Trimming Brass for swaging

[jiandawg]

I converted a set of Lee 243 dies to make bullets for my 460 Rowland today. When I made my first bullets, the 40 cal cases turned out to be too long for my 250gr pills. Got to thinking and looking through a sack of misc reloading equipment I got in an auction a while back.

I took a Lee 40sw case length gauge and trimmed it down so that the new case length was correct for my needs. After trimming about 100 cases with the lee cutter and lock stud, my fingers were raw from fighting with the knurling on both the lock stud and cutter. To make life easier for myself, I welded a rod to the cutter to make a T handle and welded a bit of metal (the tip of the 308 expander rod that I cut down to use as a HP punch) to the lock ring so that I could just use that to turn the lock ring. These two little things are making trimming cases for swaging so much easier and much more pain free.



I know this isn't groundbreaking and that this has probably been done before, sorry, I just wanted to save some fingers.

Also, apologies for the ugly welds, I can stick metal together but I'll never be a welder.

[rmatchell]

If it works who cares what the welds look like. Sometimes you have to get creative.

[Sasquatch-1]

Here is what I use. Make sure you trim before you anneal.

[jiandawg]

I considered a pipe cutter, but I'm only going down to .76. I wasn't sure if there would be enough support that far out. I may still see if I can pick up a cheap pipe cutter to try though.

[Sasquatch-1]

I take about 3/8 of an inch or less with no problem. As I stated don't anneal the brass until after you have trimmed it.

I considered a pipe cutter, but I'm only going down to .76. I wasn't sure if there would be enough support that far out. I may still see if I can pick up a cheap pipe cutter to try though.

[clodhopper]

Sasquatch-1,
That set up looks good, I had never tried a tubing cutter on cases before, because my past experience with them was getting an accurate length, what I conceived to be a nice neat plumbing job was difficult to achieve.
With that shell holder, a piece of slick plastic could go between the shell holder and the tubing cutter as a spacer to make uniform cuts.
Then, finding material the right thickness for that spacer, I would check the thickness of plastic cutting boards down at wal mart, the official resupply point of bullet swagers every where!
Assuming something close is available, use a hole saw to cut a nice disc then enlarge the pilot hole to slip over the case.

[Sasquatch-1]

I went to this method, after using the Harbor Freight saw, because I could not get a straight angle on the cut, no matter what I tried, with the saw. I have used washers of various lengths to cut the case longer. But you are limited to the tubing cutter as far as shortness of the case goes.

Sasquatch-1,
That set up looks good, I had never tried a tubing cutter on cases before, because my past experience with them was getting an accurate length, what I conceived to be a nice neat plumbing job was difficult to achieve.
With that shell holder, a piece of slick plastic could go between the shell holder and the tubing cutter as a spacer to make uniform cuts.
Then, finding material the right thickness for that spacer, I would check the thickness of plastic cutting boards down at wal mart, the official resupply point of bullet swagers every where!
Assuming something close is available, use a hole saw to cut a nice disc then enlarge the pilot hole to slip over the case.

[DukeInFlorida]

I get very straight cuts with my HF saw.
1) We cut for making 300 Blackout conversions. The brass gets trimmed again anyways after reforming the necks. So, squareness is not an issue.
2) We also cut 223 rem brass to make jackets for 9mm bullets. Those are coming out very nice. The burr stays on the throw away parts, so no need to trim the burr. The bullets come out looking exactly like Hornady XTPs.
3) I've also cut any number of reduced length cases for swaging into jackets. They always come out very nice.

The HF saw, with a proper fixture, and a proper saw blade (the original saw blades are ****), cuts very nicely for all my needs.

[rayraywolf]

DukeInFlorida, can you describe your fixture for cutting 223 for 9mm, or maybe a pic? Also, what saw blade are you using? Thanks

[DukeInFlorida]

Here are a couple of videos I made on the subject of the fixtures:



Here's the thread where I discussed where my pop through fixtures came from:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...8-Trimming-Jig

I'm using a high quality jewelers saw blade that I got through ChuckBuster. We got 20,000 precision cuts from it before it got too dull to be useful. Just changed to the backup blade. I'll get ChuckBuster to chime in. He is interested (or at least was) in sponsoring a group buy for these blades.