Annealing

[wjm1000]

I have a question on over annealing.
Why is the brass considered trash if it's over annealed to a dead soft condition in just the neck shoulder junction? I'm aware that some of the alloys are burned off when the necks are over annealed. But don't know why that would make them unsuitable to reload. Is it because there would insufficient neck tension or it could possibly cause an unsafe condition and cause the neck to separate from the case body?

Any insight will be appreciated.

 

[quigley257]

Eric Cortina has some good insight to annealing and over-annealing brass. Check out his videos here...

Over-annealing -

How he anneals -

 

[WapitiBob]

I over annealed mine when using a torch; I could push the bullet into the case with my thumb even though it had well over .005 neck tension. I ran them thru my sizer/expander button about a dozen times then annealed with my amp when I got it. I have since shot all those cases at 600 and 1000 and they grouped fine.

 

[Pdyson]

I over annealed about 10ea 6 ARC or was it 6.5Gendel When the feed mechanism to my flame machine messed up. I too felt zero "neck tension" resistance when seating bullets. I used my neck mandrel set and necked them all up to 7mm then used my bushing sizing die to bring them back down. I was surprised at how many cycles it took to get them back to the same hardness as all the others. It took 9 or 10 neck up size down cycles to get it right. I use AMP now too.

 

[59FLH]

"alloys are burned off when the necks are over annealed."

?….Which alloys in particular vaporize prior to melting in this process?

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

"alloys are burned off when the necks are over annealed."

?….Which alloys in particular vaporize prior to melting in this process?

Brass is basically Copper & Zinc. Some manufacture may add additional metals to make Cases.
Zinc!

 

[59FLH]

Zinc smokes at 1650 F Brass melts at
1700 F are you sure alloys are burning off during annealing?

 

[eshorebwhntr]

My experience was similar, if you over anneal just rework back to being hard (if you have the tools) and they'll be fine.

 

[Mikecr]

You can see the zinc separate with overheating. With less zinc the alloy is softer.
Process annealed brass (stress relieved, not full annealed) barely shows a temper (discoloration).