Annealing Copper Gaskets

[bjb3013]

How do you anneal copper spark plug gaskets. I have a bunch of once used gaskets and would like to reuse them if possible. More important is the copper gasket probes for my cht are leaking. I believe they have work hardened. What is the best way to fix this?

BB

[RV505]

Heat'em up with a torch and drop them in some water

[Mark Burns]

Copper responds differently than steel in heat treating. It seems backwards but that's how it is.

Never tried just letting them air cool, they may be quite soft this way too. Just did a google search on the subject....the rate of cooling doesn't matter!
But it is convenient to cool them off fast!

The original poster mentioned they had gotten hard from work hardening.
Maybe a little but I think most of it was from age hardening. Being heat soaked at 300+ degrees probably makes them get hard over time too.

Yep, get them cherry red and drop in water. Hanging them on safety wire works good. you can have a bunch of them stacked up on there too and as long as they all get red all the way through they'll be good.

You'll be amazed at the difference..before and after.

Mark

[cytoxin]

one trick is to heat them up with a rich acetyline mixture and soot them black, and then burn off the soot with a neutral flame and quench them. the temp required to burn off the soot is the temp required to anneal them.

[frankh]

Been doing it this way for 20 years they are as soft as ...well..something really soft.