Amateur Hour

[Nannyhammer]

All,

My FIL started building one of the DIY brass annealers in 2021. Unfortunately he passed before it was finished so my son and I finished it up. Today was the first time using it since I hadn't finished the load development with my 300 RSAUM. Thought a rainy day would be a good opportunity to give it a test run. I ran them around 7-8 seconds in the flame and was curious how these look to you guys that anneal your own.

 

[JD338]

Looks pretty good from where I'm sitting.
Please post a picture of the annealer when you get a chance.

JD338

 

[Nannyhammer]

Plans for this one have floated around the internet for a long time. Nothing fancy but it seems to work with a cheap torch. He had better plans for the torch holder but never got it finished so I made one with a scrap of plywood.....ugly but functional.

 

[RL338]

I built one like that years ago. At the time it referred to as a Skip’s case annealer. There were plans on the internet to build it from. 1000s of cases have passed thru mine.

 

[3 Meter Para Bellum]

Wow, that's cool.

 

[SJB358]

Those look good to me. I don’t get loonie about annealing. It’s either enough or too much. A little tempilaq is nice till you get it but once you see a few hundred done You’ll be golden.

 

[truck driver]

Very nicely done.
When I first started annealing brass, I got a deep well socket and a short extension that would fit the size of my brass and used a handheld drill to turn the brass and my hand-held propane torch for a heat source. SJB358 gave me the idea, and I watched a few U-tubes and practiced on old brass so as not ruin my good stuff. Being retired I don't have to look for time to do things but sometimes look for something to keep me busy and that is when I anneal brass, but I have so much annealed I have to look for other things to do during my slack time.

 

[TackDriver284]

That is nice. It's cool to anneal your own brass. When I first started annealing, I was pretty scared to see whether I do it right or not that I spend a lot of time adjusting the flame and case height on the BenchSource to direct the flame at the junction of the shoulder and neck. I started with 650 degree Tempilaq brushed inside the neck and 450 degree Tempilaq along the case body to make sure I don't under or overdo it . Been using this Tempilaq method about 15 batch cycles until I got fed up with cleaning baked Tempilaq from inside the case necks and the Tempilaq also dries up in the bottles. I switched to a different method which is switching the lights off, and keep the case necks in the flame until it turns a light dull red color and pull it out. That should be about 700-750 degrees. Works for me each time and never had to clean inside of the case necks of that pesky baked in Tempilaq. I do deprime all brass with a decapper only, no sizing at this point and wipe the case and inside the necks of carbon before annealing. After annealing, I get a rag, wet it with some Kroil, I wrap the rag on a case and spin the case on a drill using a power adapter with a shell holder , it cleans that case of the residue from annealing and leaves a nice purplish tint on the shoulders and then run the case on the CaseMaster and clean the necks of residue with the nylon brush and I'm done and its ready for full sizing. I like my cases pretty since I don't tumble them. TBH, its been about 3 years since I last used my walnut tumbler. I like to keep some carbon film inside of the case necks, for that reason. It's pretty lengthy if you have hundreds of cases fired to clean and anneal, especially on my BR and Dasher that I use for rifle matches. It beats the boredom.

 

[RL338]

I have 2 pans for mine. 1 for short action cases and 1 for long action and magnums. There are 3 drum I made. 1 for 223 , 1 for 308 size cases , and 1 for the 378 Wby case size.

 

[300WSM]

Very nicely done.
When I first started annealing brass, I got a deep well socket and a short extension that would fit the size of my brass and used a handheld drill to turn the brass and my hand-held propane torch for a heat source. SJB358 gave me the idea, and I watched a few U-tubes and practiced on old brass so as not ruin my good stuff. Being retired I don't have to look for time to do things but sometimes look for something to keep me busy and that is when I anneal brass, but I have so much annealed I have to look for other things to do during my slack time.

Fishing, trap shooting, grease the John Deere mower, post complaints about trannies playing in girls sports, clean guns, treat yourself to a nice new purchase of something hobby related.

I've got ideas for you my friend.

 

[grry10]

The ingenuity of individuals on this forum continues to amaze me.