Induction brass annealer redux
- Thread starter Gina1
- Start date
Looking for Power Supply manual regulating voltage/current, 48 volts 600 watts and up.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Any suggestions?
Thanks
itchyTF
Gold $$ Contributor
You looking for a manual or power supply?
Power supply. My latest built has Mean Well 600 watts and I can not lower the voltage below 40 volts.
I started annealing .284 Shehane. I've got good results with 40 volts and in only 1.8 sec (15-16 amps). I would like to increase the annealing time by lowering the voltage/current. I tried with 480 watts power supply - it takes a lot longer 8-9 seconds. My induction coil is Fluxeon ferrit coil.
Thanks for the note (I meant manually regulating voltage/current).
I've put together an annealer using bits and pieces of information from this thread and other information on the web. I ended up going with an arduino board from Mark at https://www.mgnz-makes.com/ I really wanted a case feeder as well and after a lot of e-mails back and forward, Mark came up with an updated board with a driver for a closed loop Nema 17 stepper. I got the machine up and running last week with a prototype feeder and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm currently printing a new case feeder with a few revisions so it will work with pretty much any case I'll ever need to anneal.
Not as good as the single layer one, I wanted something shorter so BR cases would sit closer to the centre or it. It's still 7 1/2 coils but just wound in 2 layers. It takes a couple of seconds longer to do the same case, I think I'll be changing back to the single 7 1/2 turn coil and making a change to the case dropper tray to sit the cases a little higher out of it. I'll have a play with the voltage first and see if I can get an improvement there before I change it.
I redesigned the case feeder drum yesterday so it covers 223/308/magnum/Lap mag all on the same drum, I got it printed overnight and it looks like it'll work fine. It uses magnets for the detent between the different slots:
Here's a bit more of a close up of the coil doing some 223 Ackley cases:
Nice work, I too use MGNZ boards, great guy to deal with. I see you didnt opt for the amp readout, why was that, Space?
Really like the effort you went to regarding case height control and the measurements for that.
I once did one with a button to open the case drop manually should the case become misaligned, Mark did the arduino work around for that. ( I tried but coding is just beyond this old dinosaur)
Really like the effort you went to regarding case height control and the measurements for that.
I once did one with a button to open the case drop manually should the case become misaligned, Mark did the arduino work around for that. ( I tried but coding is just beyond this old dinosaur)
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I had the amp readout initially but the little board stopped working and I had everything sorted by then so I didn't get around to chasing another one. Mark did a great job with this new controller, it's plug and play wiring-wise with the stepper I used which makes it really simple to put together. I got the 4 sized feeder drum printed and gave it a run this morning, it works a treat. I'll post up a video when I get a chance.
I'm doing a bit of a redesign on the case dropper assembly, it has a steel shoulder bolt that the trapdoor pivots on which heats up a little and binds up occasionally. Only a small change to do but the 3d printer had a meltdown so I'm waiting for a new hotend to turn up.
Finally finished my GinaErick Annealer. I went with an Arduino Uno controlled annealer, a 4x20 LCD for display and 5 buttons (two for adjusting time up or down, two for cycling up or down through the 10 program slots and one to pause or clear errors). The first revision of my program provided 10 program slots for saving case name and anneal time. If you changed the anneal time and then moved to a different program slot, the new time was saved to EEPROM memory. The second revision added the ability to anneal based on energy (joules) and saved the joule setting for each slot as well. The final revision used the first program slot, slot 0, for an AUTO mode which uses a flame sensor to detect when the case neck glows and ends the annealing. The “Glow” setting is adjustable from undetectable by my eyes to “melt the neck”. In the video you can see the neck just begin to glow before the case drops.
I used a break beam sensor to detect when a case is present and to begin annealing and a trap door to drop the case out when done. Used a double wound coil, 6.5 turns, inside diameter of 0.65 inches. This allowed for better visualization of the case neck by the flame sensor. I’m using a 36V 27.5A power supply. Annealing can be interrupted by pressing the middle button, amps over 27.5 or temp of the 1000 Watt ZVS board over 180F.
The LCD line one displays the case program number/name and the time/joule/glow setting for that program slot. Line two displays the voltage, max amps during annealing and temperature of the ZVS board. Line three displays the actual anneal time, actual glow reading and actual joules of energy for each anneal. Line four shows what state the annealer is in, Pause Mode, Waiting for Case, Annealing, High Temp or High Amp error.
I also created multiple base plate inserts to accommodate and center different cartridge base diameter sizes. Everything was purchased on Amazon except for some small wood screws that I picked up at Lowe’s. Total cost $304 US. I have thousands of various headstamp .223/5.56 brass and found some would anneal at under 2 seconds and some at more then 4 seconds. I did not want the tedious task of sorting the cases by headstamp, which lead to the flame sensor (Teyleten Robot 3.3V-5V IR Infrared Flame Sensor 4 Pin Infrared Detection Module Detecting Distance 80cm, 10 pack for $6.31). Now no matter what case I put into the annealer, it is annealed just long enough to start glowing (approximately 1000F).
I used a break beam sensor to detect when a case is present and to begin annealing and a trap door to drop the case out when done. Used a double wound coil, 6.5 turns, inside diameter of 0.65 inches. This allowed for better visualization of the case neck by the flame sensor. I’m using a 36V 27.5A power supply. Annealing can be interrupted by pressing the middle button, amps over 27.5 or temp of the 1000 Watt ZVS board over 180F.
The LCD line one displays the case program number/name and the time/joule/glow setting for that program slot. Line two displays the voltage, max amps during annealing and temperature of the ZVS board. Line three displays the actual anneal time, actual glow reading and actual joules of energy for each anneal. Line four shows what state the annealer is in, Pause Mode, Waiting for Case, Annealing, High Temp or High Amp error.
I also created multiple base plate inserts to accommodate and center different cartridge base diameter sizes. Everything was purchased on Amazon except for some small wood screws that I picked up at Lowe’s. Total cost $304 US. I have thousands of various headstamp .223/5.56 brass and found some would anneal at under 2 seconds and some at more then 4 seconds. I did not want the tedious task of sorting the cases by headstamp, which lead to the flame sensor (Teyleten Robot 3.3V-5V IR Infrared Flame Sensor 4 Pin Infrared Detection Module Detecting Distance 80cm, 10 pack for $6.31). Now no matter what case I put into the annealer, it is annealed just long enough to start glowing (approximately 1000F).
It is amazing how different people can end up a the same point when developing these things. Looking at yours it is extremely similar to the one I came up with based on my own designs and testing.Hopefully the Youtube upload worked
See the GinaErick annealer in action
Still working out the bugs in youtube video. Can't seem to get rid of a deleted file... Just hit recycle to replay.
The total cost to build the GinaErick is between $350-$400
Gina
Really nice build the coil design is innovative and the flame detector to gauge temperature a really nice and new addition for others to try, Well done
There really isn't any voltage associated with those (or the Stop or Gate) pins. It is just a continuity issue between pin 1 (common) and 2 (Start)...if they are connected (ie by a momentary switch or relay) it will trigger the Start event (or Stop(1 to 12) or Gate(1 to 11)).
A diagram should be on the side of the timer housing.
How are you thinking of triggering the Start?
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