Annealing on a budget.......

[severnsider]

Looked at various ideas for home-made annealing devices but have been drawn to two "ready made" items, namely something from "Reloader Brass" (Bulgaria) or something from "Caselife" (UK). Does anybody on here have any experience of either, and if so of any pitfalls/shortcomings encountered please? The Caselife item is priced a little lower than the Reloader item, but the latter looks as though it may be a little more robust?

[aris]

Looked at various ideas for home-made annealing devices but have been drawn to two "ready made" items, namely something from "Reloader Brass" (Bulgaria) or something from "Caselife" (UK). Does anybody on here have any experience of either, and if so of any pitfalls/shortcomings encountered please? The Caselife item is priced a little lower than the Reloader item, but the latter looks as though it may be a little more robust?

The reloader one is £180 I believe (used to be £140 when it first came out) without torch. It may incur taxes on import now though. The caselife one is also £180 without the torch + £10 shipping. So a bit more dear all in, but no taxes.

[silva]

An experienced reloader I know does his by hand. He came over and did some for me, when I had a problem with an expanding die once and was wondering if it was the brass. He rolled the case neck in a drill at low speed for a few seconds in the flame from a gas torch until he got the faintest change of colour, then stopped and let it cool.

[bighit]

Phoenix from the Nightvision Forum made his own one that uses induction heating .

Video here https://youtu.be/SF0YmmeEJK4

Cant remember the costs .

[severnsider]

The reloader one is £180 I believe (used to be £140 when it first came out) without torch. It may incur taxes on import now though. The caselife one is also £180 without the torch + £10 shipping. So a bit more dear all in, but no taxes.

Thanks Aris,
The Caselife looks to be £190 delivered and I've found out that the Reloader is £220 delivered so not a great deal in it really. Perhaps an advantage of the Caselife is that it will deal with a wider range of brass e.g. .223 to .308 without the need to change wheels/discs and self-feeds to a certain extent, whereas the Reloader carousel has to be fed by hand.

[severnsider]

Phoenix from the Nightvision Forum made his own one that uses induction heating .

Video here https://youtu.be/SF0YmmeEJK4

Cant remember the costs .

Yes, I saw Bruce's impressive device, but that's far too adventurous for me!

[aris]

Thanks Aris,
The Caselife looks to be £190 delivered and I've found out that the Reloader is £220 delivered so not a great deal in it really. Perhaps an advantage of the Caselife is that it will deal with a wider range of brass e.g. .223 to .308 without the need to change wheels/discs and self-feeds to a certain extent, whereas the Reloader carousel has to be fed by hand.

The Reloader one is £180 inc delivery. He sells via another shooting forum. Technically there would be vat and duties on top of this though but that is paid by you on receipt. Maybe that is where the £220 number comes from?

Really depends how many you want to anneal and how fast. I know the caselife one has different wheels for different calibres - but the standard one works for most. The individual discs on the reloader are also for multiple calibres depending on the diameter of the rim.

Remember you need to add a torch too.

[bighit]

Yes, I saw Bruce's impressive device, but that's far too adventurous for me!

It did take him some time and knowledge. He made his own thermal spotter if I remember right. I met him a few years back to buy a scope from him. A really nice guy.

[aris]

[sidesy]

ive done mine with a large reach socket / an adaptor and rechargeable drill. a mappi gas bottle and wand completes the package. timing and practice is important but once youve come up with a time , its simply a case of dropping the hot brass into a tray of water. plenty do this on youtube (some will use templelac).

[Daryll]

heres one I made earlier..

https://youtu.be/-DaojieJr_M

The parts were maybe £40 from the 'bay, plus some scrap plywood..and one of the wifes cake tins..!

[severnsider]

heres one I made earlier..

https://youtu.be/-DaojieJr_M

The parts were maybe £40 from the 'bay, plus some scrap plywood..and one of the wifes cake tins..!

Daryll that looks to be just the job. I have a small workshop, pillar drill, lathe, plenty of scrap plywood, aluminium and acetal bar for rollers and bearings, the wife has loads of cake tins and I would certainly have a go at making my own. So many examples on YouTube, but so few with an actual list of the items used (i.e. motor(s), speed controller, belt or gear driven etc). Many from years ago, so I doubt that the same components would be available today.

So - for your version, a D.C. motor having an output speed range of, say 8 to 12 rpm? A separate motor to drive the case feed, actuated by a switch on the cake tin?

[aris]

heres one I made earlier..

https://youtu.be/-DaojieJr_M

The parts were maybe £40 from the 'bay, plus some scrap plywood..and one of the wifes cake tins..!

Will you make me one for £50?

What kind of motor did you use - steppers?

[Daryll]

I followed the ideas here:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/D...ne/42-434088/?

its a long (16 pages) thread, with various people coming up with variations...

Looking back on my purchase history, the motors were "high torque 12vDc 25RPM gearbox sabilivolt electric motor replacement" although they're no longer available, I'm sure something suitable is.

The sensor is a LJ12A3-4-Z/BX Inductive Proximity Sensor Switch NPN ( make sure you get the right one... I mistakenly bought the wrong one first, so the motor only ran when it sensed metal, not when it didn't sense metal..!)

A couple of 8mm-16mm 45# Steel Rigid Flange Coupling Motor Guide Shaft Coupler Connector to connect one motor to the cake tin, I couldn't find anything suitable for the "case collecter" wheel so used a hole drill to cut out a cylinder of wood, then cut/filed the slot in... its about the right size for both .308 and .223, the only calibres I reload.

I also bought a DC6-30V 12V 24V Max 8A Motor PWM Speed Controller With Digital Display Switch UK, that controls the speed of the whole thing, and therefore the time that the cases are in the flame.

For power, I use a 12v CB radio power supply.


One thing i will say is to only anneal clean cases.... I did a batch of clean cases and they worked so well I jumped in and did all my other unfired cases... but I think the carbon/dirt on them caused them to get too hot... there was a definate difference between the clean and dirty cases, with the annealer set up exactly the same...

[severnsider]

I followed the ideas here:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/D...ne/42-434088/?

its a long (16 pages) thread, with various people coming up with variations...

Morning, Daryl. That's very helpful, thank you. I'm familiar with the 16 pages on the AR15 forum - it got me interested in the first place but the sheer number of posts and ideas just wore me down.

Your suggestions have put me back on track, thank you, so I shall be scouring the RS components catalogues and certain other sites for components today. I'm looking forward to coming up with a device of my own.

Your comment about using only clean cases has been noted by others, so it's clearly important not to chuck dirty brass on the annealer.

Also.. great shooting in the your CAS video........ "hey, cowboy, walk this way.." classic

Cheers!

Parts all stall available and ordered....