Case trimmer- what to buy and not to buy

[Frog4aday]

Kane66840, I'm glad you posted. I never thought about that (fired cases from different guns trimming differently on the FA tool, since it 'indicates' off the shoulder.) Great input. It provides just one more thing to keep in mind. Seems nothing is perfect or fool-proof, but when you know what you are dealing with, it helps.

I still feel the LEE system is 'closest' to foolproof, but for those that don't want to trim at the distance LEE uses, it won't work well for them. This is an interesting thread. I learn stuff all the time on this forum. Thanks Len Backus for creating this place!

 

[anachronism]

My small lot trimmer is an older factory Lyman Power Case Trimmer. It does an okay job, but changing cases in the holder gets tedious, and it doesn't cut the case mouths square to the base. It's okay, but not great. I appear to be the only one here with a Gracey trimmer. I bought mine used, and quickly found out why it was for sale. The motor overheats, I did more research and found out this is a common complaint for the late Graceys.

Also, the Gracey 2 piece case mouth cutters seemed to swage the case mouth sort of roundish, rather than cut it cleanly like it was designed to do. Graceys are supposed to cut at two angles so you don't need to debur the case mouth. The cutter issue was solved by buying a carbide cutter from Giraud. His design is (ahem) similar to the Gracey in some ways, and he advertises his cutter as a direct replacement for the Gracey. This cleaned up the case mouths better, but I still had the motor issue.

Giraud also advertises a higher speed/HP electric motor replacement kit for the Gracey. It's roughly twice the RPMs, and twice the hamster HP of the original. I didn't buy it, I went through the Fasco electric motor catalog and figgered out a replacement motor, and bought one from Grainer, then figured out the wiring with the help of Bob Jones at Bob Jones Sights. Soon I had a trimmer that's worth at least a hundred grand, and I built it one piece at a time.

A quick end to the saga of my Gracey trimmer- it works great now, and I am cured of buying used electrical anything. I had to replace 2/3s of the **** thing, but I'm finally happy with it. And in truth, it was still cheaper than buying a new Gracey, and it ended up being less than half the price of a new Giraud. Still, I complain...