hornady lock and load case prep center

[cummins05]

does anyone have any experience with one do they hold up to use and abuse how well does it seem to be built and finally does it speed up the process compared to a hand crank case trimmer

[LUBEDUDE]

They have two different ones. If you are talking about the huge one housed in heavy duty aluminum, that is the one I WAS sold on. I recently found out that it has PLASTIC gears!!

No thanks! I'm not sure, but I think the RCBS may have plastic gears also. Maybe an owner will confirm or deny.

The process station that I thought looked the cheapest, actually has some of the best reviews(metal gears). That is the Lyman. And it comes with everything, even tooling for Military brass!

Now the Sinclair is great too. However, you have to buy each tool separately and change them out. However, it is the most powerful.

Seems you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Good Luck

[Smoke4320]

the big red cast iron one has plastic gears.. I wore one out trimming down a couple thousand 300 Blkout cases.. called them for replacement gears .. they said you have to send it back.. Mind you it weights about 60 LBS ....not on my dime I said.. A little stern talking and they finally relented
Its now for sale !!!!

Its a great machine MINUS the plastic gears

[fredj338]

I have one, works great, certainly better than hand cranking & having all the needed acc to finish the case saves time. yes it is expensive, but if it saves you an hour a month, over years, it pays for itself.

[captbligh]

Don't have one of the Hornady prep centers, but the Lyman prep center that I've had for about a year and I Love It. Doesn't do case trimming, just all of the rest of the normal steps (deburr, primer uniformer, etc.)

[dragon813gt]

Plastic gears? What a joke. At the price they charge that is completely unacceptable. Glad I read this thread because I'm tired of hand cranking to debur and chamfer. My Forster trimmer is powered so I don't need a full prep center anyway.

[Garyshome]

Delta drill press! More than just a case trimmer.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

If you have a progressive, the Dillon case trimmer is hard to beat for large volume and multiple operations performed on the progressive at the same time (depriming, sizing and trimming-RCBS lube die in station one, then a Dillon size/trim die in a station convenient for spacing). After owning the RCBS case prep center and selling it, I now lean toward hand held tools that can be upgraded by attaching to a hand drill or drill press for operations not performed in high volume, such as when prepping precision single stage brass.

Once you've run the brass through the progressive operation above, you tumble it when you're done to remove sizing lube, (process military crimps if needed using a Dillon swager if needed), store the brass in a plastic bin with a lid and it's ready to load when you are-just set up your progressive to prime the brass, dispense powder and seat bullet. Can't be much easier and efficient in my experience, because the brass is pretty much done coming off the press the first time.

[Guardian]

Delta drill press! More than just a case trimmer.

Amen! I bought a used Ryobi 12-in bench drill press off C-list about a year ago for $50 and wonder why it took so long to buy one. I use mine with Little Crow Gun Works WFTs and a Forster power trimmer base. Built a little chute so I can just knock the cases over and they slide off into the bucket. I built a PVC vacuum adapter to cover the WFT and keep brass chips from being thrown all over the garage.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=87175&d=1384140439

Personally, if I were going to spend the $400 on the Hornady case prep center I'd consider another $100 and the Giraud case trimmer. The only reason I went the drill press route was physical limitation with repetitively gripping cases firmly enough to hold them in the Giraud. IF you can stand the price tag and the method of use, the Giraud eliminates the need to chamfer and debur the cases as independent steps.

As indicated in one of my recent posts, I'm still looking for the best way to do some steps; however, the drill press works great for trimming, chamfering, and deburring.

[abunaitoo]

I've had the RCBS for over 10 years. Never had any problems with it.
Never had to open it up, so I don't know if metal or plastic gears or not.