Favourite annealing methods?

[Oregon Bill]

Short of one of those fancy annealing wheels, how do y'all anneal with consistent results and no lost cases?

[Gunner]

Have a bucket of water (or if you are from Philly - wooder) right at your feet.
With welding glove on your hand, hold the case to be annealed...with your other hand, use one of those small hand-held propane torches to heat the mouth of the case - and ONLY THE MOUTH.
As soon as the mouth of the case starts to glow red...drop it right into the water to quench it.
Voila - instant annealed case.
I do this all the time with my brass shotshells, since I roll-crimp them.
I hope this helps.

[French Jack]

I usually use a pan of water-- one of those flat pans three inches or so deep, line up the cases in it with water up to the shoulder, heat the necks with one of those paint stripper guns on high power.  When the cases become 'rednecks' just tip them over into the water.

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[Fox Creek Kid]

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,3222.0.html

[Backstrap Bill]

Bill,

Hornady sells some case receptacles that will chuck into a drill.  The kit comes with special paint that melts at precisely 475 degrees F.

Chuck the receptacle into a cordless drill.  Paint a dot of the special paint on the top 4th of 3 or 4 cases.  Plop a case into the receptacle, dim the lights, & hold the case mouth into a propane torch flame while the case spins.  When the paint melts, note the color of the case mouth.  It will be a  dull red.  Immediately dump the heated case into a contained of cool water.  That makes 1 annealed case.  Repeat with the other painted cases.  After a few cases, you will be able to judge the color & run the remaining cases w/o application of the paint.

Unfortunately, the Hornady kit does not come with a tool large enough to accept the rim size of a 56-50, which is what you have if I recall correctly.  the receptacles in the kit are also too tall for the 56-50.  But, if you take one of the receptacles to your local machine shop & have them make you one out of aluminum that will fit the 56-50, it will cost you  about $20 bucks.  If you know how to run a lathe, your are in business for the price of about 4" of 1" round stock.

[Trooper Lennox]

Howdy,

I too was concerned about annealing my cases.  I was told to simply hold the case mouth in a propane torch flame until it got red, and then quench it.  I was concerned that that would overheat the base.  What I did was to drill a hole in a piece of 1/2" x 1"x 2" steel plate that I had in my junk pile.  The hole is drilled through the 1/2" thickness, and is slightly larger than the base diameter of the case.  The rim keeps it form falling through.  Insert the case in the hole and heat the case mouth.  Hold the steel plate in a pair of vice grips.  The steel acts as a heat sink and does not allow the case base to overheat.  I just heated the case mouth until it got blue.  I did not go all the way to red.  Then I tipped the fixture and the case fell out into a pan of water.  It seems to have worked, because I didn"t have any blowback from the cases when I fired them.  Good luck.

Trooper Lennox