Case trimming in the lathe

[marlinman93]

I've tried trimming long cases in my lathe, but it is time consuming. I use a round rod inside the case neck, and clamp the cases by the neck. Then I turn thee case off, and catch it in a pan sitting on the ways. I have a stop built, so it's easy to get the same cut each time, and I still final trim in my case trimmer.
But I stopped using the lathe when I saw someone using a miniature chop saw to rough cut cases. I got one on sale at Harbor Freight that has a 2" dia. blade, and it's so much faster! I simply set the stop for the cut I want, and chop the cases off. Then on the trimmer to make the final cut. I can cut them off faster than I could load them in my lathe.

[EDG]

The fastest and easiest way to hold cases in your lathe is to buy or make the case holder like this one by Wilson shown being used in a Wilson trimmer.
You tap the case into it and the case locks on the taper just like a Morse taper.

Then hold the case holder in a 5C 1" collet. You could also hold it in a 3 jaw chuck but you will eventually get chuck marks if you over tighten the chuck.

[Lead pot]

You guys are making a lot of work trimming cases.
I used to use a chainsaw chain sharpener first, then I saw one of these little 2" cutoff saws on sale for around $30. at Harbor Freight and I got it because it is a high RPM saw that turns at over 10,000 RPM what is needed for a smooth burr free cut.
I made a block with a groove to lay the case in and it makes a positive stop for a very precise length cut from the front of the rim. This eliminated the error from the different rim thicknesses. There aren't to many case trimmers that will trim from the front of the rim where you need a consistent head space. This is a plus to hold the depth the case is in the chamber. I don't need to follow up using my Wilson case trimmer, the cut is the same cut for cut. This particular case is 2.413" long ahead of the rim that fits my chamber. So far I have cut more then 1000 cases using the same blade and it's still sharp.
I just trimmed over 200 cases in less then 1/2 hour and they are all the exact length from the few I measured to make sure my wood block has not moved.
Now all I have to do is chamfer the case mouths and they are ready to load for the Quigley and a few other gong shoots I will make in a few weeks.

[WFO2]

I use a Littlecrow checked in a drill .https://littlecrowgunworks.com/produ...v=7516fd43adaa

[superc]

LoL, I recently trimmed a batch (maybe 80?) 44 Special and 44 Magnum brass down to 44 Bulldog dimensions. For shortening I found the lathe cutoff bar to be horrible. Can we say burr city?
After wasting my time on 10 rounds, I next drilled a hole of 44 OD dimension into a 1" carbon 4140 steel block, hardened it to about 50 and mounted the cases in that in my mill vise. Then I simply dropped a 3/4" endmill on each one at about 200 RPM. Very nice 12" chips and no heavy burring when done. Also with practice changing out the cases in the vise went pretty quickly. The only downside I experienced was sometimes the case would spin in the jig so that the headstamps were no longer readable. No big thing because they weren't Special or Magnum anymore anyway.