Annealing Brass Sheet Metal

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.

Annealing brass sheet metal.

450f a soft pine stick will smoke and slide like a grease pencil when applied to the piece of metal. You might want to consider starting with half hard material to avoid having to anneal at all. Whether you re shooting black powder cartridge o. Then wait till you hear it actually quench.

The term anneal is the scientific term used to describe the softening of metal. Annealing is a heat treatment process in which the sheet metal is altered on a molecular level altering its strength and hardness. Take your piece of brass and mark it with tempilaq. That avoids any ignition of the alcohol.

When the brass starts to show a blackened color then is the time to quench it quickly before cleaning it up. Work hardened materials such as sheet metal that has undergone a stamping process or cold drawn bar stock. Let the metal cool enough so it s no longer glowing meaning down around 900f or less but not much cooler than that. The metal is heated above its recrystallization temperature maintained at this temperature and then cooled in a controlled environment.

That can take a surprising amount of time though usually. 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. Metal wire that has been drawn from one size to a smaller size may also undergo an annealing process. Annealing is the process of reducing stress within metal by heating it to a prescribed temperature.

Take your butane torch and start the flame out slowly. In the studio it is more common to anneal with a torch. How to anneal cartridge brass for accuracy and longevity. This method is fast and uses no special equipment.

Machining operations that create high amounts of heat or material displacement may also warrant an annealing process afterward. Industrially this is done in a furnace where the temperatures can be monitored mechanically. Annealing brass is very similar to copper although the temperature should be a little cooler. Then drop the metal quickly into the alcohol so it s totally immersed.