Chore made easy

[Blammer]

I got about more 308 cases to size and trim than I really need.

After about 10 or so on the old hand held lyman trimmer I said phoey on this and started thinking about a better way.

With the help of 2tite, this is what we came up with.

The Lee hand held case trimmer, chuck the one part in a drill press.

Make a base longer than the standard lee hand held trimmer to get held in the clamp and go to town.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Stuff%202/DSCN8793.jpg

[chambers]

Good idea! How is the repetition from one to the next, same dimensions?

[Blammer]

I'll let you know when the Lee 308 case trimmer shows up. :) that's a 30-06 as a stand in for the picture.

I suspect the trim should be the same as it is dependent on the lenght of the tip that goes down through the case to touch the solid bottom shell holder.

I'll let you know when I get it up and running, hmm, maybe I should try some 30-06 cases now that I think about it!

[Blammer]

Ok, couldn't stand it, I ran to the man cave, hunted up my 30-06 dies, sized 2 milsurp cases, FL resized, then took them to the press above, with in two shakes of a lambs tail they were trimmed!

I measured them, they were exactly the same length!

2.490

SWEET! This rocks! NOW I can load lots of 30-06 ammo too! a new revelation!

dang! I wish I would have thought about this sooner! I'd have ordered a Lee 223 trimmer too along with my 308 one!

[patsher]

Man, what a great idea! Thanks for sharing!

Pat

[RP]

Whats the RPM on the drill press ? I did some primer pocket cutting with a drill and speed was my main drawback.

[zardoz]

Nifty set-up there.

For my birthday this past June, I bought myself a little Craftsman drill press, then a Forster power trimmer base, and then those Forster triple cut trimmers for 223 and 308. Brass trimming was my least favorite thing to do.

Those triple cutters are expensive, but proved to be worth every penny. No more hand trimming, then outside and inside deburring. The triple cut trimmer head does it all in one fast pass.

[Jack Stanley]

RP , when I use the drill press I set the speed as slow as it goes and it's still to fast , so I slow the feed a little and it works OK .

Jack

[Blammer]

slowest speed on my press is 500 rpms, so it trims FAST. :)

[I'll Make Mine]

For those who like modifying stuff, I've seen photos of a jack shaft setup on a drill press to reduce the spindle speed. Where you have a single belt on a five-size cone pulley setup now, the jack shaft would mount to the side (you'd have to run with the cover open, so keep the kids out of the shop and put your beard in a net); you could mount another five-speed pulley if you want, or just use two, with one a sliding fit (key or spline to keep it turning with the shaft) -- and you'll need another belt, maybe two if you wind up needing more length than the original (likely).

A simpler method, if your drill press has a brush type motor (mine has an induction motor, this won't work for those) is to mount a "router speed control" -- $20 at Harbor Freight -- and just slow the motor down. Or, get a drill mount to work with a hand held drill, and put a hose clamp on the drill's variable trigger to set the speed (most of those still have useful torque at under 100 rpm).

[ReloaderFred]

I've been using the old Lyman Drill Press Trimmer for the same thing for about 30 years or so. In fact, I've worn out the chuck jaws for the shell holder twice. It sure speeds up the trimming process.

Nice shade tree job!

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Blammer]

I found a box of some once fired LC 30-06 brass, I remember not doing anything with it because it will take Soooo long to trim all the cases. I had 400 pcs but traded them off here and there and used some.

I had 52 pcs left, so just for grins. I full length resized, deprimed and trimmed and chamfered all of them in 20 min! Whaa hooo! Trimming is what always took so terribly long before.

and they ALL were the same length afterwards! I think I'll be hunting up ALL of my milsurp brass and working on it. :)

[geargnasher]

Be careful with that setup, Blammer, I burned the point off of more than one Lee trimmer doing that. It really sucks when you trim a couple hundred cases progressively shorter and shorter and don't figure it out until it's too late. I finally settled on on using a glass plate and a little mica instead of the shellholder, just hold the case head down tight against the glass with your fingers and trim away.

Gear

[Blammer]

thanks, I'll look out for that.

why the glass plate? wouldn't that break?

[geargnasher]

The glass is smooth and didn't seem to wear the tip of the gauge. I support the plate with a piece of quality cabinet plywood, and I'm not putting that much pressure on it. It does require a little finesse.

Gear

[Blammer]

ah, finesse, me and a drill press just don't go together.

I think I'll also look at putting my drill stop marker in place too.

[I'll Make Mine]

A long term solution to this would be to mount a small ball bearing in a pocket in the bottom of a plate, and press a post into the inner race so the post top is level with the top of the plate -- this will give you the equivalent of a live center for the trimmer pin to run against, and ought to last for tens of thousands of rounds trimmed, if not longer, without any wear (it could also be used with a wide variety of cases).

[Blammer]

good idea, where do you get a small bearing like that?

[rainy191]

neet way to do trimming. as long as i dont goof up, my lyman power trimmer works well.
by goofing up i mean having more than 200 cases to do at one time.
dillions trimmer is my next purchase

[hunter64]

blammer: You don't really need the bottom stuff on the drill press, just do it by hand and forget about the clamp stuff.

What I did was take the old drill chuck out of a dead cordless drill and I mount the lock ring end of the stud into the old chuck. I put the length gauge with the cutter into the drill press the same way you did.

So I just put the appropriate size shell holder and the lock stud into my hand held drill chuck with a piece of brass in it and just hold it up to the drill press with the cutter going.

Same as this guy but with a drill chuck holding the bottom with the brass for an easier hold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ExBZaxtW8

You just touch the brass to the cutter for about .5 second and on to the next one. You can get a lot of brass done in a very short time. Once all the brass is done I just touch each one up with the chamfer tool and you are good to go.

[I'll Make Mine]

good idea, where do you get a small bearing like that?

I see 'em all day as power tool parts, but I don't remember any part numbers. Fortunately, ball bearings are standardized; McMaster Carr, Grainger, Emco, and Fastenal all carry them and the sizes all convert. I'd guess, since the shaft is going through the flash hole, that you wouldn't need a center hole bigger than about 4 mm or 5/32". Anything larger and you'd have trouble with the axle head touching the case beyond the primer pocket (small .170, large .210, both comfortably larger than 4 mm).

Most bearings are metric -- for 4 mm ID, 11 mm OD, 4 mm thick, double sealed (to keep junk out and lubricant in), and speed rating doesn't matter since we're trying to run the drill press as slow as possible: 694 2RS is the bearing number; that should cross reference to any industrial parts supplier around. I'd make a pocket by boring a hole to a tight slip fit (.001 or .002 over the nominal bearing size, 11 mm converts to .433" so bore to .434" or .435") in a 4 mm or 5/32" thick plate, cover the top of the bearing with a thinner plate drilled to clear the axle and attached as you see fit, and retain the bearing from the bottom with three or four flange head screws or ordinary screws with flat washers, just lapping over the outer race. For the axle, you could use a clevis pin, if you can find one small enough, or (assuming you have the tooling to make one of these)turn a 4.5 mm rod down to a light press fit inside the bearing, leaving a head the same thickness as the cover plate; a little chamfer on the top will keep the head from rubbing on small primer pockets.

Mount the whole thing to your drill press table and hand turn the spindle to center the bearing before locking down.

[Blammer]

update.

I got my Lee 308 trim die in from Midway (they said it would arrive NEXT monday but I got it today. :) )

set it up in the drill press and proceeded to trim 200 pcs of brass in about 30 min. I like this!

I can "feel" and "hear" when I'm bottomed out so it's fairly easy to not tear up the sizer. I randomly measuered 15 cases, all the exact same length.

I also got a 308 Wilson Case Gage, and they all fit real easy. :)

Now, about them primer pockets....