Best trimmer

Do not discount the Trim It II.

I am still working with it, but put it on a drill that is clamped into a vice (upside down) use the speed lock and you have the equivalent of Gerard motorized unit.

I would have gone with the Gerard Tri Trimmer again but they don't make one in 7.5 Swiss.

Ergo, the Trim It II. As it also has inserts, I can add another caliber - $20 or so.

Early ones did not work so well but latter ones reported to work good, will see.

At least with the RCBS, with the overall case variation, the limit set did not work. It would not cut enough or too much, so it had to be set for the worst and then pull, check, trim, pull, trim, check.

Not sure if the others are as bad.
 
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I am leaning toward the WFT2 as of the time of this post. Looks like I can get set up for .308 family ( .308, .243, .260 and 7mm- 08) plus .204 for about $120. If i decide to add a caliber the inserts run $24.95 each. The downside is that the inserts are designed for use with full length resized cases but they will modify for neck sized only if you send them some cases. Or I could just stick with my old school Wilson, it works and is accurate as all get out. Maybe get a second used one for 50 bucks on Ebay so I can just set and forget the adjustment for each case family

I already do my chamfering and deburring using hand tools chucked into a cordless drill so I don't really need to motorize that aspect.
 
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I have a bunch of trimmers, the ones I use the most is the 'Trim It II'

As for the question about the 'Best', it would be good to know what you are loading....
APPLICATION, APPLICATION, APPLICATION !!!

For stright wall cases, most handgun doesn't need to be trimmed, stright wall rifle could use some champfering to aid bullet insertion, but trimming isn't often needed.

Bottle neck rifle cases are another story, particularly if you seat & crimp in one stroke!

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Flat face cutter tools require you to champfer & deburr in two additional steps,
And there aren't any guided deburring/champfering tools,
This means you will HAND champfer & deburr BY HAND, and hand work is NOT CONSISTENT.

A three way cutter tool, cuts to length, champfer & deburr, will produce better consistency than any hand done process.

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What I like best about the 'Trim It II' is adjustability, about any caliber, micrometer adjustment for cut length, can be used as a Datum line indexed cutter off the case shoulder,
Or with a little work, can be adapter to an overall length trimmer (indexing off case head).
It works like any horizontal hand cranked or powered full length index trimmer.

There are Datum line indexing inserts for about any caliber you can think of, and the cutter is infinantely adjustable for your particular cases,
In other words, what ever MOUTH sizes (diameters) YOUR particular sizing die produces.
If you need to bump the cutter wider or narrower 0.0001" to center on your particular case sizing, then you can do that...

It's adjustable to fit the cases YOU produce.

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I have three or four of the 'Trim It II', set up for particular resizing dies.
They will produce perfectly champfered & deburred cases with a little adjustment, the key word being adjustable...
Nice to have your champfer/deburr centered over the wall of the neck, not thin/thick on one or the other no matter what mouth diameter your sizing die is throwing you to work with.
 
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Question for Jeephammer. On the Trim It II can you answer why they have separate caliber inserts for .243, .308, and .260? They use the same head spacing so the only reason I could think of would be where the neck goes into the insert they could have different diameters. Not that $19.95 for a third insert would be a deal killer for me, I really like that trimmer after watching a couple of vids, thanks



edit - Just looked at the SAAMI drawings and I think I answered my own question
 
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Yup, that will answer a lot of questions...

Some of the 'Trim It II' inserts have a longer neck support, helps keep the finger feeding bunch (me included) aligned & centered with the cutter.

I actually think the insert should go further down the case, to about 3/4" from case head, so it's even harder to get the case cocked sideways.
On my 'Finger Feed' trimmer, that's just what I did, longer insert with case guide cut by a chamber reamer, spits out nearly perfect concentric case mouths that way.

The only complaints I have with 'Trim It II' is it needs a polycarbonate swarf sleeve so it doesn't launch the swarf,
And it needs a different lower bearing retainer, the screw punching into the side of a roller bearing is never good, makes for 'Catchy' bearing travel.
I used shim stock around the bearing and punched it into the housing, press fit that way with no bearing catches.
If I wasn't OCD I would have used a wrap of tape around the bearing, would have worked just as well.

With just a neck guide, you can take the outer housing off and use it like a horizontal head trimmer.
Can't remember where I got the little hand trimmer, but the fly cutter shaft from the Trim It II was the same size, so it works pretty well with the depth stops from the hand trimmer and makes a pretty fast overall case length trimmer, not that I use one very often...
 
If you turn a drill upside down and clamp it in a vice, you have a self running motorized trimmer, very much like the Gerard.

The new Trim It II comes with a sleeve guard like the Gerard Tri Trimmer, though easier to slide off.

Supposedly they fixed some of the bearing offset problems by tighter tolerance in the holder.

Good to hear JH gets good results. I went with it as it does the tri trim and I can add calibers which are unlimited as far as I can tell.

Gerard did not have a Tri Trimmer in 7.5 Swiss for instance though its a very nice tool.
 
It's simply thinking through the process of sizing/trimming bottle neck cases...

The sizing die is *Supposed* to knock back the shoulder to create proper headspace,
Then length is strictly from Datum line to case mouth...
When you are clear on the case lengths
(there are two, head stamp to Datum line, then Datum line to mouth),
Then it becomes chrystal clear you need a Datum line to case mouth trimmer.

All bets are off if you can't produce a case with the Datum line the correct distance from the case head, that means you can't produce a case with the correct headspace for your chamber,
So NOTHING from that point forward makes a difference...

Once you have case body correctly sized, Datum line in the correct place to create correct headspace,
Then it becomes a question of length to the end of the case chamber (Neck Length Clearance).
Since that measurement is from Datum line to case mouth, the cutter should also index (measure from) the Datum line.

A lot of words for a simple concept, simply measure from the head stamp surface to the Datum line for head space clearance for YOUR rifle (or to SAAMI specification),
Then from Datum line to case mouth for overall case length.
Two measurements added together for one total length, easily done...

Guys using just total length measurement on bottle neck cases are screwing it up,
(I'm no exception, I screwed it up for years before figuring it out)
Total length for STRAIGHT WALL CASES is measure directly, but that's a screw up with bottle neck cases (or belted magnums).


I tried W-T-F, IN MY OPINION... useless piece of inaccurate junk that dulled immediately.
W-T-F went from 'Worlds Finest Trimmer' to 'What The Frack?' real quick!
Worst waste of money I made on a Datum line trimmer, and I bought 4 calibers at the same time...

I tried the bench mounted manual & drill powered units, I was looking for a trimmer that gave me Datum line indexing, the flat faced full case length trimmers weren't the answer.
Worked fine on stright walled cases, just didn't do bottle neck cases accurately.

Girard works pretty well, but the price of the bench top unit left me butt hurt,
Trim It II', the champfer & deburr version, fit the bill and at around $130 wasn't the biggest money mistake I was ever going to make...
Turns out, with a little adjustment, it does a VERY acceptable job,
Less slop in the insert bushing made for closer to square cuts than the W-T-F usually less than 1* off square (while the W-T-F was hard to hold angle to 5* off concentric),
And the Trim It II carbide cutter didn't dull out immediately, and had three cutting surfaces on each carbide cutting insert!
Never stuck doing the last 300 cases CHEWING off the brass with a dull cutter face!

Since the length of the neck means almost nothing in accuracy ammo, I trim to minimum (once the case shoulder is back where it belongs) and generally never have to trim again.
Keep in mind I case roll size to take the bloat/swelling out of the lower case, so my cases DO show a little growth, even once fired,
(Guys shooting the same cases through the same guns won't have to case roll, if the case fit once, it will fit again, I shoot my ammo through a dozen different guns, some with really particular chambers)

Where standard top down punch sizing dies leaves the bloat in the extreme lower part of the case making it shorter than factory new... So I run sized cases through the trimmer just to make sure they aren't over length and I'm done, as close to perfect cases as any common reloader will ever get...

Nothing quite like SAAMI specification lower case size in a speed gun, seriously reduces failure to feed and lets the bolt hit full battery lockup every time...
 
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I will add in once I trim, I trim them all.

Many need it, some don't. Doesn't matter, all get set back to the same point, i.e someplace around minimum. If its .003 below that, no issue.

Saves a lot of fuss.
 
I've been fiddling around with a feed for trimming, but to tell the truth, the Datum line trimmers are so fast I've not bothered to finish it.
Nothing like the full length bench mounted trimmers where you have to set the case, lock down the case, fire up the drill and move the pilot into/out of the case, then unlock the case and remove the case...

That's a lot of steps for a 0.05 second trim!
$20 eBay drill dedicated to the trimmer and it takes me longer to get the case out of the pan than it does to trim!

I always get those cheap drills with the collar behind the Chuck for a side handle, the collar space gives me an easy mounting point, then it's scrap wood to make the mount & a bolt w/wing nut to clamp, wood gives enough all I need is a collar hole in the wood, no extra brackets or junk to deal with.
1"X6"x6' board makes two drill fixtures, so it's cheap to dedicate a fixture.

I screwed around and clearanced an aluminum horizontal manual trimmer for the Trim It head so I could use it's stops on stright walled cases.
Can't remember where I got the aluminum rail type hand trimmer anymore, but the shaft size was the same as the Trim It, so I just used the stops and arbor from the hand trimmer, cut away a little of the aluminum to clearance the Trim It fly cutter and was off to the races!
Works well, 3 way cuts on stright wall cases... Nothing to sneeze at!
 
My Milwaukee is still halve metal, gentle clamp and its good but the wood blocks are better idea.

I have two 1/2 inch DeWalts cordless for the day in day out work with 3 batteries (got a deal on a new 18 volt which I know is passé, but it came with two batters and a charger, so the 14 volts went away (batteries dead anyway) and I am good for another 10 years at $79.
 
I take the DEAD battery packs apart, solder on extension cord with battery clamps and use them in my off road vehicles. They make good 'Field Repair' tools,
Since they are already 'Junk' (battery costing more than a replacement tool) I can lend them out and not worry too much if they come back or not.
Dead battery tools show up at flea markets & yard sales dirt cheap when I need extras ( or high torque DC motors for projects).

Soldering to the battery pack terminals means I don't have to take the drill (or whatever) apart, and often one cord will work on several tools.

When you are off road 10 miles (or more) from the nearest 'Help' and a saw, drill & stick welder will get you running again, it's a gift from the tool gods!
With the homestead, it was 17 miles back to town to charge batteries.
Always astounds people when I stick welder off the two vehicle batteries & jumper cables, I have no idea why, it's just the most simple electrical circuit ever...

I live off grid, stumbled onto that trick while trying to build this place. Batteries always dead or dead shortly into weekends I had to build. A cheap extension cord & Jeep battery is better than no power tools at all!
 
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50-100 rounds is a small amount. Wilson makes a nice one that uses shell-holders to hold the brass in. Wilson stuff is pricey, but of excellent quality.
 
Wow, i'm really still in the stone age.

Trying not to get stoned( the rock throwing type, not the other way).
I'm still using the Lee case length gage ant trimmer by hand.
Just did up 100 of the new Norma 284 Win cases the other night.

It's dad's quiet time.. Lol
 
The best all rounder is the Lee Case Trimmer, but somehow their cutters does not last as long as 20 years back. The big problem is that I am using it in a electrical drill and then I do the deburring and camfering after the cutting. In no way can you ensure that the deburring and camfering is exactly the same from case to case. I was thinking of getting a 3-way cutter, but then they also have a problem that when you have cases which has not been sized in one session and might have different head space that you could mess things up. So when using a 3 way cutter all cases must be sized to the same head space.
 
For a best all arounder that sounds pretty fussy.

I will contend the best all arounder is the Gerard Motorized unit, followed by the Trim It II followed by the Gearad Trim Trimmer cartridge (or shoulder) specific calibers.

Doesn't matter what the re-size is, all those will tri trim.
 
I've tried various methods. I settled on the following: Giraud for .308, WFT for .223, and the RCBS Trim Pro with a drill attached for everything else. Plus I use it in case I don't get what I want with the other two trimmers.

The RCBS works very well with a drill attached. And if you buy the 3 way cutting head it will chamfer and debur like the Giraud.
 
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