A little info.

I use a case trimmer called The World's Finest Trimmer in a Craftsman cordless drill.  Works great on bottlenecked cases.

For straight walled cases, I'm using the Lee case gage trimmer, with shellholder chucked up in the same aforementioned Craftsman cordless drill.  It works pretty good as well.

I want to build a dedicated tool for this task, however.  My goal is to have a small AC electric motor mounted to my reloading bench with a drill chuck attached to it.  While I know there's a guy on ebay making shaft adapters for CTS and WFT trimmers, I'd rather just have a drill chuck so I could easily switch between my WFT and my Lee trimmer tools.

My understanding is that I need the motor, a shaft arbor (I think this is the right term), and a drill chuck.  Here's what I'm looking at getting:

1.  AC Electric motor: Dayton 1/4 HP 115v motor.  Has a 1/2 inch shaft with a flat machined in it for set screws.  I'm a little unclear on what 'split phase' means, though.  I need something that I can wire with a common power tool replacement cord (something like this)

2.  Shaft arbor: Dayton Shaft Arbor 1/2-20 Right Hand.  Fits 1/2 inch shaft size, appears to mount with set screws.  I'm unclear on whether having right hand or left hand threads is appropriate here.

3.  Drill chuck: Dayton Keyless Drill Chuck 1/2 in.  Seems to be made specifically to work with the shaft arbor above.  Again, I'm not sure if right handed threading is appropriate here.

So, what do you guys think?  Have I chosen the correct parts, and will this actually work?

Not sure about the parts list. However, looking at what you are wanting to do, would it be easier to get a corded drill, cannablize it, mount the motor with the arbor and chuck on a piece of 2x4, and wire an on/off switch into the cord? Just spitballing here.

ETA: Maybe wire in a dimmer switch instead of an on/off switch to control the speed?

It's not a bad idea, but I have no idea what I would need to do the wiring.

ETA: or for that matter, how to mount it.  I'm going to assume the motor out of a corded drill from commie freight tools isn't going to have a straightforward way to bolt it down to a 2x4.

Yea, mounting it might be a PITA. I would probably just wander the aisles at Lowes until something jumped out at me. I wonder if you could mod the body of the drill to still hold the motor, and mount the body to a 2x4.

As far as wiring (and I am no electrician, so take what I say accordingly) I would open up the body, remove the trigger, and replace it with a switch, using the same wires.

You've got me thinking now. I might just try this and report back with the results

Again, just spitballing

I like your style.

Anyway, I don't know if this would make it easier or harder, but whatever you choose to use to turn it on or control the speed could be built into an outlet, and an electric drill just plugged into it. Just run a power cord into maybe a double junction box, with a switch on one side and the outlet on the other. The drill wouldn't need to be disassembled. Of course, I don't really know how they work on the inside so I don't know if this would work.

Or, for no more than it costs, maybe plug a drill into this. Hmm, might not quite be enough.

I know you said you wanted a dedicated tool, but after adding up the cost of all your items, I think I would look at something like this. Or keep your eyes open, I found a small drill press at a yard sale, paid $15.00 for it.

But if you want to build it, I think you're on the right track. I think drill chucks will be right hand thread and you could just screw that motor down to a piece of plywood.

couple of big stainless steel hose clamps would hold a drill body to a 2x4..
I like the idea of the foot switch too, along with a controller for power tools to control the drills speed would be handy too.

I am considering just that, commie freight tools has a similar one to the Skil press for $60.  It's just that I'd rather have something horizontally mounted as opposed to vertical.  Holding cases "up" in a drill press will get uncomfortable if I'm doing about 500 or so at a time.

It's probably going to be cheaper to get a $30 commie freight tools corded drill and cannibalize it.  If I have to hold it down with zip ties, that will be fine.  I'll probably disassemble it and mount the motor somehow to a 2x4 as has been suggested and rewire it just because one of the goals I have is to make the tool itself hands free.  The point of all this is to be able to turn on my power tool and leave it running while I handle cases with my free hands.

Of course, one good thing about the drill press, is that it won't be as loud as a corded drill just running away either  What I really need is an upside down drill press, so I could feed cases "down" onto my tool (which is more or less how a giraud trimmer is arranged IIRC).

I'm going to scheme on this idea a little more and probably try to start work on it this weekend.

I just bought a drill press from craigslist and it's been working great with the WFT.

The only bad part of this is that brass shaving gets all over the place.

I have read that putting a electrical tape around the exit shaving hole would work but haven't tried it yet.

On the drill press couldn't you rig up a simple jog to hold the shell plate?

This way you would use your right hand to load/unload cases into your jig, and your left to operate the press.

The jig could be as simple as a 2x4 with a cut out to hold the shell plate.

Another idea would be to take a 2x4 drill out holes in a straight line (.223 for example use a 9.6mm drill bit). This way you could preload a number of cases and simply shift it left to right. You could even set a bucket under the press on the right hand side to left the trimmed cases fall into the bucket once they were clear of the drill press table.

Depending on your woodworking skills you could cut a notch into the underside of the 2x4 to hold a pice of wood/plastic on the bottom to prevent cases from falling through. The purpose would be so you could preload 5-10 2x4s with cases. When you put them on the drill press all you would have to do is slide the plastic out.

Just random brainstorming here.

Found this on an old thread: Mechanized case prep for the cheap

Angus6's set up, pictured third to last on the first page, is what I'd really like to have.  I followed his link and couldn't find the motors he was using.  The store he linked too has plenty to choose from, however.  His apparently only cost like $5, would like to find out which ones they are.  He apparently made his own couplings, which is something that is way the hell beyond my abilities, even if I had the tools to do it (which I don't).  Thus the whole thing where I found the couplings on Grainger's website.

That's really the achilles heal of this whole thing...coupling my tools to the motor's shaft.  The rest of it is easy.  And one of my issues is that I don't even know the right terms for everything.  It took me two weeks to figure out that what I needed to mount a drill chuck to a motor shaft was called an arbor.  Once I knew that, I found what I think is the right part in minutes.

The motor you selected has a keyed shaft.  Your arbor uses set screws, not a key.  This is a (minor) mistake.  

Those long bolts sticking out the front will have to be dealt with, too.

If you are going direct coupled to the chuck, why not get a motor with a threaded shaft and screw the chuck directly to it?  Alternatively, get a plain shaft and thread it, then screw the chuck on.

Lastly, why a 1/4 HP motor?  It seems a bit of overkill.

Just buy a drill press with a 1/2" chuck and use that.  You'll be miles ahead.

So I would need a motor with a round shaft if I'm using an arbor with set screws then?  Maybe I misunderstood, but I was under the impression that a set screw arbor needed a shaft with a flat on it for proper secure mounting.

ETA: I just realized that the motor I was looking at doesn't actually have a flat on its shaft.  Nevermind.



Not a bad idea, but I haven't been able to find any motors like that.  The only ones I've seen are pool pump motors, which are even more overkill horsepower wise, and no one lists what the shaft threading on them is.



Way beyond my abilities even if I had the tools to do it, which I don't.



I might be searching for the wrong equipment here.  Basically I'm looking at AC electric motors, general purpose, and then finding the cheapest thing available.  1/4 hp seems to be the bottom of that particular stack.



Not a great solution.  With a drill press, I'm feeding cases "upward" into the trimmer.  Not really a problem if I'm doing a few, but will get uncomfortable if I'm doing 1,000 or so.  I'm going to have either a horizontal mount or an arrangement where I feed cases down onto the trimmer.  For this reason, a drill press is out unless you know of one that is upside down compared to a normal drill press (I've looked for just that, btw, and didn't find anything).

I would suggest you look around a bit more.  Do you know of any surplus electronics places in your area (look in the yellow pages for a location near you).  Your parts cost about $150.  Even so, they don't appear to be ideal.

The motor you selected is 1735 rpm, which is quite high.  The idea of using a drill motor is a good one because they have the reduction gearing, variable speed and chuck, all in one.



You can buy a 1/2" die and handle for about the same price as your arbor at Grainger.  When you are done, you have a tool that is very handy to have for future projects.  

$16 tap & die set (includes 1/2-20 die)



$10 keyed chuck (1/2-20 tpi)

These are just ideas, options, alternatives for you to consider.  I was trying to find lower cost options that would also be a "cleaner" design for you.

I am clearly a little out of my depth here, I need to do more thinking about this  But let me ask you about using a corded drill motor.  Are those motors really intended to be simply turned on and ran for extended periods of time?  I just wonder if running a drill motor that way might not cause issues with it.  If that's not a concern, I've already scoped out a corded drill from harbor freight with the right size chuck that would be a perfect donor.

Switching gears a bit, the motor I was looking at is clearly complete overkill for the task.  What hp and rpm rating would be more appropriate?  I know my Craftsman cordless drill runs 750 RPM and it certainly seems to be plenty sufficient for my WFT trimmer.  Is that the range that would work best?

I don't know of any surplus electronics stores in my area, unfortunately.

I don't suppose there's any way to easily mount a Skil or Harbor Freight benchtop press upside down is there.  That would actually be really convenient.  And also...I'd have a drill press.  I've never found a situation where I had too many tools, and this is one I don't currently have.

I have a  motor (unknown HP) that came off a small tile wet saw.  Comes with the cord and switch.  I was also thinking of some kind of trimmer or using it for a SS pin brass tumbler but dont have the time.  I'll try to get a picture posted but I'd consider selling it for the cost of shipping and the price of a good burger.  It runs fast and I dont have the time to mess with it.  Should fit in a medium flat rate box.