Hornady Case Prep Trio......what a big disappointment!

[hermans]

I bought a Hornady Case Prep Trio some time ago, and given the price I was expecting it to be a good investment that will make the tedious work prepping cases a lot more enjoyable.....
After starting to use it for the first time, after just about 100 cases.....it broke!
I took it back to the gun shop, and they gave me a new one, stating that they have a lot of "problems" with this specific Hornady product....
The second one lasted about the same time....maybe 200 cases later it also made a funny sound and stopped working.
So I decided to open it up, and to my surprise found the most flimsy plastic gears inside, broken.....

The quality of the materials used to manufacture these gears is very suspect, and I cannot really believe the " Made in the USA" part on the box....to me it looks like typical cheap Chinese parts....but I could be wrong.

So, if there is anybody out there looking the purchase one of these.....think again!

[Brassmonkey]

Assembled in the usa, with some usa components.

I feel I'm gonna be stuck making one, because I'm fully disappointed in all the ones I've heard run. Hornady's lock and load case prep center with a regulated trimmer was $700 on a gun show table recently, it was a big heavy unit that I haven't seen before. dunno what the msrp is.

[Three44s]

My nephew has a “Trio” and it broke as well. Got gears etc and he is back at it but has not run it much since then.

I have the big one (Hornady Prep center) and opened it and it’s plastic gears also. It has not broke but the spindles wobble around like a “drunk”. It is slow as molasses to boot.

I have borrowed the Lyman Express and have no idea how it’s built inside but so far it’s much smoother (much less spindle wobble) AND twice as fast!

I am thinking about building my own though because I believe there should be slower spindles and faster ones in the same unit to better match the work requirement.

The Lyman unit is a LOT easier on my 64 year old wrists and hands, first the faster speed and second holding the brass vertical. I was astounded how much less I hurt with the Lyman unit and did three times as much 223 brass at a session! The horizontal orientation of the Hornady unit just kills me.

Three44s

[Soundguy]

n case prep center. it's a decent unit. When I got it, the next week i processed 1000 pcs of 30-06 on it.. military crimped primer pockets.. etc. that was the break in for it.

It's never skipped a beat. had it for years..

[kaiser]

Sorry to hear that report on Hornady's unit! I have Lyman's Case Preparation Xpress center trimmer. Although it is not portable, it has all the "stations" that makes the whole process of prepping brass almost enjoyable. I have even left it on over night (by mistake), yet it has never lost a "beat". I've had this unit for well over two years and bought it after using just about every "gadget" on the market with "sore fingers" to prove it. The downside to the Lyman is its price, which has increased a lot since I got mine. (BTW, my favored case trimmer is a Lee "Zip" unit that is mounted right next to the Lyman - they seem to get along well

[trails4u]

The FA platinum has been serving me well.... Over 1,000 cases so far for sure. Seems pretty bullet proof, albeit a bit loud.

[hermans]

I basically just need a tool for deburring the already trimmed cases, since for that I use one similar to Little Crow's WFT Case Trimmer.
To me that is the best and the fastest way to trim a bunch of cases. But then they need to be de burred inside and outside.....therefor I thought that the Case Prep Trio would be perfect. And it was perfect the short time it worked.....so I need to do some research again finding something similar that would actually last.....or make something myself?

[GWS]

Answering the ".....or make something myself? " comment: Motorize a hand trimmer and add a 3-way trimmer/deburr/chamfer blade to it. I went to a little trouble making mine vertical and foot pedal activated, but you don't have to go quite that far.......that said, I do love it, and there is no plastic gears in the heavy duty clutched drywall screw gun...and my hands aren't overworked either.



For additional case prep, I've been happy with the little RCBS Trim Mate.....so far no breakage....six years worth of use.

[Omega]

Sorry to hear that report on Hornady's unit! I have Lyman's Case Preparation Xpress center trimmer. Although it is not portable, it has all the "stations" that makes the whole process of prepping brass almost enjoyable. I have even left it on over night (by mistake), yet it has never lost a "beat". I've had this unit for well over two years and bought it after using just about every "gadget" on the market with "sore fingers" to prove it. The downside to the Lyman is its price, which has increased a lot since I got mine. (BTW, my favored case trimmer is a Lee "Zip" unit that is mounted right next to the Lyman - they seem to get along well

+1 for the Lyman's Case Prep station, it has processed over 4k cases so far with no issues. I even got an adapter to use a Lee case trimmer to fully process my converted 300Blk and 277Wlv cases.

[hermans]

Answering the ".....or make something myself? " comment: Motorize a hand trimmer and add a 3-way trimmer/deburr/chamfer blade to it. I went to a little trouble making mine vertical and foot pedal activated, but you don't have to go quite that far.......that said, I do love it, and there is no plastic gears in the heavy duty clutched drywall screw gun...and my hands aren't overworked either.



For additional case prep, I've been happy with the little RCBS Trim Mate.....so far no breakage....six years worth of use.

GWS,
Wow, you have taken case prep to the next level...thanks for the video, what a setup you have!!!

[hermans]

Just to conclude my bad experience with the Hornady Case Prep Trio.......I also wrote Hornady an e-mail letting them know my disgust in their product.
After about 3 days I got an e-mail back from the Sales Team, telling me how sorry they are about my inconvenience.
They said that they copied in the agent for Hornady here in South Africa and that they will be sending me their new model shortly......free of charge.
So maybe once I have received the "new model" and found it to be an improvement, I will have to change my current view on Hornady.....I will keep you posted!

[Three44s]

Glad you were able to shake their “tree”. I hope it bears some fruit!

Three44s

[abunaitoo]

I got the RCBS one when it came out.
Never had any problems with it all these years.

[Walks]

I set up My LYMAN Case Prep Center right behind My LYMAN Powered Case Trimmer.
Trimmer is about 35yrs old.
Prep Center about 10yrs old.
I know the Trimmer has processed 30,000 .30-06, .308 & .223 cases. The Carbide cutter head is worth the money.
Prep Center has done about 10,000 so far.
Both function perfectly, and I'm very Happy with both.


I don't know if I would recommend anything to anyone these days.
So much crap comes from china.