Agree the "CPS" my mistake when I posted "CIP" is a great unit. All primers are not "Created Equal", Wish I had an extra $600 for one.
Too bad you ordered the other thing before talking to me. I'd have given you a discount on a new CPS.
Suffice it to say, I owned the RCBS bench unit. If it was the answer, I wouldn't have invented the CPS. Money is money, but if you ask anyone that has owned both... there's no way they'd go back to the old machine I bet.
$600 for a priming tool? Are you kidding me? With this tool it appears that the case rim thickness is a factor on how deep the primers are seated. And yes, case rims do vary in thickness even within the same lot. Who wants to check rim thickness on all your cases?
IMO, adjustable primer seating tools are a marketing hoax. Primers are designed to be seated so the cup bottoms out in the primer pocket. This provides the proper amount of "crush" that is designed by the manufacturer. Any less and some of the energy in the firing pin is used to "complete" the seating process. This could lead to a misfire. Any more and you are now crushing the primer cup and I don't think the factory designed that into their primers.
That being said, I use the RCBS Automatic Priming Tool. I can feel when the primer is properly seated and have not had any misfires using this tool.
$600? Really?
I've spent more time, money, and effort testing all of the various aspects of primers, primer seating, and its relationship to rifle ignition systems than I could tell you about on a 10hr phone call. I have demonstrated how primers seated at one setting will produce better accuracy and precision than primers seated at a different setting. Not some small change either... but 50% at 500yds.
Have you ever even seen a CPS? Have you witnessed the tolerances at play and the quality of the finish? If you think a product like ours comes at some tiny cost and we're getting rich, you clearly have no experience in a machine shop. Just because you don't value it, doesn't mean it shouldn't be valued. If you had used one, you'd know just how much less effort using our tool is than anything else on the market. Yet you don't need to take my word for it... just ask anyone that owns one.
Have you ever measured case rim thickness across a wide array of cases? What about the top of the case rim to the bottom of the primer pocket? I bet you've never once measured that in your life, so you wouldn't know that on quality brass with a non-uniformed pocket... it typically varies less than 1 thousandth of an inch across a lot number. Typically much less. Then there's the fact that every priming tool will deform the case rim to some degree on tight pockets. That deformation can not be controlled uniformly with lever/cam driven designs... but it CAN be controlled on our rotary driven design, if the operator so chooses.
Everything is a hoax to some people. Just because you lack the experience or skill to prove its existence, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It certainly doesn't give you the right to berate a product you've never touched in your life. I'm a human being, my employees are human beings, and we literally live in service of the precision rifle community. So perhaps you should take a minute to evaluate whether you have any relevant experience before making derogatory comments about our products? Am I really that out of line to suggest you have at least SOME experience with our product before bashing it so?
Is it not enough that you're happy using your tool... you must also try to trash ours? I'm happy to say that our customers that have purchased a CPS would not agree with your estimation that it is not worth it. Go try to find a used one for sale. I'll wait here.
In the time between, I'd appreciate a little human consideration. Some of us have been walking a different path than you, and we've discovered things you have not. There's no reason to fear it, and no reason to attack it. Is $600 really that much for a tool that will likely be in use by your great great grand kids? Not a bunch of cast garbage, but 100% USA made billet aluminum and stainless.