There is a lot of ongoing discussion in the UK right now over annealing machine supply. Most people here who do it have bought the Bench Mark, but as Tim points out, supply isn't quick and it is a relatively expensive option by the time we get it, pay for carriage and the UK government slaps on import duties and the standard 20% 'VAT' (a national indeed Europe wide sales tax).
The hopper fed Giraud and similar annealers cannot be legally exported from the USA thanks to ITAR it seems. Some US State Department bureaucrat has deemed that the magazine puts them into the definition of high volume ammunition manufacturing machines and so Giraud says it cannot supply us or anybody else outside of the US (unless it is a government approved contract).
Some people here have been working on home produced devices for the last one or two years, and I'm currently using a pre-production prototype of one. The big problem is that of meeting the CE certification requirements for new electrical equipment, in particular the the issue of proving there is no interference with telecommunications transmission and reception. It's the electronic timing circuits that have to be tested and certified as meeting the regulations. The problem is that getting the testing and certification done is very expensive, so a small scale garage or spare bedroom based maker producing a few units a month would lose any profit for several years' worth of production.
Ironically, Bench Mark or any other US manufacturer of annealers (or any other electrical bits and pieces) have to obtain CE certification to legally export their goods to us, and even the tiniest of home producers has to do likewise, but in a global Internet linked community, it's perfectly legal for our citizens to buy non-CE'd stuff direct from a foreign source as a personal import, and some such American annealers have just arrived here. As they're hopper fed and therefore as I understand it from what Giraud says, these may be illegal exports under ITAR, but that's the manufacturer's issue not one at this end. But just in case they are ITAR-breakers I won't quote names as I'm not in the business of maybe creating trouble for people doing a bit of simple business. (Maybe the Giraud falls foul of ITAR because of its substantial hopper capacity and these smaller machines stacking a smaller number of cases are not affected by the large scale manufacture clause - who knows?)
Having only just been made aware of Tim's research student work, I'm looking forward to having a good delve through it. Great work Tim! I've already been committed to a simpler non metallurgical practical test when I get around to doing a small rifle primer follow-up test series to my earlier large-scale one with 308 and LR primers.
This will use 308 Win again, likely with the 167gn Lapua Scenar and Viht N150 (I have a lot of both spare and won't ever use this bullet in future competition shooting) in Lapua Palma brass that was prepped for high-level FTR competition. All same lot and same number (three) of firings, 150 cases. Necks will be annealed beforehand and those fired twice during the tests annealed between firings. As before, 2 foulers + 15 rounds results based on MV, ES, and SD values and spreads using a MagnetoSpeed V3.
It was suggested that as annealing / neck hardness levels primarily affect neck tension where variabilities in turn affect velocity consistency, do a multiple firing test and see if the readings deteriorate. So, I'll find what looks a good combination for MV consistency in the primer tests and take 30 or 40 pre-weighed charges to the range plus a load of handloading gear and repeatedly load and fire 5 cases to see if 'things go downhill' after several firings without annealing. To be really meaningful, another quintet from the same case-lot should be repeatedly loaded and fired with annealing between firings. Since the annealer is portable, that is feasible, but will make it a much longer and more involved test, and have some health and safety issues needing virtual sole use of the covered firing point etc. So, being practical if that add-on happens it'd be a separate test series on a different day.
