Ultimate case trimmer

[Brad]

Ever wonder why you need a lathe?
I have some 445 super mag brass I need to trim about a 1/4 inch off of. That would be a nightmare by hand.

Chamber pound cast, trimmed case, I trimmed case. Lots of metal to be removed.

Take some 6061 aluminum, cut 3 chunks 1" long, face both ends, drill and countersink for cap screws. Bore them to a snug fit on a 445 case. Rim indexes off the rear of the soft jaws. Case is held very well with no chance of crushing the case.
With a very sharp cutter the brass comes off in little sprials. Cases are pretty consistant in length but I left them long enough to finish up in my regular trimmer. Each case takes less than a minute including time to get into the chuck. No way my trimmer, even with a drill, is going to beat that. This also leaves no burrs on the case mouth.

 

[Rick]

Very nice indeed. Final length should just barely fully chamber with no bullet and no crimp on the case. If they are too long and you crimp a bullet when fired the crimp would be in the throat and cannot open. When chamfering and de-burring do no more than make sure there are no burs inside or out. Do not cut a knife edge on the case mouth.

 

[Brad]

The chamber has enough slop to let me go a little long and enter the taper from chamber to throat. With no crimp and a properly sized bullet I can go .015 longer than I thought. Since that dummy round had no crimp and the flare hadn't been removed I feel quite confident the bullet will easily exit the case when fired.

I cut the first at 1.320 and it chambered well but I tried a longer one at 1.337 and it was the one I tried with a bullet. Chambers with just a hint of thumb pressure.

 

[Brian Palmer]

I am just entering this level of reloading. I have the Martini Henrys and the Swiss Vetterli to make cases for. Thinking for what I need one of the HF small rigs will be great.

 

[Rick]

Just entering the realm of handloading and graduating from reloading.

I thought about getting one of those hobby lathes for years but every time I got serious about it someone that is a machinist would talk me out of it, to a person they all said that I would never be happy with it.
.

 

[Brad]

My suggestion on a lathe is to save up and get what you want up front. My wife told me no getting a smaller lathe and in a few years telling her I needed something bigger.
Much of what a lathe can do is up to the user to figure out how. I spent about 2 hours getting this set up running. Saves me a ton of effort trimming the cases. It also taught me more about how I can do things.

 

[Brian Palmer]

What do you have? I am thinking one of the table top size one save space. Something like the Gizzly G8688. It would only be for minor work like brass trimming for me. The neighbor across the road is a real deal machine shop. Any significant work I use him anyway.

 

[Brad]

For just brass trimming something like that could work. Make sure it has 2 piece jaws or a setup like I used isn't possible.
I have a PM 1236
http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM1236.html
It will do about anything I can ever imagine I need to do.

 

[358156 hp]

No, this is the ultimate case trimmer:

 

[Brad]

My case trimmer can be used to make one of those. Can it make a lathe?

 

[358156 hp]

My case trimmer can be used to make one of those. Can it make a lathe?

Honey Badger don't care...