, member: 25383"] Flip will probably chime in here as he's even more up to date than this old man. Steel is a generic name that covers anything from hot rolled plate to 19 series stainless steel and high speed steel. To harden that piece of steel, you need two things first. Heat and carbon. Be looking for something like 1460 degrees with a complete soak of heat. Some steels use water for the quench, and some need oil. Yet some others want to be air cooled. Yet not every piece of steel will harden, no matter how hot you get it. High speed steel and air hardening steels want more heat than say a piece of O-1. Some steels will flame harden, but these are usually just hardened in a small area. Some steels harden like glass, and will actually shatter if dropped. To fix this problem we often draw them back in hardness (similar to annealing, but much more precise). Every alloy number draws back differently, and this can also change from brand name to brand name to a certain extent. Now I left one form of steel out of this, and the is the 5**** series steels. Most are specialty grades used in ball bearing manufacture plus a couple other uses that I'm not allowed to broadcast. These are usually hardened via magnetic inductance, and are never drawn back (I've never seen it done anyway). There are processes to add carbon to an existing piece of steel. With something like 8620, this is a must if you want it hardened (even then it's only a case). Without the carburizing process, that piece of steel will never harden. I will not go into quenching processes, as these often are very secretive. Now brass is a different animal from steels and irons. It's heat properties are similar to aluminum and copper. They retain heat very well! You must get rid of all the heat asap, or it will continue to soften the metal. A test to confirm this can be done with a welder's temp stick. Draw two lines lengthways on a brass case. One line being 450 degrees, and the other being 200 degrees. Anneal the case without quenching it. You say 200 degrees don't mean anything? The brass starts to anneal close to 200 degrees! Although not very much. The heat in brass and aluminum travels very fast, and actually still moves during the quench. The warmer the quench, the easier for the heat to travel. Warm water will not shock the brass to stop the heat transfer. Although it certainly slows it down greatly. Yet if your one of the guys heating brass to about 700 to 800 degrees, your in trouble with warm water. 430 degrees is about perfect for annealing brass. gary [/QUOTE]
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