A bit off topic: Annealing machine.

[frwillia]

I'm making an annealing machine to speed up annealing brass. It's a home built one similar to some that are on 6mmBR.com in videos. The ones on 6mmBR only do one size of brass per turntable. I wanted to be able to do more, so I decided to make it with three sizes of holes in the turntable to do 3 general classes/famlies of brass (WSM, .308, .223). The top of the turntable after machining the chunk of aluminum round and drilling the holes is shown in the attached pictures.

I created a quick and dirty Excel spreadsheet to get x/y coordinates for the 30 holes and drilled them using the DRO to locate them. Much faster and more accurate than a rotary table. The threaded holes are for bolting it to the face plate to turn it round before drilling, and now to turn the underside after drilling.

I polished the holes for a few seconds using a dowel rod and some well worn kerosene soaked emery paper. Worked great. No matter how careful I am, and how sharp the drill is, or what lube I use, aluminum holes always look a bit like they were galled instead of drilled if one looks closely. After 10 ro 15 seconds of polishing they look smooth and shiny.

In case you are wondering how it will work for different lengths of brass:

The underside of the plate will have a recess turned to thin it to about 1/2" thick out to a bit shy of the centerline of the largest holes for the brass. There will be a plate that clears that lip by 1/16" radially that supports the brass by having 1/3 of the brass base rest on it. This support plate which is adjustable for height and fits inside the wheel rim will cause the brass to rotate as the plate turns. I will machine some spacers to set the height of the turntable to support the brass at the right height. The spacing between holes of the same size (36 degrees of rotation) should allow a single torch to flame wash one or more revolutions of the brass before it gets shadowed by the next one in line. With some luck, and adjustable speed (friction drive on the rim with a DC motor and voltage speed control) the annealing tempoerature can be easily controlled.

That's as far as the sketch goes. I can hardly wait to see what I'm going to do next on this. My gosh but I like being retired!

I have a hand drawn smudgy oil stained ball point pen sketch for this project that only it's author could like. This is one of those projects that seems to be growing out of the metal archive accumulated over the years. The design seems to easily adapt to what happens to be available.

Near as i can tell this thing will anneal several hundred to a thousand cases/hr which is of course way overkill for my personal needs. Oh darn. I'm building it anyway. I do have some friends that shoot wildcat cartridges who might want to anneal some of their brass on it. I'll furnish the machine and coffee, they bring brass and gas - ought to be fun.

Fitch

 

[J. Pendergraft]

Nice start to your project. I have been toying with the idea of building one myself. I would like to build one with an index plate but have the plate stop and the case rotate while under the flame. I don't have it figured out yet so it may not be practical.

 

[frwillia]

Nice start to your project. I have been toying with the idea of building one myself. I would like to build one with an index plate but have the plate stop and the case rotate while under the flame. I don't have it figured out yet so it may not be practical.

Thanks.

The cases will rotate one revolution in about 1.5" of arc distance with the one I'm building. I figure they will be in the flame for at least 3 inches so should get two revolutions while heating. See the video of the machine the Dutch guy built a little ways down this page, for an example: http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

Looking at the one in the video and timing it, its turning about 1.4 rpm doing 10 cases per revolution filling every third hole. Running it with every third hole filled like in the video it can do around 840 cases an hour and it's simple as dirt. I decided to make it so I had three hole sizes - sure don't need any more capacity.

I've located a 12 VDC drive motor at the Surplus Center and some silicone O-rings to use for traction on the drive drum. My buddy will make me a PWM drive for the DC gear motor if my train transformer doesn't work well enough. I will make a couple of bronze bushings.

The hard part is done. This should be finished early next year if I keep finding parts like I have been and the weather stays crummy. All I need now are a couple of 11" square pieces of 1/2" aluminum plate. I'll scrounge that up from someplace.

Several of the guys at the club shoot wildcat cartridges in the ground hog matches - they are a good bunch helping each other all the time - they've been a lot of help to me so I'm looking for a way a novice like me can pitch in and contribute to such an experienced bunch. None of them have a machine shop like mine, so taking this thing to matches may be one way to return the favor. I'll bring the machine, they can bring gas, brass, and conversation.

There is certainly no shortage of good conversation at matches.

Fitch

 

[cdupuy]

Fitch:
When ya getter done holler, I do need one as I shoot the Palma game and high volumes of .223

Clarence

 

[frwillia]

Fitch:
When ya getter done holler, I do need one as I shoot the Palma game and high volumes of .223

Clarence

I'll post a picture or two of it with the parts I used when it's done. It is the sort of thing that grows from what ever is in the junk box at the moment.

Fitch

 

[Fireball Fred]

dovetailing on an idea

Joel in the video i noticed the cases were put in the wheel and dropped down a tube to a bin. this means the cases ride in a track or on a base plate. machine into the track (or make a bumper rail) a friction piece probably like a rubber rail on the outer or inner edge. when the case comes into contact with the rubber material it would spin the case just in the area of the annealing. thus annealing the neck evenly 360 degrees. Fred