K&M neck turning tool

Will

Well-Known Member
Just wanting to know if anyone is familiar with the K&M neck turning tool?

Looks like a simple piece of equipment that doesn’t take up much room.
 

S Mac

Sept. 10, 2021 Steve left us. You are missed.
I have one that is several years old, works well. Doesn't take much room. It does take the thin shellholders.
 

Will

Well-Known Member
I’ve still been looking. I’ve read about every neck turning tool available and I can’t make up my mind.

The K&M seems nice expect for having to Size my necks down to fit the mandrel.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
you have to do that with all of them.
you want the mandrel to be a snugish fit so the cutter can rotate around it evenly.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Sinclair sells a specific expander for use before turning. Like fiver said, you want the right tension. A good lube helps a bunch.
 

Ian

Notorious member
A lathe and some 3/8" tool steel bar helps a bunch, too ;)

Buying the specific expander may or may not get the brass anywhere close to the size you need to fit the turning mandrel, depending on state of anneal and phase of the moon. I personally won't have a neck turning tool that doesn't bolt to a bench, hold the case with a collet chuck, and have at least a decent hand crank on it if not a power attachment. Sometimes turning jobs get nasty and take a lot of power. The lathe-type tools that have a single-point cutter and a helical feed-control collar are invaluable for some things.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Sinclair makes a neat little tool that holds the case by the head and rim and let's you pin it with a cordless drill. Takes the work out of neck turning. Without a tool like that it is a real wrist buster.
 

DHD

Active Member
I don't use the K&M tool, but do have the 21st Century lathe. I agree to the earlier post about using a bench mounted powered unit for ease of use and accuracy of the cut.

I do use a lot of other K&M tools and they are all of excellent quality but liked the 21st Century neck turn stuff so that's what I bought.

I tend to anneal after turning as I get a smoother cut with stiffer brass. As I said, I'm not familiar with the K&M turn stuff, but I paid extra for the carbide (or coated) arbors to aid in the process because my set up is powdered.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
I use the RCBS equivalent, maybe not quite as good but less $. Case head in drill check, no shell holder. Doesn't work for rimmed cases that way.
 
I bought the Hornady neck turning tool sometime back. Never liked using it much, it's setup to work with an electric drill and the thing gets kind of clumsy. I had it mounted to my bench and the whole thing worked as designed, but was just plain clutzy.

Thought about building a vertical "L frame" type mount to set it up in my drill press...nah, too much effort.

Then I got the idea to take it apart, remove all the good parts from the frame, and mounted those in my lathe, shell holder stem in the tailstock and cutter assembly in a 3 jaw chuck. Sometimes the light isn't as bright as it should be...just too simple to have not seen at first I guess.

This works like a charm. It's actually a pleasure to run, and much faster, without all the fiddling around. You do have to turn the lathe off to adjust the cutter depth, but that's no big deal. Once set, you can leave it on for the duration.

Chris
 
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Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Well you can count on that being STRAIGHT!

Looks really good. A VERY HEAVY DUTY reloading tool you have there. I have one like it.
Plenty of power to trim a neck.:)

Bill