Hornady neck turn tool

[ranger3]

Has anybody used this tool? If so how do you like it? Pro''s and cons

 

[K9TXS]

Check on You Tube and you will find a lot of reviews on the Hornady trimmer.
I use the Century 21 neck trimmer and find it to be very high quality. It can be purchased several different ways. I purchased mine as the link above shows. I use a Dewalt variable speed drill so I can run it as slow as I want. I have found mine to be very accurate.

 

[mikecr]

The good part about neck turning is that it's so hard to get it wrong. You have to go out of your way to screw it up. IMO, both the Hornady and 21st Century approaches do just that..

The best time to turn necks is when they're new/unsized/unfired. Pull em out of the box, run the expander mandrel through and turn. But at this condition the necks themselves are not centered, not straight,, there is nothing right about them yet.
So there's an adage that if you can't center it, float it, and for best neck turning you do need to float one side at least. Otherwise you'll have all kinds of angular binding against the turning mandrel and cutter, which will vary cutting depths along the way up/down necks.

If you're not seeing it then I'm confident you're not measuring with precision to do so.
Later firing will reduce it, sizing will amplify it, but it's likely there with some of your necks.
So instead, keep it simple. Chuck the case up on a bench lathe, hold the turning body in your hand, let it wobble with the necks (not against them).

 

[Straightshooter1]

Has anybody used this tool? If so how do you like it? Pro''s and cons

The only "Pro" I can think of for it is it's price. I don't like the rigidity of it's design. Having the cutter assembly held firm creates concentrity issues in the neck as does having the case held firmly against the base (base not always being square to the case wall or neck). This is why the Century 21 trimmer, though similar, is a much better set up as those issues are addressed by allowing wobble at either end.

PS: it was mentioned above that the best time to turn necks is when cases are brand new. IMHO, it's better to do so after the case is fire formed to your chamber. You'll want to be sure the neck and shoulder junction measurements are the same too so you can set it up where you don't accidentally cut to far into the shoulder.

 

[rwj]

The good part about neck turning is that it's so hard to get it wrong. You have to go out of your way to screw it up. IMO, both the Hornady and 21st Century approaches do just that...

My 21st Century works great! What problems did you encounter?

 

[TrxR]

You cant turn some of them after fireforming because they wont fit until the neck is turned.

 

[Straightshooter1]

You cant turn some of them after fireforming because they wont fit until the neck is turned.

OK, that makes sense . . . especially when considering a custom designed chamber.

However, I'd then size them and then fire form them still, before turning them.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

OK, that makes sense . . . especially when considering a custom designed chamber.

However, I'd then size them and then fire form them still, before turning them.

They wont even go into a tight necked chamber to form. They have to be turned before chambering

 

[Uncle Ed]

I have the older and cheaper hand operated Hornady neck turning tool below because I'm a cheap bastard.
More costly tools will have better cutting depth and cutting stop adjustments "BUT" the more coffee you drink the more your hands shake anyway.

Points to look for, how well does the cutter angle match your shoulder angle. And if you trim your cases indexing off the case shoulder the cutter will stop at the same point every time. Meaning no more "oops" the cutting tool didn't stop until it reached the extractor groove.

 

[Straightshooter1]

They wont even go into a tight necked chamber to form. They have to be turned before chambering

Got it!

 

[mikecr]

We should not turn nor trim necks just to make them all the same. Our focus should be to turn and trim for desired clearances. If you trim all cases to shortest, just so that you don't have to watch what you're doing during turning, then on fire-forming, when your necks pull back (differently), you'll have excess chamber end clearance,, and trimming again back to that (to get em the same again).

Better plan is to leave the trim length alone with new brass and pay enough attention with turning to just kiss the neck-shoulder junction. It doesn't have to be an exact kiss. After all, the only function in this is to mitigate donut thickness introduced to necks on fire-forming. None to any rational amount is ok, and very easy to do well.
For this, you also do not want a matching cutter angle with shoulders. If it were, the slightest kiss would hit the entire shoulder. However, if turning new cases as you should, their shoulders are normally below fully formed angles. So if using a 30deg cutter here, for an intended 30deg shoulder cartridge, you'll again be ok with just a kiss. Don't use a 20deg cutter here. Use 30deg or any angle higher.
As higher cutter angles depart more & more from actual shoulder angles, use common sense. You'll know that your kiss needs to be a bit shallower for this, and that on fire-forming it will all hammer into smoother thickness transition. Piece of cake.

 

[mikecr]

I don't have a 21st century setup. This is just my view of it.
It appears not actually floating. The turning body is semi-loosely pinned to a fixed connection point. Right?
If so, when a neck takes a downward movement, the cutter body doesn't go down with that, but bows downward in angle against it's rubber bushing. That would represent changes in cutting angle with every wobble.

Of course this wouldn't matter if cases/necks were already straight while turning.
The video on their site demonstrates how well it works -with a straight case.
But most of ours(mine & yours), as new, are not.

 

[rwj]

I don't have a 21st century setup. This is just my view of it.
It appears not actually floating. The turning body is semi-loosely pinned to a fixed connection point. Right?
If so, when a neck takes a downward movement, the cutter body doesn't go down with that, but bows downward in angle against it's rubber bushing. That would represent changes in cutting angle with every wobble.

Of course this wouldn't matter if cases/necks were already straight while turning.
The video on their site demonstrates how well it works -with a straight case.
But most of ours(mine & yours), as new, are not.

Wall thickness is consistent and there is very little neck TIR after turning... results for others may well be different!

 

[ranger3]

Ok but so far no one must be using the Hornady tool. What about thaT?

 

[Straightshooter1]

Ok but so far no one must be using the Hornady tool. What about thaT?

Maybe that in of itself should tell you something???

 

[Stepsjframe]

I bought one of these neat Hornady trimmers from MidwayUSA to turn down the crazy thick necks for my 300blkout brass made from assorted 556/223 brass. Sometimes there’s a runout where the cutter cuts one side but not the other and on the next case the cutter makes brass curls. Works great, I’m making them .010-.011 thick so I can use my hand cast .311 boolits. Not doing it for the accuracy, doing it to use the plentiful cheaper than factory mil spec brass from all you 223 shooters. I did tinker with the spring, imo it’s way too strong, found a weaker one.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=4513061

 

[T-shooter]

The old style hand held Hornady tool is a P.O.S. at best. I had one a few years ago and it went back the next day. That's what I got for going cheap. I ordered the K&M setup and couldn't be happier. With the Hornady, the pilot wasn't a uniform diameter and was somehow smaller at the top. It allowed a lot of wobble. Also the cutting tool was just a sharpened hardned bolt. The new tool that bolts down to your bench may be ok. I have no experience with it. With any tool you need an expander to make the neck a snug fit over the pilot.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I need one of those new hornady neck turners for my oddball stuff im not set up to turn with my other turning tools like when i make necked down cases and dont have the mandrel and need to turn a few

 

[dc.fireman]

Ok but so far no one must be using the Hornady tool. What about thaT?

I used to use it. I now use the Forster lathe-type turner. The Hornady version was a royal PITA, in my opinion. Even using a drill to chuck up the case. The Forster type was simply quicker, and produced a much cleaner uniform appearance, and gave me what I felt was a better control of the adjustment range for the cutter head.

Also, I did try the Forster hand-held version similar to the Hornady version above, with the same result: I didn't like it. The mini lathe type is my current favorite type for neck turning.

 

[1885Winman4590]

I bought the hornady tool. It failed miserably. Don't beat me up about not giving them a chance to make it right. If I would have boxed it up and sent it back, I 'd just have more money in it. Nuffs enough.