Salt bath brass annealing?

[birddogdad]

Curious if anyone has gone this route vs some much more spendy methods

the concept seems sound and looks very manageable method.

http://ballisticrecreations.ca/

[BULLBLASTER]

I’ve read abit about the salt bath annealing but the thought of a 700+ degree bucket of melted salt makes me nervous. Also wondered if it left salt on the case? Maybe the equipment mitigates the hot melted salt risk, I haven’t looked that close.

I use a Giraud tool annealer and have done close to 10,000 cases on it I’d imagine.

[birddogdad]

I’ve read abit about the salt bath annealing but the thought of a 700+ degree bucket of melted salt makes me nervous. Also wondered if it left salt on the case? Maybe the equipment mitigates the hot melted salt risk, I haven’t looked that close.

I use a Giraud tool annealer and have done close to 10,000 cases on it I’d imagine.

to me, its like running a lead casting setup. wherever you are casting bullets would be same , you could anneal.. seems compact and no brainer processing and potential for mistakes low(for sure outside where you wont catch fire!). salt cheap once you get rig. Again, i was after input for THIS type of process not the others out on the market... sure , if your doing thousands of cases, a more automated processing system would be very desirable. if your going to anneal once or twice a year to me with just a couple hundred cases, this has great potential.

[BULLBLASTER]

Casting lead bullets scares the crap outta me too.  my dad does that all the time but he’s old and ornery and senile already. 

The concept of the salt bath annealing seems solid, I just feel much safer around fire.

If you do get set up for this please post it here as I’m kinda curious too

[birddogdad]

Casting lead bullets scares the crap outta me too.  my dad does that all the time but he’s old and ornery and senile already. 

The concept of the salt bath annealing seems solid, I just feel much safer around fire.

If you do get set up for this please post it here as I’m kinda curious too

roger that!

[Yondering]

Curious if anyone has gone this route vs some much more spendy methods

the concept seems sound and looks very manageable method.

http://ballisticrecreations.ca/

Thanks for posting this. As it turns out, I use this method to heat treat my 17-4 PH stainless steel machined parts (like muzzle brakes, etc), and use the same pot with a PID controller that monitors and maintains a programmed temperature. I'm using potassium nitrate for my salt; whatever they are using may be slightly different based on the max temp but is similar enough to do the same job.

I have not tried annealing with this method, but it makes a lot of sense and I'll give it a shot sometime soon when it's not raining.

To the comment above about salt sticking to the cases - salt from this method will cling to whatever parts you put in it (it looks a lot like white candle wax when it cools), but it washes off easily in warm water. Even if you don't get much residue, you'd still want to wash or rinse the cases afterwards to avoid corrosion.

Also - these salts are very hygroscopic (I think that's the word), meaning they absorb moisture from the air, and will rust your pot if left in for any longer period of time. I rinse my pot with warm water after use.

[BULLBLASTER]

I checked out the YouTube video about this and they dropped the cases into water to cool them and wash the salt off.