RCBS Power Trimmer

[FroggyOne2]

Howdy,

Just would like those that have the RCBS power trimmer to chime in on how they feel about it and with the three way cutting head.

I know about the Gracey and the Giraud trimmer, don't want to hear about them, just want to know about the RCBS model. Though it does seem that one can go faster if the get the Manual Pro Trimmer vs the powered one.

 

[jkl]

If you don't intend to get out of shooting by the Giraud trimmer. I bought one and then a second caliber set and never looked back. I would not be without the Giraud trimmer. I shoot high power long range and it only takes a few minutes to trim 72 pieces of brass.

John

 

[bozo699]

Howdy,

Just would like those that have the RCBS power trimmer to chime in on how they feel about it and with the three way cutting head.

I know about the Gracey and the Giraud trimmer, don't want to hear about them, just want to know about the RCBS model. Though it does seem that one can go faster if the get the Manual Pro Trimmer vs the powered one.

Froggyone2,
Your Wilson is 10X the trimmer that any of the RCBS trimmers are, I have the power trimmer, I plan on using the motor head and couple it to my Wilson. The RCBS has a funky way they hold the case and when you bring the pilot into the mouth it is rarely lined up which would indicate it is un-aligned, often when you pull the pilot out of the mouth and cocks off to the side which backs up my thoughts of miss alignment, I saw your thread on the power adapter for the Wilson, if your not interested in the Giraud or Gracey then I would stick with the Wilson and power it up if your tired of cranking,...JMHO and my $.02 worth.
Wayne.

 

[FroggyOne2]

JKL,

Shame on you.. I already know about that one.. plus.. I can not afford it.

Wayne, thanks.. that is what I was thinking.. I read some reviews.. that were giving it a thumbs up, but when you read between the lines of what they were saying, you just verified what I was thinking..

 

[michaeljp]

Howdy,

Just would like those that have the RCBS power trimmer to chime in on how they feel about it and with the three way cutting head.

I know about the Gracey and the Giraud trimmer, don't want to hear about them, just want to know about the RCBS model. Though it does seem that one can go faster if the get the Manual Pro Trimmer vs the powered one.

Froggyone2,
Your Wilson is 10X the trimmer that any of the RCBS trimmers are, I have the power trimmer, I plan on using the motor head and couple it to my Wilson. The RCBS has a funky way they hold the case and when you bring the pilot into the mouth it is rarely lined up which would indicate it is un-aligned, often when you pull the pilot out of the mouth and cocks off to the side which backs up my thoughts of miss alignment, I saw your thread on the power adapter for the Wilson, if your not interested in the Giraud or Gracey then I would stick with the Wilson and power it up if your tired of cranking,...JMHO and my $.02 worth.
Wayne.

I agree with Bozo on the RCBS. I have the RCBS trim pro and i also noticed that the pilot does not engage the case mouth square on. It was made even clearer when i went to neck turn some cases after i trimmed them to length and i noticed when the case neck got to the stopper on the turning mandrel that only one side of the neck was touching the the stopper end of the mandrel.And at the neck/shoulder i noticed a wave like cut pattern. I ended up buying a Wilson with micro adjuster.

 

[Bert]

I have the RCBS power trimmer with the 3 way cutter head. It works great with a little tuning and finesse. I only use it for my high volume prairie dog guns because it doesn't trim dead square. I use the Wilson with a cordless drill for the fine work.

 

[DennisH]

Out of couriousity, how about the Forester trimmer?

I have the RCBS and agree with the above comments.

I find I have better luck with the Forester!

 

[FroggyOne2]

Well I have the Wilson trimmer, I am going to set it up for use under power. When it comes to inside deburring, I use the drill with a Lyman 11 degree chamfer cutter and just barely touch the mouth of the case with it, comes out perfect every time. The only thing that I have not done is get the the Lyman outside beburring tool, the one that comes on the case prep multi tool, take the outside tool off and chuck it in the drill. http://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Case-Prep-Multi-Tool/dp/B004MCMCYE/ref=pd_sim_sbs_sg_1

 

[bozo699]

Out of couriousity, how about the Forester trimmer?

I have the RCBS and agree with the above comments.

I find I have better luck with the Forester!

Dennis,
I don't know as I went straight from the manual and power pro RCBS trimmers to a Wilson, I have a lot of there case holders and have built a few also, I personally think for a hand trimmer you would be hard pressed to find something better although Forster makes great products. We have a optical comparator at work that's pretty precise, I have thought of buying a Forster and Redding and do a experiment to see if one trims mouths more square then another, maybe later this winter, I am comparing neck turners now.
Wayne.

 

[bozo699]

Howdy,

Just would like those that have the RCBS power trimmer to chime in on how they feel about it and with the three way cutting head.

I know about the Gracey and the Giraud trimmer, don't want to hear about them, just want to know about the RCBS model. Though it does seem that one can go faster if the get the Manual Pro Trimmer vs the powered one.

Froggyone2,
Your Wilson is 10X the trimmer that any of the RCBS trimmers are, I have the power trimmer, I plan on using the motor head and couple it to my Wilson. The RCBS has a funky way they hold the case and when you bring the pilot into the mouth it is rarely lined up which would indicate it is un-aligned, often when you pull the pilot out of the mouth and cocks off to the side which backs up my thoughts of miss alignment, I saw your thread on the power adapter for the Wilson, if your not interested in the Giraud or Gracey then I would stick with the Wilson and power it up if your tired of cranking,...JMHO and my $.02 worth.
Wayne.

I agree with Bozo on the RCBS. I have the RCBS trim pro and i also noticed that the pilot does not engage the case mouth square on. It was made even clearer when i went to neck turn some cases after i trimmed them to length and i noticed when the case neck got to the stopper on the turning mandrel that only one side of the neck was touching the the stopper end of the mandrel.And at the neck/shoulder i noticed a wave like cut pattern. I ended up buying a Wilson with micro adjuster.

Michael,
Your choice in trimmers was wise IMO, the micro adjust isn't necessary but it makes it easier, I have three without and one with the micro adjust and I really like it, IMHO the wave form your seeing on the neck/shoulder junction you will still see as when you expand the neck to turn you tweak things a little and even if the necks were cut un-square the high side would hit the stop and the mandrel would hold it straight for a near perfect cut, I actually see what your seeing using my Wilson.

A side note; if the Wilson case holder isn't totally symmetrical on the outside then it will trim the mouth untrue, the ones I have had built we precision ground the outside diameter on a Brown&Sharp grinder, then turned out the chamber on a Hardinge tool lathe, they were near perfect, the factory Wilsons seem to be pretty good though, although when compared on the optical comparator there not as good as the ones my friend and I make
Wayne.

 

[jonbearman]

I love the wilson,it is the most accurate simple to use trimmer ever.It may not do all steps in one,but the case mouth is perfectly square.I made my own adaptor to run the wilson with a drill and all my dedurring tools and chamfering tools are in adaptors to be run on a cordless drill.The collets in the rcbs and forster are good as long as the base has no defect in them such as extractor marks etc.I also have graceys as they do the high volume work.But I always go back to the wilson for absolute accuracy . I would stay away from the rcbs for now till they can come up with a better case holding system.They work,but you have to finesse it too much for my liking. And Happy new year,wayne you are right on.

 

[artbosco]

... would like those that have the RCBS power trimmer to chime in on how they feel about it and with the three way cutting head.

I started with the RCBS Trim Pro Case Trimmer and then added the Optional Power Unit. I've found that when I use the correct size Shell Holder for the case being trimmed [in it's unique quick change holder] I get a good tight fit on the base of the case, and everything lines up correctly. If I've failed to change the Shell Holder, when using a different case, I'm quickly reminded. When the inside of the case neck appears to touch the Pilot lopsided, I've checked Case concentricity on my Sinclair gauge and found that the brass was the culprit. Since I use Lapua brass exclusively I find this phenomena doesn't happen very often.

With other brands of brass this might show up more often and may lead you to believe that the trimmer is out of alignment, and it may very well be, but it could also be that the brass is not concentric.

I tried the Three Way Cutter on two separate occasions [bought it twice to give it a second chance] and used it on my 6PPC and 30BR brass. I never cared for the result, so I returned it.

 

[RJinTexas]

I've been thinking about adapting my RCBS 3-way cutter heads to thread onto Sinclair catalog part #WTRCUT, a cutting shaft for the Sinclair/Wilson micro trimmer. This should allow me to still get a extremely square cut and take care of the chamfer and deburring chore at the same time. I already own all the cutting heads but no longer use my RCBS power trimmer do to it inability to cut the case mouth squarely. I believe that the 3-way cutters are well designed and that they would work as intended if used with a better designed trimmer. I was wondering if anyone has tried this and what were the results?

Well in closer inspection I see that the RCBS 3-way cutter head has too large of dia to work on a Wilson trimmer, it wouldn't clear the trimmer's frame bed.

Happy New Year
RJ

 

[bozo699]

... would like those that have the RCBS power trimmer to chime in on how they feel about it and with the three way cutting head.

I started with the RCBS Trim Pro Case Trimmer and then added the Optional Power Unit. I've found that when I use the correct size Shell Holder for the case being trimmed [in it's unique quick change holder] I get a good tight fit on the base of the case, and everything lines up correctly. If I've failed to change the Shell Holder, when using a different case, I'm quickly reminded. When the inside of the case neck appears to touch the Pilot lopsided, I've checked Case concentricity on my Sinclair gauge and found that the brass was the culprit. Since I use Lapua brass exclusively I find this phenomena doesn't happen very often.

With other brands of brass this might show up more often and may lead you to believe that the trimmer is out of alignment, and it may very well be, but it could also be that the brass is not concentric.

I tried the Three Way Cutter on two separate occasions [bought it twice to give it a second chance] and used it on my 6PPC and 30BR brass. I never cared for the result, so I returned it.

unique quick change holder, is a understatement for that particular part of the trimmer,... I had to edit my wording for the unique holder system three times while writing this so the post would not be deleted. For the trimmers sake I never had a 28oz. hammer with in my reach while trying to change them out : I am glad your results have been good Outdoorsman, mine were unsatisfactory with the correct holders.
Wayne.

 

[RJinTexas]

My RCBS power trimmer's UNIQUE quick change holder would not cut the the case mouth square regardless of which tool head was used. The only way I could get cuts anyway close to being somewhat square was to rotate the case a full 360 degrees in the holder while cutting which was very time consuming. I only use this trimmer now for trimming once fired brass that will be used in my general hunting rifles. I'd absolutely never consider trimming any of my match Lapua brass on it.

RJ

 

[bozo699]

My RCBS power trimmer's UNIQUE quick change holder would not cut the the case mouth square regardless of which tool head was used. The only way I could get cuts anyway close to being somewhat square was to rotate the case a full 360 degrees in the holder while cutting which was very time consuming. I only use this trimmer now for trimming once fired brass that will be used in my general hunting rifles. I'd absolutely never consider trimming any of my match Lapua brass on it.

RJ

RJ,
100% my thoughts and experiences with it as well.
Wayne.

 

[jsn]

I had one, I got rid of it quickly.

First off, the RCBS trimmers in general are poorly inplemented. My .308 pilot measured .302. The pilot shaft was .152, and the hole for the pilot shaft was .156. So, when you lock the pilot shaft down, you're .004 out of concentricity with an .004 undersized pilot. In my Power Trimmer you could see the runout from the pilot head/cutter as the piece of brass was moving up and down as the clearly non-concentric pilot/cutter rotated. This was for the standard cutter. Cuts were not concentric.

The 3-way cutter pilot suffered from the same diameter problem, and the same problem occurred--clearly visible as the neck showed signs of the inside chamfer being cut only on one side, and the same with the outside deburring cut. Also, the length of the brass being trimmed was important as well. I had some brass that after sizing was like .020 over trim to length. The RCBS Power Trimmer couldn't handle that long of a cut. I called RCBS after the rubber hose connector twisted--they replaced it under warranty, but said the Power Trimmer wasn't designed for cuts longer that .005--that's what the Trim Die is for.

It's been quite a while since I had it, and I'm going by memory, but that's what I remember.

Like everything else, it depends on what level of precision you need and how many pieces you are going to do. There are some youtube videos of guys converting their standard RCBS Trimmer to a power drill and getting cheap speed. You could probably get the same result with other trimmers.

Good luck.

 

[artbosco]

I am glad your results have been good ... mine were unsatisfactory with the correct holders. Wayne.

I've been very careful to measure each case length after cutting and, at least in my case, they've been right on. If they weren't I wouldn't have kept it. Sometimes an individual piece of equipment is put together correctly. The one thing nice about RCBS is that they have great customer service. Whenever I've had a problem, they've resolved it. Not all companies I've dealt have been able to do that.