Has anyone ever used this machine?

As I spool up for commercial loading, I'm looking into getting one. Any opinions, tips, recomendations from an established user would be most welcome.

Please don't use this thread to debate the virtues/evils or when to/when not to anneal. I'm simply hopeful to learn more about the Ken Light machine.

Many Thanks,

LD

JCN, did you read this article already?? If you scroll down a bit, there is a section about the machine you are interested in.

http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

Sorry, can't help you on the machine, other than I think it looks like the bee's knees...

- mike

There are a couple of them in use by fellows that frequent the Benchrest.com site. If they deem you worthy of their attention, they might share their opinions with you..... HTH, Dutch.

Oh, those sweetie pies over on Benchrest.com?

Every time they stick their noses in the air I notice that they have nasal polyps. And the boys on 24 hour campfire think we are snobs....

Thanks for the leads Dutch and mho. If I get one I'll let y'all know how it works.

Thanks again,

LD

I built mine from a ceiling fan motor and a dimmer switch. The Bushings I had made at the machine shop out of aluminum for each specific case head dia.

Marc Jamison, at Jamison Internationale Brasse Werkes, has a machine with a flat steel plate wheel that is at least 4 feet in diameter, with a bank of propane torches on one side of the wheel's perimeter. The brass soldiers enter via a chute and stand at attention, as the wheel turns slowly, carrying them through the flames. By the time they make a circuit of the wheel the brass has cooled enough to enter another chute at the end of the circumference, and they fall into the collection box like little Airborne Rangers ready for battle.

If the Lawndart Ammo Werkes gets into full swing it might require a truly industrial size annealing machine like Jamison's. A field trip to Sturgis to see the machine and talk to The Master might be in order.

From all I've heard, the Ken Light machines are high quality, but I've also heard, very, very consistently, that Ken is hard to deal with. Plan on paying up front, don't plan on having it before early summer, and plan on the price changing before it ships. Plan this purchase with a lot of patience.

Thanks for the heads up on dealing with Ken!
He sounds like my ex-wife.

Bro' RIP,

Maybe we can do a family tour. That heat table sounds like just the ticket for children that mis-behave in the waiting room!

Those pictures of the home made unit are intriguing. Very nice work. Perhaps I can make something with that new lathe and mill in the back room .

LD

lawndart, I just got one about 3 weeks ago and it took a little over a month. You are required to pay up frount but so what, a lot of guys selling stuff do it the same way. The machine is awsome in itself, but I am still trying to come up with a more foolproof way of knowing the exact temp. A lot of my brass is stuff I make up and it takes probebly a bit over an hour each in all, and I can't screw it up without risking killing myself. I am trying to find a good way of using a liquid that is painted on, dries and melts at a very exact temp. As I say, the machine does all it is supposed to do and does it very very well.

Bob,

The heat sensitive paint and crayons are made by a company called Tempil:

Tempil Division Big Three Industries, Inc. Hamilton Boulevard, South Plainfield, NJ 97478 TEL: (201) 757-8300

Personally I'd figure out a way to use one of those $75 optical pyrometers

Mark, any kind of optical indicator is going to do the same thing the Templiq does, thats give you the temp. of the flame and not the brass. I may be wrong but I do not see how it would not.

The Tempilaq is painted on the brass just below where the flame hits the case. When it melts it implies that the brass has reached that temperature. The one supplied by the Hornady kit is 475F or 246C. This is roughly 50-75F below that which is considered necessary to anneal brass. This works because the brass which is directly exposed to the flame will be 50-100F hotter than the Tempilaq treated section.
I have used this system for a couple of years now and it works nicely once you get the hang of it. I have since had a die maker friend cut some new cartridge holders for the nitro express and Rigby rounds.
I would think, if Lawndart will be doing volume work, it would be workable to use Tempilaq to set the turntable speed each time a different size case is to be annealed.
Do a search on this site, IIRC there was a very long thread about a year ago on this very subject.

Geronimo

Bob,

Are you using this on each case, or do you just plan on using it to set up the timing? I would suspect you could use a shield or baffle of some steel plate to isolate it enough to get a good reading, or you could momentarily shut the flame off and read the case, or even grab the sample case with a pair of pliers or hemostats and pull it up and take a quick reading.

I will use the Tempilaq as Geronomo says; to adjust the timing for a given run of brass cases.

Also, I will use it on every 20th case or so as a quality assurance check on the run.

By keeping careful records of settings I can (hopefully ) reduce set up time on subsequent runs.

I really appreciate every one's feed back. All you guys on AR have saved me literally years, and many thousands of dollars of trial and error (a.k.a. massive f*&k-ups).

BTW, as the ammo company gets rolling, I will have a universal receiver set up for pressure and velocity testing. I will offer a (relatively) affordable service where you can send me ten loaded rounds of your favorite reload for old Betsy. I'll send you back the SAAMI/CIP pressure and velocity figures. All the money will go toward new pressure barrels.

LD

quote:

A lot of my brass is stuff I make up and it takes probably a bit over an hour each in all, and I can't screw it up without risking killing myself.

I spent the better part of a week making 100 pieces of 219 Zipper brass out of 30-30 brass. As you know, that involved a fair amount of forming and reaming. My youngest sister took her then boyfriend out groundhog shooting. (Back in Illinois) After shooting ground hogs, they went down to the river for some plinking. They did not police up the brass..................

I have been working on 100 pieces of 300 RUM now for a total of about 50 hours, and have another 10 to 15 hours recutting the extractor groove and rebating the rim. As I posted on another thread, all this work, and I have a cartridge that is only slightly less efficent then a 30 BR. This is after spending $300 on a barrel, 200 on a chamber reamer, and another 150 on one of Skip Ottos dies to push the shoulder back 1/2 way down the length of the case. Something I wanted to do though.

Bob,

You are a far better man than I will ever be. Post pictures when you are done.

LD