Machining spent ammunition

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Wagon173

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I have access to insane amounts of brass casings. Being that brass is as expensive as it is, I was wondering if it machined okay when the primers are punched out and melted down. Will it work for bearings or is it too hard an alloy?
 
not sure but it would seem in light of the current gun law craze it might be more cost effective to sell it as reloadable brass shell and buy some bar stock with the profit.
 
I have access to insane amounts of brass casings.

Is it yours? hmm anyway I suggest you take up reloading to make best use of it. once reloaded a half dozen times then think about other uses.

I was wondering if it machined okay when the primers are punched out and melted down.
yes it machines OK but not as well as alloy 360. cartridge brass is closer to alloy 260 designed for max formability not machinability. I have been told that thay you lose a lot of material when melting down stuff like that because it has such thin cross sections.

Will it work for bearings or is it too hard an alloy?
Use bearing bronze for bearings.
bronze : copper tin alloy
brass; copper zinc alloy.

Tin
 
G91, the brass are from ar style weapons so given all the that's been associated with them lately I'm not sure I want to assume the risk of selling them as reload and have someone do something stupid and drop my name. Tin I have access to plenty. Its not mine, but I'm free to take all that I need provided I'm not taking a flatbed or taking live rounds. Thanks for the bearing info though. Rookie mistake lol
 
Things may have changed in the last 30 years or so since I have reloaded ammo but you might need to take care with this idea. A lot of the military rounds used a Berdan primer with twin flash holes so you can't just punch the primer out as you would with a commercial case. This may mean they have no value for reloading. Why not talk to a scrap metal merchant? You might be able to swap the cases out for useful stuff!
 
I'd go with selling it to a wholesaler - you can get an idea of the wholesalevalue by looking at the selling prices of 20K pound lots on the government surplus dealers. After you get cash use that to buy the spec material that you want - you'll get better value than in trading weight for weight.

In any case cartridge brass is usually 30% zinc and for much turning and milling is too soft - it's basically 260 brass. In a fully annealed state it's a bit like turning pink gum eraser, half hard is a little better but you have to really sneak up on it when threading (die work can be very challenging). Forget long unsupported sections as it'll go off center and flop.
 
scrap yards around here dont take brass for fear of full primers or unfired rounds.
no real place buys brass from private individuals either.

from time to time I machine a few cases and it works well, no troubles.
skip to the 4 minute mark and I start parting a case.

[ame]http://youtu.be/x6EaDWGYVvE[/ame]

Rodw is right on, surplus has flash holes. you can punch the primers out hydraulically (time consuming) or buy the special tool.
most off the shelf youll be fine.
 

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