Jäger
Active Member
Recent discussion here has once again caused me to think about changing from my fingers 'n alcohol lamp method of annealing, which I'm aware doesn't give me optimal annealing results, although it does work to sufficient effect to extend case life.
Two of the immersion methods out there are dipping in molten lead and the alternate is dipping in a molten salt bath. One turn key solution for salt bath immersion was mentioned here a few days ago and has been bouncing around assorted forums for a few years now.
That leads me to a recurring thought of thinking of trying immersion in a solid substance instead. Sand I have seen mentioned a few times in the past, but I haven't seen a writeup accompanying that. Now that I have a PID/PLC arriving shortly to control my Lyman pot, I am turning my thoughts to trialing immersion annealing in a solid media, using the PID to hopefully control the temperature of the solid media.
Sand is readily available, but what about alternatives that might give better conduction of heat from the media to the case?
Alternatives that have come to mind this morning include very small glass beads (like the ones the optometrist used back in the 60's to heat the earpieces of your birth control eyeglasses in order to twist and bend those to shape the frame to fit your head); I have seen 1mm glass beads offered for sale online for crafts. Or rather than glass beads, the sandblasting media advertised as 40-50 grit should be much smaller - but perhaps tend to be too fluffy? Or perhaps some much more dense solid: during my brief mining career long ago, we used magnetite in some processes. I remember how incredibly dense (and heavy) it was when you shoveled it.
Any engineers/SMEs out there with opinions and suggestions on what might be the most optimal granular/powdered media to use for immersion annealing?
I'm presuming the greatest drawback will be coming close to the heat transference properties of liquids like molten lead and salt. The upsides (at least I think) would be fewer hazards involved, ease of handling and storage when done, etc. I'm assuming the right media would allow you to simply stick a plate with shell sized holes in it on top of your media, poke the cases you're annealing into the media below those holes, and then remove after the proper amount of time.
Thoughts, suggestions, etc?
Two of the immersion methods out there are dipping in molten lead and the alternate is dipping in a molten salt bath. One turn key solution for salt bath immersion was mentioned here a few days ago and has been bouncing around assorted forums for a few years now.
That leads me to a recurring thought of thinking of trying immersion in a solid substance instead. Sand I have seen mentioned a few times in the past, but I haven't seen a writeup accompanying that. Now that I have a PID/PLC arriving shortly to control my Lyman pot, I am turning my thoughts to trialing immersion annealing in a solid media, using the PID to hopefully control the temperature of the solid media.
Sand is readily available, but what about alternatives that might give better conduction of heat from the media to the case?
Alternatives that have come to mind this morning include very small glass beads (like the ones the optometrist used back in the 60's to heat the earpieces of your birth control eyeglasses in order to twist and bend those to shape the frame to fit your head); I have seen 1mm glass beads offered for sale online for crafts. Or rather than glass beads, the sandblasting media advertised as 40-50 grit should be much smaller - but perhaps tend to be too fluffy? Or perhaps some much more dense solid: during my brief mining career long ago, we used magnetite in some processes. I remember how incredibly dense (and heavy) it was when you shoveled it.
Any engineers/SMEs out there with opinions and suggestions on what might be the most optimal granular/powdered media to use for immersion annealing?
I'm presuming the greatest drawback will be coming close to the heat transference properties of liquids like molten lead and salt. The upsides (at least I think) would be fewer hazards involved, ease of handling and storage when done, etc. I'm assuming the right media would allow you to simply stick a plate with shell sized holes in it on top of your media, poke the cases you're annealing into the media below those holes, and then remove after the proper amount of time.
Thoughts, suggestions, etc?