Thread: Annealing questions

Originally Posted by ebf

Breyt, I think you misunderstand what I said. Each case IS slightly different - so having a consistent amount of time in the flame is exactly what I do not like about machines... Let's face it, brass cases are extruded from material that is not exactly consistent.

If you have a bunch of cases that have all been neck turned extremely carefully, a machine may well get reasonably close. Take those same cases on a different day and run the machine with the same settings and you could be cooking your brass... So to be safe, each time you use the machine you need to tune the timing cycle using tempilaq or something similar.

How does the machine vari day by day? that sounds like a human trait.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

How does the machine vari day by day? that sounds like a human trait.

For exactly the same reasons why the same batch of ammo performs differently on different days.

Atmospherics will affect the flame temp. Change out the bottle of gas, and the flame temp may change. Open the tap on the gas bottle just a bit differently, and the flame temp could change. Have a breeze running through your workshop, the flame temp may change. Big enough to make a difference ? You tell me.

The thing is that you use the same "skill" to set up the machine as you use to look for temp changes on the case when doing it by hand. Machines are often marketed as requiring less skill, and IMHO that is incorrect.