Frankford Co-Axial? Killer deal

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Hello,

Does anyone have any first hand experience with the Frankford Co-axial press? I saw theyre on sale today at Cabelas and I’m thinking this might be worth the upgrade? Similar concept to the Forster I would imagine?

h ttps://www.cabelas.ca/product/125574/frankford-co-axial-reloading-press
 
Surely they have "float" in all the right ways like that of the Forster.
I'm sure they will make ammo as straight as a Forster.

And surely $100 off their regular price, now is a good time to buy one.

If it were my choice, however, I would go with a Forster for 2 reasons:

While I use only Forster rings in my Forster Co-Ax (I am type A personality), a Forster will pretty much accept most die rings made by other manufactures (RCBS, Lee).
Frankford uses a proprietary "die block".... I would NOT want that at all.

Its a new press and it may take a while for other companies to make after-market goodies for it.
For the Foster Co-Ax, I have the Inline Fabrication High Riser Mount, the Ergonomic Handle, the LED lights.
And there is all kinds of other "bling" for the Forster out there........ the Frankford -maybe not (yet) ?
 
I didn't look it up until now, but Cabela's sell Frankford die blocks in 3 packs of $30

So the press is a couple hundred dollars cheaper (at the moment) than the difficult to acquire Forster Co-Ax.
However, if a guy has a lot of dies already, then there is an added cost of $10 /per die to make them compatible with the Frankford... could add up to a lot of additional cost quickly.

If your existing dies already have RCBS, Lee, Hornady ... (or Forster), then you are already to go with a Forster.

I bought a 12 pack of Forster Rings from Hirsch Precision for $63 when I upgrade to a Forster .... but was really unnecessary (I'm type A) as I am sure that my existing RCBS and Hornady rings would have worked just fine
 
cslater said:
Hi, great question and I am looking for a press as well so interested in the responses. I am starting from scratch so don't have any previous parts to worry about.
Click to expand...

If by previous parts you are referring effectively to dies, then I still wouldn't recommend this you were new to reloading.

If you buy an RCBS/Hornday/Lee die set that cost $65, then you already get rings with it that should pretty much work in every other press on the market (Forster included).

If you havethe Frankford press, then you will still add $20 to $30 to the cost of your die set (past, present, and future) because you need their proprietary die rings.
 
Munkey1973 said:
I didn't look it up until now, but Cabela's sell Frankford die blocks in 3 packs of $30

So the press is a couple hundred dollars cheaper (at the moment) than the difficult to acquire Forster Co-Ax.
However, if a guy has a lot of dies already, then there is an added cost of $10 /per die to make them compatible with the Frankford... could add up to a lot of additional cost quickly.

If your existing dies already have RCBS, Lee, Hornady ... (or Forster), then you are already to go with a Forster.

I bought a 12 pack of Forster Rings from Hirsch Precision for $63 when I upgrade to a Forster .... but was really unnecessary (I'm type A) as I am sure that my existing RCBS and Hornady rings would have worked just fine
Click to expand...

I have a mix selection of dies as far as brands. Mostly Redding at this point. I think I’ll just grab because I noticed it’s a one day sale. I can always return it if I decide against it in the mean time. I appreciate the helpful advice!
 
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I have 2 Co-Ax presses, one is so old it is marked "Bonanza"
the other is a "Forster" marked unit. I just love these presses,
and would probably view the Frankford unit as not comparable.
Dave.
 
When Frankford Arsenal brought out their co-axial press Peter Dobson brought them in and promptly returned them.
There was a thread right here on this forum about it.

I have a Forster Co-Ax.
I put myself on the X-Reload notification alert.
As soon as the email on my phone pinged I dropped everything and plugged in my info and was lucky enough to get it.
 
would not buy the knock off

great ideas but the manufacturing is crap-o-la


thump_rrr said:
When Frankford Arsenal brought out their co-axial press Peter Dobson brought them in and promptly returned them.
There was a thread right here on this forum about it.

I have a Forster Co-Ax.
I put myself on the X-Reload notification alert.
As soon as the email on my phone pinged I dropped everything and plugged in my info and was lucky enough to get it.
Click to expand...
 
thump_rrr said:
I have a Forster Co-Ax.
I put myself on the X-Reload notification alert.
As soon as the email on my phone pinged I dropped everything and plugged in my info and was lucky enough to get it.
Click to expand...

I got mine in Feb 2019. They were hard to get in Canada back then too. It was almost like they had a 12 hour inventory turnover (maybe even less).

I was X-Reload's notification too for about 2 weeks. I gave on them, and ordered mine through Brownells as they had them instock while all of Canada was craving them. Want to support Canadian businesses, but in this case it was definitely worth the extra $50 or so to buy from them and ship it accross the border.

I might be crazy, but its seems that in times of hoarding, Brownells seems to be favoured by manufacturers in getting restocked before other retailers (in the US and definitely before Canadian retailers).
 
I would not buy anything Frankfort Arsenal in Canada, there is ZERO (actually NEGATIVE) support for us here...

They can't even ship a spring from the US to here...
 
aakoksal said:
I would not buy anything Frankfort Arsenal in Canada, there is ZERO (actually NEGATIVE) support for us here...

They can't even ship a spring from the US to here...
Click to expand...

Really? I would check that again. I had an issue with my intellidropper and they shipped me a whole new unit with zero charge in like a week. Might've gotten a rep on a bad day?

EDIT: To clarify, the unit didn't have an issue, I had a very brain fart moment the time I used it before and didn't calibrate it correctly. But they still sent me a replacement.
 
I have been using an RCBS Rock Chucker press and I bought a Lee Classic Cast Press last year. What is the advantage of a co-axial press? The shell holder system on the Foster press seems overly complicated to me.
 
JP said:
I have been using an RCBS Rock Chucker press and I bought a Lee Classic Cast Press last year. What is the advantage of a co-axial press? The shell holder system on the Foster press seems overly complicated to me.
Click to expand...

In short, the left and right "float" in the shell holder along with front and back "float" in the die holder allows for near perfect self alignment of the centre line of the cartridge wtih the centre line of the die.

This is not a gimmick either... you really do get minimal run out this way.

This principal applies to both the Forster and Frankford presses.
 
The Forster is the king for a reason.
Even if the Frankford is good, those proprietary die blocks are truly awful imo.
 
thump_rrr said:
When Frankford Arsenal brought out their co-axial press Peter Dobson brought them in and promptly returned them.
There was a thread right here on this forum about it.

I have a Forster Co-Ax.
I put myself on the X-Reload notification alert.
As soon as the email on my phone pinged I dropped everything and plugged in my info and was lucky enough to get it.
Click to expand...

I remember that thread. The Frankford wouldn't work with Redding or Forster seating dies, and apparently had other issues that caused him to promptly return his whole shipment. No idea if FA sorted those out, I would guess that they did, but I went with a Forster co-ax and haven't looked back. I also out myself on X-reload's notification alert for the real co-ax, and waited 3 weeks (last spring) for them to get in stock. I believe that you can also order through Peter at Hirsch, absolutely top shelf guy to deal with.
 
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