Case prep set up

Leadchunker

Leadchunker

Undisciplined infidel
Life Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
2,696
Location
Southeast NC
Rating - 100%
9   0   0
What kind of case prep setup are y’all running? Is see a few from different manufacturers on the shelf at sportsman warehouse. I’m looking at buying one and looking for y’all recommendation along with the why. Thanks for the help.
 
If you are looking to clean I would add a rotary wet tumbler. The brass comes out shiny and looks better than new.
Are you planning to reload handgun cartridges?
 
Like they said, a Frankfort Arsenal rotary tumbler. They make 2 sizes, if you shoot a lot I'd get the larger size. That's what I use, I can get around 1000-1200 pistol cases in it at once. Here's a video I made of my cleaning process.
 
Wilson trimmer if you aren't doing a lot, Giraud if you are doing a lot. Brownells/Sinclair flash hole debur bit and primer pocket uniformer. Wet tumbler and media separator.
 
I’m currently utilizing a midway vibratory and a Frankfort arsenal vibratory for cleaning. I’m looking at the prep stations for primer pocket, case neck etc. I’m loading pistol and rifle.
 
The Lyman case prep express works well for me.
My loading room is carpeted so I bring the case prep station out to the driveway and do all the work outside so the brass shavings don't get in the rug. Super convenient way to do everything but trim length when preparing your brass.
 
Leadchunker said:
I’m currently utilizing a midway vibratory and a Frankfort arsenal vibratory for cleaning. I’m looking at the prep stations for primer pocket, case neck etc. I’m loading pistol and rifle.
Click to expand...
I have the older RCBS case prep station. I wish it ran at a higher RPM for the military crimp remover bits. Their newer case prep center has two stations that run at a higher rpm (550 rpm) which would be nice.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1019640177?pid=301834

Since I already have the RCBS case prep center, but wanted something that would trim rifle brass quicker, I bought the new Lyman trimmer (when it was on sale). I like it. It comes with everything needed to trim most common calibers. I only had to buy one bushing to do 7.62x39.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020728567?pid=258707

If I were to start over, I would look closely at the Frankford case prep center, for the job it will do trimming bottleneck rifle brass. It works similar to the Lyman, but also accepts regular case prep bits.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012719754?pid=628405

The limitation of the last two trimmers is that they reference the shoulder on bottle-neck cartridges. That method won't work on straight-walled brass. For those, I either use the Lee trimmers in my case prep center, or the Hornady cam-lock trimmer, which requires a pilot and shell holder for each cartridge. The Hornady trimmer only works with Hornady shell holders (the inner hole diameter is larger than other brands). This is a lathe type trimmer, which are considered to be more accurate for trimming and may be preferred for precision work.

Hope this helps.
 
For a case prep center I use the Frankford model with the trimmer. Great for everything except for crimp removal (not enough rpms), but I just do those on an old drill and it’s no big deal.

For straight wall cases there’s a guy on eBay who came up with a solution for the more common straight wall calibers in the Frankford trimmer here.

It’s a decent tool at a good price, just wish there was a unit with 5 tool heads, variable speed (or just higher speed on at least 1 head), and the trimmer all in 1.
 
I’m using a basic media tumbler with Hornady “One Shot” case polish and have had great results.

For case trimming, primer pocket cleaning and Chamfering I use the Frankford Arsenal Platinum case prep & trimming tool and it is awesome!


 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom