Annealing Brass for Jackets

When using brass cases for jacketsand using the harbor freight saw, do you anneal and then cut or cut and then anneal or does it make any difference?

Either way...

Try both ways and see what you like best. With the brass annealed and soft, it might be harder to get a good cut without the jacket deforming.

lol I cut then anneal it never occurred to me to try it t he other way. I would bet from experience as a machinist harder would be better because soft is gummy.

Reload3006 wrote:lol I cut then anneal it never occurred to me to try it t he other way. I would bet from experience as a machinist harder would be better because soft is gummy.

I just did about 50 that I had annealed. They seem to work fine. I have noticed the slightest bit of crushing on the case, but nothing the swaging die won't reform. I was just wondering if the saw is enough to work harden the brass enough to possibly cause problems when swaging?

I dont think it does it hasn't on me so far

I waited until after I did all of my cutting to aneal the brass. Using the case trimmer, if I annealed before trimming, the case would just twist and rip. However, no annealed, in the case trimmer, it trimmed with ease.

When I annealed and used the harbor freight saw, the mouth of the case would flatten and then I would have to find a way to get it back in round after cutting. When I annealed, I would have the lights off and do it until the case turned a bright red which made it "dead soft".

Daywalker wrote:I waited until after I did all of my cutting to aneal the brass. Using the case trimmer, if I annealed before trimming, the case would just twist and rip. However, no annealed, in the case trimmer, it trimmed with ease.

When I annealed and used the harbor freight saw, the mouth of the case would flatten and then I would have to find a way to get it back in round after cutting. When I annealed, I would have the lights off and do it until the case turned a bright red which made it "dead soft".

I have been getting an occaisional and very slight dent at the top side of some of the cases when I anneal them first. It is very slight and is stretched out when seating and forming the lead. Bullet comes out nice afterward. Also I do not force the blade down through the case when cutting. It takes an extra second or two per case, But I'm retired, I got time.

I just figured this out. If I take the 2000 cases I just bought and it takes 6 seconds to cut down a case it will take about 3.5 hours to trim the cases. That does not include annealing. Glad I'm not working. I don't think it would be cost effective.

Yep, no one ever said it was a quick job. The rewards afterwards is pretty nice tho. I kinda took them in batches. Trim as many as I could one day, took a break, annealed as many as I could or ran out of propane for the torch, then I placed the cases in a baggy with swage lube and massaged them around till all the cases were lubed, then I bought a rock polisher at a yardsale for 5 bucks, put a smidget of swage lube in it, then filled with cases and rotated till they were lubed and then finished up with final swage. I had to fill my time between range time anyways lol.

Now I don't have time to think about range or even reloading. I am missing it big time...

The annealing seems to be the longest. I did take a board and put a few framing nails in it. I place the cases on the nails and heat with the torch. This way I can do 4 or 5 and then quench.

I have been realy thinking hard about buying a kiln. I do some stain glass work and my daughter likes pottery and I was thinking I could use it to anneal with also. Any ideas one way or other?