Annealing.. Temp Indicator (Sharpie)

[swampratt]

That is correct the good old Sharpie permanent marker.
Now they do have a high heat Sharpie ,,My friend brought over some Tempilaq and we tested many cases with Sharpie and Tempaliq.

Seems the sharpie would work just fine.
Twas what i thunked.
I was shopping at Lowes and remembered I needed sharpies and I seen the high heat so I figured a test was in order. That is what brought this on.

Now some .223 cases annealed ..Ones on left that are annealed are with the high heat.. The 2 farthest to the right were regular sharpie.
All Annealed cases spent the same amount of time in the flame.
Enjoy!

 

[jc5420]

So Tempaliq on the inside of the case mouth does the same thing as sharpie on the outside of the case neck?

 

[CoyoteStalker]

This is something I need to learn!

 

[swampratt]

You guys that anneal need to give it a try for yourself and see what results you get.
My friend that had the Tempilaq was actually watching the flame color from the case mouth instead of watching the Tempilaq to change.
He did find out he was annealing longer than he needed to.

But by yourself it is hard to watch inside the case mouth and spin a case in the flame at the same time..
10 cases later with both of us working the helm we concluded the sharpie will work very well

 

[swampratt]

Updating this for all the new reloaders out there that may be thinking of annealing cases.
I just annealed a hand full of 30-30 cases for my sons new to him model 94.
A hand me down from my father to me, to my son.
Now he needs some accurate ammo if he will go hunting during this Holiday Anterless season.

 

[DRC458]

You guys that anneal need to give it a try for yourself and see what results you get.
My friend that had the Tempilaq was actually watching the flame color from the case mouth instead of watching the Tempilaq to change.
He did find out he was annealing longer than he needed to.

But by yourself it is hard to watch inside the case mouth and spin a case in the flame at the same time..
10 cases later with both of us working the helm we concluded the sharpie will work very well

So, exactly what change are you watching for on the Sharpie? For the line to disappear under heat?

 

[swampratt]

Yes for the line to disappear.
I figured this out a couple years ago but doing research I found jewelry makers have been using the sharpie trick to anneal for quite some time.

There is a lot more spring back to an annealed case and therefore it holds the bullet a bit tighter.
You can anneal too much and this results in a case mouth that does not hold the bullet as tight.

I did a test of low temp annealing and annealing until the sharpie or tempilaq said to stop and then went to the point until the case mouth and neck were very hot glowing red.

After annealing those cases I seated bullets and measured seating forces. way over annealed cases took much less force to seat the bullet.

 

[swampratt]

Here is a pic of .308 cases.. the flame was on them for a different amount of time notice how the sharpie looks faded to almost gone all the way past the shoulder..that last case far right was annealed way too long.
The numbers written on the cases signify the seating forces in PSI it took to seat the bullets.

No this is not live ammo..
The far left case was not annealed these are all lapua cases.
I fired a Lapua case 40+ times and FLS each time and seating forces were within single digit PSI of a 1x fired case NO annealing.
Can't say that for winchester or federal or even remington.. different case thickness and I would put money on different alloy also.
just experiments I do and some numbers to chew on.

 

[DRC458]

Nice. Thanks! You using a propane torch?

 

[swampratt]

Yes I am using one..I built a wire holder onto the torch part and a tool to hold cases so I can position my cases in the same exact spot every time..I also spin the case in the flame to get even distribution of heat.

Map gas is a NO NO it burns too hot and getting even coverage is harder..But will work if you spun the cases in a drill like MoBoost does and keep away from the tip portion of the flame.
He also used Propane