Fluxeon "Annie" Annealer Initial Review

[bsumoba]

* update on page 2 *

Just got my Annie in the mail. Messed around with it for a couple hours today. Unit shipped with packaging issues or damage to the uni due to packaging or shipment via USPS.

I got rev 2.3. It comes with a few different sized ferrite halves so you can adjust it to the size of your brass. I installed the one that would be wide enough so I can get the neck between the coils. I took a bunch of brass that was either split or "throw away" brass and tested the unit out. The unit is very simply. Set the time, put the brass between the coils and press the start button.

I had 750F degree Tempilaq so I brushed on a sliver onto the neck/shoulder.

I started with .223 and set it at 1.4 seconds. Too hot! Thing turned slight orange on the neck, but I noticed with about 0.3 seconds left, that was when the tempilaq burned off. I set the time to 1.1 seconds and repeated the process. The tempilaq burned off with no orange glow. I messed around a little bit more with a couple other pieces of brass and determined that 1.1 seconds was the right temp for the .223 brass I had.

Went to 6.5 creedmoor hornady brass. I had a few pieces of brass with split necks or loose primer pockets and so I used that to do my testing. Tempilaq goes right on and set it at around 2.3 seconds. Turned it on and again too hot! The tempilaq burned off around 1.8'ish seconds so I set it to 1.8 seconds. Not quite a full burn off, so I adjusted to 1.9 seconds. This did the trick.

Moved up to a larger cartridge, Lapua 6.5x284 necked up to 284. I had two pieces of brass to mess around with. Set it at 2.5 seconds and the Tempilaq did not burn off at all. As I waited for that piece of brass to cool down, I took the other one and this time, I put the time to 4.5 seconds and I would try to stop it when I saw the tempilaq burn off. You can pause the process by pressing the start button again. There is also a footswitch version, which I did not get. So, I start it and noticed the tempilaq starting to burn off around 3.8-3.9 seconds. Wow! that took a while. I can only attribute it to the lapua brass and with the brass being a little thicker than most other brass. I suspect LC brass would be the same. The other piece cooled down and I tried 3.8 seconds. That worked well, burning off the tempilaq on the neck and just below the neck/shoulder junction. I then took two pieces of brass I was ready to put through the sizing die. I put both through the Annie. let is cool down, and then FL resized it. Did all my other prep stuff and then dumped some powder, put a 180gr hybrid on top of it (this is a 284 Shehane by the way) and then seated the round. I was using a .311 bushing, which with these two pieces of brass, gave about 2 thou neck tension. As I seated the round, I noticed very good neck tension. I will be shooting these tomorrow for fun.

I tried a larger ferrite halves and noticed it took a little bit longer to get the brass heated to 750F. I can only suspect that the tighter the halves to your brass (and thus, the closer the coils), the better and faster the process. I still had clearance between the two halves. I was only annealing the neck and a very small portion of the shoulder. I did see some blueing and darkening of the brass after the annealing process with the Annie, but most of it stayed above the body/shoulder junction. See pictures. I am not sure if this is a good thing or if the shoulder should also get annealed as this area is resized every time if you are FL resizing. When using the larger opening halves to get a piece of brass between the coils such that the majority of the shoulder was between the coils as well, you can get it to anneal down a little bit more, but you have to watch for over annealing. I tried this on a 6.5 creedmoor brass and I could tell the neck area was getting to the point of over annealing shortly after the tempilaq burned off in the shoulder area.

Okay, so now a couple comments and observations:
* I was able to hold the brass with my fingers during the annealing process. I had to put it down quickly after though as the heat started to migrate down to the case head.
* I noticed a little weird thing with the timer, which I will address with the mfg. not a problem. The timer worked just fine, but want to ask them about something I saw in playing with the unit.
* The unit is FAST! I was able to do 50 pieces of .223 brass within a few minutes and that was taking my time.
* Annealing was very consistent. I was able to get the tempilaq on the same brand and size cartridge to burn off in the same amount of time.
* With different mfg, time did vary slightly, but this was expected so be careful if you are doing say pickup mixed brass.


Of course, this is day 1, so there is no long term comments or testing here. Hope you enjoyed this initial review.

I would say my initial impressions are very positive.

 

[michaelnel]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your initial impressions and experience.

 

[Randy L]

Thanks for the initial impressions, bsumoba. I hope you'll be able to give an update when you have more time with the unit as well. I'll be purchasing an annealer in the next couple of months and was hoping for a first hand report on an induction annealer.
Randy

 

[CPorter]

One thing that will be of interest is the longevity of the heating coils. In the research on induction annealing I have done has shown that the coils are susceptible to heat stress from the high current. Many have arranged some kind of water cooling using 1/4" copper tubes as the coil and report extended coil life. Keep track of the coil life and let us us know what total time we can expect per unit.

 

[Bcspy]

Great review. Would you recommend the foot pedal. Let us know if there are any flaws to come. I'm so excited that the review is positive.

 

[Kings X]

This unit is not an induction annealer. There is not a coil that heats up and cools down.

 

[justinp61]

Yep, even says "Annie induction annealer" right on the front of the machine. See photo 1 & 2 in the original post.

 

[dedogs]

That white thing wrapped around the ferrite sure looks like a coil to me ???

 

[CJ6]

Is the unit set-up for 110V only or is there a 220V option ?

 

[Warren Dean]

This unit is not an induction annealer. There is not a coil that heats up and cools down.

Yes it is, Richard. The coils never heat up. They transmit the energy to the piece in between the ends of the gap.



Cheers!
Warren

 

[Kings X]

The Annie is a power supply made for induction heater coil used in neon tubes. That is Fluxeon main business - not brass annealing machines.
Induction coils heat up like a charcoal lighter. The heat inside the ring heats the brass.
The split unit in the picture is a called a ferrite - I think. The big name is
"multi-axial magnetic generator" - found that on the web. The magnetic field creates the heat. Only the part gets hot.

 

[chevi_guy]

bsumboa

Great review of a product. I was going to get a Bench Source but your review is giving me second thoughts.
I really like the idea of no flame in the reloading area.
Will send PM for further discussion.

Thanks
Tripleduce

 

[sparky123321]

I wasn't keen on trying one of these, until after reading this review. I liked the consistency you experienced. I'm guessing a foot pedal and some type of insulated glove might make the process a little easier? I'd be interested in coil life as well. Looks like those would be easy to replace as long as they're not too expensive.

 

[sparky123321]

Any chance you have or could paint a case all the way around with Tempilac? I'd like to see how consistent the heat is around the entire neck if you don't turn the case. I'd appreciate.

 

[amlevin]

Just a casual observation from the pic's but it appears that heat is localized in two, diametrically opposed points. It would seem to me that use of a socket or the Hornady annealing tool would be easier on the fingers and distribute heat better if the case is rotated. Just like what is done when using torches.

 

[memilanuk]

...or get a Giraud with an induction annealer (looks like this same one, actually), set it up, fill the hopper, and let the machine worry about it

Now I just wish Giraud had a hopper / auto feed setup for his trimmer!

 

[bsumoba]

To answer a few people's questions...

I have no idea on longevity of the unit. All I can gather is that they should last for a "long time" and annealing brass is considered light duty for their units. I can only imagine if Giraud is going to be using this unit that there has to be some validity to the statement of lasting a "long time." They will also roll out replacement parts in the near future if ever there is a need to replace something. The unit does get quite hot at times, especially during sustained annealing with larger caliber brass that need longer times. I suspect you can either cool it down with a fan after a string of brass or just let it cool in ambient on its own. There is a lot of current going though this unit so its bound to get warm/hot. I did not take it to the extremes and do a 100 rounds of magnum brass (didn't have that much to do... ). I did a string of 40-something pieces of .223 with no problem and about 20ish of 284 Win. The unit heated up quite a bit with the 284 brass, probably because of the 3.8 second time I needed to anneal it and me doing one at a time in fairly rapid succession.

I used 750 tempilaq all the way around on the INSIDE of the neck and the tempilaq does burn off around the brass. With the larger caliber rounds, I was doing a slight 1/4-1/2 turn. I do not think this is really needed though as I saw no difference between leaving it there and spinning it a 1/4-1/2 turn. I also put the tempilaq on the shoulder and it does burn off mostly either right below the shoulder or mid-way through the shoulder. A lot of this is also dependent on how you set up the machine. You can put just the neck between the ferrite halves or you can put the front top part of the case. Simply do a mix and match of the different sized ferrite halves. This is the bit of trial and error you have to do. I used throw away brass (of the same brand/mfg of course) to do all my testing. Then, was I was satisfied, started to anneal my actual brass used for shooting.

There are some minor issues on my unit. For example, on my unit, I can still anneal on the "set time" mode when you really shouldn't be able to...a very minor thing, but an issue nonetheless. They were incredibly quick with their responses and customer service has been nothing but great. I will be returning mine back and they sent me a return postage back to them and was told turnaround time will be very quick, less than a week.

A couple more comments with my experiences over the weekend that may help other users:
* Be very careful with the ferrite halves. They are brittle and if you drop them, I can see them chipping
* There are ways to adjust the unit so you can get consistent depth of the brass into the annealing section. I angled the ferrite halves upwards slightly and then just simply used the table as my point of reference. You still have to hold the brass because when you turn it on the Annie and you are not securing the brass, it will tip over. I just use my fingers.
* Tempilaq is your friend. Brass color changes is not a good indicator of when the brass reaches the correct annealing temperature. I used 750 tempilaq on the inside of the neck as well as the outside. I did this on a few pieces to get everything right.
* The case head will not be hot and for a couple seconds after annealing and you can hold the base of the brass...but, the heat will eventually migrate and it will be too hot too touch after a few seconds. It doesn't reach annealing temperature down to the case head so it is fine as indicated by my test of tempilaq down the length of the brass. Annealing temps only got down just below the shoulder.

 

[sparky123321]

Thanks for all the info.

 

[itchyTF]

bsumoba -

Have you noticed if the coil wrapped around the ferrite gets warm (hot) after a dozen cases or so? However, that white insulator won't give you a true indication using your fingers.

I tried measuring the amount of current through the coil on my unit (based on a Roy 1200) and I believe it is more than 100 amps. The hall effect device I was using was only good for 70 amps and the output was flat topped on a scope. I believe it had more to go but was limited by the device. After 6 or so cases the coil was getting quite warm (not surprising if the current was that much). This is why I decided to water cool the coil. I was just wondering it that will become necessary with the Annie.

 

[bsumoba]

bsumoba -

Have you noticed if the coil wrapped around the ferrite gets warm (hot) after a dozen cases or so? However, that white insulator won't give you a true indication using your fingers.

I tried measuring the amount of current through the coil on my unit (based on a Roy 1200) and I believe it is more than 100 amps. The hall effect device I was using was only good for 70 amps and the output was flat topped on a scope. I believe it had more to go but was limited by the device. After 6 or so cases the coil was getting quite warm (not surprising if the current was that much). This is why I decided to water cool the coil. I was just wondering it that will become necessary with the Annie.

Yes, that area (ferrite halves and coil area) does get warm/hot. I did not check the temp. I just put my fingers above the area and noticed I can feel heat after a string of annealings.

The whole amps thing blows over my head. LOL. Im not an EE or Thermo guy so I can't speak much for that.