What's everyone's thoughts on the new case trimmer by Hornady? Looks eerily similar to another design. I'm liking the micro meter adjustment though. Thinking about pre ordering one to try it out.
Hornady high speed 3 in 1 case trimmer
- Thread starter azpiddler
- Start date
Higher quality trimmers worth it?
I’m fine with paying for top quality equipment. Right now I’m using the Frankford arsenal trimmer. I’ve been eyeing a gen 3 Henderson. With all the extras it’s around $1100. Ouch. I understand it’ll save a bit of time over the Frankford, is there any noticeable difference as far as es and sd...
www.snipershide.com
Read through that, and then let us know what you think.
What I am curious about is if you look at the cutting head, it looks almost like a Forster tri-way. If that is the case, and they are interchangeable, would that still limit you to the .30cal I wonder. That what I liked about the Gen2 Henderson, is that I have all the Forster tri-way heads that I need, and now Henderson went to their own cutting heads. But I cannot seem to find a Gen2 Henderson anywhere.
I got to play with a sample at the Dallas Safari Club show over the weekend.
Didn’t have any brass to trim, but initial thoughts are.
1. It is built very well, the “slide” is super smooth and the release of brass it very intuitive.
2. It is stupid quiet, barely even hear the motor running.
All in all, I will definitely buy one, looks to be a hand saver and until someone finds a way to automate one…I think it will be a big hit.
Didn’t have any brass to trim, but initial thoughts are.
1. It is built very well, the “slide” is super smooth and the release of brass it very intuitive.
2. It is stupid quiet, barely even hear the motor running.
All in all, I will definitely buy one, looks to be a hand saver and until someone finds a way to automate one…I think it will be a big hit.
Just got one and had a chance to use it over the weekend. All in all very happy with it! Super quiet, head is easy to swap calibers no need to buy multiple heads per caliber, catches shaving, fast/efficient to move through 100 cases and super repeatable after caliber swaps.
Other tools require dedicated tool heads, spacers or trial and error when swapping cartridges/calibers. Also removes over/under chamfering that happen with tools that require subjective pressure. Super consistent results just need to make sure your sizing tolerances are tight and you will have consistent case length.
Down side is that it only supports .22, .243, .264, .30 today no plans for pilots for other calibers for 6-12 months per Hornady. This is a super bummer for me, it means I need to maintain other tools for the foreseeable future.
Other tools require dedicated tool heads, spacers or trial and error when swapping cartridges/calibers. Also removes over/under chamfering that happen with tools that require subjective pressure. Super consistent results just need to make sure your sizing tolerances are tight and you will have consistent case length.
Down side is that it only supports .22, .243, .264, .30 today no plans for pilots for other calibers for 6-12 months per Hornady. This is a super bummer for me, it means I need to maintain other tools for the foreseeable future.
I got mine in today. The instructions kind of suck, a lot.
I got it set up, how I believe is correct. It trims to the correct length, but it is not chamfuring the entire inside of the neck and it is deburring way too much on the outside.
I got it set up, how I believe is correct. It trims to the correct length, but it is not chamfuring the entire inside of the neck and it is deburring way too much on the outside.
Messed with the cutters, not sure what I did but seems to be fine now.
Also, seems to do better with sized brass vs fired.
Also, seems to do better with sized brass vs fired.
For those interested here’s a link to vendors that sell it so folks can compare prices:
That cutter needs some kind of adjustment! The chamfer should be on the inside and not on the outside. . . and the deburr on the outside instead of the inside.
Good trimmer and I thought the instructions were good also to get it set up. Issue with mine was that the chamfer cutter will not drop or fit all the way down inside the cutter housing slot. The deburring cutter does and just looked weird. Ideally, you would partially insert the pilot, press both blades up against the pilot shaft then fully insert the pilot until it contacts the chamfer cutter blade tip then tighten everything down. In my case l insert the chamfer cutter as deep as it will go, insert the pilot but then have to adjust the deburring cutter to where it sits the same as the chamfer cutter. Works great but think I’ll contact Hornady for a replacement chamfer cutter blade cause it should drop all the way in it’s slot in the cutter housing which should eliminate adjustments.
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Case mouth isn’t supposed to be a hole punch
Maybe I missed it in the instructions or am just a dumbass but if you trim anything on this that hasnt been sized, it’ll ruin the neck
Mine came late last week. I mounted it on the bench Sunday and ran a few pieces thru it. All seemed to go good.
I did 300pcs of sized 308win brass after work yesterday and ran like a watch. I've only got like another 2k pcs to go.
I gave my old RCBS power trimmer (doesn't chamfer in our outside of the case neck) to one of the guys at work. My old RCBS was from like 1990.
Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels
I did 300pcs of sized 308win brass after work yesterday and ran like a watch. I've only got like another 2k pcs to go.
I gave my old RCBS power trimmer (doesn't chamfer in our outside of the case neck) to one of the guys at work. My old RCBS was from like 1990.
Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels
Good to hear. None of the brass I’m running currently needs trimming. I was grabbing brass from the scrap bucket that wasn’t sized and had issues with it, but sized some of them and it does a very good job trimming.
Got mine a couple weeks ago and finally got it setup the other day....cuts wonderfully....need hornady to sell replacement heads because the forester ones don't work on it. I'd rather have a head setup for each caliber rather than adjust the cutting blades each time. Also as a side note for guys. Standard forester pilots work for the calibers that don't come with the unit...threw my 25 pilot in it and did 350 pieces of gt brass with zero issue
If you use the same cutter head for multiple calibers then are you having to adjust the Cham and debur cutter angles each time? I’m lazy.
Swapping calibers is easy and straightforward. One set screw to remove tool head from device. Loosen the set screws for each of the 2 cutters then loosen the set screw for the pilot. Install the new pilot and tighten set screw, slide cutter blades to touch pilot shaft and tighten each of the two set screws. Install tool had and tighten set screw. No need to adjust angles or gaps. Having a dedicated tool head per caliber would be slightly faster.
BTW- Hornady sent me pilots for 28 and 25 calibers so they exist and are starting to circulate.
BTW- Hornady sent me pilots for 28 and 25 calibers so they exist and are starting to circulate.
Sounds like there really isn’t any adjustment to worry about then if you just have to slide the blade in until it gets stopped by the pilot body?
Yep, no adjustment necessary. Just switch out pilots. I’m still having issues with my inside cutter blades not fully seating in the cutter housing. Hornady has been great to send me replacements but still having that issue. One would assume the issue would be the cutter housing slot but both my outside cutter blades drop in on both sides the way they should. Think I’m just gonna work the thicker blades on some 80/220 grit sandpaper take off .001 and should drop in fine. Anyone else experienced this issue?
Hornady sent me a return label to send in my cutter housing and was ready to do so but I found a small flat file that fit perfectly in to the blade slots of the cutter housing and gently gave it a few passes then tried dropping the blade in. After the 3rd attempt the blades will sit correctly in the slot on both sides. Here’s a pic to correct that issue.
You should always size first, then trim.
Most trimmers are designed to cut sized brass
Let’s us know about the consistency of it. Haven’t seen really any videos on that yet
Edit: Please see post #42 below for a follow up. @Supersubes pointed out that trimming fired/unsized cases would cause some of what I was seeing. I'll leave this here and own my mistake.
Take this all with a grain of salt. I've never trimmed brass before, but I do have the Lyman hand chamfer/deburring tool.
It took me a while to get the cutterheads setup to what I thought was acceptable. Pushing them all the way against the collet ended up deburring way more the outer case than I wanted. Significantly more than the Lyman tool.
If we're calling the Lyman tool perfect, which it seems to be very uniform and clean, the Hornady Trimmer is nowhere near that. Maybe it's user error but when I seat the case into the collet, you can occasionally see it deflect a little bit. This is clearly evident when you start engaging the pilot and you can hear it start rubbing. Very rarely did I get a case to engage 100% clean without rubbing on one side of the pilot.
One other thing to note, when using the micro adjuster, you need to set the set screw each time you make an adjustment. If you use the micro adjuster to get to the length you want and then set the set screw, it will be off. Engaging the set screw pushes the stop out slightly so your case will end up longer than when the set screw was not engaged.
Here are the outcomes I got. First indicates the first run through the trimmer. Final was running the longer cases through the trimmer once or twice more without changing anything. I didn't pay special attention to the direction I seated the case, but I believe it must have seated more cleanly or deflected in a different direction to help even out the cut.
There is surely some measuring error here still because the cases are not being trimmed exactly flush in some instances.
I'll follow up this post with a few pictures of the uneven trim.
Take this all with a grain of salt. I've never trimmed brass before, but I do have the Lyman hand chamfer/deburring tool.
It took me a while to get the cutterheads setup to what I thought was acceptable. Pushing them all the way against the collet ended up deburring way more the outer case than I wanted. Significantly more than the Lyman tool.
If we're calling the Lyman tool perfect, which it seems to be very uniform and clean, the Hornady Trimmer is nowhere near that. Maybe it's user error but when I seat the case into the collet, you can occasionally see it deflect a little bit. This is clearly evident when you start engaging the pilot and you can hear it start rubbing. Very rarely did I get a case to engage 100% clean without rubbing on one side of the pilot.
One other thing to note, when using the micro adjuster, you need to set the set screw each time you make an adjustment. If you use the micro adjuster to get to the length you want and then set the set screw, it will be off. Engaging the set screw pushes the stop out slightly so your case will end up longer than when the set screw was not engaged.
Here are the outcomes I got. First indicates the first run through the trimmer. Final was running the longer cases through the trimmer once or twice more without changing anything. I didn't pay special attention to the direction I seated the case, but I believe it must have seated more cleanly or deflected in a different direction to help even out the cut.
There is surely some measuring error here still because the cases are not being trimmed exactly flush in some instances.
| First Measure | Final Measure |
1.9035 | 1.9035 |
1.9035 | 1.9035 |
1.9035 | 1.9035 |
1.9040 | 1.9040 |
1.9050 | 1.9040 |
1.9050 | 1.9040 |
1.9055 | 1.9040 |
1.9060 | 1.9045 |
1.9060 | 1.9045 |
1.9065 | 1.9045 |
I'll follow up this post with a few pictures of the uneven trim.
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Here are some pictures to illustrate. The unmarked case is chamfered/deburred with the hand tool and looks great in person. The case with markings is a Hornady case that was run through the trimmer a single time while I was setting up the trimmer.
The image marked 1, you can see how the inside chamfer is basically non existent. Rotating to 2 & 3 you can see how the outside de burr isn’t consistent.
The image marked 1, you can see how the inside chamfer is basically non existent. Rotating to 2 & 3 you can see how the outside de burr isn’t consistent.
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I stand corrected here. I didn't realize using sized vs unsized cases would make a difference.
I'm still getting a little bit of deflection somewhere that's causing the inside chamfer to be slightly uneven on some cases, but I got significantly better results using Lapua cases that I had ready to load. Overall, I would say I am satisfied with the results and the chamfer/deburr look significantly better than the images above showed. Similar to what I'm getting with the Lyman hand tool.
| 1.9120 | 1.9120 | 1.9120 | 1.9115 | 1.9110 |
Before running these last 5 cases through, I noticed that the set screw for the handle/collet holder was slightly loose and likely contributed to the anomalies I was seeing before. I'll probably unthread this and add some blue loctite to it to prevent this in the future.
The other thing that might improve things is to leave the collet loose until the neck is on the pilot. So hold the case in the collet, run it onto the pilot, tighten collet, then trim.
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Another thing that can result in uneven chamfering or deburring would be the variation in neck wall thickness. Combine that with some other issues and. . . .???
These pictures set me back in therapy. I so hate the two issues with the Henderson—the collet and the pilot spinning around the inside of the neck scratching/galling, which is a shortcoming of these type of trimmers that doesn't plague the Giraud.
To somewhat fix, you can either take a thou or two off the pilot (I used flitz and polished the piss out of it at first), or you can order a custom pilot for Forester a couple thou under your processed brass ID, which really helped.
I somewhat addressed the collet by opening the handle up a little more, trying to square the case head by using my left hand (right hand working the handle) index finger to push back on the case mouth, if that makes sense...I open the collet up a touch extra, square the case head by pushing back on the case mouth as square as possible...seems to mitigate the lopsided strikes we all loathe.
It doesn't hurt to ensure the necks are lubed (so trim after sizing, of course), and I lube the pilot every so often with imperial wax...so between a custom pilot, lubed necks, lubed pilot, it's almost a non-issue for me now...except, of course, when the stupid collet doesn't want to plan nice.
