Case Trimmers

hlpressley

hlpressley

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What are you using? What would you buy if you were looking to buy one? I need to get one ASAP and the Giraud isn't in the budget right now with everything else that I'm trying to do. I'm thinking along the lines of a $200 budget for a tool capable of trimming two calibers. I'd also prefer a powered unit, not really excited about hand cranking. What are your thoughts?

Anyone have any experience with the Trim-It from Black Widow Shooters?
https://www.blackwidowshooters.com/product-page/case-prep-station
 
I hand crank to case trim, however, you are right, it is not the way to go. once you are done you still have demurring and chamfering to do. I have looked at the Trim-It motor and like the fact that the motor can be bolted to a bench and the 3 in 1 trimmers attached to it. You can probably even build a stand for it and use it to neck turn (If you drive any bolt guns).

Hand cranking is tiring, but I have a problem paying hundreds of $ for tools and then hooking them up to a cordless drill where the primary selling features are battery power and weight. holding the drill while driving a trimming tool cannot be good for consistency of the finished product. The reviews I have read on the two trimmers mentioned above are all good and are on my list for sure. At $70 for the Little Crow, the thought of buying one for each caliber is very tempting for convenience.
 
Charlie R said:
I hand crank to case trim, however, you are right, it is not the way to go. once you are done you still have demurring and chamfering to do. I have looked at the Trim-It motor and like the fact that the motor can be bolted to a bench and the 3 in 1 trimmers attached to it. You can probably even build a stand for it and use it to neck turn (If you drive any bolt guns).

Hand cranking is tiring, but I have a problem paying hundreds of $ for tools and then hooking them up to a cordless drill where the primary selling features are battery power and weight. holding the drill while driving a trimming tool cannot be good for consistency of the finished product. The reviews I have read on the two trimmers mentioned above are all good and are on my list for sure. At $70 for the Little Crow, the thought of buying one for each caliber is very tempting for convenience.
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Pair it with a $60 table top drill press from Harbor Freight,

I have the Franklin Armory prep center. It works.
 
Tim said:
Pair it with a $60 table top drill press from Harbor Freight,
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Don't know why I have not considered using my drill press. That's an excellent idea, as it would definitely cut down on the runout versus a hand drill.

Learned something today and before 9:30 am. I can take the rest of the day off. Thanks.

Ummmmm, make that 8:30 am.
 
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Currently using Lee gauges and trimmers with a shellholder in a drill.
Looking at the World's Cheapest Trimmer, or a TriWay, being cheap, probably gonna go with the former.
Gotta start running my many thousands of pieces of 223/5.56 through prep to get the push to make things better. God I hate rifle prep.
 
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I use the gracey, its a lesser known option compared to the giraud. I did upgrade their 2 blade design to the giraud blade. If you need to borrow it you're welcome to it.
 
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Im currently using this RCBS set, which I've had sitting in a box for a couple yrs. My brother worked for ATK , who owns RCBS (and a ton of other firearms related companies...CCI, Federal, Blackhawk....etc) and I got about 65% off retail. It works REALLY well, but I'm not sure I'd have paid full retail for it if I had to . I'm able to go thru a lot of brass with this quickly, and the it's very repeatable.
 
Beef15 said:
Currently using Lee gauges and trimmers with a shellholder in a drill.
Looking at the World's Cheapest Trimmer, or a TriWay, being cheap, probably gonna go with the former.
Gotta start running my many thousands of pieces of 223/5.56 through prep to get the push to make things better. God I hate rifle prep.
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I use Lee trimmers also. My 308 set has been cutting over 10 years with no problems.
 
Sorry to necro post this up, but I recently purchased the Little Crow WFT trimmer for .223Rem brass prep and have been extremely pleased.

There appears to be similarity between it and the World's Cheapest trimmer. Does anybody have one?
 
Forster Original, I have the power drill attachment, but I've never used it. I generally do small batches.
 
I use the Frankford motorized trimmer and it's great- it has the trimmer plus 3 rotating heads, so I do in/outside chamfer and primer pocket scrub (or deswage for mil brass). It's pretty cheap and very repeatable as it uses the shoulder to measure. I also am borrowing the Dillon motorized trimmer to go through tons of .223 brass.
 
Seems I own 5 or 6 of them. Lyman, Lee, RCBS, etc. and I always seem to go back to the LCW WFT or the WCT style trimmer chucked up in a cordless if I'm doing a small batch, or the drill press or lathe if I'm doing more.
 
I've been happy with a bit of a kluge system. I have been using the Lee trimmers, with the cutter threaded to fit in my RCBS case prep center. I use the cam-lock part of the Hornady trimmer to hold the brass. I just wish the case prep center turned faster than it does.

I like the idea of the trimmers that reference the shoulders of the case. IMHO, that should be the datum line for all measurements, instead of the case head. I have been considering getting the Frankford prep center.
 
RCBS micrometer adjust case prep center thing. Man it was nice when my brother worked for ATK (parent company). Employee prices rocked!
 
I’m using a WTF 2 for 6.8 and 223 and I paired it to a washing machine motor I had laying around.

Total cost with adapter like 65$ lol. Not the best but it works. When I get around to getting a drill press I’ll use it instead

One of these days I’ll fork out the cash for one of those fancy Giraud trimmers
 
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Bunsen said:
Do you have any observations or opinions between the WFT and WCT trimmers?
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For the sake of TLDR, they both do the same thing, and do it the same way. The WFT is 2X the price, and I don't know that you necessarily get 2X the results. They both trim from indexing off the shoulder. Obviously this only works on shouldered / bottle neck brass.

That being said, being what it is, really isn't complicated. Do'nt quote me on this, but my suspicion tells me the WFT came first and it does very good at what it does. Then someone (dude from WCT) came along and said "I can built that mouse trap for 20 bucks and make a profit" and the rest is history.
 
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