Trimming brass is the worst

[Three44s]

Taterhead,

1K per hour has its advantages! That’s impressive!

One cutter I have intended to get for the Wilson is their mouth chamfering tool that works in their case trimmer (not the hand held).

I would cut chamfers truly square and uniform in depth but also I have four Wilson trimmers set up on home made stands and can set each one for a particular phase. Insert a case into the holder and move station to station as it were. In chamfering up front then trim to length the case cutting will go faster. The case stays in the holder as it makes the “rounds” including a primer crimp cutter (I have that one already).

Best regards

Three44s

[Taterhead]

Taterhead,

1K per hour has its advantages! That’s impressive!

One cutter I have intended to get for the Wilson is their mouth chamfering tool that works in their case trimmer (not the hand held).

I would cut chamfers truly square and uniform in depth but also I have four Wilson trimmers set up on home made stands and can set each one for a particular phase. Insert a case into the holder and move station to station as it were. In chamfering up front then trim to length the case cutting will go faster. The case stays in the holder as it makes the “rounds” including a primer crimp cutter (I have that one already).

Best regards

Three44s

Sounds nifty! I would love to see a pic of the stations that you describe (but admittedly I'm having trouble visualizing what is described!).

[Dieselhorses]

A lot of good info here-not trying to re-invent the wheel personally but I've purchased new/once fired+ brass for my multi-cal Windham W. plastic CF-1 AR. I've trimmed on my drill press using Lee case length trimmer, Lyman lathe trimmer, RCBS trimmer, Lee trimmer etc.. I used a stone on a Dremel to quickly deburr/chamfer. I probably shot (actually trying to see if rifle would melt) over 50k rounds in a 2-3 year span and can count the number of "jams" on one hand. I rarely shoot over 100 yards but still keep em within 3 inches at 50 yards with cast/powder-coated/plain based 55 grain bullets using 24 grains of H335. I probably would pay more attention in competitive environment using a bolt action. (Just my 2 cents).

BTW- if anyone uses the Frankford Arsenal case prep center please PM me...

[Dieselhorses]

I don't have any gasoline powered saws, yet.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Milwaukee makes good tools!

[Three44s]

Sounds nifty! I would love to see a pic of the stations that you describe (but admittedly I'm having trouble visualizing what is described!).

Ok, in a nut shell if you look at the LE Wilson web site, they make and sell a sort of small stand fashioned like a short piece of channel iron and there is a clamp wing that holds the case holder into the Bed of the base. The Wilson trimmer bolts to the stand. So that way the trimmer is bolted to the stand and the case in its holder is quick clamped to the trimmer.

https://lewilson.com/regular-stop-st...se-trimmer-kit

I home made my stands and clamps.

Previously I came into four Wilson trimmers and some case holders and some various cutters for them.

Now what caps off my whole affair is that these stands are fastened to used food cutting boards. You take a pair of c clamps and lock them as you please.

The plastic cutting board makes a stable base AND the perfect substrate to drive cases in and out of its case holder. As bench space is available one can string out the trimmers in what ever array one chooses. They are individually adjustable to the desired prep step at hand.

You walk the case around to the desired stations leaving it in its holder until it’s time to come back out.

I do not have the inside mouth chamfer tool yet but that might be a good starting point.

https://lewilson.com/uniform-burring...0-or-45-degree

Next I would move to the Wilson trimmer set up for length. Next, the primer pocket crimp cutters which I have. (Both sizes)

The reason for chamfering ahead of doing the length trim is to remove excess case length ahead of the flat cutter thus allowing the length cut to proceed faster and with less effort.

A long time ago I discovered it is easier to chamfer inside and outside case necks in intermediate steps when trimming quite a bit of excess case length. So my reasoning is to bevel the mouths to a preset depth ahead of the cutting phase as the Wilson allows.

Best regards

Three44s

[uscra112]

Y'know, that micrometer adjust feature on the deluxe Wilson trimmer i could live with. But the need for the case adapter is a deal-killer for me. I do too many antique and/or wildcat cases, and in small volumes at that. I'll have to stick with my Forster.

[Three44s]

Are you referring to this:

https://lewilson.com/micrometer-adjustment-stop-add-on

I hope that’s all it takes because at $80, with my four Wilson’s I’d be out $320 ........ as the “80” has me dead in my tracks I tell ya!

Whew!

Three44s

[uscra112]

Yeah. Spendy, but convenient.

[marlin1895]

RCBS trim pro I hate it does the job. Any recommendations for a better trimmer?

[uscra112]

How much do you want to spend?

[Baltimoreed]

I’m lazy, a lee trim tool on my drill press or mini mill does fine. I chuck the shell holder in the press and put the cutter in a vice on the table. I like the mill better as I can adjust the speed.

[Dieselhorses]

I’m lazy, a lee trim tool on my drill press or mini mill does fine. I chuck the shell holder in the press and put the cutter in a vice on the table. I like the mill better as I can adjust the speed.

I did it the other way around. I chucked the trimmer with length gauge in press and I made a jig to bolt to drill press platform. The jig houses the shell holder and threaded part I tack welded on a piece of flat bar that I can quickly tighten and loosen. Center everything up and I'm looking at about ten seconds per case, 6 per minute, 360 per hour (on a good day!)

[Dieselhorses]

The following is a review of a FA trimmer I stole from Amazon from an "anonymous" user. (All credit goes to this user). I just thought it was somewhat humorous and I totally get what he was saying!

"I am pretty impressed with this case trim and prep center. It is pretty simple, and horribly boring to use. Case prep is not a big favorite of mine. This case prep center is easy to use. Set up took me about 5 minutes. The longest part of the 5 minutes was adjusting the shoulder length for a proper cut of the case. The cutter is HSS, I would much rather see it be a carbide cutter. Frankford says the HSS cutter should last for thousands of cuts, well I guess I need to start searching for a carbide cutter now because I have already done a couple of thousand cuts.

The process is simple, I case check the round, if its good, I just clean the primer pocket by holding it against the primer pocket cleaner for about 1 second, then it gets thrown into the "Done" bin. If the case is too long I slide it into the cutter, using medium force and hold it until it stops cutting (based on noise and feel) I then hold it on the internal deburring head for about 1 second, then onto the external deburring head for about 1 second, then I clean the primer pocket, case check it to make sure its good, then toss it into my "Done" bin.

The process is really that simple and easy. It is also god-awful boring. After doing about 50 I am starting to think of other projects I would rather be doing, like cleaning gutters. After a few hundred I would rather be knocking down that huge hornets nest, the one that's as big as a basketball and hanging about 30 feet in the air on my maple tree. And let me tell you if I am thinking about doing that instead I am seriously bored.

While I am describing it as boring, this is a simple machine that works well. The noise level is not bad either. The only negative I can think of, other than it being boring, is the cutter should be carbide. I tried to find a replacement carbide cutter from Frankford but could not find one. I will search one elsewhere."

[marlin1895]

I would like to my cost under $75.00

[Dieselhorses]

Ok, in a nut shell if you look at the LE Wilson web site, they make and sell a sort of small stand fashioned like a short piece of channel iron and there is a clamp wing that holds the case holder into the Bed of the base. The Wilson trimmer bolts to the stand. So that way the trimmer is bolted to the stand and the case in its holder is quick clamped to the trimmer.

https://lewilson.com/regular-stop-st...se-trimmer-kit

I home made my stands and clamps.

Previously I came into four Wilson trimmers and some case holders and some various cutters for them.

Now what caps off my whole affair is that these stands are fastened to used food cutting boards. You take a pair of c clamps and lock them as you please.

The plastic cutting board makes a stable base AND the perfect substrate to drive cases in and out of its case holder. As bench space is available one can string out the trimmers in what ever array one chooses. They are individually adjustable to the desired prep step at hand.

You walk the case around to the desired stations leaving it in its holder until it’s time to come back out.

I do not have the inside mouth chamfer tool yet but that might be a good starting point.

https://lewilson.com/uniform-burring...0-or-45-degree

Next I would move to the Wilson trimmer set up for length. Next, the primer pocket crimp cutters which I have. (Both sizes)

The reason for chamfering ahead of doing the length trim is to remove excess case length ahead of the flat cutter thus allowing the length cut to proceed faster and with less effort.

A long time ago I discovered it is easier to chamfer inside and outside case necks in intermediate steps when trimming quite a bit of excess case length. So my reasoning is to bevel the mouths to a preset depth ahead of the cutting phase as the Wilson allows.

Best regards

Three44s

I wanted to thank you for the advice about "chamfering/deburring" before trimming! At first, you'd think this would be more time consuming but I found out right quick-it isn't! I just received my FA Platinum series case trimmer/prep center yesterday. After dialing it in for 223 brass I discovered this. You can actually "feel" whether or not large or small amount of trimming needed to be done. I think this method also saves on the cutter head. Nevertheless, it takes me approximately 3.5 minutes to trim, chamfer and deburr 10 cases. In essence, that's right under 6 hours to do 1000.

[Three44s]

Dieselhorses,

You are most welcome!

Good shooting!

Three44s

[lightman]

I use a Giraud bench model for the cartridges that I shoot in volume (223 and 308) and a Wilson for the others. I can trim about 15 or 16 cases per minute at a sustained rate with the Giraud and maintain .001 in length.

I have used the Lee case gauge type of trimmers in the past but it seems like the cutter gets dull too quickly. I have also used the Lyman Universal and the RCBS collet type of trimmer.

[John in WYO]

Giraud trimmer will make life much easier.

[Dieselhorses]

You can trim 10-15 cases per minute on any power trimmer provided it has a carbide head. I was basically doing that pace on my drill press with hardly any variation in length. Not familiar Giraud but does it chamfer and deburr also? If not then add the time for that.

Now a note for those who trim gauging off case shoulders. This is fine but I discovered one interesting anomaly. In the way of trimming a couple thousand 223 cases, I would set aside cases that I inserted into FA trimmer that never touched cutter. Went back and measured and they were like 1.761”, and this was after I sized em all. Obviously I didn’t run em completely up into die OR the mysterious “spring back” occurred. I ran em back through trimmer AFTER resizing again, and all was good. However I am keeping those few separate to check measurement in a few days.
So for everyone gauging and trimming from head to neck, just hope your necks are in the right spot!


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[Three44s]

I gasp for air when I read the price on a Giraud. Then I recount what my many trimmers and collets and pilots and holders all cost and I clam up, LOL!

This is what I have in inventory:

Trimmers:

Pacific (got dull)

Lyman Universal (added a carbide cutter when the original got dull)

Forester (set up for outside neck turning)

RCBS (bought it used figured on buying the three way cutter head but did not yet)

Hornady case prep center that has a case length unit built in (bought used)

Four Wilson case trimmers (came used in a package deal, long story)

Various Lee cutter kits

I won’t try to match up collets, pilots, mandrel, and holders etc. but I am sure it’s a pile of cash but then I load for some 30 different cartridges and the Giraud certainly accommodates them but at perhaps even a bigger bundle of $.

If I was a volume shooter in a few cartridges I would have to go fast, there is no doubt.

If I had not “fell into” four Wilson’s, I would at the most gotten just one.

So it boils down to need. I am a coyote and squirrel shooter, the latter getting more rimfire action.

Three44s