I use a $28 Food dehydrator from Wallyworld. Takes about 30 minutes to do 200 .308 cases. It gets about 150 degrees or so. I can handle them with my bare hands right after i turn it off. Did 500 .45 cases in it. It has 4 racks in it. Made by Presto.
- Thread starter Charlie Papa
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When I anneal, I put the brass in a cheap salad spinner and give a quick turn, flip the brass and repeat. Put the cases in my gun room with dehumidifier and get dry brass with no discoloration.
Food dehydrator is the way to go. I can make deer jerkey and dry my brass at the same time . Kill two turds with one flush !
I dump my brass on a towel, roll it around, then dump it on he carpet and leave it there overnight. My method is least offensive to she who owns the oven. Trying to convince her that drying bass in the oven is harmless is like trying to convince a democrat that climate change isn't caused by humans.
Gadgets, gadgets, gadgets. I just anneal my brass after tumbling it in SS Pin media and don't ever have to worry about a "wet" case.
You don't wet your brass to clean it?
Lots of science that I won't use but here is a good suggestion that seems to work EVERY time.
Yes I do but once I anneal, any water that might remain merely "vaporizes". Funny how a nice warm case tends to dry itself
I would like to have been a magician.
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This image is from the American Society for Metals Handbook, volume 4 (Heat Treating), Heat Treating of Copper Alloys, page 1967. It shows graphs of the effects of temperature on certain properties of cartridge brass (C26000 or 70Cu-30Zn), specifically as relates to annealing.
Of the three mechanical properties being considered (hardness, strength and elongation), NONE begins to decline until the material is heated is to in excess of 400°F.
For closer examination, this is the graph specifically addressing hardness:
I added a horizontal line in a contrasting color at roughly HRH 118 to demonstrate that the data line is essentially straight until it reaches the brink of the lower critical temperature. The slight "peak" that occurs just before the decline begins -- which mirrors a similar peak on the strength graph -- occurs because the added energy at first makes the bonds stronger, much in the same way that progressively adding air pressure seats a tire all the tighter, ...until it blows it off the rim.
So there you have it. It is safe to dry your cartridge brass in a [MENTION=89035]300[/MENTION]°F oven, and you've got the American Society for Metals' word on it.
Of the three mechanical properties being considered (hardness, strength and elongation), NONE begins to decline until the material is heated is to in excess of 400°F.
For closer examination, this is the graph specifically addressing hardness:
I added a horizontal line in a contrasting color at roughly HRH 118 to demonstrate that the data line is essentially straight until it reaches the brink of the lower critical temperature. The slight "peak" that occurs just before the decline begins -- which mirrors a similar peak on the strength graph -- occurs because the added energy at first makes the bonds stronger, much in the same way that progressively adding air pressure seats a tire all the tighter, ...until it blows it off the rim.
So there you have it. It is safe to dry your cartridge brass in a [MENTION=89035]300[/MENTION]°F oven, and you've got the American Society for Metals' word on it.
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Has anyone tried using one of the flat racks in a clothes dryer? I have a shoe rack/tray that goes in my dryer. It is a fine plastic mesh that the brass won't fall through. I am considering trying this once I get my tumbler.
I've got an air hose blow gun with a piece of model airplane aluminum tubing epoxied into the opening. Spray the flash hole, blow the inside out from the case head to mouth, blow the outside around. Then I leave them laying out in a paper towel lined plastic box. What I tumbled yesterday, I may not load until October. Into a gallon zip lock bag they go. Then onto a steel shelving unit until they are needed.
Which is EXACTLY what I've said in every single annealing thread that has been posted here for the last six years! And like I've said over and over and over and over you're brass will be effected given enough TIME at any temp. Do you guys understand the concept of time? Even after all your research into trying to prove me wrong you're still neglecting the time factor. You can post all the graphs you want but if you don't understand the science behind what your graph is saying it doesn't help your case any. Dobbs I know you want your version to be true and spent the last few months trying to figure this out and making graphs to drag up this old thread but you simply aren't grasping the whole picture. You need to consider that TIME is as much a factor as temp. Again time and temp have an inverse relationship (need me to explain that perhaps??). The point is you can dry your brass at 300F/1,000,000F/3F/etc. the temp doesn't matter, its the TIME at that temp that matters. 'and to preempt your next point, yes you can anneal brass at 300F it just takes a lot more TIME (think years) and is usually given the industry (FYI: I work in this industry) slang term "normalization"...
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