#11
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INTEL6:
Did you quench those hot cases in cold water?? Like most argue no end to do. Which is WRONG!!! Do NOT Quench, let air cool and they will stay soft.
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George "Gun Control is NOT about guns, it's about CONTROL!!" |
#12
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No, I used a Bench Source annealer and let them air cool. |
#13
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Quenching them in water does not harden them, George. They are not carbon steel. I have always quenched them in water and they anneal perfectly as long as you don't let them get too hot. Otherwise they are softened too much.
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Daryl |
#14
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Generally a stiff load cures a lot of fire forming issues. Once and done........ -BCB
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I miss mean Tweets, competence, and $1.79 per gallon gasoline. Yo no creo en santos que orinan. Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and just get used to the idea. Going keyboard postal over something that you read on the internet is like seeing a pile of dog crap on the sidewalk and choosing to step in it rather than stepping around it. If You're Afraid To Offend, You Can't Be Honest - Thomas Paine |
#15
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Age hardening.....
.......depending on storage conditions and number of years........is hard to cure.
Kevin |
#16
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IIRC from college the mechanism of age embrittlement in brass is related to dezincification, where as work hardening results crystal size growth. Annealing is not going to address the former. Dezincification the zinc is removed from the brass alloy and copper migrates and plates to the surface, again IIRC.
Chemical tarnish removers can also result in dezincification. In age hardening I believe results from an oxidation reaction that causes the dezincification. The atomic bonds of the zinc to the copper are broken and a the zinc forms a zinc oxide. To the best of my knowledge annealing is only applicable when restoring work hardened brass, that is not otherwise compromised, to a more malleable state. This is all from memory and I may not be correct in the details. Last edited by JDHasty; 06-04-2022 at 11:45 PM. |
#17
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I 100% agree with others who have posted that mild loads frequently are to be avoided when fire forming cases. Any supposed or potential benefit never seems to materialize and problems ensue with regularity.
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#18
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Cartidge Brass cannot be hardened by quenching in water. When I anneal, I just let it air cool. Work hardening brass will make it more brittle, and can result in cracking. Embrittlement in brass can be caused by ammonia compounds, like some polishes. Back in WWI, season cracking in brass was caused by storing ammo in the stables, where it the mules and horses peed on it.
About twn years ago, I have seen new brass cases that were still pretty hard, even after factory annealing. I experienced that in new Winchester brass in 243 Win and 220 Swift. I annealed it myself and it all worked fine. Back then, Winchester had moved their ammunition plant and it must have gotten their process a bit out of spec. For what it is worth, I am a degreed metallurgist. |
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#20
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+1 on the annealing recommendation. If you still get cracks, try annealing "more" i.e. to a higher temperature. If the metal is glowing a visible dull red in low light, that is about the right temperature. This may be hard to observe when using a torch.
The use of water is to stop the process or limit it. You want the case head to stay hard, and the neck/shoulder to be soft. Some people stand the cases up in a tray of water and run a torch over them. This keeps the heads cool. Dropping a case in water keeps the heat in the neck from transferring to the head. In most situations water is not needed, because the head has enough mass that it will not get hot enough to anneal. The WSSM is one example of where annealing can be tricky, particularly with a torch, because the case is short and thick. I use induction to quickly apply enough heat do the job without heating the entire case. Cracks are usually due to work hardening or defects/grain structure of the manufacturing process. Stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen embrittlement, neutron embrittlement, mercury inclusion, etc. are not generally a problem for hand loaders. |
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