L e wilson case gauge and trimmer

[Lkwebb]

I have a question for you gentlemen. I bought a trimmer and case holder to trim my 6ppc brass.
When you put the case in the holder. do you give it a few light taps to make sure it's seated all the way in.
I have tapped it twice on my bench and then put it In my trimmer.
I have had a few small variations in trimming lengths. They are very small differences in Oal after trimming.
I tried my best to seat them all the same in the holder to get consistent trim lengths.
Whats yalls standard practice?

 

[ronsatspokane]

I tap them lightly but I don't think that seating in the die would affect the OAL after trimming. The brass seated against the trimmer adjustment end will project the length of the case and when trimmed, the length should be the same on all if you are cutting them all the way. By cutting all the way I mean turning the cutter until there is no resistance. Requires more turns for some cases than others. If you stop too soon the OAL's will vary.

 

[TIMO]

Larry,
I use a hockey puck to tap on to gently seat them for trimming and to remove them from the case holder.

Tim

 

[K22]

I tap the case in the holder against a piece of hard wood and remove it the same way.

As someone else said, the holder does not affect the trim length, it merely holds the case in place to center it and keep it from rotating while trimming.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I have a question for you gentlemen. I bought a trimmer and case holder to trim my 6ppc brass.
When you put the case in the holder. do you give it a few light taps to make sure it's seated all the way in.
I have tapped it twice on my bench and then put it In my trimmer.
I have had a few small variations in trimming lengths. They are very small differences in Oal after trimming.
I tried my best to seat them all the same in the holder to get consistent trim lengths.
Whats yalls standard practice?

Since the case holder really doesn't effect such variations in trim lengths, I would suggest that it's more about variations in the pressure that's exerted into the cutter head as you finish your trimming. It doesn't really take a lot to make a .001 difference.

 

[Ray123]

Yep, just tap case in holder and tap out on a piece of hardwood or your bench if ya don't mind a few dings on the bench. The holder just holds the case... the length is controlled by two stops ...one behind cartridge one on cutter....I made a power drill adapter for mine so I never use the crank... it's fast and assures ya don't stop before cutting is complete, cause it's no effort to let the cutter spin a few extra revolutions when the cutter hits bottom or the cutter stop...the few extra revs after it hits the stop should help with consistency of COAL.. I use a Bridgeport mill, sharp milling cutter and dead lenght collets for taking off alot of metal in a hurry...like .180" in a second 308 to 8.6 whisper length.

 

[dl9589]

Make sure there is no debris on the bottom of the brass or the adjustment end of the trimmer (like brass shavings). It is easy to get it on the bottom of the brass when you tap them into the holders. I would suggest tapping them into the holders in a different spot then where you tap them out of the holders.

I have the shark fin on mine and I also make sure the brass is firmly against the adjustment end and hold it when swinging the fin over it.

I use the manual handle for cutting - I personally haven't noticed much issue with it making a cut difference with respect to pressure. As someone else mentioned above, make sure you cut until there is no resistance which does tend to be a revolution or two more than you naturally think needs to be done.

 

[LHSmith]

It's a learn from experience thing. I find the varying degrees of hardness in the neck to be the biggest factor in why some pieces require more pressure be exerted. New or just annealed brass cuts like butter while several times fired brass "squeels" while being cut. This is one area of reloading where I don't shoot for exacting dimensions. With-in 0.002" is GTG for my use in SR BR.

 

[dl9589]

I have experienced cutting differences on other trimmers with respect to how much pressure you exert on the cutter. I just haven't found on my LE Wilson trimmer I can actually flex the cutter end much using the manual handle...I do try to exert the same pressure every time though.

Using a power drill for cutting is different - I have done that too on other trimmers and can definitely flex the cutter "alot" with that setup.

With respect to different brass hardness, I keep all my brass sorted together with same number of firings, annealings, etc so I haven't experienced that case-to-case difference issue before.

 

[JimSC]

differences in case length will not result in differences seated OAL. What you are seeing is a result of differences in where the cone on the stem of the seating die is contacting the ogive on the bullets.

Think about it, when you adjust the "jump" do you trim the cases more or less or adjust the seating stem on you die?

 

[Lkwebb]

differences in case length will not result in differences seated OAL. What you are seeing is a result of differences in where the cone on the stem of the seating die is contacting the ogive on the bullets.

Think about it, when you adjust the "jump" do you trim the cases more or less or adjust the seating stem on you die u

differences in case length will not result in differences seated OAL. What you are seeing is a result of differences in where the cone on the stem of the seating die is contacting the ogive on the bullets.

Think about it, when you adjust the "jump" do you trim the cases more or less or adjust the seating stem on you die?

I misrepresented by useing Oal, i meant just case length

 

[Lkwebb]

I'll give these tips a try on my next batch of brass. I tried tapping it out with a rubber mallet but did not work like I thought

 

[JimSC]

I use a electric screwdriver with the power cutter and bump it a couple of times

 

[Pawnee Bill]

Did you deprime the cases first?

 

[bugman]

How perfect do you want them?
If you want them all the exact same length, then you will need to rotate the holder a couple of times while you are trimming. That is extra time and hassle, but most case gauge IDs are not perfectly round. If the case gauge ID is a little off-round or if there is a speck of brass inside, then the case mouth isn't cut square and you can measure a little difference in the OAL. All this assumes that everything is clean where the handle butts to the tool, and you complete each case the same way.
If you think that is a lot of hassle, I agree, and have never seen a few thou make a difference on paper.
IMO, It is more important to have the case mouths square than to have all the cases the exact same length.