Zeneffect Wrote:i am not a metalurgist by any means and but a simple and slow man... that knows how to break things. What I would like to see is the effect of hardness at the base and down the body if you run it through the cycle, then run it immediately through the cycle again allowing heat soak to actually occur. how idiot proof is it? how many times can you do this in a row before the brass is ruined?
Even if you waited only a minute or so between repeated heatings, it would take quite a few repetitions to significantly change the properties of the brass near the base. The brass must reach at least 482°F (250C) to even begin annealing, according to a couple of articles I saw. The process is pretty slow even at 600°F and would take minutes to have much effect. Just make sure that the heat is applied mostly to the neck and shoulder junction instead of the case body. As soon as the source of heat is removed, not only does the heat energy rapidly disperse throughout the the remaining 70% or so of the mass of the case, the entire case begins to reject the heat to the environment. You would have to really, really screw up to get the case walls near the base to over 600°F. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done, but....*
If you are dealing with a bunch of brass that has completely cooled, the only sections of the case that could have an issue with "heat soak" would be those that get well over 500°F. This is comforting to me since I remember that I annealed some of my 30-30 brass several years ago.... but I don't remember WHICH batch.
* Note: I learned that nothing is idiot-proof if you have some really determined idiots.
