PEAX Equipment

Hot Salt Bath Annealing

Losing_Sanity

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Sorry if this topic has already been discussed. I searched but didn't find much on this forum.

I've never tried annealing brass and some brass is pretty hard to get. This could help make it last longer. Has anyone tried Hot Salt Bath Annealing? Seems to be getting popular and looks pretty easy. Is the cost worth the effort?
 
I casually looked at it, but went with Annealeez. Annealeez is probably more expensive, but is a pretty good setup. Annealing Made Perfect is a great method, but probably not affordable unless you do high volume.
 
I Chuck an adapter in a drill that will allow the attachment of a 3/8" drive socket that is big enough to slide the size brass I'm working on ,into
Rotate the brass with the drill over a propane torch for three or four seconds, then tip it out into a pan of cold water.
If the brass has a slight grey tone in the area you heated, it's good to go .
 
I Chuck an adapter in a drill that will allow the attachment of a 3/8" drive socket that is big enough to slide the size brass I'm working on ,into
Rotate the brass with the drill over a propane torch for three or four seconds, then tip it out into a pan of cold water.
If the brass has a slight grey tone in the area you heated, it's good to go .

The Lee shell holder that comes with the trimming setup would work pretty splendidly for this as well. That's my plan whenever I get to the point of needing to anneal.
 
I'll admit that I know nothing of salt bath annealing. It looks very simple and the cost seems to be low. Almost every forum post I see that uses a Lee melting pot says they fail after a handful of uses because the salt is so corrosive. They then require new regulator equipment to stick at the right temp. After that I think Annealeez system simplicity starts to come into play. If you get some Tempilaq and use the method Millsworks and Ben are using your costs are little. I think you may end up sacrificing a few pieces due to learning curve
 
Ok, just a pet peave of mine, but reloaders don't generally "anneal" brass, they heat treat it without getting it hot enough for a true anneal.

As far as using salts for treating brass? Seems like a lot of extra work for something that is so easily done with just a torch and some water. Hell, you can even skip the water if you want to.
 
Seems it would be less expensive and less trouble to just buy some more brass when needed. Out of curiosity, how do you know when you need to anneal your brass?
 
Seems it would be less expensive and less trouble to just buy some more brass when needed. Out of curiosity, how do you know when you need to anneal your brass?

I haven't annealed anything yet because I started reloading at pretty much the exact time you did, but it seems that either people have a set amount of firings that they anneal after or wait for their groups to open up. I suppose you could probably measure how much the brass is being formed if you have proper equipment? The brass would spring back and not keep the correct shape after full-length resizing.
 
If you only anneal every 3 or so firings, value not having extra stuff laying around, and do low or moderate volume shooting, I feel the mail-in services can be a good solution. Let's call "moderate" 500-1500 rounds of reloaded centerfire per year.
 
If you only anneal every 3 or so firings, value not having extra stuff laying around, and do low or moderate volume shooting, I feel the mail-in services can be a good solution. Let's call "moderate" 500-1500 rounds of reloaded centerfire per year.
Any that you would recommend?
 
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