Drying Wet Brass

[Cemetery]

Just wondering, just drying wet brass in the oven weaken it?

I know it's an odd question, since black magic heats it up pretty good.  But I just did a batch, and the brass came out with a blue hue, that was not there going in.

I set the temp at 375 and baked for 45 to 60 mins.



Smelled pretty tasty coming out, wish it was a tray of cookies.   

[Pettifogger]

Put it in a basket and put it in the Sun.  I had some bad brass (very brittle) from Starline a year or so ago.  I called them and they said the brass wasn't annealed properly and to put it in the over at 400 degrees for an hour.  (Was a pain in the butt and ruined my stainless turkey tray.  Should of just sent the brass back, but I was trying to be nice.)  Sounds like you annealed the brass.  Probably OK for BP shooting, but 375 was way to high.  All you need is the Sun or if you have a colder clime a warm over.  Not a hot over.

[Cemetery]

Sounds like you annealed the brass.  Probably OK for BP shooting, but 375 was way to high.  All you need is the Sun or if you have a colder clime a warm over.  Not a hot over.

I just read about annealing brass for resizing or extending it's life. 

But is it ruined if it's blued all over?

Will the extractor take off the base, leaving the rest of the case in the chamber?

I hope I didn't ruin a bunch of brass.   

[Pettifogger]

It's probably OK.  Put it in a vibratory cleaner to see if that removes some of the blue.  When you reload it, make sure you give it a shot of Hornady One Shot.  After I baked mine all the lube put on by the factory was burned off.  When I tried reloading them the cases stuck even though I was using a carbide sizer.  Some of the rims ripped right off.  Only took a few rounds to figure out something was wrong.  Spread your cases in a box, spray them, shake the box good and spray a second time.  Let them sit 15 or 20 minutes for the lube to dry and you should be good to go.  Once loaded they worked OK.  No head separations.

[hellgate]

Been there, done that (also with a batch of Starline brass). My brass came out of the toaster oven (uses less power) with a lighter almost etched appearance. I almost cried when i pitched it.

Take a file to a couple of your cases and compare the hardness of the case head with "untainted" brass of the same make. Also the hardness of thee case mouth area should be softer than the head if properly annealed. If the hardness matches you are probably OK and you are only dealing with an oxidation rather than a softening. If the heated cases are softer or you are in doubt than chock it up to a lesson learned. Kinda like getting a speeding ticket. A big damned waste of money but you'll do better next time.

I dry my brass by straining out the water and pouring them into a coffee can. I then shove a goose neck or adjustable desk lamp down into the can and let the bulb heat them up for an hour or two. I have not had any get hot enough for a color change and they seem unaffected. If I were ever to use a toaster oven again I would set it at the minimum setting of 200 degrees. Someone on another forum suggested taking the wet brass and dumping it into the middle of a towel, gathering the towel around  the nozzle of a hair dryer and blowing hot air onto the "bag" of brass for a few minutes to dry them. I'm half scared of electricity and don't want to go deaf anyway so I don't use that method but it oughta work.

[Dick Dastardly]

I dry my brass one of two ways, depending on the need.  Method one is to rinse the clean tumbled brass in HOT water, shake it out and hang it up in an onion bag.  Method two is to put the clean shook out brass into my old Lyman shaker with some old corncob media that I kept for just that purpose and run it for half an hour.  I don't like this method if I've removed primers first cuz the dang corncob junk gets into the flash holes and has to be picked out.

Don't make the mistake I once did and load some brass before you KNOW that it's dry.  I done it and some of the ammo wouldn't go boom. .

DD-DLoS

[Crow Choker]

Depending on how fast I want to reload the wet brass, I use several methods. I always lay em' on a big bath towel, wrap em' loosely, and shake the 'begeevers' out of em' to get as much water out as possible. If I want to reload a.s.p., I'll put em' in the oven at low(150* max) until dry. I've used the hairdryer method, but it takes awhile. Burned one out one time, but was also using it to dry my hip boots out-that resulted in a harsh reprimand by the Mrs.- had to go out and buy a newer, more pricey one. Here in 'Ioway', laying em' on a picnic talbe on hot, sunny days works good. During cold winter days, if there is no hurry, I lay them in front of a heat register and place a cardboard box with one side cut out over them and the register, forming a 'heat box'-it works. Used a air compressor also in past to blow water out before using some of the above methods, but its time consuming.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

     I wash the brass first then rinse with fresh water, like Crow does I'll put them in a towel and shake them to remove as much water as I can, then I put them on an old cookie sheet that was handed down to me from my better half, I put them in the oven a 150 degrees, I haven't time this, but at this temp. you can't hurt the brass any, so I don't worry about it being in there too long, when you take them out they are completely dry, I don't remove the primers until after I have tumbled my brass, for the same reasons Dick mentioned.

[w44wcf]

I But is it ruined if it's blued all over?
Will the extractor take off the base, leaving the rest of the case in the chamber?
I hope I didn't ruin a bunch of brass.   

Cemetery,
Doubtful if it's ruined....at least for the lower pressure of b.p.
At one time I had 3 lots of  early .45 Colt Balloon head cases that I annealed to keep from spliting.
Lots 1 & 2 worked aok but in the 3rd lot about 25% of them split up the side anyway.   

So....I took some of the 3rd lot of cases that had not split and reannealed them, this time almost all the way to the rim......
Anyway, the only thing I noticed was that the primers came out of the pockets pretty easy when the case was resized.
I  trashed those cases.

Those cases saw temps much higher than 375 degrees and that's the only thing I noticed. The rims were fine.

150 F is plenty warm enough to dry brass.

w44wcf

[john boy]

I set the temp at 375 and baked for 45 to 60 mins.

Wow!  Water BOILS at 212 ... 375 for 45-60 min is a cake baking recipe.

In case you missed it:
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,32514.0.html

[Griff]

If the rims are too soft... heat it back up and quench it in water.  THEN lay it out on a cookies sheet covered with paper towels.... dry in oven @ 150 for bout a ½ hour.  If the case mouths ae too brittle (hard) then set the cases (rim down) in shallow pan and cover with water about ½ way, use heat source to turn case mouths not quite cherry red, allow to air dry.

Some things are not meant to be rushed.

[john boy]

use heat source to turn case mouths not quite cherry red, allow to air dry.

Griff, the proper color to anneal brass at the correct 650 degree temperature is ... a straw color then when the color turns to a greenish blue - dunk in the ice water.  Any color not quite cherry red is too hot, in the 800 -900 degree range

And remember to turn the lights off in the room when annealing brass to see the proper color of the brass

[Adirondack Jack]

turn the oven on it's lowest setting and leave it for 20 minutes, turn the heat off, and leave the brass in the oven another 20 minutes, all done, no problem UNLESS like me, ya had a live round that shucked out of a rifle, went to the ULT and onward into yer brass pickling jug because ya forgot ya had a live one in the handful of cases when ya dropped em in the jug, then it went unnoticed into the rinse and dry cycle.




Lemme tell ya what, when the oven went "boom", and the door flapped open and closed, I like to had a heart attack.

[w44wcf]

Jack,
WOW! I would too.....
On the positive side at least you coud say that your rounds were waterproof.

w44wcf

[hellgate]

OK,
Whad jer WIFE have to say about it? After all, it's HER oven.

[Griff]

Griff, the proper color to anneal brass at the correct 650 degree temperature is ... a straw color then when the color turns to a greenish blue - dunk in the ice water.  Any color not quite cherry red is too hot, in the 800 -900 degree range

And remember to turn the lights off in the room when annealing brass to see the proper color of the brass

Maybe that's why my .40-90SBN brass ain't comin' out right.  I was thinkin of the "takin' the temper OUT" portion of the problem.  But, then I'm a old, ex-horseshoer... steel!  But, the process to take the temper out is the same... I guess the temps WOULD need to be a little different!

[Crow Choker]

Adirondack Jack-My hat is off to ya for being 'public' with your mishap. Most shooters keep such happenings and other shooting/reloading 'gaffs' in the closet, not wanting others to know of their lack of attention. I know, have a couple of 'beaners' myself, have told a few, but thats for another day. Again, 'cheers to ya'- it may prevent others from doing the same, ie. being more attentive. Glad ya didn't have any injury or damage.  One time after a shooting forray along the banks of a local river, I had been shooting both centerfire handgun and 22 LR, I was going to clean the centerfire brass shot (357) and some other in my Lyman vibrator. Good thing I checked the brass before starting, I found an unfired 22 LR mixed in. I don't know if it would have  discharged, but the possibility was there. Always good idea to check even the 'silliest-It'll be allright-It's ok' possibilities, as seems like they always slip in. The remains of the brass that exploded looks like the jacket remains of 125 grain HP 357 bullets, I  that I pick out a a sand backstop I shoot into at times, I 'mine the lead in it for casting. Take care.