Got my giraud annealer 2 weeks ago, and so far, have run ~ 2000 .223 cases through it.
things of note:
*to get a proper flame, the bottle is *BARELY* open. I mean barely. like, 1/10 of a degree in the other direction, and the flame goes out. oughta be an upside (a small 1lb bottle oughta last a LONG time)
*dwell time is temperamental. I've found it takes a couple of "sacrificial" cases to get the timing just right. there's no good way to make sure the flame is completely identical every time...so be prepared to spend some time dialing it in.
*construction quality is impeccable, as expected (doug takes his time to make sure everything he does is of the utmost quality)
*speed varies. first batch I ran averaged 11seconds a case (total)...cases were perfect. second batch, in order to get the tempilaq to melt where its supposed to (and not supposed to), I ended up with a slightly reddish color to the case necks. I asked doug about this, and he said its no big deal. as long as it's hitting the proper temperatures, it will work as advertised.
overall, I'm happy. There's really no *need* to anneal my 223 brass, but what the hell...it gave me some practice dialing in the machine, and since its basically set-and-forget (never forget anything with an open flame, but still)...it's worth doing. i figure, I have it...might as well use it.
cons:
the ONLY "con" is that it grabs cases from the left side of the hopper, so if its fully loaded/topped off, you do occasionally need to "even out" the hopper (the left side empties faster). If you leave it alone too long, the cases eventually settled themselves out (but at that point, cases begin to fall out of the hopper). I debated putting it at a bit more an angle (angled back) to "fix" this issue, but seeing that it takes very little time to "even out" the pile, it isn't worth messing with doug's design.
finished product:
action video:
(link, if i embedded it wrong): http://youtu.be/54QUgIw3j9s
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/54QUgIw3j9s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
things of note:
*to get a proper flame, the bottle is *BARELY* open. I mean barely. like, 1/10 of a degree in the other direction, and the flame goes out. oughta be an upside (a small 1lb bottle oughta last a LONG time)
*dwell time is temperamental. I've found it takes a couple of "sacrificial" cases to get the timing just right. there's no good way to make sure the flame is completely identical every time...so be prepared to spend some time dialing it in.
*construction quality is impeccable, as expected (doug takes his time to make sure everything he does is of the utmost quality)
*speed varies. first batch I ran averaged 11seconds a case (total)...cases were perfect. second batch, in order to get the tempilaq to melt where its supposed to (and not supposed to), I ended up with a slightly reddish color to the case necks. I asked doug about this, and he said its no big deal. as long as it's hitting the proper temperatures, it will work as advertised.
overall, I'm happy. There's really no *need* to anneal my 223 brass, but what the hell...it gave me some practice dialing in the machine, and since its basically set-and-forget (never forget anything with an open flame, but still)...it's worth doing. i figure, I have it...might as well use it.
cons:
the ONLY "con" is that it grabs cases from the left side of the hopper, so if its fully loaded/topped off, you do occasionally need to "even out" the hopper (the left side empties faster). If you leave it alone too long, the cases eventually settled themselves out (but at that point, cases begin to fall out of the hopper). I debated putting it at a bit more an angle (angled back) to "fix" this issue, but seeing that it takes very little time to "even out" the pile, it isn't worth messing with doug's design.
finished product:
action video:
(link, if i embedded it wrong): http://youtu.be/54QUgIw3j9s
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/54QUgIw3j9s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
