Any of you a fan of Worlds Finest Trimmer?

[Stopsign32v]

I need a power trimmer for .223 and 300 blackout. I was looking at this one as it indexes off the shoulder. What do you guys think?

[dogmower]

They work really well, but are fairly expensive per caliber. Look at the Lyman E-Z trim that Midway sells, sometimes they're on sale for $115. Best bargain in a case trimmer, in my opinion.

[MUSTANG]

I use the WFT for .223, .308, 30-06. Works great for large volume. Drawback is that the case will need a slight outside and inside mouth trim to remove almost impercaptable & very-very slight lip where the brass flows in and out of the mouth edge. This is my preferred trimmer for these cases, but they are expensive and the WFT-2 inserts are still an additional $26.00 per insert for new case.

I have two Lyman case trimmers with pilots; one for 45-70 on down - the other is a dedicated Lyman 50BMG trimmer. Except for the 50BG I rarely use these anymore.


I have many of the Lee case Trimmers that consist of shell holder, case length gauge, cutter and lock stud. These I find useful for doing 20 to 100 cases when needed (30-40 Krag, .303, 7.62 Russian, 7x57, 6.5x55, 8x57, 300 WinMag, and.... Draw back is that over time the stud holding the case will get an indented dimple - resulting in a slightly shorter case trim. Postive benefit is they are the least costly of all options.

[slim1836]

F.A. case trimmer indexes off the shoulder, does not work with straight wall cases.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012719754?pid=628405

I like mine.

Slim

[Springfield]

If it indexes off the shoulder, and you are trimming mixed brass, wouldn't the overall length vary?

[trails4u]

If it indexes off the shoulder, and you are trimming mixed brass, wouldn't the overall length vary?

Not if FL resized prior to trimming.....

[trails4u]

I have one for .223 and used it for years with great success. Thousands of cases and the cutter is still quite sharp and it still cuts pretty clean. I found it to be repeatable to within .003 without much fuss.
I've since upgraded to the FA platinum for bottleneck cases...but for a reasonably inexpensive solution for a single-caliber I found the WFT to be well worth it.

[megasupermagnum]

They seem like they would be superb with a drill press. I don't think they would be fun to use at all with a hand drill. The Lee deluxe quick trim and die is the bees knees for trimming brass for me. A third option is an RCBS trimmer with the 3 in 1 cutting head, however, I've never liked their shell holders, and the pilot setup isn't that great either. They do work though.

I would never consider a trimmer that doesn't trim and deburr at the same time anymore. Maybe the Wilson trimmer is worth that accuracy, I'm not willing to deal with that.

[44Blam]

I use the lee trim dies and have the lyman case prep do-hicky with the inside/outside debur + primer pocket cleaner + primer pocker reamer...

Makes sure all my brass is the same length.

[sigep1764]

Get the WFT 2. It has caliber specific inserts that are cheap to buy, allowing the ability to trim different calibers of brass with one trimmer body. I have one trimmer that will trim 223, 270, and 30-30 by simply changing the insert. Trim one piece of brass to perfect length and put it in the trimmer box. When you go to trim more of that caliber, use that piece of brass to set the trimmer depth and bobs you're uncle. Perfectly trimmed brass from then on for that caliber. Mine has trimmed around 2000 pieces of brass with no issue. The blades can also be resharpened at a machine shop.

[toallmy]

I have one for trimming 223 brass and found it to do a good job quickly , but the fingers still get a work out after a few hundred cases , the first time .

[Half Dog]

I’ve looked at them in the past and for what you’re using it for, it will probably be fine. Not so fine if you must have brass the same length. I’ll shoot my brass several times and the spring back will create different shoulder profiles.

[Stopsign32v]

I’ve looked at them in the past and for what you’re using it for, it will probably be fine. Not so fine if you must have brass the same length. I’ll shoot my brass several times and the spring back will create different shoulder profiles.

Says right there on their product page


Our Case Trimmers are made to work with Full Length Sized Cases.

[Stopsign32v]

Get the WFT 2. It has caliber specific inserts that are cheap to buy, allowing the ability to trim different calibers of brass with one trimmer body. I have one trimmer that will trim 223, 270, and 30-30 by simply changing the insert. Trim one piece of brass to perfect length and put it in the trimmer box. When you go to trim more of that caliber, use that piece of brass to set the trimmer depth and bobs you're uncle. Perfectly trimmed brass from then on for that caliber. Mine has trimmed around 2000 pieces of brass with no issue. The blades can also be resharpened at a machine shop.

I like the idea of setting it up once and not having to mess with it again. With the WFT2 each time you change calibers you have to re-adjust it.

[lavenatti]

I chuck mine up in a mini-lathe. I can trim 200 full length sized cases in less than 10 minutes.
I'll never be without one.

[Stopsign32v]

I chuck mine up in a mini-lathe. I can trim 200 full length sized cases in less than 10 minutes.
I'll never be without one.

I wish there was a cheaper version of something like a mini-lathe. Basically a drill press horizontally.

[dverna]

I plan on trying the RCBS X die. Supposedly, after the initial trim, there is no need to trim a case again. I bought one for .223 but have not played with it yet. If I can get 8-10 reloads per case without trimming I will be happy. .223 brass is not expensive so pitching it after 8-10 uses will work for me. Once fired .223 cases are $100/k and can sell them as scrap for $20. 8000 loads for a brass cost of $80 comes to a penny per shot. Beats having to trim and debur 1000 cases another 1-2 times.

I will be using an RCBS powered trimer to initially trim cases. Looked at the WFT and would get one if I did not already have the RCBS. But I do not shoot enough to justify investing another $100 for something I will use once every 8000 rounds if the X dies works. If primers stay in the $100/k area I will not be shooting much CF.

I read Larry Gibson had good success with it on .308 cases IIRC and that sold me trying it.

[MT Gianni]

I have used an RCBS X die in 30-30 for a lot of years. I have never needed to trim them since. To me that is proof that most case stretch comes from the dies.

[super6]

I have the rcbs pro trim with micrometer trim, And a wilson debur tool that does in and out. It comes with 5 caliber plates and buttons.

[Stopsign32v]

I have used an RCBS X die in 30-30 for a lot of years. I have never needed to trim them since. To me that is proof that most case stretch comes from the dies.

Don't fault me for the skeptical. But trim .223 brass one time and shoot it through an AR and reload it until the brass has a defect? While never having to trim it more than once?!

[sigep1764]

I like the idea of setting it up once and not having to mess with it again. With the WFT2 each time you change calibers you have to re-adjust it.

That's why you save that perfect piece of brass, so its easy to set up every time you switch. I simply put that piece of brass in, set it to the shoulder, and lower the cutting blade to the top of the brass. What's hard about that?

[MT Gianni]

Don't fault me for the skeptical. But trim .223 brass one time and shoot it through an AR and reload it until the brass has a defect? While never having to trim it more than once?!

My experience is with 30-30 only, but yea.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I have a lot of trimmers. The best bang for your buck is the Lee press mounted all in one trimmer with an electric screw driver on top. Keep the chamfer/debur parts clean and they do the trick.

[megasupermagnum]

Interesting, this is the first time I've ever heard of a RCBS X die. In looking at the instructions, it appears to have a special mandrel that has a step on it that mechanically blocks the case neck from stretching. It is a very neat looking design, and it makes me wonder why it's never talked about. It appears to have no drawbacks and a lot of positives over a standard expander ball die. The price is comparable. It makes me wonder why RCBS still makes their standard sizing dies. Why not ship the X sizer with every set?

[Krh1326]

I’ve been using these. He calls them the WCT… worlds cheapest trimmer. They are pretty cheap, and once the depth is set, they do work well. With his prices, I bought them in sizes for all of the bottlenecks that I do. They are cartridge specific, so not changing depth setting…
If I have one complaint about them, it would be that they leave a burnishing on the brass, from spinning.

http://www.newhighpower.com/brass-trimmers.html

[megasupermagnum]

I’ve been using these. He calls them the WCT… worlds cheapest trimmer. They are pretty cheap, and once the depth is set, they do work well. With his prices, I bought them in sizes for all of the bottlenecks that I do. They are cartridge specific, so not changing depth setting…
If I have one complaint about them, it would be that they leave a burnishing on the brass, from spinning.

http://www.newhighpower.com/brass-trimmers.html

So they are twice the price of Lee quick trim dies, and don't even chamfer or deburr the cases at all? Hard pass.

[David2011]

For any of the trimmers that use an end mill as the cutter, replacing the factory high speed steel end mill with a carbide end mill vastly reduces (possibly eliminates) the need for inside/outside chamfering. Carbide leaves a much cleaner case mouth.

Around 2008 I bought 3000 pieces of surplus military 5.56 brass. I already had a paper grocery bag full that needed processing as well. Of course, it had been fired in automatic weapons and left in the weather until it was all dark brown. That was my introduction to citric acid, the miracle worker for weathered brass. After it was sized and polished I think I tried every trimmer I could find short of the RCBS and Giraud out there at the time. I tried the Lee, Possum Hollow, Forster (which I already had for other calibers) and finally the WFT. I got it shortly before the WFT2 came out, which would be my preference over the single caliber WFT. Of all that I tried the WFT was the most productive and my favorite until I got a Dillon RT1200.

I set the Dillon RT1200 up on a 650 toolhead with two other dies (FL size before going to the trimmer and neck expansion after the trimmer) and it gives me ready to load ammo. I do have to run it through the polisher after trimming to get the alcohol/lanolin case lube off but other than that, nothing else is required. The carbide cutter in the RT1200 leaves a very clean case mouth unlike the other trimmers.

The RCBS X dies seem to work well. I bought a set for my 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser cartridges and they've performed as advertised. One of my Swedes is a nice original; the other is a hand built 6.5x55 hunting rifle built on a Mauser 98 action. I think the hunting rifle loses a small amount of accuracy with the X die but it's still a sub-moa rifle.

[sutherpride59]

Trimmers that index off the shoulder work great as long as all the cases are full length sized prior. I have the FA universal trimmer and the world's cheapest trimmer for 300 blackout. They both work the exact same and one is no more precise than the other.

[Krh1326]

So they are twice the price of Lee quick trim dies, and don't even chamfer or deburr the cases at all? Hard pass.

Wish I had seen the Lee quick trimmers, before buying wct , lol

[Stopsign32v]

So they are twice the price of Lee quick trim dies, and don't even chamfer or deburr the cases at all? Hard pass.

Lee quick trim is trash. Die gets dirty inside, blades get dull FAST, and you have to handle the drill.

This setup can be put on a bench grinder and you only handle the brass.

[megasupermagnum]

Lee quick trim is trash. Die gets dirty inside, blades get dull FAST, and you have to handle the drill.

This setup can be put on a bench grinder and you only handle the brass.

It's not trash, it's the best reasonably priced case trimmer I've used. The only other one I'd rather have is the Giraud. I suppose dirt gets inside the die, so what? Blades do not dull fast. Mines still going fine. I've never even heard of anyone dulling one. You don't really handle the drill, it just sits there. All you do is pull the trigger.

[popper]

I have the original WFT (little crow) for 30/30 someplace. Worked fine. Haven't seen it for several years.

[Liberty1776]

I chuck mine up in a mini-lathe.


One of my favorite YouTube machinists, This Old Tony, who bought one, calls his the "Minila The" based on Chinese punctuation. :p

[Liberty1776]

First off, I own a World's Best Trimmer, but it's only for a single caliber, 223 in my case. It's okay. For one caliber.

My new favorite trimmer, for certain calibers, is the Lyman.

303836

My old reliable is the Forster. It always works.

303837

My mod is to add an adapter that lets me use a right angle battery drill to power the thing and lose the crank.

303838

[Stopsign32v]

My new favorite trimmer, for certain calibers, is the Lyman.

303836



I honestly might go this route

[Liberty1776]

I honestly might go this route

The Lyman only works with shouldered cases.

The Forster works on all cases. Then again, only shouldered cases seem to "grow."

The Lyman is great for
.223 Remington
.300 Blackout
.308 Winchester...

...for sure

[sigep1764]

I used and still have a Lyman Universal with the drill attachment. It is slower than the WFT. With the Lyman, you load it into the trimmer, lock it, then rotate forward, and trigger the drill. With the WFT, chuck into the drill and keep the trigger pulled. Feed it brass by hand. It's easily 3 times faster, if not more.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I would reload .223 more if i had a match rifle. Just as with my 9mm, i shoot ball ammo through my AR's.

[GhostHawk]

I bought lee quick trim dies several years ago.

Yes the cutting edges get dull fast. Plus it is a bit of a pain to screw the holder off and tighten for each piece of brass.

I just bought a WCT in .30-30 and ran 20 pieces of brass through it.
Most it barely touched but I would expect that most were once fired and would not need much.
2 out of the 20 cut deeper. One pulled up a burr with the cutter and I could not hold it. So I simple switched the drill into reverse and fixed it. No sweat no hassle.

Then spent maybe 4 minutes with a lyman chamfering tool working the insides mostly with just a touch on the outside. Was not a long hard miserable process at all. And now I know I have 20 pieces of brass of uniform length ready to prime and load.

For the price, seems like a win - win solution.

Right now I am not shooting a lot of centerfire bottleneck ammo so I do not know if I will be buying more in the near future or not.
But I am happy with the one I got.

[Moleman-]

For volume trimming I like the honey badger trimmer adaptor to bosch router set-up on one of my progressive presses with a case feeder. Use spray lanolin/alcohol mix and you can take that trimming mountain and make it into a mole hill. The powderful router never bogs down and you can run the press at least as fast as you can while loading or faster. Only downside is they don't have trim dies for every cartridge. I wet tumble the cases afterwards with pins and that seems to remove any sharp edge left by the carbide endmill. For smaller volumes of cases I used either a lyman or forster trimmer hooked up to a drill.

[recumbent]

I use the Giraud tri way trimmer. It trims and deburs and chamfers. Indexes off the case shoulder. It's fast.
https://www.giraudtool.com/giraud-tri-way-trimmer.html

[megasupermagnum]

I bought lee quick trim dies several years ago.

Yes the cutting edges get dull fast. Plus it is a bit of a pain to screw the holder off and tighten for each piece of brass.


That's not a Lee Quick trim. The quick trim is a die for a press, and a cutting head. You put the brass in the shell holder, raise the ram, and hit the trigger on the drill. No threading at all.

[Shiloh]

Trim It II works well.
https://www.blackwidowshooters.com

Shiloh

[6622729]

If it really cant hold better than .003 as one user suggests, its not for me. I use the Wilson trimmer with micrometer adjustment. It is repeatble over and over and over with less than .001" variance and that variance is induced by the operator. Calibers each require a holder. However, if you require volume and can accept a little variance and dont mind the expense, I think you're on the right track.

[toallmy]

The brass chunking firearms extraction can be hard on the base . So if you're experiencing erratic over all lengths take a look at the base .

[Iron369]

I’ve been using these. He calls them the WCT… worlds cheapest trimmer. They are pretty cheap, and once the depth is set, they do work well. With his prices, I bought them in sizes for all of the bottlenecks that I do. They are cartridge specific, so not changing depth setting…
If I have one complaint about them, it would be that they leave a burnishing on the brass, from spinning.

http://www.newhighpower.com/brass-trimmers.html

I have used them. I don’t like it. The screws strip out easily and it will crack if it’s dropped or rolls off a bench.

[Iron369]

I have an many different trimmers. I like the wft. It’s not my favorite. The tri-way is a tremendous upgrade from the wft ( in my opinion, of course).

[RogerDat]

I mostly use the Lee trimmer that fits the press. It is fairly fast but unless you get the blade holder that can take an electric screwdriver attachment to replace the hand crank it isn't ideal for large volume brass trimming at one time, there is a limit to how long I'm going to sit at a bench doing the hand crank.

A member was kind enough to loan me his WFT and I went through a large amount of .223/5.56 brass with it. Was very easy. Harbor Freight cordless drill sitting on its battery on the bench with WFT in it. Trigger held with thumb of one hand, other hand fed brass into the cutter. Ended up with about a large shoebox full of brass in short time.

So the WFT was faster but didn't chamfer the edges which the Lee trimmer does if one has the deluxe cutter. I don't like trimming brass. I'm inclined to set up for trimming and do it in smaller batches over a period of time. Once I have several hundred cases for a bolt action or a thousand cases for semi auto prepped and ready to load I generally call that good.

I do tend to make a regular chore of prepping brass with an eye toward having most of the brass I have on hand cleaned and trimmed. The .223 or 7.62x39 stuff is the exception, want more brass on hand than I'm willing to trim. After I have several hundred cases on the shelf trimmed and ready to load I figure I'm good for inventory.

The Lee for the price does a really good job. The WFT at least in .223/5.56 is much faster even if one has to handle the brass twice to use the Lee to chamfer the brass after the WFT trims it to length. This thread is a good resource for what is out there for trimmers, I have added a couple of bookmarks from the links posted. Might even want to try an X die in a caliber, pretty sure if I like the X die I will not have too much trouble selling my existing die set it is replacing

For the price I'm willing to try the WCT to see how it works and how sturdy it is. I have a hard time justifying high priced tools to speed things up I guess I don't have enough brass to prep that the time saved justifies the expense of a high end tool, at least not in most calibers. Once wife gets ahold of the TV remote I may as well head to the reloading bench anyway given a choice between trimming brass or a watching a dance or singing contest.... I guess I can go crank out another 50 or so cases.

[Oldfeller]

Getting back to a known reasonable reality, trim range on most brass is spec'd at a .010" total length variation. Most chambers run longer than spec because they put the variation in chambering in the plus direction on purpose. You need to measure your chamber to know what you are really dealing with.

Firing the brass one time will put more change into some of the brass than the .003" error folks are discussing here.

There is a large variation in "best methods" comparing a precision rifle guy's mindset and the mindset of a normal AR15 autoloading guy who commonly loses more pieces of brass over the years than a precision rifle guy ever owns.


:p A By the Way Thought, Any Moderation style that deletes entire posts because the Mod disagree with the points raised might tend to explain the entirely too many "I no longer contribute to this forum" notes on now emptied threads.


Self-lubricating Delrin plastic (the body material used for the worlds cheapest trimmer) is also used in rotary hammers to absorb the excess hammer blow forces. Sorry, simply falling off your reloading bench isn't going to hurt it at all. My most used World's Cheapest Trimmer model has 10's of thousands of trims on the shoulder surfaces with no appreciable wear on the plastic body and has dulled and "grooved out" the original HSS steel cutters and that caused me to upgrade to four flute carbide end mills for cleaner more burr free cutting.

You only need two WCT bodies for most of the common rifle rounds (these use the shoulder forms of the308/30-06 family and the other uses the .223/5.56 shoulder form for the smaller cases. I got me a 308 body and a 223 body from Holub and I made up a shoulderless .350 Legend set up that uses the face of a keyless chuck as a transfer datum. Since the outer third of the tapered shoulder is the only brass contact area (area that both stops and centers the trimmer) you can see how just a very few plastic bodies that do an entire case family are all that are really needed.

Clean your brass really well as embedded grit is your main enemy and remember to full length size your cases before trimming. After trimming, put the brass in a soapy water vibratory bowl to blunt out and remove the wire edges and you are ready to rinse and dry and prime your bulk trimmed and deburred brass.

Next, Holub will provide replacement bodies for very reasonable if you do manage to screw yours up somehow. Just email him on his order page and web pages and talk to the man. I found him very personable and very helpful.

I gritted up a body once by being just plain careless and lazy -- my bad all the way.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I honestly might go this route

I bought one. You have to really push hard to overcome the spring and it's not reliable enough to not measure every case. The Lee 3 in one press mounted thingy is the best. I've got a graveyard of case trimmers in my garage. Anything to save me time I'm down for. Trimming is the worst part of the process.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Trim It II works well.
https://www.blackwidowshooters.com

Shiloh

I got one of those too and it sucks.

[trails4u]

If it really cant hold better than .003 as one user suggests, its not for me. I use the Wilson trimmer with micrometer adjustment. It is repeatble over and over and over with less than .001" variance and that variance is induced by the operator. Calibers each require a holder. However, if you require volume and can accept a little variance and dont mind the expense, I think you're on the right track.

I'm not looking to pick a fight here.....but I'd love to see real data points where .002 in brass length shows up in performance or on paper. I'm not being an ass...actually looking to get into the long-range game and this level of precision in brass length is not one of the issues I've seen much chatter about. So....school me. I genuinely wish to learn all I can...

[BamaNapper]

I bought one of the WCT trimmers and I'm pleased with it. It scuffs the brass a little, but I'm not going for looks. It gets the brass within a couple thou, and I don't see any difference in accuracy even if I sort the brass afterwards to get within .001. I bought it because I had one of those hand-crank Lee trimmers and a full kitty litter bucket of 223 range brass. I chucked up the WCT in a benchtop drill press, put on a glove, and went through that bucket of brass at light speed.

[rockshooter]

I put mine in a battery-powered drill mounted horizontally in a bench vise, super fast, super accurate. As noted earlier, use a 4-flute carbide cutter for neater cuts. Rubber gloves make the task easier unless you have tough calluses on your fingers.
Loren