Salt Bath Annealing

[Larry Jones]

Looking to start a conversation about the salts used for salt bath annealing.

Has anyone experimented with using common salts and homemade mixtures for salt baths? I'm looking the pricing on the annealing specific salts and am a little blown back by it. A more cost effective medium has to be obtainable. It's just salt, right?

 

[MThuntr]

Never done it but researched for a very brief moment. The salt isn't your standard table salt but from my very basic understanding is a mixture of Potassium Nitrate and Sodium Nitrite...I never bothered to look at the actually mixture. I see there are big conversations on other forums so in the 20 some pages maybe someone actually does their own mixture.

The salt is extremely corrosive and I understand that it'll destroy the Lee Pot temp controlling mechanism people are using so then you have to buy a new one or buy/build a new controller. That is where I lost interest in the process.

 

[Larry Jones]

I've heard that it is very corrosive as well. Maybe the use of a PID controller with an removable temp sensor would help?

 

[nnnn16]

I just picked up the stuff to start salting my brass. Ive always done the torch method but if youre shooting any volume at all its just to slow that way. The way i see it, the salt bath should be tons easier, faster, and more precise. I plan to do a big run of 300 norma brass in the next week or two and ill update.

 

[Larry Jones]

I'm anxiously awaiting your results.

Did a little research on the low melting point salts used. I would suggest everyone check out the Hubbard - Hall website and look at the prices. WAY cheaper to buy from the source....and from what I can tell for $4 plus shipping one can buy 1 lbs of the appropriate salts to do this.

 

[4ester]

For the raw materials I would look here: Duda Diesel They treated me well when the shipping company screwed up.

According to MIL-S-10699B Specs its 45-57% Sodium Nitrate and 45-57% Potassium Nitrate. I mixed mine 50/50 just to make things simple.

Just ran my first batch the other night and it seemed to work fine. FYI when your brass is very polished and clean it will not leave the heat marks, but I wouldn't worry about it.

I painted my Lee pot with high temp paint, but to be honest i'm not sure corrosion is as bad as they say. The Lee temp controller is outside of the pot so those that say it corrodes it just don't know any better. The heat element is not contacted either. I do use a homemade temp controller as the lee is not very precise. Seems like the longer they run the more stable they are (as far as time).

 

[nnnn16]

Tired of waiting for the BR salt to be back in stock so i ordered from "duda diesel" per 4ester's post. 2 more days

 

[bsaoneshot]

A friend and I split the cost of the equipment and I built the rack to hold the brass. We bought the low temp 275 salt to use. We tested some on some old 308 casings I had. Seems to work quick and we just have to see from here. The salt was cheap at $4 a pound but the shipping was $16.

 

[bsaoneshot]

Here is a good post on Accurate Shooter.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/salt-bath-annealing-pros-and-cons.3957016/

 

[greaseywater]

Johnny's Reloading Bench just posted a video on YouTube about salt bath annealing. It is his first run through, so take it for what it's worth. The video does a good job of showing how it works, for those of us that haven't seen it before.

(Edited to remove YouTube link. A review of forum rules produced uncertainty)

 

[nnnn16]

Just finished annealing 100 cases of 300 norma mag. I dont understand why anybody would f with the torch and drill and tempilaq method. This method is by far the easiest and most efficient method I've used. I wish i had tried it years ago.

 

[nnnn16]

Its a little bit scary at first but just put your water bucket far enough from your salt that the splashing water drops don't cause an injury. Also, put the cat and dog outside, you don't want the pot getting knocked over accidentally. Ran the salt at 500C. I dripped 1 tiny drop of molten salt on a towel and it was instant and violent flame. The standard shell holder is to small for my cases so i was just holding them for a 6 count using leather gloves. I won't do that again, reference the towel from above.

 

[wbmc6565]

Its a little bit scary at first but just put your water bucket far enough from your salt that the splashing water drops don't cause an injury. Also, put the cat and dog outside, you don't want the pot getting knocked over accidentally. Ran the salt at 500C. I dripped 1 tiny drop of molten salt on a towel and it was instant and violent flame. The standard shell holder is to small for my cases so i was just holding them for a 6 count using leather gloves. I won't do that again, reference the towel from above.

Does it do a better job than the your house method or is it just easier in your opinion

 

[wbmc6565]

Does it do a better job than the your house method or is it just easier in your opinion

*torch method

 

[nnnn16]

Its 1000 times more consistant which is everything in this game

 

[nnnn16]

Are you torching right now?

 

[Chevynbow]

Its 1000 times more consistant which is everything in this game

I think this was the biggest benefit of salt bath annealing when I used it, I felt confident that I had consistency anneal to anneal.

 

[BuckeyeRifleman]

Its a little bit scary at first but just put your water bucket far enough from your salt that the splashing water drops don't cause an injury. Also, put the cat and dog outside, you don't want the pot getting knocked over accidentally. Ran the salt at 500C. I dripped 1 tiny drop of molten salt on a towel and it was instant and violent flame. The standard shell holder is to small for my cases so i was just holding them for a 6 count using leather gloves. I won't do that again, reference the towel from above.

I literally bolt my pot to the workbench when salt bath annealing. I don’t take any chances with molten liquid.

That said the results are great, it’s relatively quick, and not crazy expensive to get into. I bought my shell holder and salt from an online Canadian shop, a lee pot, and a thermometer off amazon.

 

[lavazhole]

What’s the advantage of this over just using a flame or Anne Alex?

 

[nnnn16]

Other than being cheaper, it's easier to be consistent and super quick. Once you find the right timing it's easy to avoid drastic temperature changes in your salt. Once you keep your temps from varying more than 5 degrees in either direction your as good or better than anybody out there. Just make sure you have the same count for each and every shell.
I do 300 Norma Magnum and 6.5 PRC and the counts are basically the same for both. Once I have my pot all the way up I drop a case for an 8 count, remove, wait for an 8 count, then drop another. Just count to 8 over and over and over. So once the pot is heated all the way up it's 16 seconds per case or roughly 100 cases in 27 minutes. Smaller cases will be shorter counts of course and every pot will be different.