My Rifle Brass Annealer

[Crusty]

The prototype used a round polyurethane drive belt and bronze bushings supporting the shafts. It was impossible to get it aligned where there wasn't a lot of adverse friction in the system. The 1st revision used ball bearings and it operated much easier but it took way too much tension in the belt to keep the pulleys sort of synchronized. The 2nd rev used a timing belt and sprockets but the rotors were vertically aligned and the cases landed on a downward moving surface and tended to stop rolling and just skidded in place. In the 3rd rev I offset the top rotor so that the cases landed on an upward moving surface and that cured the rolling problem but it initially looked like a bust too until I added guide pins to control the case movement from the feed slot to the heating position. Also my new lathe finally arrived to replace my old one with a twisted off spindle and I no longer needed to try and use my mill as a lathe, so my building quality got a lot better.

[Toolmaker51]

Thank you thank you - I'll be here all week folks.

I'm glad that I didn't show the three annealers that came before it and didn't make the cut.

Evolution is a natural process; we enjoy the nuances of observation, test and tuning. A now-famous guy says "If you can't make it precise make it adjustable."

Now, about the lathe with a twisted off spindle, hmmmm?

[albertq]

Brilliantly simple.

[Bony]

I have very little knowledge about ballistics or firearms, and there being no such thing as a silly question I ask why it's necessary to anneal the cases? Is it because upon the initial firing the brass hardens and would possibly burst upon a second firing if not annealed?

[hemmjo]

Firing stretches the brass to “fit” the chamber. The reloading process resizes the brass so it chambers more easily. Then it is fired again...sized again, etc. The neck is also crimped on the bullet each time in many situations.

This work hardens the brass.