DIY Induction Annealer

[leclairk]

Anyone try this? Parts are $220 off Amazon and it seems like it a great option. I bought the parts and plan to give it a try. (Hopefully the link works)

 

[leclairk]

Annealed my first 100 rounds today. Worked flawlessly. I put some 750 degree tempilaq on the inside of the case neck to get the timing figured out. Only issue I can see is that the case is not EXACTLY in the center of the coil every time. It’s really damn close though.

 

[alamo5000]

Anyone try this? Parts are $220 off Amazon and it seems like it a great option. I bought the parts and plan to give it a try. (Hopefully the link works)

Yes, I built one. Yes it works really well.

The timers you find on Amazon---there are two main varieties. One can go sub 1 second and the other cannot.

Also one can run off of straight wall current and the other requires a secondary plug like you would use for a big calculator or something. The one that requires the secondary plug can go sub 1 second. The one that can run off of standard AC just goes to the second.

The instructions on how to wire the thing up really suck. It took me multiple emails from the manufacturer to finally figure out that they genuinely suck at writing instructions.

I have mine wired up using a single plug. This means mine can only time to the nearest second, not fractions of a second. I personally see no need to go sub 1 second as the anneal will largely be determined by the size you wrap the coil.

And does it work? Hell yes it works. It's substantially faster too. That said invest in an aluminum reloading tray.

In my testing I even completely melted some brass in not very long. That said IMO this is 100 times better than trying to do it with flame anything.

 

[Yondering]

Anyone try this? Parts are $220 off Amazon and it seems like it a great option. I bought the parts and plan to give it a try. (Hopefully the link works)

This appears to use the same Hot Rod induction unit I mentioned a few posts back. While it does work to anneal brass as-is (other than a timer), I was surprised how much slower it is to heat up brass compared to a solid steel bolt. Still not sure why; that’s not my area of expertise.

Not that it doesn’t work, but the Annealeez unit I’ve been using lately seems faster and is in the same price range. I get the fascination with induction annealing, it’s cool stuff, but for this particular example I’m not sure there’s any real benefit compared to an Annealeez. (Obviously some of the higher priced units do have some advantages, but there is a law of diminishing returns in play there for most shooters I think. YMMV of course but that is my experience.

FWIW though one of those Hot Rod units IS worth buying if you work on anything with stuck or rusty bolts. It’s awesome for that.

 

[alamo5000]

This appears to use the same Hot Rod induction unit I mentioned a few posts back. While it does work to anneal brass as-is (other than a timer), I was surprised how much slower it is to heat up brass compared to a solid steel bolt. Still not sure why; that’s not my area of expertise.

The timing doesn't take long at all if you have the thing set up correctly. I completely melted a few pieces of brass in about 5 seconds with mine.

The key to if it takes 3 seconds to anneal vs 10 seconds is how large the coil is in relation to the size of brass you are annealing. If the loops are wound too big it takes a lot longer to heat up. Millimeters matter.

As far as I know the type of material is irrelevant.

 

[Yondering]

The timing doesn't take long at all if you have the thing set up correctly. I completely melted a few pieces of brass in about 5 seconds with mine.

The key to if it takes 3 seconds to anneal vs 10 seconds is how large the coil is in relation to the size of brass you are annealing. If the loops are wound too big it takes a lot longer to heat up. Millimeters matter.

As far as I know the type of material is irrelevant.

That makes sense. Although I was using the same coil (the smallest of the 3 included coils) for a 7/16” bolt and a 308 case. Even though the case and the bolt are close to the same size, it turned the bolt glowing red hot faster than getting the case to annealing temp. But maybe that coil is still too big, I don’t know.

 

[leclairk]

The loops included in the unit don’t work for this application. I bought a piece of 12ga bare wire, made 5 loops around an 11mm socket, and in 4 seconds my ADG 300PRC brass was glowing red. Using the tempilaq as a guide I fine tuned it to 3 seconds. At 3 seconds the neck is just beginning to turn red when it shuts off. Perfect.