Power Case Trimmers

wasrupzuk said:
Impressive looking bit of kit with an impressively large price point.
Let us know how you like it seeing you have experience with some other high end trimmers.
Also, as someone who hasn’t upgraded (yet) to this expense level of trimmer I’d love to know what it does better for my dollars over other more frugal alternatives such as the most basic Lee trimmer (no moving parts, no adjustments), a manual brass lathe (cheaper albeit slower than one of these) or the Lee Quick Trim system.
I’ve used all of these three and found quality and consistency is good; the manual lathe takes some setting up, and the basic Lee I feel like there’s just too much in my hands plus slow(ish) so I’ve migrated to the quick trim and it meets my needs of quality of cut (I hand chamfer and deburr), speed and consistent length. All three also take less space to store between uses and for me that’s a thing.
So given the popularity of these high end trimmers I know I’m missing something, I’m just not sure what.
The RCBS looks like it would be finicky to change cartridges and time taking to reset back to the same length after.
The chip management looks as messy as any, the collet system looks like it could breed inconsistency and why do I feel destroying brass during cartridge swaps resetting the cutters is a likely outcome.
Not trying to be a fanboy of the cheaper alternatives, or look down on these fancy anodized cutters but it eludes me as to what they deliver for the expense…sell me on upgrading, please.
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I just brought my rcbs unit for the first test drive. For the record you can buy extra cutters and leave them setup for each calibre and just swap them out as needed. I timed myself on the very first setup. It took me 2:37 to do the initial setup. I trimmed one piece of brass but it didn’t have enough chamfer on it so I tried another adjustment. I put a piece of brass in the collet and pushed it up against the flat blade/length timmer portion and adjusted the slidestop to establish a “zero” for the length of cartridge to the flat blade. Then I backed out the slidestop 0.006-0.007” so the brass was just off the cutter and pushed the chamfer bladeds in against the case mouth to get a slight chamfer and tightened the lock screws back down. This total process took 5:05.

I then trimmed 100 pieces of 223 remington. It took 10:21 for the whole batch to be trimmed to length and chamfered. This is way faster than doing them by hand for those of us who are trimming every firing. I pulled a random 10 casings and measured each one. They were all within roughly 0.001”. Maybe the odd one was 0.0015” and I suspect this will probably get a bit better as I get better feel for the machine because there is some flex in it and if you lean on it you can take a bigger cut fairly easily.

Settimg the length was super easy. Put a case in the collet and wind the slidestop in until it takes a small cut. Measure case, then turn the micrometer in how many more thou you want to take off.

And I’m printing a brass catcher out of pla as I type. I’ll post a pic if it works out.
 
PlinkerFrog said:
I use the Frankford Arsenal case prep center. It is a cheaper option but I find that it works quite well. The design is very simple , just the fact that you do not need to lock the case in a holder greatly speeds up the process.

https://www.frankfordarsenal.com/ca...case-trim-and-prep-center/903156.html#start=1
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Same boat for me! I settled in the Lyman Express Trimmer and no complaints so far.
The retail on some of these “higher end” trimmers are insane!
 
I did my first large batch on my Hornady power trimmer 3way. I ran 240 cases through it. I was satisfied with it, everything worked well.

I do recall that setting up the cutter head is a pain in the butt. But it was previously setup so I wasn't feeling that pain today.
 
Bustercluck said:
Here’s the trimmings catcher. I was trying to print it in two separate colours for contrast, but my printer only liked blue for some reason.
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Did you try drying it?
Left open some filaments are very hydroscopic.
Thanks for your post; while still not sold on it I could appreciate the saved time if I had that kind of happy money kicking around without a use.
 
wasrupzuk said:
Did you try drying it?
Left open some filaments are very hydroscopic.
Thanks for your post; while still not sold on it I could appreciate the saved time if I had that kind of happy money kicking around without a use.
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For me it came down to “how many extra minutes do I have to spend at work before I save those minutes at my reloading bench?”
 
Bustercluck said:
For me it came down to “how many extra minutes do I have to spend at work before I save those minutes at my reloading bench?”
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Interesting perspective, I never considered that viewpoint.
Limited sad time that is likely mandatory to create undefined (but limitless) happy time, albeit in small increments.
I like that…it makes me want it but mandrel expanders are next…
 
I own a Hendersen at it is an excellent trimmer. My understanding is they make the new RCBS and that one has some features that really appeal to me, like the mircometer.

If you get the Hendersen then make sure to buy a few bolts. You can then use lock nuts to set them to specific trim lengths, makes the process really fast and really easy. You would have to buy some cutter heads for specific calibre (note calibre not cartridge). So 6.5 works on all 6.5 mm across the board as does 30 cal or 22 cal.
 
Is it repeatable? Like ,do you have to apply the same amount of pressure on it for every case?
 
HunztheMighty said:
I own a Hendersen at it is an excellent trimmer. My understanding is they make the new RCBS and that one has some features that really appeal to me, like the mircometer.

If you get the Hendersen then make sure to buy a few bolts. You can then use lock nuts to set them to specific trim lengths, makes the process really fast and really easy. You would have to buy some cutter heads for specific calibre (note calibre not cartridge). So 6.5 works on all 6.5 mm across the board as does 30 cal or 22 cal.
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My Buddy here has the Henderson and its a Good trimmer BUT like YOU say the RCBS is improved - and MUCH Cheaper here in Kanada :p
 
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