Why Quench?

[Catpop]

Heat soak. MY term for holding at high heat by insulating from quick cooling- oven, pack in dry lime, asbestos etc.

 

[jmorris]

Brass conducts heat fairly well, heat the neck long enough at temperatures high enough to anneal and it will make its way to places you don’t want to anneal.

 

[Catpop]

At what temp does brass anneal? Dull red in dark room?

 

[1066]

At what temp does brass anneal? Dull red in dark room?

I think dull red in a dark room is just on the high side - 700-750f is about where you want to be, dull red shows at around 850-900F in my experience.
This short article gives a good overview:
https://bisonballistics.com/articles/the-science-of-cartridge-brass-annealing

Here's a couple of my homemade/designed annealing machines.

 

[Catpop]

1066- great link, thanks!
So after reading article I see
-standing cases in water was for purpose of not heating base area
-quenching has nothing to do with the annealing process
-650-750 is the ideal temp to reach to anneal
-

 

[jmorris]

At what temp does brass anneal? Dull red in dark room?

You don’t need or want any color of “glow” to anneal. If using propane the best (100%, instant and free) indicator is to index the case out of the flame before the flame color changes from blue to orange/yellow (below the temp that brass will glow).

This one needs the index needs to be sped up or the torches turned down. Note the flame color change right before the index. Start around 45 seconds in. You’ll notice he reaches down and speeds it up around 1:07, getting closer, a tad faster index and he would have it.



Then you can go back and look at my video and 1066’s and see that flame color doesn’t change on ours. I generally start too fast and slow down to the right speed as you can’t harm any cases by under annealing them.