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Induction brass annealer redux

I ended up swapping out the ZVS board because I was pretty confident that is what failed and I don't have experience soldering components onto boards. I figure it would give me time to troubleshoot the nonfunctioning board and still anneal brass.

Measured resistance across the DC contacts and it was about 5.25 kohms!

Installed the new board, and it runs just like it had before.

How exactly would the SSR have caused the board to go bad? I thought they were supposed to work well in this application as long as it's voltage was rated correctly
And there lies the problem. A lot of the SSRs for sale online come from china and they are not uo to spec at best and straight out fakes in other cases.
 
And there lies the problem. A lot of the SSRs for sale online come from china and they are not uo to spec at best and straight out fakes in other cases.

Now that I have one that is functional and enjoy it so much, I'll slowly swap out the components for high quality ones
 
Here's a link to a video and I've attached some photos. Pardon the blue tape, the last thing I have to do is drill holes and bolt the feeder to the top of the computer case.


This is sized to handle from .223 up to .338 size cases. There are quick change inserts in the drum as well as a conical insert above the trap door to match each case diameter. The trap door is also height adjustable via a thumb screw.

The software protects against:
- Over current
- Under voltage
- Feed Jam
- Double Feed
- Coolant over temperature

It will also automatically detect and recover lost steps if the feeder gets wedged picking up a case and misses a few.

My goal was to build an automatic machine, but this is not something I would take my eyes off of while operating. I had one case of a firmware crash during development that left the heater running indefinitely. That melted a case in half and also melted a hole in the trapdoor in about 10 seconds. Also occasionally (2 or 3 in 100) a case will get hung up in the coil and I'll have to poke it with a screwdriver to get it to settle on the trap door.

If I were to roll a new control board I would have a watchdog timer monitoring the fet that controls the heater to guarantee 100% it turns off if the Ardunio goes braindead.

Augi
Excellent work @Augi . Are you willing to share stl files for the trap door mechanism?
 
Or... assume everything is broken till you check it. That assumes you even know what broken or fixed looks like... YMMV
Yes that is a very good point on these boards when you first receive them. All the ones I have purchased, all arrived with faults on them, due to poor soldering some which is caused by the board design.
 
Don't use a SSR at all. There are two big, capable and heatsinked switches on the ZVS board itself. (And more often than not a continuity test with a multimeter will troubleshoot any problem with those.)
 
check the soldering on all the heavy components. ie the wire wound coils also check the soldering on the capacitors as the very large ground plane on the board sinks the heat away from the joint when its being soldered leaving a cold joint.
 
My first annealer was built with the help of hollywood. He worked long and hard on finding the right coil size. He also came up with the water cooled coil and the radiator/pump system for it.


I added the timer system, trap door, and voltage/current monitor meter. Together we came up with what I think is a really great annealer. Since Mod1 (the first one) I've added a few improvements, this is Rev2.

If you were thinking of building one, I hope this helps.


Making the coil.... See photos. Note... Inside diameter of the coil is about 1 1/8 inches. BTW PVC pipe is schedule 40 3/4" pipe.

Since the power connections from the annealer board to the coil are set up for ¼ “ tubing, we must transition from 1/4” copper tubing to the coil's 1/8 size.

See the 4 pictures on this. Remember to leave enough of the 1/8 tubing to reach the trap door location from the inductor PCB from the 1/4” tubing. Easier to move the 1/8 tubing than the 1/4” tubing

After your coil is complete, slightly separate the coils so they do not touch and dunk in shellac or varnish to insulate them.

One of the things I've run into with the latest build was that the radiator and the coolant pump both had 3/8” inch fittings, but I had 1/4” tubing coming from and going to the inductor PCB.

See the 3 pictures on how to deal with this.

Hint..... After cutting the copper tubing, (using a pipe cutter) ether the 1/8” or 1/4”, ream out the opening, as the cutting process tends to partly close the opening.

Parts list

Items that were bought through Amazon

(1) SainSmart1000W ZVS low voltage induction heating board. $36.99

(2) Yosoo SC-300TDC12V water cooling pump tank $22.04

(3) Thermaltake 1000cc Liquid coolant $15.99

(4) Refigeration Copper Tubing 1/8” x 50' $30.88

(5) AGPtek 12 Pipe Aluminum Heat Exchanger Radiator $16.99

(6) Packard C230 2 Pole 30 Amp Contactor, 120 Volt Coil $ 9.00

(7) DROK Digital V/C measurement DC 0-100V/50Amp meter $16.42

(8) uxcell 5 Pcs, 6 Position screw terminal strip. $ 5.89

(9) Sestos Digital Quartic Timer Relay Switch 100-240V B3S $29.96

Items bought through Jameco www.jameco.com


(1) 2125931 Fan, 120VAC 2 each @ $13.95 $27.90

(2) 196817 Fan Guard & filter 2 each @ $2.19 $ 4.38

(3) 323337 12V@3A power supply $12.95

(4) 295929 48V12.5A 600 Watt Power Supply $76.95

(5) 34462 Varistor 130VAC $ .39

(6) 69439 Fuse, Fast Acting 3A .25”x1.25” (3) $ 1.05

(7) 69570 Fuse Slo Blow 10A .25”x1.25" (1) $ .59

(8) 317825 Switch, Toggle on/off $ 2.55

(9) 1711947 Fuse Holder .25” 1.25” (4) $ 3.96

(10) 2202335 Solenoid Tubular-pull 12VDC $ 7.95

(11) 2153705 Wire, hook up kit $16.95

(12) 36011 1N4007 Diode (min order 10 @ 5 cents) $00.50

(13) 315432 SPST Momentary contact switch 2 @ $1.09 $ 2.18

Note... not all parts were ordered from on-line. Numerous items were purchased from my local hardware store ie vinyl tubing, 1/4” copper tubing, tube clamps, etc.


View attachment 988183 View attachment 988184 View attachment 988185 View attachment 988186 View attachment 988187 View attachment 988188 View attachment 988189
Does anyone know de ID of this 1/8 copper tubing ? Thanks
 
Final built - Fully Automated Annealing Built.


Mechanics - 3 step motors

* Programed drop gate platform - .284 Winchester. 6mm Dasher, .223 Rem and .308

* Modified carousel to accommodate calibers and easier rotating

* Simple case drop arm

* Custom made sensor to report proper case presence, ready for annealing.

* All parts were designed with Fusion 360, converted to gCode by Slicer and printed on Neptun 3 Pro 3D printer.


Induction coil

* High efficient Fluxeon ferrite based core coil - 12 amps max.

2.8 seconds max time for 1000 F at the neck. No load 8 amps.

Power supply dialed at 40 VDC.

* This is the moment to mention wiring from the ZVS to the Fluxeon ferrite based core coil. No need for multi stranded cables. Battery #6 cable stripped form the rubber insulation works without extensive heat.


Cooling

* One 120 mm fan cools the ZVS board (no excessive heat)

* Two 50 mm min fans located axially to the core (could be ignored). The core and the coil barely reach 120-140 F.

Feed back annealing control using flame sensor

* Constant distance from the case mount (~ 1 inch)

* Provided with maximum protection from ambient lighting (camera obscure)

* Algorithm - Every 10 milliseconds (limited by the SSR switching capabilities) the temperature of the neck is checked for +/- 1% deviation. SSR provides annealing power accordingly.

* The entire annealing process is constant for all calibers - 5 sec. The time period can safely be extended. It takes less than 3 seconds (for big cases) to achieve 1000 F and the balance of the time is to ensure full annealing. It was proven after extensive discussion in this forum. Lighter cases achieve 1000 F for significantly less time.

* Calibration - given the short time for reaching temperature of 1000 F the Thempilaq did not help. The 1000 F temperature was determined by the color of the neck.



This is my last built. Many, many thanks go Gina and Eric for opening the eyes of all participants of this forum. Also many thanks to all who contributed their experience, knowledge and troubleshooting skills.


Time well spent


Oliver

 
Nice work, now that's what I call evolution! Interesting re the solid wire for the coil. I sourced multi strand Litz style. I see it looks like 1 1/2 turns each side?
 
Hi Guys,

Maybe it is a stupid question, but since i am an electric virgin,who is trying to build the original ginaerick anaeler i could use some help.
Can anyone tell me how to connect the sestos please?
Hope some one can get me going.

Thanks anyway
 

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It's been so long since I built mine
I can't remember and I won't have time to look until Saturday
Go to the first couple pages you should see the info there to help you
Or other will be along shortly
 
Do a search for Sestos in this thread. You’ll get a ton of hits. Whether any of them will answer your question, don’t know.
 

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