Preferred method of trimming brass in high volume?

[guzma393]

TL;DR What is your preferred means of trimming high 223 volume brass for plinking/general range use?

Greetings mdshooters, I'm looking for a better way to trim brass for 223. I'm currently chucking shells in a lyman EZ trim drill adapter and chamfer/deburring with a forster tool (also chucked on a drill). After ~3000 cases trimmed, it's not cutting as cleanly as before. Will possibly buy one of those "worlds cheapest trimmers" on ebay as a replacement.

I've seen various methods to trim/debur brass, and I'm intrigued of 3 way cutters such as girauds, trim it 2s, lee quick trim, etc.

A couple of peers told me I also tried experimenting with using wet tumbling as a means to remove the debur, but it leaves a "peened" edge that still needs to be deburred off. I wet tumbled a batch of 300 for ~30 mins or so. Possibly need to tumble it longer?

 

[Speed3]

I have the giraud and would never go back! It cranks through some brass!

 

[guzma393]

I have the giraud and would never go back! It cranks through some brass!

What rpm do you run yours on? I've seen people mount them on bench grinders and drill presses. Would a hand drill work?

 

[erwos]

I have a WCT for trimming 223. It does what it's supposed to. I have it chucked up on a cheapo power drill. Problem with it is that you've still got to deburr and chamfer, and so it's three steps. I definitely will be replacing it with a Giraud Tri-way trimmer to save myself the extra time in the short term, especially since my 223 loading habits have greatly increased.

I also have a RCBS Power Trim Pro on the bench with the three way cutter, set up for 308. I am honestly not impressed with it. It does not do a great job of cutting a perfectly concentric OAL (albeit precise neck length doesn't matter a whole lot for what I do), it takes up a lot of room, it's not all that fast, the parts reliability is meh, changing it over to a new caliber sucks if it's much longer/shorter, and there's a lot of bits to keep track of and manage. I will probably suck it up and buy a Giraud or Henderson to replace it down the line. For now, though, it does the job, and since I load a lot of 308, it is nice to have set up and ready to go.

TL;DR, go buy the Giraud tri-way cutter. It is the fastest way to do what you need to do.

 

[kstone803]

I have the giraud and would never go back! It cranks through some brass!

I have a gracey with Giraud upgrades. Best money spent ever on reloading.

 

[Topher]

I use trimmers from Possum Hollow and put it on a drill press.
https://www.possumhollowproducts.com/KWICK_CASE_TRIMMERS.html

 

[Speed3]

What rpm do you run yours on? I've seen people mount them on bench grinders and drill presses. Would a hand drill work?

Sorry I have the giraud power trimmer, not the one that fits a drill. I used a WFT (hand held) prior and it was a little tough on the hands. The 3 way giraud seems to be based in a similary design to WFT and would certainly work on a hand drill. My hands would get tired around 100 or so and I needed a brake.

https://www.giraudtool.com/giraud-power-trimmer.html

 

[tallen702]

I've used this to great high-volume effect: https://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-Universal-Construction-Functionality/dp/B07KT8D31Q/

Universal, so unlike the PH and many others, you buy one cry once.

 

[HogCommander]

+1 on the Giraud...worth every penny if you're trimming thousands of cases!

 

[guzma393]

Thanks for the replies. Consensus seems to lean towards the giraud. Ill definitely look into that when I get into more mass loading. Anyone had experience with the Lee quick trim die with power drill attachment mounted on a progressive? I feel like this would be ideal for a budget minded mass volume trim/debur.

Another route is to chuck that on my Lee LM and resize and trim in one pass. Like this:

https://youtu.be/d2uDJWC5D7U

The only downside is brass shavings will go all over the press and bench, but that's what a shop vac and compressor is for after trimming a bunch of cases in one go.

 

[erwos]

So, my load process for 223 is this:
1. Clean
2. Size/decap (you could separate these out)
3. Trim
4. Chamfer
5. Deburr
6. Swage primer pocket (EXTREMELY important with 223 given how much LC is around)
7. Prime
8. Powder insertion
9. Bullet seat
10. Crimp as necessary

As far as I know, no one makes an on-press solution to do 4 and 5. Since that is the case, if I can do those two things simultaneously with the trim, I really lose no time. That's why on-press trimming is kind of meh until someone comes up with a way to chamfer and deburr as well. You can away with not chamfering and deburring on bulk blaster 223 that isn't going father than 100yds and you don't care if it's 2 MOA, but it's not all that great. Some people use a Lyman M-die to do a touch of expansion to the case neck to avoid shaving the bullet, and that probably works at least some of the time.

 

[erwos]

*double tap*

 

[guzma393]

As far as I know, no one makes an on-press solution to do 4 and 5. Since that is the case, if I can do those two things simultaneously with the trim, I really lose no time. That's why on-press trimming is kind of meh until someone comes up with a way to chamfer and deburr as well.

I thought the press mounted Lee quick trim chamfers/deburs/trims cases in one go with its tri-blade. I hear mixed results on people loving them or hating them. I might give it a try with this process:

1. Decap brass on progressive to expose primer pockets and inspect cases during pass
2. SS wet tumble Clean and lube the cases
3. Run through progressive to Size/decap in station 1 with a F/L, optionally small base size in station 2 with a S/B, trim/chamfer/debur in station 4 with the lee quick trim.
4. Swage primer pocket on single stage. After this, i might dry tumble the processed brass to further to clean up lube to prevent powder sticking on neck, but this is optional.
5. Prime (i hand prime)
6. Swap progressive head for Powder insertion, Bullet seat, Crimp as necessary as the final step.

 

[erwos]

I should have specified "powered solution".

If you can make it work consistently on a progressive, that's great. You will need a VERY high spin speed to make it work correctly. I think something like the Lee APP would be amazing for this, except they bizarrely design it so you can't use a powered trimmer on it.

 

[alucard0822]

I use the Frankford arsenal case prep center. Basically a powered cutter that indexes on the shoulder ala possum hollow/WFT. Has 3 other stations for chamfer/deburr, and usually a primer pocket trimmer(to clean up any LC brass that made it past swaging).

 

[inkd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=


This is essentially the same setup I have for my 300Blk.

I had a motor from a Gracey trimmer setup that I had sent to Giraud for upgrades.

I ordered a stand and board from Gracey, got a coupler from Amazon and that was all she wrote.

If I had to do it over, I would buy the motor from Giraud. His runs a little smoother and he adds an inline on and off switch. Although, if you are handy with electronics, I don't imagine it being that hard to wire in a switch.

I am not handy with electronics.

 

[teratos]

I've used this to great high-volume effect: https://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-Universal-Construction-Functionality/dp/B07KT8D31Q/

Universal, so unlike the PH and many others, you buy one cry once.

Thanks! Just bought one!

 

[Scrounger]

When it comes to trimming of brass the question is how much and how much.

How much brass needs to be trimmed and how much money are you willing to spend.

Another consideration is what kind of tooling do you presently have.

If all that is needed is to trim brass, the Giraud trimmer is a good choice.

If there are other things that will need to be done, sizing, removing crimp, there are better choices.

I have processed quite a bit of 5.56/223 brass on a Dillon 550. I use an RCBS lube/decapping die in station one. Station two is blank. Station three has a Dillon size/trim die with a RT1200 case trimmer. Station four is blank. Then the brass goes into a tumbler to remove the lube.

I find the Dillon trimmer trims the case mouths clean enough. What sharpness that may remain is taken care in the tumbler. A factory crimp die takes care of the outside of the case mouth.

If I were going to set up again to use either a Dillon 550 or 750, I would do a few things differently. Station one would have a universal decapping die. Station two would use the RCBS lube die without the decapping pin. Then the size/ trim die would follow. Then followed with a neck expanding die.

I’m presently upgrading my tooling and that is why I haven’t changed out my 550 tooling.

For motorized trimmers, the Dillon RT1200 has been replaced with the RT1500. They’re not in stock anywhere. The same goes for trim dies.

The Honey Badger Trimmer Adapter has nice reviews. It is usually used with a Bosch router model number 1617. It can use size/trim dies from several different companies.

 

[atblis]

Yep, if you use sharp cutters, an expander after trimming, and then some tumbling, the Dillon setup is the easiest way to size/trim brass. With a case feeder and auto indexing, it's a very good option. You can most definitely do better than 2 MOA with this setup.

 

[Silverlax]

I use the little crow gunworks. It’s very fast and easy to switch calibers with the new mode.