JeepHammer
Moderator
As for Dawgs question, Girard machines limit case movement, and by extension, case travel.
The back of the machine sets depth, it's an inclined surface so cases ride the slope down & out to the annealing point.
Two side guides, one adjustable for different width cases easily limit side to side movement while the annealing process is happening.
The floor/stop moves rotating the case during the annealing process, then drops the annealed case, resets for the next case to drop into place.
When a Ferrite is used to focus the magnetic field, the Ferrite has a gap in it, the case neck drops into the gap.
By shaping the gap in the ferrite, a much better, more even anneal will take place (if you shape the gap properly, 'Proper' will be different for each caliber case, and even neck thickness, experimentation required for YOUR best case annealing, adjusting for vairables)
The Ferrite is a ring with a gap cut out to create magnetic poles.
The shape & width of the gap is pretty easily adjusted for YOUR particular favorite case, simple grinding to shape.
Since the Ferrite is a ring, open in the center, setting the Ferrite 'Deep' to allow those super thin champfered & tapered case mouth lips to enter the center opening keeps the delicate mouth from overheating.
The case body gets annealed a little further down, but this isn't a bad thing.
If the Ferrite you are using has super thick sides, and you feel the case is being annealed too far down the sides, simply remove some of the Ferrite that's creating an issue for you and it can't annealing too far down anymore.
Just that easy...
A big plus is Ferrites are cheap and come in a large selection of sizes, so if you screw up, a new one is under $5 to about $20 depending on the size/type you want.
They are all over places like eBay and other sites, really common in electronics, so they are mass produced by the millions...
On the down side, they are very hard, usually ceramic, so it takes very hard saw or grinder tools to shape them.
Most times I use a cheap diamond abrasive saw blade (eBay, Horror Freight, any big box or lumber store that sells ceramic tile cutting tools/blades)
It's not like there aren't tools for cutting/grinding ceramics & glass.
Just be aware of the material and you will find a tool to do the job, usually cheaply & easily.
Now, if you were to use a case feeder rather than a gravity bin like Girard does,
What I used for drop through COIL (opposed to ferrite) feeding using a Dillon or like case feeder, you will need to develop a case shuttle to move cases from drop tube stack and drop them into the coil.
You can't use a coil with cases in a stack or while you are annealing the neck of one, you will anneal the head of the one on top of it, and annealing heads can be bad in a lot of cases.
Shuttle is pretty simple, every progressive loader has one, simply a block that pushes the bottom case out of a stack (in the tube) over to a hole that drops the case into the coil.
The same drive can also drop the annealed case out the bottom when it's done, and activate the switch that starts the annealing machine timer.
This is as simple as small DC motor, and the block, and a couple light duty linkage parts.
I'd use a $5 speed controller on the motor, all over eBay for cheap...
The back of the machine sets depth, it's an inclined surface so cases ride the slope down & out to the annealing point.
Two side guides, one adjustable for different width cases easily limit side to side movement while the annealing process is happening.
The floor/stop moves rotating the case during the annealing process, then drops the annealed case, resets for the next case to drop into place.
When a Ferrite is used to focus the magnetic field, the Ferrite has a gap in it, the case neck drops into the gap.
By shaping the gap in the ferrite, a much better, more even anneal will take place (if you shape the gap properly, 'Proper' will be different for each caliber case, and even neck thickness, experimentation required for YOUR best case annealing, adjusting for vairables)
The Ferrite is a ring with a gap cut out to create magnetic poles.
The shape & width of the gap is pretty easily adjusted for YOUR particular favorite case, simple grinding to shape.
Since the Ferrite is a ring, open in the center, setting the Ferrite 'Deep' to allow those super thin champfered & tapered case mouth lips to enter the center opening keeps the delicate mouth from overheating.
The case body gets annealed a little further down, but this isn't a bad thing.
If the Ferrite you are using has super thick sides, and you feel the case is being annealed too far down the sides, simply remove some of the Ferrite that's creating an issue for you and it can't annealing too far down anymore.
Just that easy...
A big plus is Ferrites are cheap and come in a large selection of sizes, so if you screw up, a new one is under $5 to about $20 depending on the size/type you want.
They are all over places like eBay and other sites, really common in electronics, so they are mass produced by the millions...
On the down side, they are very hard, usually ceramic, so it takes very hard saw or grinder tools to shape them.
Most times I use a cheap diamond abrasive saw blade (eBay, Horror Freight, any big box or lumber store that sells ceramic tile cutting tools/blades)
It's not like there aren't tools for cutting/grinding ceramics & glass.
Just be aware of the material and you will find a tool to do the job, usually cheaply & easily.
Now, if you were to use a case feeder rather than a gravity bin like Girard does,
What I used for drop through COIL (opposed to ferrite) feeding using a Dillon or like case feeder, you will need to develop a case shuttle to move cases from drop tube stack and drop them into the coil.
You can't use a coil with cases in a stack or while you are annealing the neck of one, you will anneal the head of the one on top of it, and annealing heads can be bad in a lot of cases.
Shuttle is pretty simple, every progressive loader has one, simply a block that pushes the bottom case out of a stack (in the tube) over to a hole that drops the case into the coil.
The same drive can also drop the annealed case out the bottom when it's done, and activate the switch that starts the annealing machine timer.
This is as simple as small DC motor, and the block, and a couple light duty linkage parts.
I'd use a $5 speed controller on the motor, all over eBay for cheap...