Annealing Service - viability?

[Frozenlead]

Maybe I’m wrong, but $0.20/piece plus actual shipping? With a $20 minimum charge. Maybe I’m nuts

Keep in mind Canadian$$ here. But the place I’ve seen offering services is $0.32/piece plus $20return shipping. No min/max.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

It’s not a massive operation or anything. Any customer will be a normal shooter, dealing with a small time guy, understanding of the costs of shipping IMO.

“Send me your brass and the money to anneal it (.030 a pop), plus the money to ship it back ($10 or whatever). It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that for him at this point.

Yes, and charging $0.50 per piece to cover the return shipping and the service would work out pretty well too. For brass costing $1.50 each new, or more (especially with shipping and tax), I think that would be an easy way to do it and would get customers.

Hiding costs like return shipping in the base value ultimately gets more sales (that’s what free shipping does).


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Keep in mind Canadian$$ here. But the place I’ve seen offering services is $0.32/piece plus $20return shipping. No min/max.

Any issues with mailing to Canada and back?


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[Frozenlead]

Any issues with mailing to Canada and back?


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

I’ve never heard of anyone trying, I would have to assume that with border fees it wouldn’t be a very viable option. Here’s the store that offers it, they might have more info.

Brass Annealing Service

Extend the life of your brass, and see superior results downrange with properly annealed brass from Nechako Outdoors

nechakooutdoors.ca

 

[wapitibob]

Honest question: How much variability do you think there is on a quality flame annealer? If the torch is operated from a 20lb tank vs a 1lb bottle, you’ll get basically zero flame variation in each batch of brass. Each piece is in the flame the exact same amount of time. The only variation you’d have would be the initial setting of the machine (which I could set using tempilaq), and brass variance (which will happen no matter what machine you use).

You would need to measure the brass hardness to see the variability. In my opinion, you don't know what you have until you test it. Tempilaq doesn't insure the brass is annealed or over annealed, all you know is that it reached a minimum temp. It could have reached that temp from the brass substrate or it could have reached that temp because of 2500 degree torch flame blow-by striking the paint.
All that said, there are thousands of reloaders using a torch with no idea if they actually have annealed brass but they're happy as clams so ....

If you can show your results I think it has merit and a leg up on any competition but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. Setup, run, box, and ship for 20 to 50 cents each isn't much money for the hassle.

 

[huntnful]

You would need to measure the brass hardness to see the variability. In my opinion, you don't know what you have until you test it. Tempilaq doesn't insure the brass is annealed or over annealed, all you know is that it reached a minimum temp. It could have reached that temp from the brass substrate or it could have reached that temp because of 2500 degree torch flame blow-by striking the paint.
All that said, there are thousands of reloaders using a torch with no idea if they actually have annealed brass but they're happy as clams so ....

If you can show your results I think it has merit but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. Setup, run, box, and ship for 20 to 50 cents each isn't much money for the hassle.

This is going to sound condescending I think. But people sending their brass off to a third party to be annealed aren’t going to know any different and are just going to want to see annealing lines up by the shoulder when they get the brass back. They won’t know what’s right or wrong, or if it helped or hurt IMO. It’s just a thing they think they should do or think needs to be done.

 

[hereinaz]

Maybe I’m wrong, but $0.20/piece plus actual shipping? With a $20 minimum charge. Maybe I’m nuts

The administrative time is going to be 3-4x the time actually annealing 100 pieces. You have to build in that profit or you will make $2.50 an hour once you calculate all your time.

 

[huntnful]

The administrative time is going to be 3-4x the time actually annealing 100 pieces. You have to build in that profit or you will make $2.50 an hour once you calculate all your time.

That’s literally me right now hahaha, and I’m just helping close buddies. I charge, but don’t make Jack shit. I only do it because they’re good friends. I made more in 1 hour of overtime work than 6 hours of being over the reloading bench lol

 

[hereinaz]

That’s literally me right now hahaha, and I’m just helping close buddies. I charge, but don’t make Jack shit. I only do it because they’re good friends. I made more in 1 hour of overtime work than 6 hours of being over the reloading bench lol

I have cut off the number of “buddies” and they have to be doing me favors. I lost so many hours and evenings offering to “just load up some ammo” and I end up on the bench not them.

It takes way longer than we tell ourselves, lol.

 

[huntnful]

I have cut off the number of “buddies” and they have to be doing me favors. I lost so many hours and evenings offering to “just load up some ammo” and I end up on the bench not them.

It takes way longer than we tell ourselves, lol.

I’ve been timing it lately just to see, and that was a bad idea hahaha

 

[Schmo]

The administrative time is going to be 3-4x the time actually annealing 100 pieces. You have to build in that profit or you will make $2.50 an hour once you calculate all your time.

I’m thinking maybe .30/ea with a $30 minimum, plus shipping. Volume discounts would be available. I can sit down and do 100 pieces in 30 minutes. This is not meant to be big income for me. It’s side income, from a machine I already own and use. I also already have a thermal label printer, and self-adhesive thermal labels for other uses. Brass would be returned to the customer in the packaging they sent it in, to reduce any of that cost.

 

[hereinaz]

I’m thinking maybe .30/ea with a $30 minimum, plus shipping. Volume discounts would be available. I can sit down and do 100 pieces in 30 minutes. This is not meant to be big income for me. It’s side income, from a machine I already own and use. I also already have a thermal label printer, and self-adhesive thermal labels for other uses. Brass would be returned to the customer in the packaging they sent it in, to reduce any of that cost.

I get it. Extra money is nice. It is the unexpected time sucks that gets you. Having to run to ship something, time to box and print, calls and email inquiries whether they hire or not, marketing, etc.

There are other costs that come into play. Sites like Rokslide require you to pay to advertise a service.

I’m not saying you couldn’t create a little side hustle, but the return on value for your time likely won’t be very high. And, it can be hard to sustain when some part of you knows you are spending more time than it is worth the money.

 

[skipper907]

Are you saying because of time or consistency?

both. with the amp its kind of a guarantee that the brass is properly annealed if you do an aztec for the lot of brass. with flame there is just to much variancy open to interpretation on how long the brass is annealed in the flame.

 

[wapitibob]

That’s literally me right now hahaha, and I’m just helping close buddies. I charge, but don’t make Jack shit. I only do it because they’re good friends. I made more in 1 hour of overtime work than 6 hours of being over the reloading bench lol

My friend has an AMP; "come over any time". I made the trip twice then bought an AMP for myself. Sometimes it's better for the long term to just not take advantage of those offers.

 

[Schmo]

I get it. Extra money is nice. It is the unexpected time sucks that gets you. Having to run to ship something, time to box and print, calls and email inquiries whether they hire or not, marketing, etc.

There are other costs that come into play. Sites like Rokslide require you to pay to advertise a service.

I’m not saying you couldn’t create a little side hustle, but the return on value for your time likely won’t be very high. And, it can be hard to sustain when some part of you knows you are spending more time than it is worth the money.

I certainly wouldn’t be doing anything large scale. Not even a website. Just posting on some of the forums. Here, SH, maybe LRH and such.

 

[Schmo]

I have basically every thing I need. Because of that, if it’s too much hassle or not enough money, I can stop at any time

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I certainly wouldn’t be doing anything large scale. Not even a website. Just posting on some of the forums. Here, SH, maybe LRH and such.

He's pointing out to advertise on here for business purposes you need permission (and probably the other forums you referenced). You'd need to talk to the site owners about it and financial arrangements. Its something you'd need to factor into your pricing structure to cover so he was wisely giving you a heads up on that for pricing purposes and to not run afoul of the rules and get booted.