Motorized case trimmer

[Buckshot]

................I'm calling foul on myself from the outset. Had I to do it over again I would NOT have used this design. Probably like some, when the idea floated though my noggin', I took an inventory of the materials I had on hand, and started from there without thinking it all the way through. I STILL had to buy some materials later. Had I waited and thought it out, (or actually DRAWN a plan) a different & simpler design would have resulted even though I would have had to buy the material.

http://www.fototime.com/EA4C9A7F145D5AF/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/793AA6E6F290181/standard.jpg

LEFT: I looked on E-Bay and there were a BUNCH of DC motors, but I defaulted to the easiest route. That was to go to Harbor Freight and buy an 18v cordless drill motor. On sale for some ridiculous price, with a battery and charger. Little did I know that I'd have to retain the clutch in order to have it drive. Ah well, no big deal.

RIGHT: the complete unit. I opted to use the trigger assembly from the drill motor. It contained the variable speed rheostat, plus forward & reverse. A simple on/off switch would have probably sufficed.

http://www.fototime.com/3E84A85BD0A3E2C/standard.jpg

I'd originally thought that I'd have some fancy way of mounting the battery. But as I'd taken the drill housing apart it became apparent that nothing was going to be useable. I took the one piece that the battery mated with (happily a seperate piece) and defaulted to a longer power wire so the battery could sit out of the way.

Not very sanitary or proffessional looking, but danged of it doesn't work!

...............Buckshot

[quack1]

Yours looks like it was professionally done, compared to mine. Mine came about from the gift of several thousand once fired 9x19mm brass that I planned on making into 9x18 for my Makarov. I really wasn't looking forward to hand trimming all that brass. I also made mine from materials I had on hand, with as little machining as possible. I got the motor out of a piece of equipment that was getting scrapped at work. I used the reduction gears out of a junk cordless drill. Turns out, I probably could have done without the reduction gears. Pretty crude, but like yours, "danged if it doesn't work".
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll300/1quack1/IMG_0040-1.jpg

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I bought one of the RCBS Power Trimmers when they first came out. I am currently ratholing about $500 for one of the Giraud Power units with conversion parts to do .223 and .308.

I must be getting lazy in my old age, trimming a 1000 .223 military cases with the old Lee manual unit used to be entertaining. Now, never mind...

Rich

[cheese1566]

I like your concept of the moving motor on the rod/bushing sytem!

I did this a few years back. Crude, but did the job.
45930
Old 6volt drill that the battery died long ago. Powered by a converted computer power supply. Two speeds if choose either the 3.3 or 5 volts on the supply. The drilland base float on table and slides back and forth to move the trimmer shaft.
I used it for a while then opted to a Lee trimmer in the drill for big jobs pf 223. Then I got my RCBS TrimPro.

[paul h]

No pictures but I've found chucking a lee cutter and pilot in the headstock of my lathe and holding the case holder in my hand is fairly quick at trimming cases.

That said, I'll be rigging up something usin an RCBS 3 in one cutter, as I want to cut and deburr in one step.

[Buckshot]

............We're an inventive 'Makee-Do" bunch, aren't we? [smilie=1: I trimmed 200 F/L sized range pickup 308's this afternoon and it's SO much nicer then using the drill with the hex wrench adapter in the end of the trimmer's spindle. Now I need to make up a foot powered deal to pull the collet handle down to release the case. That way I can keep my right hand on the throttle and use my left to remove and replace the case. Heck, maybe I can figure out a way to attach the Lay Z Boy recliner to it:drinks:

...............Buckshot

[Southern Son]

Buckshot,
Like everything I see you do on here, that looks great. When I got sick of turning the handle on my Lyman Trimmer, I took the rod that the cutter and handle were on to a bloke with a lathe and had him then cut the handle off and then cut that end of the rod down to about 7mm round (about 1 inch long, too). I then got my old 12 volt drill and ruined it. It had a battery that was not removable from the handle, so I cut off the handle, took out the trigger and glued that on top of the drill body. The wires that went to the battery I made longer and hooked them up to the deep cycle battery out of my boat. It ended up looking something like what chees1566 made, only mine looked alot more Frankenstein.

[frankenfab]

I have an old sewing machine motor and foot control. I was thinking of using it to make a welding positioner for small parts. Now, I am wondering if it wouldn't be better to use it on my RCBC case trimmer..........

[Reverend Recoil]

These are all good home applications of mechanization. I have the Giraud trimmer. It can't be beat if you have several 5 gal buckets of 223 brass to be trimmed. I use the Forster for everthing else.

[HotGuns]

I went a different route that yall did.
I took a discarded key cutter and put a cutoff wheel on it. I then made a chuck to hold .223 brass and a guard to keep me from cutting my finger off.

Yoo move the case into the stationary wheel that is spinning and it takes maybe two seconds to cut the case. Its repeatable to less than .001 and really takes the work out of trimming cases. This is to turn .223 brass into .300 Whisper/Blackout brasss and it works well.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/Homemade%20tools/223casetrimmer1.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/Homemade%20tools/apthoneymoon002-1.jpg

[andremajic]

Looks nice buckshot.

I've found that trimming with the lee trimmers, chucked in my small harbor freight drill press, with the cases held by hand works pretty well. Especially for the 30-06 cases, which need trimming all the time. Eventually I'll get something better, but I'm happy with what I've got for now.

[jmorris]

I used an old power window motor and a 12v power supply.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/reloading/DSC02033.jpg

[jmorris]

It can't be beat if you have several 5 gal buckets of 223 brass to be trimmed.

They are nice, especially if you want a generious chamfer inside and out of the mouth but with the Dillon setup you can size/deprime and trim 1800 an hour and your hands don't cramp up.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o213/jmorrismetal/trimmer.jpg

[W.R.Buchanan]

Buckshot: nice job and I especially like the detail of radiusing the edges of the carriage, and the strait line push on the carriage also.

Randy