I bought a bunch of used reloading equipment 25 years or so ago, and this case trimmer was included. Attached File


I don’t think I’ve ever used it before today. I’m converting 223 brass to 300BO. When I lock the case in the trimmer, it doesn’t line up right with the pilot on the trimmer side. Spinning the case holder makes it go the opposite way, so it looks like the  case holder may be the cause of that. The manual cranking takes way too long and is too much work when removing a lot of brass. Should I try to rig this one to run with a drill or is there a better way?

put the pilot in before locking the shell holder.

The better way is to get rid of it, even a cheapie Lee trimmer is better than that.

There's too many trimmers you can buy that's designed for a drill that's a lot faster than that, like Possum Hollow, the WFT.

Ultimately you'll want a Giraud trimmer or perhaps the Dillon

I have similar trimmer. I've found Lee chucked in drill is less messy, faster, and less prone to case shortening mistakes. A drill will work with your trimmer, it, like mine is a pain. This is my opinion.

Put it in the trash, and get a FA Case Prep Center.

They are reasonably priced, and fairly convenient. I've used it to trim/convert probably 12k pieces of brass now...only had it a few years but it seems to be holding up, and it's a lot cheaper than the Giraud.  It doesn't pain me enough now that I have the FA Prep Center to warrant dropping $500+ on the Giraud. Maybe one day I'll change my mind though.

This one? it doesn’t seem to trim cases to length. I would like a power chamfer tool.

Check this out:  Worlds Finest Trimmer

Chuck it in a drill, put the drill in a vise, trim 20-30 cases a minute.  I have two, one for 300BLK and one for .223 and they work great.

It's called the case trim and prep center $153 on Amazon

Sorry maybe I called it the wrong thing. This is what I’m talking about:

If you want to trim, chamfer, and debur in one step, you need a 3 way cutter head.  I have a Giraud, Dillon, and LE Wilson lathe trimmer.  The Giraud is my preferred trimmer.

Is that a universal shell holder?

$143 at Midway USA

I saw that one in a how to video last night. The link they provided was dead so I figured it was no longer made. Looks pretty slick, but though more $$, the FA unit looks like the way to go since it will do so much more.

No, it’s a Lyman X26

Meant to ask if it had a universal shell holder.  Know from past experiences that I sometimes have to insert the case multiple times to get it to center correctly.

Don't trash it.  Give it to a new reloader who has to be able to trim but does not have the means.

If you were an Alabama football fan, I would welcome you to try the Giraud and watch football.

I tried more than a few gadgets that did not work. When I took the Giraud out of the box and tried it,, after about ten cases, I asked myself why did I wait this long?  The machine is that good.

Most people won't pay Giraud's price for the trimmer.  It is fine tool, nonetheless.  It keeps me safe and is easy to use.

I made an adjustment to my mini chop saw so that I’m not trying to remove so much material with the case trimmer. It’s not so bad now. I’ve been spending WAY too much $$$ on guns and reloading lately so I’m sticking with what I have for now. Power trimmer goes to my wish list.

I recently converted a bunch of .223 to .300blk.
I too have spent way too much on gunstuff lately so I bought a Lee power trimmer die for my press.  
It works pretty well once I figured out its quirks and was cheap for now. I use my 12v impact driver.  
I like that it indexes off the case head and not the shoulder.

I also have a mini cutoff saw and a squirrel daddy jig.
I cut my brass a little long this last time.  I read a ton of how to's and they all say to cut just past the shoulder.
Well that left them around 1375.  Way too long

Next time I am going to cut it as close to 1358-1360 as possible.
Reforming will lengthen it just a bit and I can barely trim it back down. Or not at all.
I have some Federal AE and the brass measures 1.353" so there is some wiggle room.  
I just checked some Wolf steel as well and the case length is 1.363".  Thats some variance.
I believe the spec is 1.368-.020".

I think I read that the spec was 1.348-358 and it was best to be on the short side as some chambers might not like the long end of the range. Mine were coming out to 1.352. I only converted 50 or so... don't want to do a bunch only to find out I did something wrong. Still waiting on my M die to show up the I can make some complete rounds.

ETA I'm using my PCed cast 225 gr bullets.

I just bought one because of this thread. It is really nice and easy, much better than the manual Lyman one I had been using.

Only potential downside is there's no way to use separate toolheads. If you switch calibers (for example 30-06 to 5.56), you'll have to set the length up each time. Not a huge deal as setting the length is pretty easy.

A few months back I ordered the Lyman case trim Xpress.  

https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Brass-Smith-Xpress-Trimmer/dp/B07MY1V9YX


It's definitely better than doing them by hand.  While I haven't used any other power trimmers, I'd say there are things that I like about it that the other ones didn't offer or cost a lot more to offer it, there are also things I wish it did do, or at least did better.  I didn't want to have to move over to my drill press to trim the brass & certainly didn't want to start eating up space on my loading bench with a drill press, so that is one of the strong points for this one.  It comes with multiple sized bushings so that you can do most all of the more popular calibers & lot of other less common ones too, which some of the ones I looked at only did one caliber & some were very expensive just to add another caliber.  The trim depth adjustment is easy to adjust, with very fine adjustment capability.  I like that the cutter is variable speed, even though I usually have it set at max speed or really close to it.  I like that it takes up roughly the same size foot print as the manual RCBS trim-pro it's replacing.

Now for the things I don't like or some minor nuisances.   I wish that the speed control knob was mounted somewhere to make it so that you could mount it in any direction & still see the knob.  I wanted to place it so I put the brass in with my right hand, which meant I had to mount it to my bench with the knob facing away from me.  I also wish there was an arrow or some sort of indicator letting you know which way to turn the trim depth knob to go shorter/longer.   I finally just painted one on myself.   It doesn't deburr or chamfer either like some of the others do, but I have a cordless drill & can do them that way to save my hands from doing it.  It would also be nice if they had a quick on/off switch instead of just the speed knob being the on off switch.  I added a foot pedal so I can just leave it at the speed setting I want & turn it on & off just by stepping on the pedal each time. The last thing I've noticed is the tube the cutter sits in & that you put the bushing & brass in wobbles a bit too much, some wobble between the bushing & brass too, but that's pretty minor & less bothering than the whole tube that extends out of the main body having so much play right out of the box.  The material seems almost like plastic in that area too, but it's probably aluminum coated with some coating.

While it might sound like I hate it, I don't.  In fact if it wasn't for the wobble all the other stuff would really be mainly nuisance type stuff & maybe I'm even being overly worried about that too.  I would say if that tube was made of steel & didn't have the wobble, I think it would be a truly impressive tool.  Fix some of the other minor, mainly ergonomic type problems & would be a really kick ass product.

Yep, it's not perfect, but I have found it to be right on the intersection of dollars spent and relative performance.

Giraud is better, Henderson is better, but they are both 4-6x the price.

I may upgrade to the Giraud. I have a TON of brass to prep...but the FA Case Prep center has done me well for a LONG time.

I'm very happy with the Giraud that you chuck up to your own power drill. I'm already drilling/swaging the primer pockets; I trim one end then the other end.