Primer Crimp Removal Tool Harbor Freight Junk Alert

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And no one remembers but hatcher said he used his pocket knife, I did not say anything but I do not believe hatcher had 3,000+ cases to prep. But years later I did say I was the fan of all the hold I can get,

I have worked with core hole plugs, freeze plugs and welch plugs, I have never found anything entertaining about spending 2 days gaining access to a plug someone got fancy with when installing them. Again, like bullets, I want all the hold I can get.

F. Guffey
 
Countersink bit $8.
FA Case Prep Center $155.
$147 cash in hand

= hand(s) too stiff/sore to hold $147, wife goes to shoe store.:rolleyes:
 
Last eve I checked out my store bought crimp remover that came with my bargain basement case prep center

{Edit: No direct links to images allowed. It robs the source of bandwidth when we view it here. We had a fellow hot link to a 1911 image against express instructions not to by the site owner, so the site owner replaced the image at the end of the link with an "adult" photo that then appeared in the thread. Not for this forum. You can put in a link that takes you Midways page selling the product, as that puts eyes on their selling page, which they want, but not just to the photo alone. Please read the board's general policy on posting copyrighted materials.)

and discovered that it cuts a light chamfer when removing the crimp. A little further experimentation revealed that the counter sink does a better and more uniform job. Looks like this old dog was taught a new trick and my countersink now has a permanent home on my reloading bench.

I have tossed a lot of Lapua cases when the primer pockets get loose anyway so if I get a couple less reloadings no big deal. All my LC cases are range pickup and going by weight I have over 2K, most of which are unprocessed except for cleaning
 
Marco,

I'm guessing like the HF countersinks were just not ground incorrectly. If you compared one to a good countersink from the store, you'd likely learn that right away.
 
I use a 45 degree countersink in a benchtop drill press to remove primer crimps. Works great. I don't use drill bits because 1) the angle on the drill bit is shallower, and 2) drill bits are designed to advance through the material so it can easily grab the workpiece.
 
To catch you up: I purchased 1,400 military cases for $14.00 dollars. No one wanted to clean the cases and then there were the 30 cal. bees/dirt daubers. Each case came with a black dirt dauber, dirt daubers are a good think. Every case came complete with a spider, most of the spiders were black widows,

I waited until the dirt daubers vacated the cases; it was like hatching in 'all together'. My wife complained about something leaving the garage that looked like a black cloud. I cleaned the inside of the cases and then soaked the cases in vinegar for 15 minutes etc..

After that but about the same time I purchased 4 belts of 30/06 cases with metal links. Again, the cases were cheap because no one wanted to clean them. I soaked the cases in vinegar for 15 minutes, rinsed in boiling water and then started tumbling. I cut tumbling time to 1 hour, that was a savings of 4 days of tumbling.

Savings/time and money: It was a trade off, I could have purchased cases or take the money I saved and purchases equipment I will use forever. That is something like 'doing it or talking about it.

And then there was that day I was minding my own business when I was looking for another deal in Yonkers, New York. I tried to talk them out of selling me 23,000 cases by the pound in barrels and boxes, all once fired, cheap. I explained to them how expensive it was to furnish bullets for all of those cases, it was about that time they made me a deal I could not refuse. They had tin/lead 50/50 bars, they had lead sheets complete with wax from below the toilet and they had rolls of lead that was removed from a X-ray room. I want for nothing.

After they cleared out the Bridgeport business I found myself digging thorough a 55 gallon barrels of chuck, again, they made me a deal; $5.00 each on 10" chucks. I purchased three, one was a W.S Heavy, one was a Buck and the other was a Cushman. I did under estimate the difficulty in cleaning chucks that were submerged in water while being stored in a 55 gallon barrel. Had anyone ever greased the chucks I would have gone back and purchased the rest of the chucks in the barrels.

F. Guffey
 
Thanks Unclenick. Yes, when they did not cut brass I looked and felt the edge, and just as some HFT reviews said, it is rounded rather than sharp. It is commonly cited in the HFT reviews that the cutting edge just does not work. I read those after purchasing in the store. Chinese make what the customer wants. They can do quality. But American stores want cheap; to heck with quality. In this case, cost cutting ambushed quality and functionality.
I like HFT for things like painting supplies and the $20 cordless drill, and anything my handyman needs for my rentals. I have a digital caliper from Midway about 5 years old. I picked up a spare at HFT. Turns out they were the exact same item, buttons and colors are exactly the same, and measuring results were the same. One cost three times as much as the other.
 
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apologies for the direct link, had a brain flatulation.

Did some more experimenting and found the low dollar crimp remover when mounted in a drill press seems to work pretty good. Due to the shape it bottoms out on the primer pocket keeping you from cutting away too much brass
 
I have a Lyman Case Prep Center that came with bits to remove the crimp, but by the time I did 1000 cases I thought I was gonna need surgery to relieve the pain in my arms and hands from handling all those cases in that way.

I then bought the Dillon Super Swage and put it in a vertical mount on my load bench where I was able to process 3000 cases in the same time as the previous 1000 and without any of the pain as the previous method.

I am in my mid 40's. If you do a lot of this by hand I can see it becoming a real problem later in life. (No offense old loaders ;))

YMMV, but I'll stick to the Super Swage.
 
Due to the shape it bottoms out on the primer pocket keeping you from cutting away too much brass
Click to expand...

I attended a gun show, while there I visited a dealer in reloading equipment. He was selling cases that had the crimp removed with a bevel/taper cutter, I told him "those are the ugliest cases I have ever seen". I told him I have made primer crimp tools but none of the tools would save his cases because they were so ugly.

Disseminator, I have all kinds and types of tools. Some of the tools I have used are among the most dangerous tools ever made, if I could get a reloader to put a little thought into holding the case the hands would last a long time.


F. Guffey
 
Guffey and others think the countersink removes brass that holds the primer in. I think that is an erroneous assumption. No one is saying they have actually experienced, or measured it, or had primer pockets loosen for this reason (as opposed to HOT loads).
The crimp when made, is a distortion to the case head to intentionally spread brass around the primer, thus locking it in place and making it harder to remove, and the brass harder to reprime.
The solution we are discussing, using a countersink bit to remove the distorted brass, and a tiny bit more, to ensure the new primer can pass through into the primer pocket, has never been proven, demonstrated, measured, or quantified, to reduce the primer pockets ability to hold primers in place. It did not happen, because it does not happen.
A lot of people here are theorizing about what is the "right" or "wrong" way, or tool, to do something. They are imagining evils, that have not, in my experience, manifested in reality.
Now, I expect one of you will take your countersink bit, and drill, drill, drill baby, drill, until the primer won't stay in. I suspect that will happen at about the same time the point of the bit begins to enlarge the flash hole.

What has not happened in this thread is for anybody to speak factually about using this method, within reason, and having a provable complaint about the result. Not one. I know why. It is because the method works well, and DOES NOT cause primers to fall out. It works even better than swaging at making the primer pocket usable again. Yes I have touched up some professionally swaged primer pockets when I experienced primers "sticking" on the way in.
https://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=96423&d=1409968327
This picture is an example of probably the most brass I have removed where the crimp was. It looks like a lot of bevel, BUT, look at a commercial non-crimped case head, and specifically note that the primer cup has a significant rounded edge. Also, note the the brass the primer pocket is NOT a perfect cylinder. Removing a bit of brass at these rounded corners does not materially lessen the bearing surface which does actually hold the primer in (with no crimp). There is plenty of bearing surface in the primer pocket below that bevel. That is the part of the primer pocket that holds the primer in.

This is a snip of a photo on Brass Bombers website, 5.56 processed (swagged). The swaging tries to move the brass back where it started before crimping. Notice the annular ring present (distorted brass). I have purchased and received brass just like this, from GIBrass. In my experience, some primers will still "stick". That is when I grab the drill and remove that visible ring, leaving a slight cut bevel. I am not faulting Brass Bomber or any other merchant. I am only showing what I believe is the residual issue with swaged primer pockets. Remove all traces of that ring, and the issue is gone for ever.
 

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Marco the point I was attempting to make is that while all the rotating style crimp removers remove some brass the ones made for the purpose will not allow the user to take more than necessary for the job because of the design. If I were to lose mine though I would not hesitate to use the countersink method or in a pinch a razor blade or a pocket knife
 
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