Which case trimmer to buy? Powered, manual, drillbit?

[Lorgar]

Just trimming.

I feel slow now

[sneaker]

Late reply here, but thanks for the info guys.

Ended up getting the Lee drillbit system and after a bit of getting used to it's all good

Trimming cases galore

[reddog]

I've got a Redding 2400 model with the micrometer adjustment , and once you get used to putting the cases in and out of the chuck
it's really quick , only takes about 5 spins a case . Its really a good trimmer , but of all my reloading tools its the least used and was
more expensive than my press !

[SendIt]

Any idea roughly how many you can trim an hour with your setup, reddog?

[Bills Shed]

I agree that manual ( turning the cutter by hand in a small lathe set up) gets painful pretty quick.

Depending what you have in your shed there is no reason you can not turn a manual set up into a electric set up. The chuck and pilot usually come with the trimmer.

20 years ago I built one out of a Sewing machine motors and controller. It makes short work of trimming. Make a long shaft for the cutter head and put it in a good set of bearings. Took a bit of work to build a quick change chuck to have the same centre heights, but it is fast. This is the way I went as I did not have the cash at the time.

If I was going to do it again I would have a serious look at the RCBS pro trim Electric trimmer. Modern day trimmers are well built and worth the money. They do not get much work but will last you a life time, and make trimming easy. It is not available in 240v but a cheap transformer on eBay will fix that.

At the end of the day if you find something that works for you, use it

[whert]

If I was going to do it again I would have a serious look at the RCBS pro trim Electric trimmer. Modern day trimmers are well built and worth the money.

So expensive though

$350 or whatever they are vs $25 for a drill bit cutting one

[Aster]

20 years ago I built one out of a Sewing machine motors and controller. It makes short work of trimming. Make a long shaft for the cutter head and put it in a good set of bearings. Took a bit of work to build a quick change chuck to have the same centre heights, but it is fast. This is the way I went as I did not have the cash at the time.

Any chance of some pictures of this?

[reddog]

Any idea roughly how many you can trim an hour with your setup, reddog?

Thankfully I haven't had to do an hours worth
But I reckon 50 in 10mins
With the Redding you clamp the case in a quick change chuck and spin the case not the cutter
It has a big handle on it so no blisters and is also convertible to power if you wanted to down the track

[Arth]

Thankfully I haven't had to do an hours worth

But I reckon 50 in 10mins.

Not bad. That 150 in half an hour (obviously... go captain math! ) which is more than I've ever shoot in a single session.

If you can turn around a days brass in one quick session, happy days.