Annealing Brass Sheet Metal

That avoids any ignition of the alcohol.

Annealing brass sheet metal. That can take a surprising amount of time though usually. How to anneal cartridge brass for accuracy and longevity. Over time and after repeated usage the neck on a rifle cartridge will get hard and brittle making it more apt to fail either during the loading process or during shooting. Machining operations that create high amounts of heat or material displacement may also warrant an annealing process afterward.

Annealing is the process of reducing stress within metal by heating it to a prescribed temperature. When the brass starts to show a blackened color then is the time to quench it quickly before cleaning it up. Then wait till you hear it actually quench. Let the metal cool enough so it s no longer glowing meaning down around 900f or less but not much cooler than that.

Annealing is a heat treatment process in which the sheet metal is altered on a molecular level altering its strength and hardness. Annealing brass is very similar to copper although the temperature should be a little cooler. The metal is heated above its recrystallization temperature maintained at this temperature and then cooled in a controlled environment. 450f a soft pine stick will smoke and slide like a grease pencil when applied to the piece of metal.

Take your butane torch and start the flame out slowly. In the studio it is more common to anneal with a torch. Whether you re shooting black powder cartridge o. Then drop the metal quickly into the alcohol so it s totally immersed.

Work hardened materials such as sheet metal that has undergone a stamping process or cold drawn bar stock. The term anneal is the scientific term used to describe the softening of metal. Metal wire that has been drawn from one size to a smaller size may also undergo an annealing process. Take your piece of brass and mark it with tempilaq.

You might want to consider starting with half hard material to avoid having to anneal at all. What you are looking for as you apply the flame of your blow lamp torch onto the part to be annealed is the tell tale colors again. Also i use 400 f on the lower half that will tell me if i have over annealed the brass. Basically copper alloys don t work like iron alloys when it comes to annealing.