Any DIY annealer machines better than this one?

[ED3]

Yeah, I think I paid about that much for mine and I used only a few inches. It would be nice to get together with three or four other builders and split the feed drum rod material and the rather expensive Tempelaq temperature paint. You only need a little bit whenever you calibrate your machine, but the small bottle is actually a triple life time supply.

As for the timing, I think measuring it electronically is overkill. A particular duty cycle setting on mine produces very consistent speed even when the window air conditioning unit in my reloading room kicks in (same circuit). You can check itself with a stopwatch, as I did, if you need convincing. Different brass with different neck thickness will need slightly more or less time in the flame, and of course, your flame adjustment plays a part too. I set mine so the blue inner flame just touches the neck. It requires a tweak from time to time to keep it constant since the bottle cools as it empties.

Setting the timing is easy. Apply the temperature indicating paint (I use 399C, 750F) INSIDE the neck. Then shine a bright light into the neck and get close enough so you can see it change color (it appears to melt or turn clear) just as it drops out of the annealing pan. Fiddle with the timing as you test a batch of scrap brass. Make sure you let them cool to room temperature before you re-test them. Once you know the correct duty cycle, you will find it quite consistent. Nevertheless I check mine every couple of months just to be sure. Mine is always is right on the money.

Thanks again.

As far as a source for the material to build the shell feeder needed- maybe think outside the box a bit; the first thought that comes to mind is an old baseball bat... or maybe a scrap of stair handle round stock... cut a cylinder to desired length from near the end.
or maybe hit a Goodwill/ thrift store to buy something possessing the needed stock... possibly an industrial surplus store...

 

[dskogman]

Its expensive. Look up acetal copolymer (Delrin) or UHMW polyethylene rod. You could use wood if you want.

 

[zanemoseley]

i've noticed you can actually seem to find Aluminum discs/rod for cheaper than nylon. I might be too heavy for the motor but you could relieve a bunch of material to save weight. What diameter are most of you guys using?

 

[dskogman]

2", Aluminum would work fine particularly if you have a lathe/mill

 

[Mozella]

Thanks again.

As far as a source for the material to build the shell feeder needed- maybe think outside the box a bit; the first thought that comes to mind is an old baseball bat... or maybe a scrap of stair handle round stock... cut a cylinder to desired length from near the end.
or maybe hit a Goodwill/ thrift store to buy something possessing the needed stock... possibly an industrial surplus store...

Good suggestions, but I think everyone (including me) who builds one of these things has thought of an alternative material, wood for example.

Remember, the drum needs to be something easily machined. If you have a milling machine, aluminum is easy to machine. However, I only have a little bench-top drill press as my "precision" machine and, for me, aluminum might as well be titanium.

I gave some thought to molding one from filled epoxy, since I have all the components on hand and they're gradually going bad because epoxy has a shelf life.

In the end, I used a Delrin-like material and cut the groove with a Forstner bit. A baseball bat might work if you could find a length which was the right diameter and NOT tapered.

Although buying a piece of Delrin (plus shipping costs a few bucks) it might not be all that expensive all things considered. Depending on where you live and what you drive, it doesn't take long flitting around in a truck to burn up twenty bucks worth of gas. You'll have enough left over to give/sell to a friend or two and it looks good.

 

[zanemoseley]

Well i got a foot of 2" black derlin from eplastics for about $20 delivered. Got another question, is there any reason I can't use 3/4" laminate covered wood for the hopper and feed ramp. I work in a cabinet shop and get all kinds of scrap wood and formica. I don't see a need to spend $20 on angle aluminum when I can use laminated wood, it's plenty slick maybe even more than aluminum.

 

[Nvreloader]

One thing about building these DIY Skip annealers,
You can customize them to what you want,
a wooden case feeder would look sharp.

I have SS pans with Diamond cutouts around the lips,
with sanded/wood burnt graining on the face,
and a section of brass, that will be Highly polished,
for the case feeder.

Even thought of having the case feeder epoxy filled
and the case head of my favorite case embedded.

Tia,
Don

 

[Gina1]

Is there a better DIY annealing machine out there, than this one. That is the question....

Right now there are two camps, flame annealing and induction annealing. The flame machine has it's advantage in that it is lower cost to build and is simple in it's design, and auto-feed. The disadvantage is the open flame (a consumable) placement of the case in the flame, and not being able to tell how far down the case the annealing went, adjustment of the flame, and (Tempilaq) burns off in the open flame.

The DIY induction annealer has it's advantage in the the annealing process is more precise, Annealing times down to the 10/100 of a seconds. There are no variations in power or time. Annealing is always the same.no open flame, and runs only on electricity Cost to build is about $400 and does take some understanding of electronics. Adjustment for different case sizes is easily adjustable. One disadvantage, there is no auto-feed (at this time) Running in auto-cycle annealing rate for 6BR cases is about 8 seconds, with 5.4 seconds in actual annealing time.

 

[Alexander-M]

I have a question on this link, which has been posted at least twice:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bb_cm10J8urCM2PtKql8VyHtGlovTeI3RnAj7xa0eX0/edit?pref=2&pli=1#

When I open it, it reads "DIY CASE ANNEALER CONSTRUCTION", as I expected; but the first step I see, says:

"• Once all of your pieces of MDF are cut to the proper size, measure and lay out all
holes to be drilled into the face of the annealer."

Are there previous instructions that describe the cutting of the MDF pieces?

Thx!

Nando

 

[Nvreloader]

To add some more info,
here is another DIY build site/post with good info,
http://68forums.com/forums/showthre...ts-list-included!&highlight=Annealing+machine

Worth the time to read the info.

Tia,
Don

 

[ED3]

I have a question on this link, which has been posted at least twice:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bb_cm10J8urCM2PtKql8VyHtGlovTeI3RnAj7xa0eX0/edit?pref=2&pli=1#

When I open it, it reads "DIY CASE ANNEALER CONSTRUCTION", as I expected; but the first step I see, says:

"• Once all of your pieces of MDF are cut to the proper size, measure and lay out all
holes to be drilled into the face of the annealer."

Are there previous instructions that describe the cutting of the MDF pieces?

Thx!

Nando

Page 6 of the document you cite.

 

[Alexander-M]

Page 6 of the document you cite.

I had seen that page but did not realize that was MDF.
Thank You!
Nando

 

[Mozella]

I had seen that page but did not realize that was MDF.
Thank You!
Nando

Why in the world would anyone select MDF for a project like this? MDF is flat and smooth, so it's good for laminating. It's also heavy and that's why it is used for kitchen counter tops. It has no grain across the panel, but it does have grain INTO the edge, so it splits easily when edge fastened. It is also subject to degradation when it gets wet. Using MDF gives you the worst of both worlds; i.e. your annealing machine ends up being heavy and the perceived advantages to using a material thick enough to edge fasten with ordinary fasteners is actually a time bomb waiting to go off.

I would recommend buying a half sheet of high quality 5mm plywood at your local DIY outlet. It's smooth, strong, and ready to finish; easy to cut too and you can true up the edges with a low angle block plane. Yes, it's too thin to edge fasten, but if you take a few minutes to glue in some 1/2" square stock on the edges using ordinary yellow glue, you can make a lightweight enclosure which will be very strong without fasteners except perhaps for a few small brads to hold the parts in alignment. Light, high quality material like this is very easy to work with hand tools, so you don't need access to a table saw. And it will look good too.

 

[BenPerfected]

My favorite Annealer is DJ's Brass Service.

 

[slurpin dog]

Sure. It's an inductive proximity switch, meaning it can detect the near presence of a piece of brass.

The basic "Skip" design has two drive motors, one for the annealing pan which is adjusted to a duty cycle which will produce the correct annealing time. That, of course, depends on your torch temperature and brass type. The other motor drives the feed drum. The idea is to have a piece of brass sitting on the feed ramp waiting to enter the pan, but you do not want two pieces nor do you want zero pieces. That requires that the feed drum motor be adjusted to keep in time with the annealing pan. It's easy enough to tweak the speed from time to time if they begin to get out of sync. Or some folks intentionally run it a bit too slow so that every 20 or 30 rounds it delivers the case too late and the annealing pan does one cycle empty.

Two solutions exist. One is to use one drive motor and a toothed belt to replace the other motor. The easier solution is to wire in a three dollar, normally-closed, proximity switch which will interrupt power to the feed drum motor when a piece of brass is in the "waiting" position. When the case falls into the annealing pan, the switch closes and the feed drum motor runs at full speed to quickly feed the next case. When it rolls down the feed ramp to the "waiting" position the proximity switch opens and stops the feed drum motor. Very slick.

Once you have a proximity switch, it's easy enough to include a round counter, with a reset switch, for a few bucks more. That is the blue display. I did it mostly for "bling", but in fact it's nice to know how many rounds I've just annealed.

You could add more flashing lights and buzzers or bells to supplement the normal clink and clank sounds of the machine if you wish. A reloader seeing this machine operate for the first time is usually mesmerized like a small child watching an animated department store Christmas display. I took mine to the range one day to demonstrate it. The entire firing line shut down and a group of 12 adults stood around like a bunch of kids watching my machine. When it finished, they all said, "Do it again". Do it again". I actually laughed out loud.

Mozella,
Did you wire your NPN proximity sensor direct to the motor or did you run it to a 12volt dc relay switch?
Ron

 

[zanemoseley]

My favorite Annealer is DJ's Brass Service.

The problem is it would only take 700 pieces of brass at DJ's prices to make your own annealer. With a design like this you can anneal 12 pieces or so a minute, at that rate you'll pay off the annealer in under one hour of running.

 

[Mozella]

Mozella,
Did you wire your NPN proximity sensor direct to the motor or did you run it to a 12volt dc relay switch?
Ron

It's wired to control the power to the motor; however, it wouldn't switch my counter reliably, so I added a small relay so that each time the sensor turns on the feed motor, it trips the relay which controls the power to the counter. So, no relay for the proximity sensor and motor but there is one for the counter.

 

[slurpin dog]

It's wired to control the power to the motor; however, it wouldn't switch my counter reliably, so I added a small relay so that each time the sensor turns on the feed motor, it trips the relay which controls the power to the counter. So, no relay for the proximity sensor and motor but there is one for the counter.[/QUOTE

I tried with out the the relay, wires on sensor were melting. I wired in a relay switch, problem solved.
Ron

 

[chalkeye]

I've been experimenting with a mechanism that should simplify things a lot more, requiring only one speed controlled motor.
Next step is to build a better frame & ramps - the cam needs modifying too as it's a bit "flicky" with just a pin articulating the rocker:

 

[Mozella]

I've been experimenting with a mechanism that should simplify things a lot more, requiring only one speed controlled motor.
Next step is to build a better frame & ramps - the cam needs modifying too as it's a bit "flicky" with just a pin articulating the rocker:

Clever design. Congratulations. However, I'm guessing your combination feed drum, annealing drum, and cam device is made from a big chunk of aluminum alloy. If you have one of those laying around your shop along with a milling machine sitting next to a nice lathe, your brain works one way. On the other hand, if (like me) you have a Dremel tool and a cake pan, your brain works another way, especially if a motor and speed control cost less than ten bucks each.

Nevertheless, your design shows thinking outside the box which is always nice, and in your case, quite cool. I like it.