Did I just destroy my brass?

[woodwurx]

So out of curiosity, I just ran a little test. Took 25 pieces of old Winchester brass and put them in the toaster oven for the same exact 5 minute time & with a digital thermometer. The oven reached its max temp of 485 degrees at 4 min 30sec with only 30 seconds remaining. The tarnish color was dark, but not like the Norma brass.

 

[cape cove]

So out of curiosity, I just ran a little test. Took 25 pieces of old Winchester brass and put them in the toaster oven for the same exact 5 minute time & with a digital thermometer. The oven reached its max temp of 485 degrees at 4 min 30sec with only 30 seconds remaining. The tarnish color was dark, but not like the Norma brass.[/QUOTE

If the info in the link I posted is correct, then I believe you done no damage to your brass.

 

[Canhunter35]

I think you should put your reloading tray in a tray of water with your brass upright in the tray and run them through the toaster oven...might work for annealing the case necks

 

[Rich Coyle]

I load 'em. But then I do wildcats.

 

[shooter7]

Load em up and press record

For....... science.

 

[cohunt]

The oven may have only reached 500, but it uses an electric radiant heating element that reaches much higher temps and it may have heated your brass to a much hotter temp, to be safe I'd toss them.

 

[Gregg C]

More food for thought- the heads look brassy, don't they? Maybe do it again but quench the whole bunch immediately. Would this not harden them? Burnt brass is definitely blacker than that . At minimum several that I can see seem OK, color wise. Ultimately, your choice, but I think I would try for Normas opinion as well.

 

[Ckgworks]

Brass doesn't react like steel to quenching.....it only "work hardens". Shooting/resizing cases causes them to get hard, but the water bath would just leave them soft.

 

[kiwikid]

It may be worth sending an email to AMP Annealing and ask their opinion. They have done extensive testing including test on the Web area of cases.
Kiwikid

 

[codyadams]

Throw them in a tumbler, that will get rid of the color, FIXED!!! Ha ha. Did you use your thermometer to check the actual temp of the brass itself or just the air in the toaster?

 

[codyadams]

Brass doesn't react like steel to quenching.....it only "work hardens". Shooting/resizing cases causes them to get hard, but the water bath would just leave them soft.

So....run them through the sizing die about 30 times?? Ha ha. I wonder if that would actually do anything.

 

[Dosh]

Looking at the pic, perhaps the brass was not rinsed well. Possible the chemicals in the sonic bath reacted to the heat giving the rainbow appearance. I quit using heat to dry brass and only use compressed air and tumble in lizard dirt.

 

[g0rd0]

yup, thinking I'm gonna just toss it. Just bummed because that brass was hard for me to get and I only finished the first firing on them. I luckily have 2 more new boxes. Thanks for all of your responses

dont just toss em. I agree that I would not reload em (personally). What I would do is chalk it up to experience then with a hammer smash each 1 toss is a box and send it to the recycler depending where you are you can get anything from a buck to $3.50 a pound

 

[xsn10s]

My 2 cents worth. Any experiment is just a guess because the conditions of the original brass wasn't measured. So even though you might be doing the same settings on the toaster oven it's not a measured temp while drying the brass. The brass is worth what a buck a piece or alittle more? Even at 2 bucks a piece I'd scrap them and chalk it up to a lesson learned.