Salt Bath Annealing

[WYOHTF]

I emailed the fella last night
Asked if I could prepay and get a confirmation when it was sent.

He responded very quickly and assured me he would, he is waiting on the salts.

I'm ordering very soon. Gotta get moved first.
I will keep my Anneal Ease for doomsday no power situations

 

[Alibiiv]

Wow
That video sure opened my eyes

I have stayed away from this method because people posting how dangerous and unreliable it is

I'm impressed

I am one of those who posted that this system is dangerous only due to the burn potential, especially if there's a spill or water manages to get into the hot salts. But......the Annealeez does come with its dangerous elements of an open flame where a person could get burned as well. What put me on edge with the salt bath process is when I had a drop of salt burn right though a piece of cardboard like it was nothing. I cannot say that the process does not work, because, at least for me, the system worked just fine.

 

[WhiplashBlack]

Dipping works fine. Doesn't get easier, nor more consistent.
And like flame annealing is safer?
For a process anneal (NOT full annealing) there is nothing wrong with dip annealing, either salt or lead.

Is you don't care about the benefit of proper annealing and simply want to increase case life, then a salt bath will work just fine for that purpose. For accuracy and consistency, using a salt bath is literally worse than not annealing at all.

 

[QuietTexan]

 

[QuietTexan]

I like this. Probably the safest annealing and simplest system I've seen yet.

I'm not sure a pot of molten salt is safer than an induction coil. No flame, no heat, pretty much no nothing.

 

[WYOHTF]

I am one of those who posted that this system is dangerous only due to the burn potential, especially if there's a spill or water manages to get into the hot salts. But......the Annealeez does come with its dangerous elements of an open flame where a person could get burned as well. What put me on edge with the salt bath process is when I had a drop of salt burn right though a piece of cardboard like it was nothing. I cannot say that the process does not work, because, at least for me, the system worked just fine.

I'm 50 and have my grandkids and a few of there friends envolved with the "Anneal Ease" process.

Youngest will most likely be the smartest I this area

 

[WildRose]

I'm not sure a pot of molten salt is safer than an induction coil. No flame, no heat, pretty much no nothing.

Well you still have to handle hot brass even with an induction system but it's a tossup.

The Lee Hot Pot would be really hard to tip over but you're right it certainly exists as a possibility.

That being the case I'll modify it to say, this is probably the best value in annealing tech for a combination of safety and cost.

 

[Deputy819]

This ought to be entertaining…..

 

[WildRose]

View attachment 342145
This ought to be entertaining…..

Why would that be? Seems to me it would ensure the most consistent temps all around the case... .?

 

[Deputy819]

Why would that be? Seems to me it would ensure the most consistent temps all around the case... .?

I'm in complete agreement with you. Patiently waiting @Mikecr to respond.

 

[WildRose]

I'm in complete agreement with you. Patiently waiting @Mikecr to respond.

I've done a lot of reading on the subject since Wednesday. The only negative criticisms I've see all came from an article written by the company that manufactures the AMP annealing machines that run about 950.00 more than one of these if you have to buy everything to get set up the first time.

I can understand why they'd be negative on SB annealing.

I am seeing that instead of the recommended 5-8 seconds you'll get better results at 9-11 seconds which is perfectly ok by me.

Personally I can't see a better way to ensure consistency of both temp and exposure time.

Lot's of the articles and posts I read show guys doing 100-250 rounds in an evening so even at the longer times that's still pretty darned efficient.

 

[Deputy819]

I keep time with a metronome app and remove after 7 seconds (give or take an 'eye blink'). If salt bath annealing is worse than not annealing at all and detrimental to accuracy/consistency as was suggested…then someone forgot to tell my rifles that.

 

[misser]

i do question if a 5 second dip is adequate

 

[Mikecr]

I'm sure I've already mentioned here & elsewhere that FULL annealing is not what we need or want.
We need brass with good/consistent elasticity. That is between dead soft and over-work hardened.
A dip into ~850deg for ~5sec to any reasonable time beyond resets grain back to what we need.
It's simple to do this with dipping, without getting anything wrong. Turn a lee pot dial ~3/4, come back in 1/2hr, get a thermocouple measure, tweak it to desired, ready to dip cases to any depth you desire. Necks, shoulders, right down to half the body if desired.
The heat is soaking the brass from inside and outside at the right temperature. The brass goes right to it and none below or above.
There is no timing to be concerned with really, as grain recovery (for that temp) happens fast (while actually at that temp). You're not trying to reach the right brass temperature with a way wrong heating temperature (using timing).
It's been pointed out with testing that dip annealing does not full anneal, and that's a plus for it. You couldn't get it wrong if you tried.