I'm interested to here what everyone likes in a case trimmer and how easy it is to setup and use.

I have used a Wilson trimmer for 40 years. Obviously it is not one of the "power" (e.g. electrically driven) trimmers.

I like it and use it because it hold the whole case securely vs. just the head.

It is easy to set up, but requires a vice on my reloading bench.

Barstooler

I have the lee trimmer kit that fits on a drill, a rod for each calibre that comes with the shell holder screws into a cutter and the rod is forced down into the case, by hand a couple of seconds and the case is trimmed to the standard length. Also as the rod is the same diameter as the round it cuts it perfectly square. Then all you need is the chamfer tool to debur. Whole set up cost me around $30 for three different calibres. I like it as it is simple, quick, effective and cheap.

lyman with the universal shellholder, then a battery drill for the cutter

i never could get that method to work right. i just go find the cheapest bullets i can & shoot em up. if nothing else i get the scope somewhat sighted in that way

sorry wrong thread

What butchloc said times two. I have done about 2000 cases from .358 STA down to .243 WSSM this winter. Translate that to mean the universal shellholder works like a dream. Good shooting.

I use a Forester. I do use a battery drill to turn it. Since I have a number of wildcats I cna't use the type with the depth rod. At least not without some work and modification.

I have a very good Lyman Universal I love since I made a calibrated head for the adjustments. But, since I got my first Lee trimmer I haven't used the Lyman, gonna get some more of the Lees too.

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
lyman with the universal shellholder, then a battery drill for the cutter

Me too....works for me just fine.

I use the Lyman power trimmer.

Wilson for low volume.
Gracey (with the aftermarket carbide blade) for high volume trimming.

muck

homemade .. from a harbour freight mini chop saw and a tailstock i made .. and it cauts withing .0015 or so .. aint perfect, but it SURE IS FAST

lyman universal with power attachment.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
homemade .. from a harbour freight mini chop saw and a tailstock i made .. and it cauts withing .0015 or so .. aint perfect, but it SURE IS FAST

Jeffe, can you post a picture of your case trimmer?
I am looking for something quicker.

++1 for L.E. Wilson. Set up is easy in a small vise on my bench (everyone needs a small vise on their bench!). Simple, robust, accurate and low cost: a hard combination to beat!

Andy

quote:

Originally posted by Rae59:

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
homemade .. from a harbour freight mini chop saw and a tailstock i made .. and it cauts withing .0015 or so .. aint perfect, but it SURE IS FAST

Jeffe, can you post a picture of your case trimmer?
I am looking for something quicker.

sure.. i need to take some pics.. it only requires that you dnt 2 holes

coming to the hoot and shoot on april 24?

coming to the hoot and shoot on april 24?[/QUOTE]

I would love to - if I am NOT in El Paso that week/2 weeks. Please, PM me as to where it is. It would be a good learning for me. Also,can I bring a friend? He is a Africa buff hunter and shoots the BIG stuff like you guys.

I got a Wilson in 1968. I have never thought about replacing it.

Here's the info and I'll PM it to you .. bring as many as you want.
http://forums.accuratereloadin...4711043/m/8651068821

Lee hand trimmer.Simple,low cost,can't screw up.Just debur with the Lee deburing tool afterward.

Gee, doesn't anybody else have an RCBS???
It's basically like the Forester. Easy to set up and adjust and repeatable. I also use a drill to power it for high volume.

RCBS here, only with the power unit and three way cutter head....works great.

I use RCBS also, and use a power hand drill hooked up to it. Made a base out of wood built up for the drill to rest on.
It works great for me, only trimer ive ever used so I cant compare it to others

Looks like your case holder handle is on backwards in the first photo, maybe mine is made different or the plastic end is on backwards

quote:

Looks like your case holder handle is on backwards in the first photo, maybe mine is made different or the plastic end is on backwards

When not in use I put it on that way so it doesn't hang over the bench.

+1 on the RCBS Trim Pro with the power unit. I have the Prep Center too. Trimming, chamferring, and deburring are the part of the reloading process I like the least.

quote:

Originally posted by Rembrandt1:
RCBS here, only with the power unit and three way cutter head....works great.

Yes, It works great for me too. I really don’t care what people use to trim cases with, but the RCBS works well.

I broke down and purchased a Giraud. Best money I ever spent. bill T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGYLmHvKVd0

quote:

Originally posted by billt:
I broke down and purchased a Giraud. Best money I ever spent. bill T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGYLmHvKVd0

How much did you spend on that Giraud? How much does it cost to trim a dozen different caliber/cartridge cases?

Mine is set up to trim .223. I trimmed 3,500 cases in 3 hours start to finish. If I tried that with my Lyman Crank-O-Matic, I'd still be doing it. Time is worth money. Bill T.

3500 rounds of 223 is great. You didn’t tell me how much the unit cost, or how much it costs to trim a dozen other different cases.

Yes I watched the Youtube advertisement months ago.

How do you guys like that rcbs three way head? Looks like its about $42. Do you need to clean any burrs off with a wad of steel wool or anything after you use it?

Does it work with all the different caliber pilots from my original cutter?

I use 2 :

- a 40 years old Lyman universal whose shaft was replaced with a power adapter ;
- the Lee system + power drive.

All in all, the Lee's get used the most as, being caliber specific, they don't require adjustment and are faster to put to work.

quote:

Originally posted by MickinColo:
3500 rounds of 223 is great. You didn’t tell me how much the unit cost, or how much it costs to trim a dozen other different cases.

Yes I watched the Youtube advertisement months ago.

If you have Internet access, which you obviously do, check Doug’s website. He has prices listed for everything he sells. The unit isn't cheap, quality tools seldom are. I believe mine was some where in the $400.00 range. Extra shell holders are $35.00 to $40.00 or perhaps a bit more now. I've had mine over 2 years. No one is going to tell me the cost if you trim several calibers isn't worth it. It is.

As I mentioned I have a Lyman, and they are pitifully slow. The RCBS units, along with the units manufactured by Redding, Lee, and Forester, are much the same because they all work on the same principal. When they are motorized little improves as they use way too underpowered of a motor. In order to make up for this they have to gear the thing way down and it doesn't produce enough RPM. Not to mention any, and or all, of these units, including the Dillon, leave huge burrs in both the inside and outside of the case mouth which require even more time to remove in a separate operation. Or else you have to purchase another cutting head. Brass is an extremely soft metal that is meant to be machined at a very high surface speed. These lesser units can't produce it. The result is large burrs are left behind because the material ends up being pushed out of the way by the cutter, instead of being removed by it.

I have struggled with slow, inadequate case trimming tools for many years, simply because like most, it isn't something I was excited about spending a lot of money on. Now with many rifles in the same caliber, it was time to invest in better, FASTER, equipment. Case trimming to proper length is a very important part of the reloading process, and with 11 rifles chambered in .223 / 5.56 alone, it was time to make improvements in my reloading equipment. Case trimmers like the Giraud are like microwave ovens and garage door openers. Once you brake down and buy one, you'll wonder how and why you lived without it for so long! Bill T.

Well, I have had/have quite a few, including the Wilson/Sinclair system, the Giraud, all the various components for the Lee and a Forster.

The 3 I still have are the Wilson/Sinclair,the Giraud and the Lee stuff. Similar to Muck, except Giraud instead of Gracey, I use the Wilson for lower volume, and the Giraud for higher volume, the lee stuff just every blue moon...

The Wilson uses a case holder for every parent case family of cartridges, and holds the case in a set of rails, which effectively keeps the case dead square to the cutter head. It is VERY easy to set up, and VERY precise, making good clean cuts, despite running at slow--in my case 'by hand' speeds, and it is a very high quality precise tool--I really like it.
You can chamfer on the trimmer--just a chamfering cutter instead of a lenght cutter, but deburring is a seperate step. You can buy a power adapter for a drill or whatever, I just didn't like that method, and to get enough power, you needed somethhing bigger than was comfortable to hold to me, a cordless screwdriver wasn't enough power for me. But I always use my Wilson just turning the crank manually.


The Giraud is just a whole other thing, it is VERY fast, but it indexes off of the case shoulder, and if those aren't exactly the same, you will get variances in your COL. If you are just neck sizing and not bumping your shoulders, after 2 or 3 firings that probably becomes moot, but it's just a function of the way that type of trimmer works. It also, as BillT said, is very powerful, and trims, chamfers and deburs in one step, and very quickly. Setting up for a new caliber is a PITA, you usually burn up a couple of cases getting it just right, and there is no designed indexing feature for it, I have simply marked my various case holders with a sharpie marker, and get pretty close the first try, but usually takes a couple to get it just like I want--but once you do, whammo, you can trim a bunch faster than any other method out there I am aware of.

The lee stuff is so simple, and you get consistent lengths easily, you just buy a cutter stud and screw it into the case holder/lock and spin it against the cutter head. I use the universal shellholder in a drill, and just insert the trim length stud into the case and spin it against the cutter head, pretty damn fast and accurate, chmafering and deburring is a seperate step.

The Forster is like many other 'piloted' trimmers out there, and did well, it's just not as consistent or precise as the Wilson in my experience, but my buddy who ended up with it likes it just fine--he only loads for 2 calibers, so maybe that helps it be appropriate for him....

If I wasn't doing a lot of volume, I would buy the Wilson/Sinclair and appropriate case holders in a heartbeat, I bought the little stand and micrometer adjustment thing from Sinclair, I don't have to clamp it to the bench with it in that stand. The Micrometer adjuster is nice, but really I just run the cases in until I am trimming a few thou off of them, and then lock it down. Even without the micrometer adjuster, it is very easy to do, just measure your cases with your calipers, and set up the trimmer to cut to desired length--I haven't recorded settings for mine with the micrometer adjuster on the various cases so I can index back to that, but it would work well for those that are more anal than me...I have also had a few custom case holders made by Wilson for me, very fast turnaround, and really nice people.

quote:

The Giraud is just a whole other thing, it is VERY fast, but it indexes off of the case shoulder, and if those aren't exactly the same, you will get variances in your COL. If you are just neck sizing and not bumping your shoulders, after 2 or 3 firings that probably becomes moot, but it's just a function of the way that type of trimmer works. It also, as BillT said, is very powerful, and trims, chamfers and deburs in one step, and very quickly. Setting up for a new caliber is a PITA, you usually burn up a couple of cases getting it just right, and there is no designed indexing feature for it, I have simply marked my various case holders with a sharpie marker, and get pretty close the first try, but usually takes a couple to get it just like I want--but once you do, whammo, you can trim a bunch faster than any other method out there I am aware of.

+1. The first couple of times I tried setting other calibers I fumbled because like any other piece of new equipment, it takes a while to get familiar with it. Now I can change over in minutes. I purchased 2 seperate cutter heads, one in .22 and the other in .30 that way I don't have to deal with resetting the head from one size to another. Bill T.

Lee cutter welded to a 5/8-inch open-end wrench. Fits locking collar on the trimmer thingy perfectly...

I've used the Forester for years, it's a good piece of equipment except that mine won't allow the rim of a .45-70 thru the hole in the case holder and Hornady's Basic Magnum Brass is too long get in the darn thing to trim to a usable length!

Trimming Basic brass to Lott length led me to trying the Lee trimmer and now I've got one for every caliber I shoot. I just chuck the holder in an electric drill and hold the ball handle cutter with the guide attached. It's quick, painless and accurate. After trimming, I leave the drill spinning and hit the mouth with an RCBS chamfer tool for good measure.

I figured that I was the only cheap lazy fellow using the Lee stuff around here.

quote:

Hornady's Basic Magnum Brass

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewP...productNumber=538862

Anybody make basic brass for the 300RUM class? Better yet, for the 300WSM class?

ive not been reloading long so i have not determined what trimmer i like best yet. i currently have all the lee stuff for the calibers i reload for. i slipped the other day and cut the hell out of my thumb with the cutter part so like homebrewer i welded a wrench to it. this seemed to work well until i started trimming 223 brass for some reason every couple of cases would come loos on the lock stud and wobble around and basically ruin that piece of brass after probably the 5th time or so the case lenght stud ended up falling out of the cutter and where the threaded portion is was pinched together. there is a small cut in the base of the stud that pinched together and now it just flops around in the cutter. i could probably spread it back out but i decided to order the possum hollow trimmer for my 223 as it appears to be pretty good with the power adapter. i did have a ? though it indexes of the shoulder will this cause a problem after repeated uses? i will be fl sizing for an ar.