Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Annealing Machines

What's the best buy out there right now? The AMP Mark II looks great but pricey. Anyone tried a Annealeez at a fraction of the cost?

I bought an AnnealEeze four or five years ago and have used it quite a bit. Without modification, I found it to be unsatifactory.

The lower wheel will not stay in sync with the upper wheel without being keyed to its gear. I took care of that by heating a clipped finishing nail and inserting it into the gear to serve as a pin, then drilling holes in the lower wheels so that pin locks the lower wheel into sync. That took care of the sync deficiency.

The rubber surface of the lower wheel was not tacky enough to positively rotate the case so I had uneven heating of case necks. I tool care of that by removing the rubber friction coating from the lower wheel and cementing a strip of 220 grit sandpaper to it. That made the wheel rotate the cases reliably.


The only thing I would add now is a regulator to keep the flame more consistent.

If I had it to do over again, I'm not sure what I'd buy but I get satisfactory performance out of my machine now.

the salt bath system looks interesting.

Ed

I have one from Mike’s Reloading bench. Works good. I have no complaints.

John

http://www.mikesreloadingbench.com/mrb2018_006.htm

Thanks for the heads up... I hadn't come across that one yet. What are you using for the torch and hose?

For a low volume, non-competitive shooter like myself, the salt bath method looks like a good balance between cost and function.

I’ve got the same one, like it.

Looks like a solid design to me, but it costs considerably more than the Annealeeze---which looks like its design is changed a bit. Don't believe the weaknesses have been addressed, though.

I use the salt bath. Constant consistent temps. No flame.

I use the Giraud annealing machine. Works fantastic.

I was having an issue annealing .45-70s on my annealeez, cases bumping up and down and sometimes not rotating. Took a dremel and smoothed the very rough surface of the lower wheel and all is good. Rotates continuously and the case mouth doesn't jump up and down.

I was about to drop the hammer on a Bench Source.

In spite of smoothing the wheel and adding a sandpaper surface, it still would not function 100% in rotating the .45-70 cases. It made a huge improvement, but there was not a continuous smooth rotation, but instead an occasional short stoppage. Now, this was just .45-70s, not any of the other cartridges.

The hammer got dropped....I hadn't bought myself anything in the last couple weeks, anyway....

I have an annealez. I don't have any complaints. It is a tremendous time saver when annealing hundreds of 223 cases.

I still anneal small batches (20 or so) of rifle magnum cases with a deep socket chucked in a drill and a propane torch.

Yea, I've done thousands of .223, .308, 30-06, .30-30, stuff like that on the Annealeez without issue. The torch did crap on me today, I think it was every bit of 13.00 dollars to replace


It just balks at doing .45-70. I found out reading reviews that it seems to be an issue with that basic type of annealer, such as the Giraud, etc., so I figured I'd try a Bench Source.