Power Case Timmers

[9th Company]

I'm not talking about the more basic RCBS, Hornady, Lee which take measurements from the base but those more advanced ones that measure from the shoulder AND chamfer/debur your brass. In light of this, I think these are the worthwhile choices:

The contenders:

1. Giraud (http://www.giraudtool.com/prod02.htm)
$440 plus shipping for one caliber, seems to be best by review
made to order, at least a 12 week wait

2. Gracey (http://www.matchprep.com/trimmer.htm)
$335 plus free shipping for one caliber

3. Little Crow Gunworks (http://www.littlecrowgunworks.com/wft.html)
$70 plus ship. Just the head, need a motor. Some chamfering may be required.
http://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-...-case-trimmer/
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/201...inest-trimmer/

[CMV]

Re: Power Case Timmers

I use the possum hollow for .223 and will for 300BLK when I get around to buying one. Works well and really fast but does require a separate chamfer and debur step. It indexes off the shoulder.

I thought the WFT worked the same way and needed the additional step to chamfer/deburr? Not sure since I don't have one.

I prefer to chamfer bottlenecks in a separate step anyway. I put a medium chamfer on the case mouth - a little more than 'just enough to clean up the cut'. I don't expand the mouth at all and get good neck tension, no need to crimp, and probably go a bit longer before splitting the neck from working that area less.

Since I don't trim pistol brass (except for full house 357mag), speed is my main concern. I'll live with ±.002 if that means quickly trimming a large (500-1000) batch of brass. I can always use a hand trimmer when I want absolute precision, but not for plinking ammo which is 95% of what I load.

[9th Company]

Re: Power Case Timmers

I've used the WFT a bit and it does a partial chamfer/debur. In the instructions, you are supposed to turn it a bit right before pulling the brass out and it does partially, which is OK for me, since I have boat tail bullets and it does not affect me.

So given the wait times of the other trimmers and the price of the WFT, I can live with the WFT.

[jefferson101]

Re: Power Case Timmers

A cheap drill press, or even a Dremel drill press, will do the same thing a whole lot cheaper. Set your height and start feeding them through.

'Nuttin to it.



Granted, you don't get a chamfer on the case mouth, but you didn't pay a whole crap ton of money either. You can either put that in by hand or put the chamfer tool in the press when you are through length sizing them.

[CMV]

Re: Power Case Timmers

Something that's indexing off the shoulder is more consistent than something that's indexing off the base. Might not matter if it's a lot of same HS brass with same # of firings, but for a lot of mixed HS brass some 1x, some 5x fired, I think you get more consistency in the batch indexing off the shoulder.

I really dislike case prep though. So whatever makes it the easiest/fastest is what I'm doing . I haven't found a way to trim a large batch of .223 faster than with the PH trimmer on a cordless drill. I don't even measure - just run every case through the trimmer. If they don't need trimmed, it doesn't do anything but that is just as fast or faster than putting calipers on the case to see if it needs trimmed.

[9th Company]

Re: Power Case Timmers

http://www.preciseshooter.com/blog/CaseTrimmers.aspx

This is a review of the Giraud versus the new Frankford Arsenal Power Case trimmer.