Gracey Power Outside Neck Shaver. HELP????????????????

[oneonebravo]

anyone have any exp with this powered neckturner. It is highly touted in Zediker's book Handloading for competition. I am trying to choose between the Pumpkin and this. I will only be useing it for .308 win in one rem 700 rifle so after setup it will never be changed.

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Thankyou for any advice in advance. Sniperhide forums provided no helpful information.

 

[ronemus]

I have a Gracey neck shaver, and really like it; however, it's only really useful if you're doing a lot of brass. I've found that's it's critical to have the mandrel ~0.001" smaller than the ID of your case necks, otherwise the cutters swage the neck down and the cut is uneven. The good news is that Sinclair expander/neck turning mandrels fit, and can be reduced a few thousandths by chucking them up and polishing with fine Emery paper. Setting up the cutters is fussy, but basically involve setting the first for the thickness you want, then adjusting the others until they cut a bit too much and backing off.

The neck should be lubricated inside and out,I use Imperial Die Wax) or else the mandrel and cutters will wear quickly. The cutting head must be kept clear of trimmings for good results, but the rim of the cutting head traps a wad of brass wool that eventually interferes with the cutters, producing a loud screech. To avoid that the cuttings must be removed every 50 rounds or so. I got tired of doing that, so I did a Dremel job to remove most of the rim, leavig a ring at the front. Now I can do ~1000 cases before I have to clean the cuttings out.

The Gracey Neck Shaver does a good job,<0.00025" runout vs. <0.0001" for a hand tool) and is very fast, but the cost and effort arent worth it unless you're doing a lot of brass. For 50-100 cases, I'd use a hand tool with a Sinclair case driver in a power drill.

 

[oneonebravo]

Thankyou Ronemus. The sinclaire expander works well with it you say? Are there any other expanders that work without the extra polishing?