Case trimming attachment

[toecutter]

So one problem I've been encountering recently is the need to trim huge amounts of brass in a fairly short amount of time. The principle caliber I am doing this in is .223. I have been looking around at the different case trimming accessories and I'm somewhat afraid of the cost that must be put into them. The other concern is that they seem like they would be difficult to adjust.

I took a look at the gracey trimmer, which they graciously provide full documentation for online. I like the idea, but don't like thier implementation.

So, I'm thinking about making my own. The system I worked out so far uses two carbide inserts (of relatively small size). Mounted on a cutting head, which has a half inch feed (I plan on using this system with my drill press). One of the inserts will cut the inside, the other will cut the outside. When complete, this arrangement will act like a pair of scissor blades, except the cutting surfaces will be on the same side. (take a pair of inserts, lay them on top of each other, then shift the holes apart) The idea here is that it acts as both ends of a chamfering tool, putting a chamfered edge on both the inside and out of the shell.

The bottom part that holds the casing, will be mounted to my drill press, and will use compressed air to drive a piston up to hold the shell in place. It will use standard shell holders.

The length will be controlled by the stop on the drill press.

I think I have most of it figured out except for how to hold the inserts. I could make some kind of arrangement that would simple clamp them in place using set screws, but IMHO then it would suffer from the same thing I don't like about other commercial trimmers I've seen. (lack of adjustability)

The other system I considered was a set screw that was held in the middle, that had a right hand on one side, and a lefthand thread on the other. So this would force both sides to move during adjustment.

The other possibility is to mount two set screws each controlling the other cutter.

Or I could make something that makes it so you get one cutter per caliber...

[Swagerman]

Have you checked my forsale item under classified (Reloading Accessorie FS) on the Forster case trimmer, it has all the accessories to do .223 caliber, and is in excellent condition.

In fact, the outside neck trimmer looks to be in new conditon.

These trimmer shafts can be mounted with a small electric hand drill.

Jim [smilie=1:

[kywoodwrkr]

I have a couple of those set up for vrious cases.
The handle is easily removed and a couple of hex nuts attached in its place.
Then a cordless drill with a nut drive will drive that trimmer real nice!
Forster makes a professional adapter as well.
Was about $10 from Midway last time I looked.
FWIW
DaveP kywoodwrkr

[grumpy one]

While the Forster does excellent work (by my standards anyway) it is a bit slow because of having to clamp each case in the collet. The RCBS trimmer has a quick-acting lever instead of a hand-screw for this, which is probably quicker, but in other respects the Forster seems better. If you were determined to invent something, it might be better to invent an air-operated drawbolt for the Forster collet, with a control pedal, and a neat little slide for a motor drive at the cutter end. You could end up with Forster accuracy with higher productivity. You'd also have spare parts available.


Geoff

[Johnch]

I am luckey enough to bumb a Dillon trimmer off a freind , when ever I need it .
He has all the caliber dies I need .

It will spoil you :drinks:
But slightly pricey

Johnch

[NuJudge]

Some years ago I scrounged about 4000 once-fired .308 Federal match cases. Trimming with a drill-powered Forster after sizing took me a week worth of full evenings.

About a year later I got 4000 once-fired Winchester .223 cases. I also got a Giraud trimmer. After sizing, I did almost all 4000 in one evening.

CDD

[toecutter]

Pretty much what I am looking for is something with the speed/convienience of the dillon, but with the ability to leave a chamfered edge, instead of one I have to go back and deburr later.

I'm of the opinion that the dillon 1200B would fit my needs, but I don't want to spend hours deburring, as this would essentially offset the time I saved using the dillon. Perhaps you could tell me more about the dillon my understanding is that it still requires deburring after sizing/trimming.

Right now, I'm using a Lee cutter/lockstud that I have modified somewhat, It's chucked up in my drill press. However this goes back to the need to chamfer after cutting. I've been thinking about finding some way of making some kind of quick change tool head that would allow me to chamfer, debur, and trim in three operations. But still this all goes back to the time issue.

I figure if I could put this cutter together, it would cut my time in half and if combined with an airchuck assembly, would probably cut my time to 1/3.

Admittedly, I'm not looking for a huuuge amount of accuracy here, I'm doing bulk reloading of .223 for friends. I just want to make sure I'm producing something that's safe to shoot since I am often loading brass I have no knowledge of it's condition.

[HotGuns]

It seems to me that you could make a die that insted of cutting would deburr the cases.

Yeah, it'd be an extra step but it would still be a lot quicker than doing it by hand.

I havent got a Dillon trimmer, but it seems to me that if I were doing a few thousand cases, that making the deburring die might be well worth the effort.

[toecutter]

Hotguns,

That's essentially what I'm going for, something that will trim and debur in one step. So far I havn't moved any closer to my quest for the perfect case trimmer, what with the holidays and everything. I think tomorrow I'm going to spend some quality time with the bench grinder and a parting tool and see if I can make myself a cutter. Then it's just a matter of making a mandrel to spin it (which is easy). I was really hoping to find a quick off the shelf solution, but apparently there is yet to be one.

So here's what my findings boil down to:

1) The dillon is quick, easy, and is streamlined into the reloading process, but requires a side process of deburring the case.
2) The Gracey trimmer handles most of what I need, but looks like a real pain to configure
3) The giraud trimmer also does most of what I need, but doesn't look like it does a great job of putting a chamfer on it. I blame this on the fact that they just have a V shaped cutting tool which just cuts a V in the neck of the case. IMHO this is cheating, and you will never get as clean an edge as you would with two cutting planes. (the gracey comes closer to this, but lacks a good method of blade alignment)

So what I want is something that integrates cleanly into the reloading process on my progressive, and something that produces a finish product without any futher processing. ...

What to do... what to do...

[toecutter]

So, I finally found exactly what I was looking for, after stumbling on it by accident.

The lyman inside/outside deburr tool. I ordered one (as they are like $10) but since I can't wait, I made my own looking after looking at some pictures. The design isn't perfect, but it's much simpler than I was thinking.