Is the Giraud still the Cadillac of trimmers?

[rijndael]

Do not know much about machining, but thought a screw- worm gear for the cutter blade to move in the base, would be helpful.

That's the plan. I was going to have a base plate where the cutter screws in to. On the left is a screw, going in to the side of the cutter. Opposing that, a spring pushing on a pin, to keep tension on the cutter against the screw.

 

[TrapperBR549]

What is the advantage of these trimmers over the Forster power case trimmer and 3 way cutter heads? I assume they are more precise? It is hard to imagine that they would be faster or easier on the hands.

Power Case Trimmer – Forster Products

Power Case Trimmer $ 150.00 Original price was: $150.00. $ 112.50 Current price is: $112.50. Power Case Trimmer quantity Add to cart SKU: PT10

www.forsterproducts.com

3-in-1 Case Mouth Cutters – Forster Products

Select a product according to caliber.

www.forsterproducts.com

 

[jimmymac]

Placed my order today.

 

[Sandstorm]

I assume they are more precise?

That,s a good assumption and would be correct.
Im right behind ya Jimmy..I had a couple questions for Doug at Giraud and waiting on a reply.

 

[Shooter13]

Placed my order today.

What did you get?

 

[dgeesaman]

What is the advantage of these trimmers over the Forster power case trimmer and 3 way cutter heads? I assume they are more precise? It is hard to imagine that they would be faster or easier on the hands.

Power Case Trimmer – Forster Products

Power Case Trimmer $ 150.00 Original price was: $150.00. $ 112.50 Current price is: $112.50. Power Case Trimmer quantity Add to cart SKU: PT10

www.forsterproducts.com

3-in-1 Case Mouth Cutters – Forster Products

Select a product according to caliber.

www.forsterproducts.com

The collet on those moves in/out as you tighten it. This means any variation in the case base or the way it tightens will alter the trimmed length of that case. It's very easy to over-trim a piece of brass with those. Also there is the fundamental matter of whether the trim is measured from the base of the case (Forster) vs. the shoulder (Henderson, Giraud, 21st Century, PMA)

That said, I love the Forster 3 way cutter heads. I wish someone would adapt the Forster 3-way cutters to a shoulder-indexing trimmer device.

Somehow I had the impression that the Giraud requires custom parts to handle cases like 6PPC or any AI chambering. Is it easy to convert the Giraud from one cartridge to another?

David

 

[Big_Daddy]

Yes it is!

 

[jimmymac]

What did you get?

Giraud

 

[MikeRu]

For Giraud users, do any of you guys trim your brass prior to running it through your sizing die? To me, this seems like it would produce the most consistent result since the shoulder on each freshly fired piece of brass is very consistent with the next.

I always resize the case and trim last. You could try trimming first but you might still get variation in case length after resizing. Variations of ~0.001” in your resized case shoulders (base to datum) will give an insignificant (IMO) difference in case length and seating pressure.

 

[jimmymac]

To the top.

Anyone using a PMA die adjuster with your Giraud? Mine came today and that’s the first thing that hit my pea brain. Shims will work, but I’m lazy.

 

[hoz53]

To the top.

Anyone using a PMA die adjuster with your Giraud? Mine came today and that’s the first thing that hit my pea brain. Shims will work, but I’m lazy.

i use a WFT for 223 and just stick it in the lathe. I use a wilson and debur tool for something like 6br where Im accuracy loading for 20 or 30 cases. never used a Giraud but thought of getiing one many times just never pulled the trigger. I dont like to set things up. Thats why i have 5 or 6 wilsons. i set them up and leave them set. If i had a giraud i know Id end up leaving it set for one cartridge. Then Id start trying to talk myself into buying another and another for other cartridges. i dont wanna go there. I hope the giraud works out for you. this has been an informative thread and i look forward to hearing your thoughts on the giraud. mabie someday ill actually get one. Thanks

 

[jimmymac]

i use a WFT for 223 and just stick it in the lathe. I use a wilson and debur tool for something like 6br where Im accuracy loading for 20 or 30 cases. never used a Giraud but thought of getiing one many times just never pulled the trigger. I dont like to set things up. Thats why i have 5 or 6 wilsons. i set them up and leave them set. If i had a giraud i know Id end up leaving it set for one cartridge. Then Id start trying to talk myself into buying another and another for other cartridges. i dont wanna go there. I hope the giraud works out for you. this has been an informative thread and i look forward to hearing your thoughts on the giraud. mabie someday ill actually get one. Thanks

I'm right there with you. Once something is set up, I want to lock it down and be done with it. That's why I ordered two cutters and two case holders for the Giraud. I'll set one up for PPC and the other for 30BR for set it and forget simplicity and consistency. I have no desire to mess around with blade adjustments as I go from cartridge to cartridge.

Right now I set it up using a die lock ring so it indexes in the same exact place every time. I added some shims for fine adjustment to avoid messing with the lock ring. That's what got me to thinking about the PMA die adjuster. I already use those in my sizing dies. Might be overkill for this application. I don't know. I've only worked with this machine for an hour today.

 

[hoz53]

I'm right there with you. Once something is set up, I want to lock it down and be done with it. That's why I ordered two cutters and two case holders for the Giraud. I'll set one up for PPC and the other for 30BR for set it and forget simplicity and consistency. I have no desire to mess around with blade adjustments as I go from cartridge to cartridge.

Right now I set it up using a die lock ring so it indexes in the same exact place every time. I added some shims for fine adjustment to avoid messing with the lock ring. That's what got me to thinking about the PMA die adjuster. I already use those in my sizing dies. Might be overkill for this application. I don't know. I've only worked with this machine for an hour today.

ok sounds like were on the same wavelength. it will be interesting to hear your comments on it down the road. i guess i should at least look at giraud up close to see wat i think.

 

[jimmymac]

ok sounds like were on the same wavelength. it will be interesting to hear your comments on it down the road. i guess i should at least look at giraud up close to see wat i think.

I spent a lot of time looking at these and the Henderson trimmer. I'm talking a couple years. In the end I bought it to improve my workflow. My Wilson trimmer was great, but I hated having to trim, chamfer and deburr in three steps.

 

[hoz53]

I spent a lot of time looking at these and the Henderson trimmer. I'm talking a couple years. In the end I bought it to improve my workflow. My Wilson trimmer was great, but I hated having to trim, chamfer and deburr in three steps.

thanks Ill look into it. Mabie i should buy one then rent it out if i didnt get to attached to it. LOL

 

[jimmymac]

After studying this for awhile, I determined that I want to be able to use this trimmer with brass that comes straight out of the gun, At that point, all case shoulders are within half a thou of each other so to me it made a ton of sense to trim at this step instead of after sizing. Yes, I realize that the sizing operation will cause some variance, but in reality we are talking no more than .001, if that. When I size my cases about the best I can hold on shoulder bump is .001 anyway, so in my mind I decided it is better to run the cases through the Giraud when my cases are fresh out of the gun. That's my pea brained logic, but it has worked good so far. I went through this process with 25 cases, then sized them and can report no issues. The cases are all within .001 of each other. Good enough for me, especially considering that I frequently had a good bit more deviation than that because I was mostly too pressed for time to ensure all my cases were trimmed to the same length.

The one problem I had with the fired cases is that they did not want to fit in the PPC case holder properly. They were tight in the case holder with fired cases right out of the gun, so I decided I would crudely use my chamber reamer in the hope of getting those fired cases to fit better. I do not have a lathe, so I decided to chuck up my reamer in my hand held drill and give it a go. At best, things would work out great. At worst, I was going to need a new shell holder. As it is, it worked out great. I took apart the shell holder assembly to get to the shell holder itself, then I chucked up the reamer in my hand drill, then secured the drill to my bench using a clamp. I oiled up the reamer, started up the drill and gently worked the shell holder down on to the reamer and made some chips. Worked great. I can now easily run freshly fired case through the machine or do it after sizing. I tested both ways.

 

[Sandstorm]

Sounds familiar Jimmy ..Ive had to do the same with my 284 Win shell holder to work with
my 284 Shehane chambers as well as the 6.5 PRC to 7 PRCW ...and more
Once you have a custom reamer your dimensions will usually be enhanced a bit to aid in extraction and to
avoid the dreaded clikker's All your Saami spec shell holders will or may need slight adjusting.
They tend to be on the snugg side.

 

[jimmymac]

Sounds familiar Jimmy ..Ive had to do the same with my 284 Win shell holder to work with
my 284 Shehane chambers as well as the 6.5 PRC to 7 PRCW ...and more
Once you have a custom reamer your dimensions will usually be enhanced a bit to aid in extraction and to
avoid the dreaded clikker's All your Saami spec shell holders will or may need slight adjusting.
They tend to be on the snugg side.

It was simple. I’m going up do the same thing with the 30BR shell holder. I’ll run my reamer in there so I can trim freshly fired cases with uniform datum’s.

 

[jimmymac]

So far I’m happy with my decision to trim before sizing. They are as close to perfect as I can get. That was the easiest and fastest 250 cases I ever trimmed.

 

[Shooter13]

To the top.

Anyone using a PMA die adjuster with your Giraud? Mine came today and that’s the first thing that hit my pea brain. Shims will work, but I’m lazy.

Yes, set it up and then you can "click" adjust after you loosen it up, easy pleasy