I have a bunch of 357 mag brass and it needs trimming to uniform the crimp. Most of it is Winchester and the lengths are varied. I have an RCBS trim pro with the chamfer/reamer attachment which I have used with very marginal success. I have looked at the Lee Zip Trim and it looks promising but I would like to hear from people I trust. Successes? Failures?
IT AINT what ya shoot--its how ya shoot it. "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away"--John 6:37
I have found that LEE trimmers play loose with tolerances. I have gotten rid of all LEE trimmers and got a Lyman.Originally Posted by murf205
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Plus 1, on both accounts.
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I have had great success with the RCBS 3 way trimmer! Once you set it to the project at hand, it is very reliable for repeated case trimmings.
The entire reason to trim, other than the case being too long, is for uniformity of course but even though it is for a pistol, making the cases all the same lessen the frustration of crimp problems. I can get the length where it needs to be, it's the chamfering and reaming after that I am trying to make easier. I saw a you tube video on the Lee and it fell apart during the demonstration!
IT AINT what ya shoot--its how ya shoot it. "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away"--John 6:37
I use the lee cutter and lock stud for almost everything. Chuck the cutter into a drill press and it takes just a few seconds to trim a case. Not sure about the comment on tolerances of a metal insert rod. I get more variability with the lath type cutters depending on how hard I push.
I believe there are cutter for the rcbs that trim deburr and chamfer all in one pass but they can be a little tricky getting set the way you want them .This is the fastest way all 3 operations at one time.
Not sure if lyman still makes the deburr tool with the screw in bits, If so a adapter could be made to mount them in your case trimmer and then the stop used to deburr and chamfer
Another that works good is the inexpensive Lee cutter and case holders mount the case holder in a block and use a small bench top drill press, but you need a good spindle stop so your not depending completely on the pin. I have one of these made up from a rcbs trimmer collet for my drill press with a reworked stop It does very good and is fast. But it dosnt trim deburr and chamfer in one pass.
I do as Delkal does when doing large batches. The thing is to get them all the same length below max for consistent bullet seating and crimping.
The RCBS 3-way I used for .223/5.56. It was more tedious, but with some fiddling to get the inner and outer cutters adjusted correctly, it works fine.
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For camfering I have a drill attachment for the standard RCBS deburring tool. I use a cordless drill turning slowly then touch a case to it for a second. When all of the cases are done flip the deburring tool and do the outside. It doesn't take much.
Another DITTO! But I still use the table top drill press.
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I use a drill press also for trimming, ID chamfering and OD deburring. My drill press has a 5/8" chuck, so the chamfering and deburring tool is a direct fit. Case length is done with a mix of Lee, Lyman and custom made length gauges.
I use the Lyman shell holder version to hold the cases, by far better than the piece of junk lee holder.
The Lyman cutters is also by far sharper than the Lee.
Life is too short to trim common brass.
Oddly, I don't mind trimming when forming wildcats.
I have never used a Lee Zip Trim, but their old style (twenty or so years ago) gave me the most consistent lengths. As long as you can live with Lee's idea of the proper trim length.
Robert
I found myself in the same situation and decided to try the Lee Quick Trim (powered by a small skil power screwdriver) works great! Very satisfied with it.
I have a lightly used Lee trimmer for sale. I found it unusable and went back to my RCBS with a battery drill. I trimmed several thousand .223 cases that were range pick-up.
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