Annealing

[CPorter]

I used a mapp gas turbo torch and a drill to anneal my brass before buying the Ken Light machine. It's controllable and don't think it's too hot. I could adjust it to heat the necks between 3 and 6 seconds fairly easily. The turbo torch also produces a more even heat across the width the flame.

The main reasons to get a annealing machine are consistency and time. It took me about an hour to anneal 50 cases with a drill motor and torch, with a Ken light machine I can do 100 cases in about 6 to 10 minutes and the cases are in the flame exactly the same amount of time.

The brass o matic doesn't appear to rotate the case. It relies on two torches with the flames coming in at almost opposing angles to evenly heat the necks and doesn't provide a heat sink for the case head area. Not ideal in my opinion but it does work. The brass-o-matic only uses one wheel for all cases where the Ken Light uses different ones and they cost more money..

 

[wjm1000]

Does anyone have any cool annealing gadgets/rigs? Pics please.

This is one I made for around $50.00 or $60.00.

 

[Martin52]

Anybody here with experience with using MAPP gas,yellow bottle) vs. regular propane,blue bottle) torches?

I had several MAPP bottles on hand, and tried using them but it seems like it gets them too hot too quick... really hard to get it 'just right'. I recently tried the regular propane and it is noticeably slower, but seems more controllable.

Anybody else have similar experiences?

In a darkened room using blue propane you may find it takes slightly longer to get the first indicator of the impending dull red look on the case neck compared to MAPP. I have used both MAPP and blue and prefer blue for this reason. I'm talking a difference of around a second, using Tempilaq as the indicator. My .308 palma cases with 0.0140 turned necks need about 6 seconds in blue, one torch only. I don't use MAPP anymore, not to say it doesn't work, I am sure it does, but your point about if getting hot quickly is my concern.

 

[memilanuk]

In a darkened room using blue propane you may find it takes slightly longer to get the first indicator of the impending dull red look on the case neck compared to MAPP. I have used both MAPP and blue and prefer blue for this reason. I'm talking a difference of around a second, using Tempilaq as the indicator. My .308 palma cases with 0.0140 turned necks need about 6 seconds in blue, one torch only. I don't use MAPP anymore, not to say it doesn't work, I am sure it does, but your point about if getting hot quickly is my concern.

Good to know, but I long ago went over to the Dark Side (AMP) and got rid of those silly torch units. Still have a storage tote half full of propane (and MAPP) bottles, though

 

[Webster]

Good to know, but I long ago went over to the Dark Side (AMP) and got rid of those silly torch units. Still have a storage tote half full of propane (and MAPP) bottles, though

This is a 12 YO post.

 

[dantiff2]

Hey! Where has the time gone!?!? : ) Since then, I'm happy to announce that I've made my own annealing machine. It's very similar to this fine (simple) model. One difference is: I have a digital readout for my spinning motor rpms with a wide range so that I can fine tune the flame exposure time to get the perfect dwell time. My two older sons fight over who gets to feed it brass so there's no need to automate it any further ; ) It works perfect and has done thousands upon thousands of rounds with no stop in sight. Had about 40$ into it total with torch, ac/dc converter and motor and digital rheostat/ w readout (all off ebay).

Dan